peregriNation: Graduation

One day I went to TEFL early to make 45 copies of small pictures as part of my materials for my lesson that night. As I stood at the copier with my first set of copies ready to go, the power went out! In fact the power was out in ALL of Quepos for the entire day. Not a single copier was in operation anywhere. I evaluated my situation. It had taken me four hours to plan the lesson, an hour assessment for approval, another hour for revisions and second approval, and the rest of the materials were already made. There was no way I could alter the plan. I had no choice but to draw all 45 of the pictures. Thank goodness I had come in early. (Of course my hope had been to get my copies made and go to the beach for the morning.) My lesson theme was all about relationships such as dating, engagement, marriage, etc. Consequently, I spent 5 hours that day drawing stick people in love. We hadn't brought our own lunch because we had planned to call and have lunch delivered. With no power, we had no phone lines to call and no time to walk to town, which meant no food. Hungry and grumpy at the end of the day I vowed to take an art class when I settled back into the USA, so I'd never have to draw another stick figure again.

   At 4:15pm we started setting out small candles all over the room because it would be dark half way through class. At 4:30 my students arrived and class began. At 4:35 the power turned on! My class was a success with no grammar bombs at all. A few of my fellow teachers were suspiciously amazed that the power had been out during our exact work hours that day. They accused the staff at TEFL of pulling the switch so we would learn to make materials the old fashioned way, and be able to teach in third world countries with no resources. They laughed and said one day we just might be grateful for the experience.

   So after numerous hours of
   lesson planning with no sleep,
   teaching, evaluating, creating a final exam,
   and bouts with the copy machine,

   we graduated.

TEFL threw a beautiful pool party and dinner for all of the graduates and our students. With tears in our eyes we said our goodbyes. We wished our students well in their continued quest to master the language with the next round of student teachers. Then we wished each other well as we would soon be spread out all over the world, teaching the power of the english language.