Taking part in the Cascade Project to improve English Teaching in Colombia

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Dear folks,




I would like to tell you about an interesting project currently taking place in my country whose main purpose is to improve the low level of English of our Colombian students. This project had me visit the capital where I was trained in how to deliver some formal workshops, so that I could sort of recreate them here in Floridablanca. Therefore, in this short entry, I will tell you a bit about it but first a short account on our national situation regarding the lingua franca and the success of the project.






English in Colombia



Unfortunately, the teaching of English in Colombia has not been as effective as it should be, in fact, according to a report done by the Banco de la Republica in 2012, only 1%!o(MISSING)f Colombian students are bilingual and on top of that, an EF survey showed that we are ranked 42 in the whole world regarding our speaking abilities...worrisome, isn´t it? And not only English, the 2013´s final report of the international exam PISA places Colombia in the lowest results regarding high school leavers: Can you believe it? we are placed 62 out of 65 countries. On the news, they are blaming the teachers but I think there is more than that.



One of the causes might be that our country´s government have put all its energy into fighting violence and satisfy their own interests; therefore, they have left good education out of their priorities and it has become a privilege only to the well-to-dos, if you listen to the European news, you can see how they are continuously investing in education, through scholarships for teachers and students, they organise different education contexts to stimulate reading and research, but here, good education is like an oasis on a desert. that´s why, they cannot blame teachers but look into their policies and see how much they invest in education.



Anyway, going back to English, some entities, trying to find out about the cause of our lack of proficiency in foreign languages, are currently pinning down the reasons behind this handicap, what is certain is that the causes are varied; in fact, it is alleged that our proficiency skills are so low that foreigners have difficulty finding good English speakers and fluent taxi drivers in different cities, so tourists, you have to bargain for meeting few English speakers. At first view, a lack of an English speaking context and a low preparation of teachers might be the main culprits.



Personally and, although some others´ views might differ from mine, I can put it down to the lack of a formal follow-up and a clear desire to change things. It is my own personal experience that in some Colombian institutions, the people in charge and those who can actually make changes, are more concerned about their own personal interests; in other words, if improvement doesn´t represent a gain or profit for themselves, they sort of overlook it and do nothing about it. What is worse, some of them may see this potential language improvement as a personal threat due to that losing face thing and opt for remaining in their comfort zone. As a result, their lack of action continues hampering the development of communicative skills in my country, which is pretty sad.



Funnily enough, this previous paragraph echoes some of the bad memories I have in my intent to somehow improve the teaching conditions in some institutions here in Bucaramanga, those attempts were to no avail whatsoever… well, that´s not the issue, but the good news is that the Fundación Empresarios por la Educación, the National Ministry of Education: MEN and the British Council worried about the low English level of Colombian students, decided to come up with a project intended to better both the proficiency and teaching techniques of the highschool English teachers from different regions in Colombia. Through the Cascade Project, they are teaching currently the third cohort of teachers and results are being staggering.




The Cascade Project



Thanks to one of those coincidences in life -a very rare coincidence indeed, if I may say so-, I overheard a conversation about the opening for a formation of teachers taking place in Bogota. Apparently, the information had been sent to universities to be given to teachers, it was also published online by the programme and some of us didn't even have a clue. At the university where I was working full-time, the information was given to only two teachers, not me, unfortunately. I remember, like 3 days before the closure, I accidentally learned about it through a colleague, who had applied to the programme.



Without even having the name of the programme, I did my own research, which is google it; I remember I wrote English course for teachers, and there, the name Cascade appeared. How lucky! and then after writing to the organisers, I saw myself in a rush trying to write a lesson plan for them and going through my paperwork folders to make copies of degrees, courses and the like to send them straight away to be accepted. And it worked, I was actually invited to the selection process in Bogota, hooray!



