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Last day of social service (I can´t believe this is the end) L

This is the last day but I don´t think it would be the last post related to the work done as part of social service in a beautiful place located in the mountains of Chiapas. I am satisfied with the effort the students made to commit to the class and the activities and sometimes the things they haven´t done due to some lack of engagement activities. I really appreciated and valued those moments too, because they make me find and try strategies to motivate them to attend classes and find English language interesting, fun and meaningful, moreover contextualized to their background, traditions. Empathy was the key for successful completion of social service, with this I refer to try to use some the words from their mother tongue to present content and meaning.

The things I need to work on is TTT, one of my weaknesses which directly affect students’ performance on productive activities, I don´t provide opportunities to express what they have learnt.

 What I have learned through this experience is how motivated you come to a class, with planned activities, designed and adapted material to foster your students to achieve the goals; I mean, as a teacher I always will have big expectations about their performance, but then you realize that besides all the things you have planned and designed, sometimes it is not enough to engage them to the activities. Moreover when a group was a huge success with a group and a totally disaster or time consuming with another group. But this is part of the teaching practice, it won´t be lineal, adaptations, seating rearrangements needed to be done by taking into consideration students interests, learning styles or just previous class they had.

I am very thankful to all the people who were part of this wonderful and learning experience, and who were always supporting me and encouraging me to do my best to make a difference on whatever I do.

I hope we can work together again, students, colleagues, facilitator and e-mates; you were part of this significant journey that is still contributing to my teaching practice and I will take with me everything I learnt from you all.

Sincerely,

Paola