July 18th: Day 4
Today was a contrast of two worlds--one a public school significant more funding than Fanny Mickey and a private, girls Catholic bilingual school, whose world class educational opportunities impressed all of us, revealing yet again a theme in all of education---Money Matters.
At the Colegio Codema, Sra. Gomez Treated us to a cup of piping hot Colombian coffee, the strongest of my trip this far, just how I like it. While there, we touted the school building, which was comprised of pre-schoolers to eleventh grade seniors. Them we divided for independent classroom observations. I had the pleasure of visiting a technology course and an English course. In the technology class, students presented their poster reports on plastic molds--at least that is what I surmised from the Latinate words. Not knowing the language of being able to fully communicate increases my stress tithe highest levels, but body language seems to compensate some. The students, as I understood, were considered knowledgeable experts in the subject, and they were expected to answer questions from other students and the teacher. The students likely researched their topics in the school's only computer lab.
Today was a contrast of two worlds--one a public school significant more funding than Fanny Mickey and a private, girls Catholic bilingual school, whose world class educational opportunities impressed all of us, revealing yet again a theme in all of education---Money Matters.
At the Colegio Codema, Sra. Gomez Treated us to a cup of piping hot Colombian coffee, the strongest of my trip this far, just how I like it. While there, we touted the school building, which was comprised of pre-schoolers to eleventh grade seniors. Them we divided for independent classroom observations. I had the pleasure of visiting a technology course and an English course. In the technology class, students presented their poster reports on plastic molds--at least that is what I surmised from the Latinate words. Not knowing the language of being able to fully communicate increases my stress tithe highest levels, but body language seems to compensate some. The students, as I understood, were considered knowledgeable experts in the subject, and they were expected to answer questions from other students and the teacher. The students likely researched their topics in the school's only computer lab.
Next, I visited an English teacher's classroom. He was preparing students for the national English proficiency exam. The students used a released proficiency exam, and the teacher asked students to identify key words in the question and to match those key words with key words in the possible answers—and then asked students to choose the correct response. Many of the questions proved rather difficult, such as question #7 in the attached artifact. To a native speaker of English, Please Respect Your Turns likely means that one should, of course, refrain from skipping others in a line, but the choices provided by this government test proved difficult for the non-native speakers. The students seemed to have a bit of difficulty with the material, and, as a result, attention began to wane, especially for the boys. I hope the new exams exhibit more concision with the questions and answer choices.
After our classroom visit, we spent time debriefing with other teachers, the principal, students, and parents. I was most impressed with two students who engaged in a debate regarding classroom size. One student stated that because 40 or more students filled each classroom, the teachers did not even know them. Another student stated that teachers tried to meet their needs despite overwhelming odds. Regardless, class size prevents individual learning differentiation--and the general consensus centered on the fact that it is difficult to achieve with packed classrooms and few resources. One other takeaway: Colombian teachers cannot fathom that a teacher's performance could be tied to one test on one day one time a year. One teacher asked the question, "What if you have students who are not good test takers?"
For our final stop of the day, we toured a private Catholic school and participated in a roundtable discussion with the English department and a small group of students. This school’s primary focus centered on English, and the teenagers spoke absolutely impeccable English. The teachers were highly qualified, and the school building itself amazed even me. While visiting, construction workers were reinforcing walls to comply with building codes—a (US) 3 million dollar project. After the bell, teachers played basketball for Friday fun, a weekly bonding event for teachers.
I was impressed with the building, the quality teachers, and the girls with goals ranging from studying international law to engineering.
Visiting this school certainly reinforced the mantra that I have heard regarding this country—a good education is available to those who are willing and have the means to pay for it. Thus, 40% of the population has access to a system where critical thinking is valued and encouraged, and 60% just survives on rote memorization and the basics, which is precisely why I fully support public education.
I was impressed with the building, the quality teachers, and the girls with goals ranging from studying international law to engineering.
Visiting this school certainly reinforced the mantra that I have heard regarding this country—a good education is available to those who are willing and have the means to pay for it. Thus, 40% of the population has access to a system where critical thinking is valued and encouraged, and 60% just survives on rote memorization and the basics, which is precisely why I fully support public education.