Adios Mexico! I'll miss you!

Sadly, it's time for me to say goodbye. It's been a wonderful and busy 2 years for me working as an English Language Fellow in Mexico. For example, I've attended 2 national MEXTESOL conventions, presented at 5 regional MEXTESOL conventions, taught 1550 teachers in 16 different states of Mexico.

In this time I feel I've learned so much: how to not sweat the small stuff, how to be confident when giving a plenary talk, how to be flexible when you don't know who you'll be teaching and above all, I've learned what kind, creative, fun-loving, hard-working people most Mexican teachers are. I haven't left yet and I can't wait to come back.

However, as is the case with fellowships, its time for me to give someone else the opportunity to work in fabulous Mexico. That someone is Deborah Farley, the new Senior English Language Fellow, a really nice teacher from Vermont. So if you want another workshop, contact Jose Manuel Villafuerte at the Office of English Language Progams at villafuertejm@state.gov .

As for me, I will be moving with my husband to Oman in the Middle East to teach at Sultan Qaboos University.
Finally, I'd like to thank JM and Kay for all their support and friendship over the past couple of years and all the teachers and coordinators who've made my stay in Mexico so memorable.
So, as I finish, I won't say "Adios" but just "Hasta luego!" Keep in touch!

Mexico DF 19th Regional MEXTESOL Conference Touches the Future

Plenary speaker Joep ven der Werff introducing the Queen of the Netherlands
The Mexico City MEXTESOL chapter hosted its 19th regional conference "Touching the Future" on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at the Escuela Bancaria y Comercial Reforma Campus. The opening plenary by Joep ven der Werff's "Planning Lesson Planning" got the audience sharing beliefs and practices of lesson planning.

I gave my last presentation in Mexico (sniff, sniff) "Use Your Brain: Applying Brain Research in the Language Classroom" with a really fun crowd of about 35 Mexico City teachers who were full of ideas, insight and applications. I also got to meet up with one of the really driven teachers I know from my work in the State of Mexico, which was a treat. - It was fun talking with you, Florencio!
Thank you Uli Schrader for your organizing prowess, good luck on future conferences!

• If you'd like to become a member of MEXTESOL click here.


• If you'd like to see upcoming MEXTESOL regional events click here.


• If you want information on the MAIN EVENT "New Ways for New Needs in ELT" in Leon, Guanajuato from October 16-19, 2008 click here.

Ambassador and US Secretary of Education Honor Mexican Teachers

On June 13th, 2008, U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza hosted a "Teachers Day" reception for teachers in Mexico at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City in honor of U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings visit. The event was a cheerful affair where teachers, diplomats and Fulbrighters from all over Mexico got to reconnect with each other and enjoy a beautiful view of the Anthropology museum's Aztec calendar while nibbling on "botanas" and sipping wine or soda. Personally, I enjoyed the opportunity to say good bye to many of the teachers I might not see again until the next time I'm in Mexico.

Ambassador Garza, thanks for supporting teachers and English programs in Mexico!

OELP's Training of Trainers Workshop Makes a Big Impact

On June 12-13, 2008, 24 teacher trainers and SEP coordinators from nine states (Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Quintana Roo, Sonora, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, Mexico D.F) came together at the Benjamin Franklin Library in Mexico City for the OELP's Training of Trainers Workshop. The goal of the workshop was to share OELPs Teacher Training Anthology CD (a CD with teacher training workshop materials from English Language Fellows in the region), U.S. Dept. of State materials "Shaping the Way We Teach English" and "Teaching Jazz Chants to Young Learners with Carolyn Graham" with Mexican teacher trainers from all over the country in order to strengthen English teaching in Mexico. In addition to the electronic materials each participating institution received a set of reference materials including H.D. Brown's Teaching by Principles, Richard and Lockhart's Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classrooms and Martin Parrot's Tasks for Language Teachers. In addition to demonstrating the materials to the participants, workshop facilitator and E.L. Fellow Brigitte Miller, led discussions on such topics as "trainers beliefs" and "working with peers: supervision and observation". Finally the participants put together tentative teacher training proposals based on the needs of their teachers and presented them to the group for feedback. The proposals of each institution varied alot in their size, topics and focus. The scope of this project was much bigger than expected. Ultimately, these materials should impact 5022 teachers and at least 407,500 students (that's only from 4 of the nine states).
The feedback from the materials and workshop evaluation was very favorable indicating that everyone will use these materials in some way to design their own teaching training programs and that as much was learned from the other participants as was learned about the materials themselves. Many participants were incredulous that teachers would share so much of their work with others. We're hoping that this will further encourage other teachers to share their materials for the greater good. Nice examples of this were also demonstrated by Coahuila's dynamic SEP team who shared their English in primary materials with the group and Hidalgo's SEPA Ingles team who also offered to share the software they developed.
Thanks everyone for your dedication! You were such a pleasure to work with. Most of all, good luck with all your training projects!

