Back to School!

This week marked the official start of the Colombian public school year. As a second year Peace Corps Volunteer, I feel pretty good. The chaos and confusion that seems to be part and parcel of the educational system here does not faze me as it did last year when I was new and trying to figure everything out.

In my opinion, this is one of the strengths of Peace Corps. Living and working in another culture – and, within a subculture of another culture, as I often feel is my case in an Afro-Colombian community – isn’t something that can easily be done in a month or two. Understanding the flow of time and rhythm of events in a foreign land can take years. Peace Corps service is for two years and there is a common refrain that (to paraphrase) “the first year is about figuring things out; the second year is about getting things done.” This certainly reflects my feelings about my service so far. Last year I was building relationships with my co-teachers, school faculty and community members; soaking things in; trying to see where I can make an impact; getting an idea which weeks are most conducive to work and which months are utterly unproductive for anything other than festivities. So this year – though I undoubtedly still have so much more to learn about my co-teachers, students, neighbors and culture – I feel good, have an idea what is within my control, where I can poke and prod to move things along, and know what is out of my control.

Welcome to paradise

The IT classroom

So it’s year two for me. There is no class schedule, which I knew not to expect. I’ll be lucky if I get that within the next two weeks and can actually start co-planning and co-teaching with my counterpart teachers. On the first day of class last year I walked door to door with all the primary school teachers, knocking on doors to remind parents that the school year had started. This year I know that most students won’t actually show up to school for another week or so. (I can hardly blame them; with no schedule, most of the time is spent in meetings for the teachers and the students are more or less corralled into a room for the bulk of the afternoon). 

Colombian public schools are divided into two main parts: Primary (primaria) and secondary (bachillerato). Primaria includes Transition (for the little ones like my 4 year old host brother) and First through Fifth grades. Bachillerato goes from 6^th to 11^th grade when students graduate (if they make it all the way through school, that is). The only dedicated English teachers in my school teach in bachillerato so that is where I focused my efforts last year. Primaria has no dedicated English teachers – instead all teachers are expected to include an hour or two of English in their lessons each week. With most primaria teachers having no background in English, this is a critical gap in the educational system, and an area where I will be applying considerable effort this year. 

Without a class schedule and with plenty of time and energy, one of my counterparts and I have been working to develop and English curriculum for the entire institution. Before being able to work with the primary school teachers and develop some English classes for them, I want to understand first and foremost what they need to teach to their students, so it is key that we formalize the curriculum. Not only will this help for Primary school, but also help to guide my two bachillerato counterparts in better planning classes and preventing overlap between subject matter; I noticed on several occasions last year that the 7^th grade would be learning one thing with one of my teachers and the 9^th grade would be learning the same exact thing with the other teacher. Having a strong English curriculum in place for the whole school is one of the things I want to have done before I finish my service in December, so I am pleased that we are making progress in this area.

Drying out some library books

Other plans for the year that I am working on with my counterparts are: School activities with a focus on English language or American culture, such as an upcoming session on Valentine’s day; an English Club which involves taking some of the best English students out of class for an hour every other week to do fun, educational activities to motivate their learning and be exposed to English outside of standard classroom activities; and an English Song Festival where students sing songs in English for the whole school and which was easily the most exciting school event of last year. This, of course, will be in addition to the regular co-planning and co-teaching in the high school, community English classes I have at night, and other projects I am trying to get underway. It looks like it might be a busy year for me, but it feels good to be back at school ready to try to get things done. Now we just need to wait for the students to show up. Oh, and a schedule. A schedule would be nice. One thing at a time though.