Q&A with MD Chacón
Q: When did you begin your service as the TEFL Program Manager (PM)?
A: I was hired to start the TEFL program in September 2010, when we started the process of founding the TEFL program.
Q: What do you love about being the TEFL PM?
A: What I love is to see how in 1 or 2 years my TEFLeros turn into great teachers, and how excellent they are as trainers at the end of their service.
Q: Anything interesting about the TEFL program that you’d like to share?
A: I think the TEFL program has many years of success here in Ecuador. Four years ago no one knew about us in Ecuador, now a days, when they think of English classes or English training they think of PC TEFL PCVs, even the government. We have positioned the TEFL program in only 4 years in a good place in the mind of people and that is the impact we wanted. We also are going to start next year with a TEFL certification for PCVs, and that is also great news for our TEFLeros!
Q: What has been one of the successes of the TEFL program?
A: In my personal opinion we had two great successes: the first one is the great work PCVs do in their schools (even though PCVs do not see it), be-cause we had the request of more PCVs for schools. And the second success are the Training of Teachers (TOTs) throughout the entire country. So far we trained 450 Go-Teachers only in this fiscal year 2015, and we trained more than 800 teachers in fiscal year 2014.
We had a written request of the MOE for more PCVs that shows that PCVs are really doing a PCVs that shows that PCVs are really doing a great working in an area (education) that now the Government is also investing a lot to improve and if they ask us for help it is because we are doing things right. Cervantes in his book Don Quijote de la Mancha, he said to Sancho Panza: “Sancho, si los perros ladran es señal que avanzamos…”
Q: What has been an unforgettable experience or memory as the TEFL PM?
A: I have many unforgettable experiences with each one of the OMN in these four years. People said that memories are the memory of the heart, and I have many good memories in my heart.