On a hindsight and so that the information is not monopolised or withheld from teachers, as a piece of advice, it would be excellent if the organisers of any teaching or formation programme in Colombia manage to send information like this to all teachers directly so that they can all apply and be included in the programmes. I know it will take ages, indeed. But imagine if more teachers could benefit from similar formations as the Cascade Project, it will be awesome; and anyway, that´s the goal after all, that we all make progress in teacher development for the benefit of our students, right?



But how does it work?



The Cascade Project, that is passing on the information that we got in Bogota to our trainees in different Colombian locations and they will have to do the same with their students. It is expected that the trainees improve their teaching techniques and also their proficiency level which will obviously be reflected in the improvement of their own students.



Being edified through the programme



That's why, last June, I -and about 40 teachers from different regions in the country- saw ourselves involved in this project and spending a lovely week in Bogota being formed in "English Teaching 1" a course featuring the latest teaching techniques, background and rationale of the programme; all the expenses were paid by the project, transport, flight, hotel, food, and the material used: the only requirement was to take a computer with us and be very attentive during the training, we couldn't ask for more. The idea was that this course became the competitive exam for us as out of the 40 teachers who were invited to Bogota, half of them would be assigned a group of trainees in their region according to the geographical needs of training.



I was also able to meet some good trainers and teaching colleagues that added an interesting perspective into my teaching career; although my sense of guiltiness didn't last long, I must confess, I quickly felt down when some of the colleagues would describe the amount of projects they are involved in and how they keep in touch with seminars and conferences. The unforgivable question was: What have I been doing with my time? 😞 which on a hindsight, it is good as I once again did what I've done the most in life: questioning myself about the next moves to make, and still procrastinating about it. But hey, some day I will, you see.



There were plenty of good memories from the course, lovely conversations with other teachers and trainers while eating, getting to know so much about colleagues, getting advice from Betty but I must also confess that the week was packed with loads of work. I thought I would be able to do some sightseeing in Bogota or have a beer this time but no way, we actually had to revise after the course, prepare a microteaching session, you see, our trainer was demanding, which is good. I only had some time to have a walk with Nohora and Cata, my partners in group work, just before flying back to Bucaramanga. But hey, it makes sense after all, we were there not to sightsee but to work.



After a blended formation, F2F and online, I was then assigned a group of quite inspiring schoolmistresses from the public schools in Floridablanca; the objective was to work with teachers who were mostly in A2 according to the CEF so that throughout the course, they get the skills necessary to better teach and improve their proficiency to reach B1. I was also very lucky that the person in charge at the Secretaria in Floridablanca, Cristina, has been very helpful and she has managed to get us permission for 2 extra sessions we had to do.



I must also say that my trainees happen to be very creative and fun to work with, serious but hardworking, they always use English to speak to each other during the class and that's awesome, a comment I appreciated from my observer. Apart from teaching them for 6 hours on Saturdays since last July, on diverse techniques meant to improve their proficiency and pedagogy skills, I also have to make sure that they complete the online assignments in the moodle platform; these include wikis, participation in forums, grammar and vocabulary exercises and the like.



Back in Bucaramanga and before the teaching started, we worked on the online component of the course, and we did what our trainees are doing right now. We had to take part in forums, create wikis, make comments on teaching pedagogy and learn to become moderators. The theory, both in the F2F and online sessions, was quite insightful and I must say that it has helped me lots in the everyday handling of the online assignments. Apart from Eliana, our online coordinator, in the platform, we also have access to a Moderator's cafe that helps us to clarify doubts as it is consulted and questions are responded by other moderators who have experienced the same problems and that helps lots. Other colleagues, like the online knowledgeable John, have also been of great help, in fact, teamwork is being a most useful strategy.



So far, everything has fallen into place, I have been teaching my trainees for 15 sessions as we are now on the second half of the F2F course, and I have even been observed; all in all, a more fulfilling experience, to say the least. What´s more, for me, the whole process, getting the information in Bogota, meeting the trainers, moderators, mentor, observers, colleagues and specially my teachers have been remarkably insightful. I have been reminded of techniques I had overlooked through my teaching career.



