F.A.A.P.I. 2010

To tell you the truth, I went with no clear idea on mind of how the congress was going to be like. I knew that some of the people –Harmer, to be more specific- we´ve been reading to throughout these years were going to attend the congress and to give speeches, but I had not expected to enjoy the three days in Córdoba as I did.

I am one of those creatures who love collecting brochures and who like entering raffles, so imagine that F.A.A.P.I. was Wonderland for me! It was a pity I didn´t win anything, but I enjoyed filling in each blank space I could. I also enjoyed a lot browsing at books, buying stickers and sealings which who knows when I´ll use them.

It goes without saying that I couldn´t enjoy the presentations more! When attending speeches, I remembered the Pecha Kuchas we have been doing in class. It was great to see slides and to feel that I was ready to do the same sort of presentations those people were doing. Some of the presentations were boring, even as regards design, as the colours were just black and white, or the pictures were not the ones I would have chosen. Those things made me fully understand the importance of everything we are doing in class. As future teachers we must learn how to stand in front of a crowd, how to speak in public, how to design a presentation and how to teach others to do so. I could feel the need of changing tones and of designing and using techniques that could motivate and engage the audience while one is speaking.

I loved those presentations in which the speaker didn´t have a sheet of paper in hand! That was a clear sign of how confident and how well-prepared they were for their presentation. Not to mention how efficiently they handled the overhead projector and how professionally they moved from one topic to the other one, making plenty of connections in the audience´s minds so that there were not loose ends left by the end of their speeches.

Apart from the technicalities and the abilities of each speaker, I found the contents of most presentations extremely interesting. Herbert Puchta mentioned that “mirror neurons” have been discovered, and that those neurons are the ones that, for instance, make one yawn while someone else is doing so. In the same way, those neurons are the ones we are supposed to activate during our lessons so as to make everybody feel eager to participate and eager to learn.

Jeremy Harmer, then, gave an incredible speech during which I thought I was looking at and listening to a poet. He was amazing, really! The energy with which he spoke was really contagious and he managed to make everybody feel eager to participate. There were some moments during his presentation in which I felt like a like child, listening at everything he was saying, laughing, shouting and staring open mouthed at him. Among one of the various things he shared with us, here is an example of a “diamante” poem he showed:

Man
Brilliant, perfect
Working, learning, earning,
Speaking, speaking, speaking
Furious, exhausted
Woman

Imagine! Most of us were women, so everybody started shouting. As he knew quite well that that was going to happen, he immediately started laughing and make us read this poem:

Man
Stupid, rude
Sleeping, eating
Trousers, underpants, knickers, shirts
Working, sporting
Clever, beautiful
Woman.

In this case we all stood up and just clapped and cheered!

That was by far the best example of an effective presentation I had ever seen.