After a few weeks of scheduling issues my timetable at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala has been finally set. I’m thrilled! I have a good four months of running weekly workshops for teachers. I am intrigued and energised.
The course description
The course will enable student teachers to acquire basic counselling competencies. Participants will develop their interpersonal skills such as active listening and summarising through a series of interactive classes. The course will cover several Transactional Analysis concepts that are relevant to maintaining classroom discipline and supporting learners to reach their potential. Students will gain psychological insight into their own motivation and will be able to understand their learners in more depth. Participants will also become aware of their values and how these determine their way of working. In a nutshell, student teachers will develop an approach that allows to promote autonomy in the classroom.
The participants are quite enthusiastic. That means more than 50% of success is there. I am learning to be flexible whilst working on the edge of cultures.
The Latin American notion of time is very different to the Western standards of punctuality… mañana and take in easy! It’s also interesting that relationships are valued over tasks.
Let’s make sure that everyone feels well and then we may proceed – quite the opposite to the life of many European and North American organisations.
I am looking forward to witnessing the development of my groups. We are working with emergence so I cannot determine where the process will go. Exciting!