First week of Internships-- September 7
My internship is with Fundación Niños con Futuro which is a NGO school. Under the last government here in Ecuador, schools were private and very poorly regulated. The education scene was pretty bleak. That is why Niños con Futuro was started. They took the poorest children and gave them a good, safe education. Now that public schools are more regulated and have gotten much better, they are approaching the level of Niños. They have an amazing, holistic model that stresses art, music, sports, and vocational training. On my first day they sat down and showed us their long-term goals and asked how we wanted to contribute, so we essentially got to create our own jobs.
It's great to be here because regulated education is still a new endeavor so there is still a lot of work to do. Special education is still not really a thing. In the whole grade 1-12 school, there is not a special education program. Only students with severe and multiple disabilities go to a special program; the rest of the students are in the general education classroom and are supposed to be given modifications and accommodations, but this is not enforced at all. Each class has about forty students, so it's no wonder that teachers have difficulty enacting modification. There is also barely any tired support. There is just one psychologist that tries to give support to the very lowest performing students. So, I am heading up a project to increase this support. I have two first graders who I am giving one-on-one support to for Spanish. It's pretty difficult because the education system is very different here and they use a whole other process to learn to read and write, but it's been really interesting.
I am also teaching small-group tiered support English for four grades. It is tough to teach English because being a native English speaker, it is hard to know what the tricky parts of the language are, but I have been researching techniques and I'm getting better at it.
I'm excited to help to better the school and I might even help with another project to evaluate teacher effectiveness. This place is an education nerd's paradise 😂
It's great to be here because regulated education is still a new endeavor so there is still a lot of work to do. Special education is still not really a thing. In the whole grade 1-12 school, there is not a special education program. Only students with severe and multiple disabilities go to a special program; the rest of the students are in the general education classroom and are supposed to be given modifications and accommodations, but this is not enforced at all. Each class has about forty students, so it's no wonder that teachers have difficulty enacting modification. There is also barely any tired support. There is just one psychologist that tries to give support to the very lowest performing students. So, I am heading up a project to increase this support. I have two first graders who I am giving one-on-one support to for Spanish. It's pretty difficult because the education system is very different here and they use a whole other process to learn to read and write, but it's been really interesting.
I am also teaching small-group tiered support English for four grades. It is tough to teach English because being a native English speaker, it is hard to know what the tricky parts of the language are, but I have been researching techniques and I'm getting better at it.
I'm excited to help to better the school and I might even help with another project to evaluate teacher effectiveness. This place is an education nerd's paradise 😂
Wow, Jenny! This sounds amazing! I hear lots of enthusiasm from you so I know you're up for this challenge. Must be lots of work, but rewarding and a great learning experience for you. You'll come home a super educator, ready to take on most anything! You go, girl! Can't wait to see you and hear more about your experiences.
ReplyDeleteUncle Vinny and I are fine. It's been warm here, requiring AC still. I'm busy with my various activities and UV is plugging away at Stop and Shop.
Enjoy and be well! We love you and are so proud of you! 👍🏻💕😊😘