Spotlight
Submitted by Helen Jarandillo

New York Times 2008 ESOL Teacher of the Year

"Chito"; Photo by Christina Quisumbing Ramila

This article comes from the New York Times' website, which also recognizes 2008 ESOL Teacher of the Year Honorees.

Feliciano Jaime Atienza, known to everyone as “Chito,” is a Filipino immigrant and a career ESOL professional in New York City. He has been an ESOL practitioner with the YMCA ELESAIR PROJECT for 22 years. He received his ESL/CO teacher training, along with hundreds of pioneering Filipino ESL/CO teachers, at the Southeast Asian Refugee Program in the Philippines, a joint project of the UNHCR, ICMC and funded by the US State Department. In the 80s and 90s, the Bataan Refugee Camp was considered the biggest ESL laboratory in the world and the field-testing hub of innovative and communicative teaching/learning techniques that are staples in effective ESOL classrooms today.  

Chito is a compassionate professional whose classroom is characterized by a healing and empowering concept of “skinship” and trust. He possesses a cheerful “can-do” attitude and time-tested skills as a teacher, teacher trainer, mentor, test-giver and facilitator with extensive experience in the following areas: YMCA International  ESOL/Literacy  Initiatives for immigrants; Refugees and New Americans; Diversity  and Conflict Management in the ESOL Classroom; Literacy Teacher Training and Cultural Orientation (recently for China-bound teachers); ESOL Testing and Evaluation; Language Program Development and Implementation; UNHCR/ICMC SEAsian Refugee ESL/CO Programs.

Since receiving this award, Chito has started teaching ESL in a new program at a Buddhist temple in Brooklyn. His wish is to see monks from mainland China, Burma, Tibet, and Thailand learn English together....and dream of creating an alliance of PEACE in Asia.