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Extraordinary teacher: Jonathan Tharin

 
Caption: Palm Harbor University High IB English teacher Jonathan Tharin relaxes in his classroom.
Caption: Palm Harbor University High IB English teacher Jonathan Tharin relaxes in his classroom.
Published April 29, 2015

BY KATELYN NELLER

Palm Harbor University High

Jonathan Tharin, an IB English teacher at Palm Harbor University High, spent time in Guatemala working with the Peace Corps. He discovered his passion for teaching and his preference for teaching practices through his experiences there.

"The first three months were training with new Peace Corps volunteers, learning Spanish, cultural things, and getting trained in how to help people with businesses. I made a lot of new friends," Tharin said. "At the end, we were placed in a site that would best suit us. I got sent to an indigenous Mayan community in the central highlands of Guatemala where their first language is Kekchi."

The community Tharin was sent to was a coffee cooperative where the people wanted to sell more of their products and make more money from them. He was in charge of teaching them skills to help their community be more successful.

"I taught them a variety of things, like talking on the phone. We role-played answering the phone. Whenever someone interested in doing business with them would call, whoever was walking by would pick up the phone, which was not specific to the coffee cooperative, and just mumble 'hello'. I taught them how to be professional about these things," Tharin said.

He also helped the coffee cooperative get certified through Fair Trade, which allowed them to get paid more for the coffee that they produced.

"I ended up raising some money through some Peace Corps funds to help pay for Fair Trade Certification. When the Fair Trade certification people came for an inspection, they told (the coffee cooperative) in front of me that if I stayed longer, they would give them the certification. They said I knew what I was talking about and I was giving (the coffee cooperative) the guidance they needed. The certification people didn't have a lot of faith that (the coffee cooperative) would do it without me and get it right, so I stayed to help them out," Tharin said.

Tharin was not only responsible for aiding the coffee cooperative. He helped a group of women who were weavers to sell the things they crafted to make a profit.

"I taught the weavers how to sell what they were making and how to use the money that they made to support themselves," Tharin said.

Through his experiences in the Peace Corps, Tharin learned that teaching might be a career possibility.

"I was never ever going to become a teacher. That was the last thing I ever expected that I would do. In the Peace Corps, we call what we do 'training' and I didn't realize until I got back that I was actually teaching," Tharin said.

Tharin's experiences in the Peace Corps taught him how to teach something intricate to any person, regardless of their background.

"In the Peace Corps, you have this complicated issue that you have to teach people that are either uneducated or illiterate how to do. You have to take something complex and break it down into simpler pieces and you teach it to people so that they can manage it. That's really what teaching is all about," Tharin said.