pocas palabras de Educacion

One of the main goals of this experience is professional.  I have been fortunate to have visited many schools: primary, secondary, and universities.  In addition to visiting classrooms (and having some fun singing with the younger kids and quizzing the older kids to help me learn conjugations in Spanish), I've been able to talk with Principals and higher education professionals.

I'm finding my job in the United States really doesn't exist here in Argentina.  I explain what I do and then finally always end up with the easy explanation: I teach teachers.  I help principals with education.  It gets lost in translation whether or not I am supervisory (no) or if I work for the government (also no).  From what I understand is that people that do similar things to my work have those other roles.  There doesn't appear to be various educational programs/publishers or an "educational business" sect in the professional world here in Argentina.

Similarities and differences?  Kids are kids are kids...no matter where I've been in the world, kids are kids!  Bright eyed little ones eager to learn and questioning faces which say, "Who is this crazy lady who speaks the worst Spanish I've ever heard?"  (Actually, one student did say to me, "Why did your mom not teach you how to talk?  She was 4; we're both off the hook.)  In the schools we  have visited, English seems to be compulsory beginning at age 4.

Technology is different.  Some schools are sparse with technology...maybe a dated computer lab, but no access in classrooms.  There are other schools who have received netbooks from the government--1 for each student.  It's not clear how school's are selected for this; it's not a public vs. private thing; we've seen both.  It's not a socio-economic thing...we've seen very poor schools with computers and very wealthy schools with computers.  This is confusing to me how this program works.

Materials are VERY different.  Teachers create their own or have few samples of materials from other countries which they photocopy.  A lot of the instruction is teacher-led, lecture...kids copy/repeat type.  I don't think "gradual release" methodology has made it to Argentina...yet.

I was able to share with some of the principals the reading program with which I work at Achieve3000.  They were fascinated that the program places students at their reading level.  From what I've been able to understand, they don't really have diagnostic assessments for reading.  They do; however, categorize books by independent level.  We visited a library in Marcos Juarez where the children's section is organized by color for the kids to choose an appropriate book.

I'm still interested in continuing education/in-service training of teachers and if this happens or how teachers develop as instructional leaders.  I'm hoping to gain some more experiences related to this in the next 2 weeks.

Off to the next city!