Una fiesta de despedida (farewell party)

To celebrate the completion of the professional development conference, the Nicaraguan teachers and members of Alinza American put on a despedida for the MAT team. 

We walked up the street from the conference location to Dr. Oscar Aragón’s house that happens to be a restaurant. There we were served an amazing meal of the most delicious Nicaraguan food.

Getting ready to feel all the hungry teachers

When everyone was done eating, the MAT team gave individual farewell speeches thanking the Nicaraguan teachers for their endless hospitality, generosity, and friendship. We shared our gratitude for being able to participate a once in a lifetime experience with incredible educators in our global community.

I saw their passion for teaching each day of the conference. I learned the teachers would do anything in their power  to help their students succeed. They have the same hopes and dreams for enabling a bright future for their students as I do for my own students. The Nicaraguan teachers may not have much, but give so much of themselves.

After the speeches given by the MAT team members, some educators from a different school district gave speeches. Each school district represented gave each member of the MAT team small gifts as a token of their gratitude. I was overwhelmed and deeply touched by their generosity and thoughtfulness.

Audience of educators

Unexpectedly the music started! Two Nicaraguan teachers came out of nowhere dancing while dressed up in silly costumes. The music was playing and people were cheering them on. The pair dance together and then came over to dance with each of us in front of the whole crowd. I had so much fun!

Dancing with one of the dancers

We also listened to a band of musicians play beautiful traditional songs. What a wonderful end to the fantastic despendida! 

Singing and playing traditional music on the guitar

Professional Development Conference

The professional development conference in Nicaragua was a huge success! I never expected the conference to be as incredible as it was. It exceeded any prior expectations.  

During Professor Kerison’s session on the first day of conference, I was introduced to all of the Nicaraguan teachers. I felt lucky to meet these amazing educators I had heard so much about in stories from team members who had already traveled to Nicaragua. It seemed as though I had been waiting a lifetime to meet them.


I felt incredibly impressed and inspired by the Nicaraguan educators I met while my translator and I moved from table to table around the room to greet them. By talking to the teachers, I learned about their experiences of teaching in rural underprivileged schools. They told me more information on where they taught, what it was like to work in those schools, what their students are like, and how they coped with daily challenges like simply commuting to the school each day. They also shared some of their strategies for dealing with as many as sixty students in a classroom or how to deal with teaching multiple grades at the same time. Some classrooms were outside because there is not enough room for all the students inside the school.

These educators demonstrated their enormous passion, resourcefulness and ingenuity when working with students using limited resources. Each group of teachers from a different school district had the opportunity to present lessons they developed to the audience. The groups of teachers created all sorts of elaborate charts, colorful posters, and graphic organizers as part of their instructional strategies to teach various subjects. One group of teachers even constructed a cardboard TV as a method for teaching story telling. Another group shared a questioning technique of crumbling different pieces of paper into a ball. Each student could take a layer off of the ball and answer that question on the topic of the lesson.

Mathematics lessons

Language Arts lessons

Notice the TV they created on the table top

My individual breakout sessions at the Conference were the most powerful and influential part of whole experience for me. Each day I presented, I grew more confident in my teaching ability and comfortable presenting in front of a group of colleagues. The teachers responded enthusiastically to our language arts unit and lesson plans. It made the hard work Therese and I put into developing our unit all the more meaningful. 


I got the impression that each teacher in my sessions felt grateful to learn new instructional strategies and eager to incorporate them into their classrooms. I found it particularly touching seeing their eyes light up with “ah ha” moments and pure excitement for getting their hands on some of the materials we brought down. They were thrilled with the felt boards we created for story telling using felt pieces.  

After my individual breakout sessions were over, I felt an intense, overwhelming, indescribable rush. My eyes filled with tears at the overpowering sense of fulfilling my life’s purpose. I knew that this is what I was meant to do for the rest of my life.