Secondary School Teachers from Baja California Sur Share Their Experiences in a Crash Course on "The ABCs of ELT".

Fifty-five secondary school teachers from all over Baja California Sur gathered together at the SEP office in La Paz for a 35 hour workshop on "The ABCs of ELT: The Basic Skills of English Teaching" and the new educational reform, from January 15th-19th, 2007.
The participants discussed and demonstrated the following: Cooperative Learning and Task-based learning, How to Lesson Plan and Write Specific Objectives, Techniques in Classroom Management, Techniques for Developing Fluency: Role play and Educational “Games”, Using Rubrics for Formative Assessment and Collaborative Reflective Teaching. According to the workshop evaluations, the favorite topics and activities were the Cooperative Learning/ Interactive Activities and Role play and the least favorite topic was “Rubrics” (possibly because of the black out!).The participants would like to have more workshops on educational games, role play and fluency activities. One suggestion for the presenter was "Get a bell!"
Highlights of the week were: when the teachers shared their interesting (and sometimes frightening!) classroom management stories and tips, the "Pizzeria" role play, the very imaginative (and gruesome)collaborative picture stories, and the inspiring support for each other demonstrated during the discussion of reflective teaching and peer observation.

Recognition should go to Maestro Raul Villafan who, with unfailing energy and humor, organized the workshop and added to our classroom management discussion the excellent,"Old-West style, gun-slinging cell phone" technique. The workshop closed with a ceremony that included comments by the Secretary of Education, certificates and gifts for participants and facilitators alike.
You guys are proof that collaborative learning works with large groups! Don't give up!