A FAREWELL TO VILMA

This academic year we have had the privilege of having an English-speaking assistant for The Comenius Project.

As everybody knows, the person assigned for our school is Vilma Berontaite, from Lithuania.

Now, when it is about to finish her stay with us, I would like to sum up the tasks she has made for the Comenius Project and her help not only for pupils but also for teachers, in addition to her work in different groups and levels.

Regarding her work with pupils taking part in the Comenius Project, Vilma helped them prepare presentations in Power Point, comics, board games, legends about water, posters related to water, … And she was also a support for the teachers Meli Peralta and María José Campello, who began this project two years ago and worked hard for it.

Besides, she worked with pupils needing special support; simply having contact with a foreigner who does not speak the pupils´ mother tongue has been an excellent stimulus for them.

On the other hand, she made presentations of her country, Lithuania, in nearly all the levels of ESO. As an example, in 3ºESO with the English teacher Juan José Seijas and 3ºPDC with the English teacher María José Fernández.

She attended and took part in different music lessons in 4ºESO and 1º BAC with the music teacher, Teo Ramirez. In these lessons she listened to songs in English with the pupils, helping them to understand the lyrics, being a good way to get in touch with the pupils in the classroom.

She also attended Art lessons in 1º ESO, whose teacher is Maria Armada. Some of the pupils made a comic for the Comenius Project; María helped pupils with the drawings whereas Vilma helped them with the texts in English.

Finally, she had no objection to teaching “the cell” in English in a Science lesson together with Dolores Vizoso or explaining a brief history of Lithuania with Divina Arnoso, both in 2ºESO.

And we cannot forget that she taught English to some members of the staff all year long.

Personally, it has been an unforgettable experience, not only in the professional field but in the personal one as well.

I must say I had the honour of getting to know a wonderful person; intelligent, hardworking, nice person with a great ability to get used to living in a country with such a different culture from her own.

So, thank you very much Vilma. I think you will be in our hearts forever. 

I would like to finish with a quotation:

“Why should we look down on other races?

We are all human beings, of one world and of one blood.

To hate a person just because he was born somewhere else,

just because he speaks a different language,

just because he thinks about things in a different way,

does not make sense.

We should get away from that.

We are all people,

Nobody is perfect,

And we all need help”

                                                             John Amos Comenius.

                                                       (seventeenth-century writer)

Elena Yáñez