Una advinanza- a riddle!
Blanca soy, del mar naci, ricos y pobres sirven de mi. Quien soy?
White I am, born from the sea, rich people and poor people like to serve
me. Who am I?*
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So, I´ve gotten a lot of questions from people about what exactly I am doing here. I'm attempting to rectify
my vagueness now! Honestly, until I got to training, I only had a very cursory understanding
of what this job would entail. A lot of
things have been clarified since then.
Once I finish
training, I will be a Peace Corps volunteer in the Teaching English as a
Foreign Language (TEFL) Education sector, one of the 5 project sectors of Peace
Corps' work in Nicaragua. For sustainability, Peace Corps Nicaragua mandates
that we co-teach, alongside Nicaraguan English teachers in public secondary
schools throughout the country. Rather than have outsiders come and teach for 2
years, taking jobs from locals, we work alongside Nicaraguan teachers to build
their capacity to implement communicative activities in the classroom.
Essentially, a lot of what the job entails is trying to build a more dynamic
classroom environment. As has been emphasized during training, Nicaraguans have
a tremendous oral culture and tradition, with poets, singers, writers
,revolutionaries, you name it, BUT, for a variety of reasons, this creativity
is not necessarily reflected in the educational system.
Nicaraguan students
face many challenges. According to the Ministry of Education (MINED)'s
statistics, only 8,000 students graduate from Nicaragua public high schools
(out of a country of 5 million). This doesn't include numbers from private
schools, which are fairly numerous, but is still a relatively low number. Hot,
loud, dusty classrooms are crowded with at least 30-40 students. Students are
unlikely to have books, although this is expected to change next year; MINED
has big plans to provide every student in the country with books. With 2 shifts
of school on any given day, students receive between 4-5 hours of classroom
instruction daily, meaning that a lot of learning needs to be accomplished in a
short period of time.
Teachers face many
challenges as well. Teacher's salaries are relatively low, and as a result,
they may work at multiple schools or for multiple shifts. For example, my host
brother is an English teacher who works at 3 different English teaching jobs,
including at the local school in our town.
Despite the daunting
realities of the educational system in a developing country, there are still
many resources that English teachers (and volunteers) can draw from within the
Nicaraguan educational system. The students in the 2 classes we observed last
week were relatively well behaved and motivated. The two teachers we've worked
with so far have a very high level of English, although this is certainly not
the case nationwide. MINED is extremely interested in bettering English use,
for a variety of reasons, including the economic incentive of attracting
tourists and call centers to Nicaragua. Of course, as with any language, there
are a million personal reasons to motivate learning. For example, one of the
doctors currently renting at the house here wants to become a psychiatrist, but
all the books are in English, which he doesn't speak. And for others, such as
my host brother, the desire to learn English is very much rooted in an interest
about culture and other ways of being.
MINED has also developed a very thorough English curriculum, which is an
incredible leg up. Many countries in which Peace Corps volunteers work don't
have national curriculums. Lastly, MINED
has a very strong relationship with Peace Corps Nicaragua's TEFL program, which
is very encouraging.
For now though, I am in the midst of 11 weeks of training. This means that
I have a very structured schedule, until November 20th, when, assuming I don't
mess everything up, I will officially swear in as a Peace Corps volunteer.
I usually wake up between 5:30 and 6 to birdsong, from a giant flock of
birds that conveniently roost right outside my window. 3-4 days a week, we have Spanish class for 6+
hours daily. We are lucky to have extremely intimate sessions-it's just 3
students to one professor. Our current professor, Nidia is the coolest. She
isn't afraid to joke around with us or even make fun of us on occasion. We also
have reading for the technical side of training and sometimes Spanish homework,
although it's usually fun ie: ask your family to tell you a riddle, write a
fairy tale or ask someone to tell you the words for private parts. Class is a
mix of grammar review, communicative activities and talking to people in the
community to boost our integration. The other day she gave us a list of idioms
and made us go ask strangers what they meant.
In addition, we have technical trainings twice weekly, on various topics
related to English Teaching, Health, Safety, Cultural Awareness (also known as
a-wahness).
Recently, new activities have been added into the mix, including 2 weeks of
classroom observation observing current Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs),
co-planning with local teachers, co-teaching planning activities to present at
a teacher training workshop, helping out with English extra help tutoring
sessions, and meeting twice weekly with the English youth group that I
mentioned in my previous posting. There
are other weeks with varied schedules, but I'll talk more about that when we
get there.
In short, it's been pretty nonstop. I'm enjoying training so far, and it's
great to have a community with other Peace Corps trainees, but it will also be
a lot more relaxed when it's over.
*La sal! Salt
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