MEXTESOL 3rd Annual S.E. Regional Conference Explores the Art of ELT

The Chiapas MEXTESOL chapter held its third annual S.E. Regional Conference "Exploring the Art of ELT" at the Villa Mercedes Hotel in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas on June 6-7, 2008.

The conference was a great success with approximately 112 presenters and participants coming from Greece, Oregon, Texas, Tabasco and Chiapas. The conference was generously sponsored the UNICACH and, as usual, very well organized by the MEXTESOL Chiapas team of Edith Martinez (Chiapas MEXTESOL president), Diego Gamez (UNICACH language center director and Geraldine Montoya (Chiapas MEXTESOL vide-president). It included not only a fabulous location in charming San Cristobal de las Casas, various publishers, a book raffle, numerous opportunities to network with teachers from all over the South-East and enthusiastic participants but knowledgeable and engaging speakers such as Melinda Sayavedra (opening plenary) and Katherine Fouche (closing plenary) amongst others.

The E.L. Fellow, Brigitte Miller gave two new presentations: "Hot Lesson Openers: Icebreakers and Warm-ups" and "Use Your Brain: An Intro to Brain Research and the Language Classroom which were well-received despite issues with time.

Chiapas MEXTESOLers keep up the good work! I'd attend another of your fabulous conferences any chance I got!

Their next event is an Academic Saturday on August 23rd, 2008. To find out more about how to join MEXTESOL click here.

Oaxaca Road Trip: Office of English Language Programs visits UABJO

From May 26th-31st, 2008 the team from the Office of English Language Programs: Regional English Language Officer Dr. Kay Davis, Cultural Affairs Assistant Jose Manuel Villafuerte and Senior English Language Fellow Brigitte Miller went on a road trip to Oaxaca to get in contact with the teachers of the Universidad Autonoma "Benito Juarez" de Oaxaca. On May 27th they went to the UABJO's Centro de Idiomas Tehuantepec Campus where Brigitte gave a workshop to 35 local English teachers, professors and students. What a surprise to find that in this remote outpost at the isthmus in Oaxaca, the English teachers had such a high level of English and such enthusiasm for teaching! The credit for this must be given to veteran English teacher Mauricio Zarate Jarquin and the energetic Facultad de Idiomas director Rufino Vazquez Manuel. The workshop was followed up by a delicious seafood lunch under a palapa in the sweltering isthmus heat. Thanks to Rebecca, Abraham, Ricardo and Omar too for your hospitality!

From Tehuantepec, the OELP team went on to the city of Oaxaca where Kay and Jose Manuel met with the director again and other representatives from the university while Brigitte gave another workshop to the teachers and trainees from the Oaxaca campus. In Oaxaca too, the students and professors were active participants in the workshop. According to the workshop evaluations 100% of the participants found the workshop topics (cooperative and task-based learning) and activities either somewhat or very interesting. Most said they would try to apply these ideas to their teaching especially the strategies, the roles and authentic tasks. In future they would like to learn more classroom activities as well as how to deal with large classes. Some of their comments were:“Very valuable”, “it was amazing”, “I like your way to teach this class – you’re so happy and all could be too” and “I think it was all very useful”.

Thanks Oaxacan teachers. I had a great time too! Hope to visit you again one day! Special thanks to the students for your help around the city!

Aguascalientes' CBTIS English Teachers Get Down to Basics

Twenty-five CBTIS English teachers participated in a 30-hour workshop entitled "The Basics of English Language Teaching" from May 19th-23rd, 2008. They learned how to: structure cooperative lessons, use a variety of tasks which appeal to multiple intelligences, motivate students with authentic tasks, materials, and internet activities and use rubrics for student-centered, formative assessment. According to the participants' evaluations, the favorite parts of the workshop were the "multiple intelligences" activities and the internet activities, particularly the blogs. The participants are most interested in learning more about Rubrics and they said that the parts they will apply to their own teaching are (in order of number of responses): 1 Everything, 2 Multiple Intelligences, 3 Fun web tasks, 4 Authentic Materials, 5 Cooperative tasks and 6 Rubrics. The workshop was very well organized by the ever hospitable and always cheerful Carmen Guardado and facilitated by fellow Brigitte Miller. The course was opened with a ceremony that included a student's speech about Aguascalientes and closed with fabulous performances by CBTIS 195 students and the soulful singing of Jorge and Carlos (two participating teachers). Also present were the gracious principal Mrs. Sara Veronica Serrano Macias , directors of the CETIS and CBTIS, Mr. Juan Antonio Glez Arechiga Ramirez Weilla and Mr. Jose Luis Ortega Juarez. The festivities were topped off by a long chatty lunch in town.

To see more pictures from the workshop, including student performances click here. To see the participants blogs click here. To see what the participants learned about Internet tasks, click here.

Thank you, all of you, for a wonderful experience in Aguascalientes. Keep in touch to let me know how your classes progress. Best of luck!