What Are We Teaching?

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Contessa asked what we are teaching this week here at the border.   We are working in a state high school program and there are four consultants in each of the following cities;  Reynosa, Matamoros, Tampico and Ciudad Victoria.

Like teachers in the U.S., many are trained in cooperative or collaborative learning.  It requires managing students in groups.  Sounds fairly easy but in larger groups teachers think it is very difficult to do.   In reality it is easy and teachers do reduce work load and can focus on student learning.   Students aren't very good at it either because they need to be trained and they don't receive the training in their classes.  Juan and I have devoted 20 years to this type of work and are, I guess you could say, known here in Mexico for what we do.

In addition, we are also bringing on line a reading program via internet.  It consists of leveled readers or books from a major publisher that have vocabulary, grammar, and skills work based on six student levels which have been determined by the CEFR (common European framework), UNESCO and it's 21st century skills better known as life skills (based on the Four Pillars).   

The reading program requires that teachers use the above method in their classes to reinforce language learning.  As in the SAT/ACT tests in the U.S., student scores are falling in the reading section of the test because no one likes to read anymore.  Mexicans are not big readers to begin with so learning a foreign language at the same time makes it pretty difficult.   

In the training teachers are creating on line reading courses providing  log ons and passwords for their students as well as the administration tools.  Teachers can monitor student online work, create reports and also grade student work.   Sounds simple but there is a lot to work on.   Eight hours a day for three days is a lot for people to participate in.  We make it dynamic by having teachers work in groups and pairs creating presentations, projects and learning aids, all of which exist in their school program and on line but it helps us to reinforce the information and also shows us teacher knowledge sets and skills.

Probably not very interesting to most but that's we do!   So there you have it in a nutshell.