It's amazing what getting back to work can do for a person after four months of "vacation." All the language assistants officially went to work last Friday. However, in typical Andalusian fashion, today was the orientation for those of us in the province of Sevilla. I don't know why they don't plan to give the orientation before you get thrown into the midst of a Spanish school, but...
The orientations I've been to in the past have been pretty uninteresting and not extremely helpful; however, I gave a presentation based on my years of experience in the program at today's orientation so I'm sure it was much more interesting than previous ones. ;) Jokes, aside, I am very pleased with how well it went. I modified the one I gave to teachers at the conference in September and...voila! Although, last night (talk about last min.!) I realized that I should give the talk in Spanish since there would be assistants for French, German and Italian there! So at about 10 pm I set about translating all of my slides...
Ignoring the last minute language changes, it was well prepared and all-in-all a success. The man from diputacion who originally agree to have me speak (I volunteered myself), came up to me afterwards saying, "That was beautiful, you had me wanting to sign up for the language assistant program!" Ha! Unfortunately, I was the last speaker of the day (best for last??) and I'm afraid most of my audience was famished by the time I started at 1:30-ish so I'm not sure how much they were able to ignore growling stomachs to focus on what I had to say.
I am also pleased because I made some good contacts--pure schmoozing--and who knows what it could lead to in terms of future employment. Even if I never get paid for doing this kind of thing though, it's really great to be a part of. Once again, I met teachers and people who care about their job and the program and are willing to work to improve it even if there's no monetary motivation for their efforts. Good people.
It was a great morning...the only downside being that I didn't get home until about 4:15 pm so I could have eaten an elephant when I finally sat down to eat. ;) Luckily a large helping of porra was ready waiting for me.
Love it Opie :] I bet you're the only person who could pull off a killer presentation with so many last minute changes! Haha and I'm thinking if you were able to ignore your growling tummy to give the presentation they were definitely listening :]
ReplyDeleteBisous!
That's my girl! You are an extremely talented person, and "networking" will get you far since you are sooooo impressive! Seriously, there is something about giving a presentation to a group of people and having them enjoy and compliment you that is incredibly satisfying. Especially when you work so hard on it. Congratulations, wish I could have been there.
ReplyDeleteLove, Dad