Global TEFL

Summer was busy this year. I spent 9 weeks in Cabinda, Angola doing a needs analysis and training for the State Department and funded by Chevron. It was quite an experience and a real eye opener. They literally need everything; the teachers have no books or materials, and there is a great need for effective teacher training. This said, the teachers are hungry for new ideas. I was happy to culminate my experience with a one day conference at which about 80 teachers attended along with university administrators and representatives from the Ministry of Education and US Embassy.
I will continue to help where I can. I gave all of the teachers--about 100--CDs of my PowerPoint training sessions, and just last week sent three boxes of books donated by member of AAIEP and some world maps for their English classrooms.

Just last week I had the privilege of giving two 3-hour webinars to teachers in Yemen--50 of them. The theme was "Engaging our Students in the Learning Process." I have two more to do some time in the near future. The hard part is the time difference--10pm to 1:00am my time.

I want to do more, if you know of any organization that would like to sponsor them. These were sponsored by AMIDEAST.

Asaad Al Asaad, Senior English Instructor at Saudi INTERLINK

The Saudi INTERLINK program has the unique feature of igniting creativity and potential in those students who are eager to achieve and succeed. I have seen this over and over throughout my long years of service. I have the great pleasure, and honor, to help students along this path, and I see how they grow and evolve. I am especially proud of those students I trained to participate in a GCC level public speaking competition in Dubai and feel so much professionally fulfilled to see how they win first place prizes in a competition that brings together students from top universities in the GCC countries.

New photos just in from Interlink Saudi Arabia

This week's quote: "Who you are speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you are saying." Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week's quote: "You can never reach the downhill until you learn to love the uphill, then it's downhill all the way." C Welz

Can you find Ellen and me in our SIT graduation photo? Can you guess the year?

2008 SIT-US State Department training of Algerian Supervisors