Aprendizaje del Ingles! Whoops, I mean... Learning English!

Classes in public schools go from either 6:30am-12:30pm or 1:00-6:30pm. The separate schools are called “jornadas”, each with distinct students and teachers. The only similarities are the facilities and principal. At my high school, Soledad Roman de Nunez, I work in both the morning and afternoon jornadas. Each has four English teachers, so total is eight. Each semester I work with four teachers, two from the morning jornada and two from the afternoon.

English teachers from the morning jornada (L-R: Carlos, me, Olga, Angelica, Bladimir)

English teachers from the afternoon jornada (L-R: Bladimir, Eduardo, Eleana, Mauricio, me, Jairo)

I am fortunate in many ways. Teachers are all fantastic people and have become some of my best friends in Colombia: extremely welcoming, happy, loving, funny, and light-hearted. They invite me to their houses, on vacations, and to celebrations. They are all extremely open to my suggestions and want to work with me.

Many other Peace Corps volunteers have  a total of 2-5 English teachers. I was placed at the largest school, and although I much prefer too much work over too little, the hardest part has been feeling spread-thin with so many teachers who want my time, plus more. Planning lessons for four separate grade levels and trying to remember students from 16 different classes (each with 30+ students) is challenging. Working with only 2-5 teachers makes sense; I feel like I could make a bigger impact if I could focus on only one or two teachers a semester.

The current curriculum is wholly based on grammar, emphasis on no vocabulary. A teacher’s instructions of what to teach for the entire semester will be as detailed as “present progressive.” Students learn complex grammar structures for zero-conditional and meanwhile don’t know numbers, colors, or basic vocabulary such as what “I” means. They memorize that “went” is the irregular past tense form of “to go” without even knowing what “to go” or “went” mean.

So, this semester I am attempting to start “theme based teaching” with all four teachers. Each has decided on a theme for the semester that is NOT grammatical. First we teach vocabulary based around that theme and afterwards incorporate the grammar. For example, with one teacher, the subject they must teach for the semester is “comparative and superlative adjectives”; however, we now also have the theme “Who Am I?”. We learned parts of the body (see pictures below) and adjectives such as “tall, small, skinny, strong”. After this, we taught comparative and superlative adjectives, using the vocabulary words students had learned (for example: Jarladis is skinnier than Jhan Carlos.), meaning that students actually know the meaning of what is on the board. Saying that there is a long way to go would be an understatement; however, for some classes and teachers in particular it really seems to be working.

Lightbulb moment when students learned what "face" meant... oooooh facebook. Check.

I established last semester that I will never enter a classroom unless the teacher and I have prepared a written lesson plan beforehand (something unheard of). First of all, so that I know what I am doing and being in a classroom is not one, big improvisation. Today, Christina is going to say the list of 100 past tense verbs on the board and you will repeat… for 2 hours. Secondly, it is not the co-teaching but the co-planning where I see myself having the most impact. If I will not come to class without planning beforehand, teachers make time in their schedule to plan. Furthermore, written lesson plans and saved materials can be used in future years. Each teacher has a binder with lesson plans for each individual class and any handouts or materials we used are stapled to it.

None of this should be interpreted as teachers and students at my school don’t try hard or are unintelligent. Lack of resources and not being exposed to teaching styles different than lecture and memorization-based ones, in addition to living in a culture where being late for class, not showing-up with a pencil, not studying or not doing homework are acceptable all contribute to students not learning English. As I said, teachers are more than willing to work with me and listen to my ideas, and furthermore have some great ideas of their own. After all, they are the ones who understand how Colombians think and how public schools function. Moreover, there are always those students, who, despite all this, are passionate about English, want as many songs and books and materials as I can give them, and spend hours watching English TV, listening to music, or talking in online chat rooms. Students may not know colors, but they have every word of Rihanna and Linkin Park songs down. 

On a totally separate note, the 30 (supposedly) Peace Corps volunteer newbies arrive on Wednesday. Are you reading this? Hellooooo out there! Although I won’t be able to be there for the meet and greet, I can’t wait to get to Barranquilla sometime soon! Live up your last few moments of sweaters, good beer, Mexican food, and driving before you're life turns full-Costena.