My Work as a PCV: Charlas & Other Secondary Projects

The past month or so has been filled with charlas,co-teaching,  and planning for future projects. First, I'll fill you in on the charlas.

So another PCV, Miranda, and I have started a series of charlas for our teachers. We hope to use the presentations and workshops on more of a mass-quantity scale to communicate information to our teachers. The first one was about classroom management. We tried to tackle an excessive amount of information for the first charla, but since we wanted to cover certain topics before the end of the year, we had to rush through some of the information. But we learned a lot through the first charla - not only about our presentation styles (I needed to slow down and be more thorough, Miranda needed to give less detail and speed up), but also about the format of the presentation, location, timing, and, probably most importantly, our expectations of our teachers (only about half of the teachers we work with some each time, which we had higher hopes for the first time around).

Me, starting our first charla - at the training center in Pesé

Our second charla was about student-centered teaching. We tried to communicate engaging techniques and activities to reach the students and get them engaged in their own learning. The hiccup that came with this charla (and the change in location) was that the location closed at 4:00, which they neglected to tell us. Due to this, Miranda had to cut her section in half which, unfortunately, forced us to cut a lot of the interactive activities. Oh well, we knew for the next time...

Me about to begin our second charla at the National Assembly meeting space in Chitré

Miranda, walking a couple of the teachers through a workshop portion of the charla.

And next time was... lesson planning. Again, we covered a lot: trimester, unit, and daily lesson plans. But this time we had more of a workshop-based approach, and the teachers really enjoyed it. I think they learned a lot from it - both from what we presented and from each other - which is what we want to happen!

Miranda introducing the daily lesson plan format to our teachers.

We have one more planned for this year - how to create and implement a syllabus. Many teachers in Panama don't use a syllabus, and we want to show them how useful they can be - both for the students and the teachers.

Many of these topics our teachers already have some knowledge of - some of them even know a lot about them, and we've learned from them. But one of the big problems is that the English teachers haven't studied teaching - they have earned an English degree and then are qualified to teach English. But as anyone who has tried to teach knows, being thrown in the classroom without any preparation is insanely difficult, and without any guidance, it is hard to get through to your students - both with regards to classroom management and lesson delivery. We hope close that gap and to help those teachers who might have not had enough training, but it also requires the teachers to be pro-active, which is not always the case. Overall, however, the charlas have been a good experience and we plan to continue them into next year.

I have also been planning a workshop for my 9th grade students called Elige tu Vida. This program encourages them to think about their future, set life-, education- and career-goals, teaches them about sexual health and family planning. I'm working with the Psychological-Pedagogical Office (that's the best translation I can come up with...) to present this to to the students. The colegio is going to donate a snack for the students and the health center in Pesé is going to supply the condoms. I still have to write a grant to print the workbooks for the students. I'm hoping to get the grant money in December and perform the workshop during their summer break. I'm a little bit concerned about the timing and if the students will come, but the women I'm working with say they will, so we'll see.

Lastly, I'm also starting to help with an Ultimate Frisbee initiative called Ultimate Without Borders started by an RPCV and another PCV here in Panama. We're promoting youth clubs through Ultimate Frisbee. It's a engaging and enjoyable sport that has the ability to facilitate teaching many life-skills such as teamwork, conflict management, and confidence. We are also planning to integrate some curriculum into the club, to teach some other topics as well. I'm really excited to be able to help with this project - I think it has great potential and I really love the means (ultimate!) and message. More to come on this in the future, I'm sure!

This past week has been a bit rough since I've been sick with strep. But the doctor gave me antibiotics on Thursday, so thankfully I was well enough to participate in the independence day celebrations this weekend. And this was after the incident a couple of weeks ago where I cut my hand on a glass while washing it, leading to a 2 hour emergency visit to the doctor and 3 stitches. But I'm on the mend, both my hand and throat, and looking to be healthy and avoid any more sicknesses or injuries!

Next posts, soon to come: (1) the ups & downs of teaching and (2) Panamanian holidays in November - el mes de patria.