In Colombia, there are 4 Lutheran schools. Two of the schools (El Cocuy and Paz de Ariporo) are elementary schools, and the other two are elementary through high school (Bogota - San Lucas and Sogamoso). One of the goals of the last couple of years has been strengthening how the four schools work together - sharing experiences, knowledge, and resources. This past Friday, the teachers from all the schools had a retreat, for the first time ever!
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| All the teachers! |
It was very exciting to bring in 75 teachers from all over the country, for them to meet each other and share a day together.
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| Teachers from San Lucas - Bogota |
We divided the group into 7 small groups so the teachers would get a chance to meet teachers from other schools. We had seven stations, each with a different activity that the groups rotated through. My station was "demostrando talentos" - showing talents! Each group had to discover the talents of the others in their group and figure out a way they could show the talents to the rest of the groups in a talent show of sorts at the end of the day. Some of the groups created little dramas, one did a group dance, one sang, and one even created a pyramid.
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| One of the groups at my station - making a pyramid to show their talents. |
Some of the other stations were deeper - talking about the difficulties of being a teacher, or how to better communicate.
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| Teachers from El Cocuy |
At the end of the day there was a small gift exchange (exchanging candy bars, desserts, nail polish, and other small gifts).
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| Teachers from Sogamoso |
The teachers all left with a renewed sense of calling to teach young people and a renewed energy to do so. This was the first of what we are hoping becomes an annual activity.
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| Teachers from Paz de Ariporo (I love that they wore matching shirts!) |
