Peer`s Observation

One Friday afternoon, I had the duty to observe my peer Shirley. The whole preparation for the class took plenty of planning. I had to give teacher Shirley restrictive information about my students before the implementation of the lesson. This information required: the name of the course: Ingles Integrado para otras carreras I, place: UNA, classroom: 328, the number of students: thirty, and finally the text book being used: interactions I. The topic to be issued was: Traditions from countries such as: Mexico, France, United states, Africa, and China.
The students were more than happy to have a special guest for this class. Teacher Shirley addressed the lesson in a very polite and professional way. She handed the students with pieces of card board along with envelopes containing illustrations of different traditions on the countries mentioned previously. The class was divided into groups so that they could glue the pictures to the card board and write down expressions and thoughts related to the corresponding culture.
Finally, each group presented in an oral form every piece of information they were in charged of.
The whole lesson went quite well, with much organization. The students were satisfied about the things they learned. They also had their laughs with the while and post activities carried out in groups.

CIMARRONA CONTEST IN SAN ISIDRO DE HEREDIA

SAN ISIDRO DE HEREDIA:
It is one of the most traditional mountainous towns in Heredia. It is also well-known for its gothic- style church. This church possesses beautiful stained-glass windows which match its white walls and red roof.
One of the most attractive traditions are the so called ¨turnos¨. This a a tradition for the town people to get together and enjoy traditional foods, dances, ox-cart parades, fireworks, and the most popular: Cimarrona Contest.

On a cold Friday night, our Culture Professor, Olga Chaves, extended the invitation to me and my classmates to pay a visit to this town in order to witness a traditional Cimarrona contest; and so we gladly accepted. This activity was carried out right next to the church. It was completely crowded. People were cheering and clapping at the performers. We had the luck to see more than ten bands playing their instruments, especially drums. Each performance was amazing because of the quality of the tunes accompanied by the voices of the players who indeed did their best in order to entertain everybody out there!

I must add to this splendid night that I was more than shocked to see that the audience at this party was completely sober. It was curious to see that people were empty-handed. Nobody was drinking anything, not even water. It is interesting to notice such respect people from San Isidro have towards an event like this. I personally enjoyed this night out so much that I hope to attend this same event next year.