CourseTalk in Colombia: First week of class

[CourseTalk]

Greetings from Colombia! I’ve been in the country for three weeks now and officially have one full week of teaching under my belt. The big surprise is that I’m not teaching high school as expected; instead, I’m the first teacher with Colombia’s bilingualism program to work in a primary school! (They were right when they warned me that Colombia is all about staying flexible.) Even though I miss my colleagues at CourseTalk, I’m very excited about this opportunity to impact Colombia’s youngest learners and expand a program that’s a huge priority for the Ministry of Education.


Here’s what you’ve missed: After spending an incredibly full week training with 300 other native English speakers in Bogotá, where we even got to meet the Minister of Education, I packed my bags again and flew to the heart of Colombia’s coffee region – Pereira. I spent a few days settling into my hostel and getting to know the area before my real work began. It commenced with an inspiring meeting with the city’s Secretary of Education, who talked about Pereira’s commitment to bettering the lives of its children through English instruction. And then I learned my assignment – I would be working with students ages 5 to 11 at a primary school in an underprivileged neighborhood on the outskirts of town.

I teach 12 classes twice a week, with 12 different teachers. And while all the students have studied English since kindergarten, they know only very basic vocabulary, so I have my work cut out for me! The good news is they are all incredibly excited to learn English. In the halls, they eagerly shout “Hello!” every time they catch a glimpse of me. In the classroom, they beg me incessantly to tell them how to say the most random words in English (teeth, shin guard, dinosaur). I’m not supposed to speak to them in Spanish (the idea is to immerse them in English), so our communication is limited, but they get their sentiment across – thrilled.
I’ll share more tales from the classroom once I have a bit more teaching under my belt. For now, I’ll leave you with some initial observations about public education in Colombia:

• Classroom space is severely lacking. Forty students per class is quite normal, and most schools split their student bodies into morning and afternoon sessions so they can teach twice as many people at one campus. This means students either have class from 7 a.m. to noon or 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Uniforms are required. My school uses track pants and collared shirts emblazoned with the school crest, which seems to be typical.
• Supplies are limited. While each of my classrooms has a flat screen TV (I was shocked!), teachers have to supply their own paper and computers, pay to have photocopies made at a local shop, etc.
• The classroom atmosphere is much more relaxed than what I’ve seen in the United States. Students call teachers by their first names, get out of their seats regularly and don’t often have homework.

Do you have questions about English instruction in Colombia? Leave them in a comment below, and I’ll answer them in my next post!

¡Hasta luego!

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