POST 2 - MIRANDA

Hi, PDPI fellows!

I have learned a lot from my instructors Aaron Royer (introduction to blogs), Donna Moski and Debbie Coutavas (English refinement classes) since January 13 (the beginnig of the course). And the past academic week was even more profitable. In addition to the excellent classes that our oficial instructors have taught us, I had two very instructive and hands on workshops, and the first meeting, out of five, with  Dra Jennifer Scully on TESOL methodology for high school students. The first workshop, on Pronunciation, was presented by Joyce Mandell, a very dynamic and enthusiastic instructor. She taught, not only me, but the whole group, I'm sure, precious lessons on recurrent pronunciation problems for Brazilian students of English, in a very lively and engaging atmosphere. The second one was presented by, not less enthusiastic and dynamic, Sue Peterson, the Adjunct Coordinator of St John's University. She taught how to use "Tech ideas in low tech classrooms". One of the most important lessons I learned from her, was that we can't skip (ignore) teaching topics on technology (social networking, for example) just because the students do not have access to technology at the moment the teaching takes place. sooner or later it will get into their homes and lives, and they'd better be prepared to deal with it intelligently. From Jennifer Scully I learned that for good class management we have to keep our students busy, and the DO NOW activities are very efficient  strategies.
 Besides all classroom instructions, I have also learned a lot of  the tours I have taken with my classmates during the last two weeks. One very nice tour was through Central Park, this unique natural environment right in the middle of New York metropolitan area, a place where people can jog, run, go on a picnic or just sit down on a pathside bench,  read a good book or relax. New York City, with all its diversity (linguistic, cultural, religious...) has been an everlasting experience for me.