One of the things I loved the most about the training course was the reminder that sometimes as teachers, we take things for granted and we always believe that students actually understand whatever comes out of our mouths, that´s right, Claudia told us several times that we are not very careful about modelling, giving instructions or repeating them to make sure they got them. So, in Bogota, applying the CCQs was a big challenge for me, it took some time but it worked, now I am trying to use them with my adult students in the current IELTS course I am teaching. All the remarks and pieces of advice are well-received as we are on our way to improve and become better teachers. That is why I know that this works, indeed.



Well, folks, that´s all what I wanted to tell you about the Cascade Project; I am sure that the trainees are also enjoying this formation course as according to them, it has been quite useful for them; as a matter of fact, it is quite rewarding when they say that they have applied a certain technique studied in the course in their school and the students have responded positively. That´s the whole idea of the project, in the same way that it changed things in ourselves as teachers, it is expected that it will also do the trick for our trainees and that the results change not only the lack of motivation for learning English in Colombia but also the proficiency of their students.





Some days later



As promised, here I am, the course is coming to an end, my students are working on the platform and those who were lagging behind are finally getting there, I cross my fingers to them so that I can give them the certificates. Today, we did our last class, we reviewed the PET test, reading and writing.



We had a relaxed class, first we talked a bit about their work; they were all a bit apprehensive as they are sitting their aptitude test in their different schools, if they pass, they will be able to earn more money, otherwise they will continue getting the same wage as these past years. I hope they will be successful as I know they have all been working hard.



Our last session will be the final test and then I'll hand out what's left from the material so that they can apply it together with the instructions; after that, I went to Juan Valdez for a good coffee and did some shopping at Fallabela and el Exito, now I am at home relaxing, satisfied with what I did with them and thankful to everybody who was a part of the project.

After the last session

Hello, again, I have the pleasure to tell you that all my trainees finished the exercises in the course as they worked hard and managed to complete wikis, forums, exercises, portfolios, my big congratulations to all of them!!! Last night, I sent some messages to all of them congratulating them and specially to those, who were lagging behind and worked like 25 hours on the last two days before closure. I would highly recommend them to the World´s Guinness Records of Moodle Platforms for being the quickest wiki-forum contributors.



It is also a great pleasure to feel that some of the preconceived ideas of some teachers have changed thanks to the project. It was lovely and very rewarding to hear from them that now they feel they are better teachers, more prepared and more confident to inspire their students towards the learning of English. They have actually fun while preparing their lessons, They have also felt the reactions of their students and how encouraged they are and look forward to new lessons. They know they still need lots of improvement but they have begun already and that´s an absolutely awesome start.



My dear trainees, thank you very much for all your efforts, I must say that you deserve this triumph and please remember our commitment, the Cascade Project gave us the tools to become better teachers and to improve the teaching and learning conditions in our beautiful Colombia. It was not a coincidence that you were in the project, you made that commitment, worked like horses throughout the course and you know what the prize for hard work is.

And you know what? Sara...no more microteaching for you,



As this site does not allow to upload videos, I have put up some microteaching videos and more photos on youtube so that you can have an idea of what my trainees do in the last session of each class. I hope you enjoy them:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrFrankoletto/videos



That's all for now, I'll keep you posted, my friends.



Enjoy your holidays, hugs to all of you!



Thanks a lot,



Frank

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Photos

And this is how the Cascade Project works...
One of my trainees, Mayerly, adapting some board games, from the F2F session to her own group of students. She's using matching cards to teach proffesions

In one of the training sessions in Bogota
We were being edified

Comments

[Claudia Herrera]

Awesome!!!
Dear Frank, I could not be more delighted than what I am right now, looking at all this commitment and hard work of yours. This really shows how much you care for the future of your future citizens. Keep up with the good work, Claudia H:)

[Frankardenas]

Hehehe, it´s a pleasure to have you there, thanks for your comments all the great tips; hugs

[taracloud]

Committed Colombia!
How great that your country is committed to helping its EFL teachers and has such a good model for passing on the learning. After all, we learn best when we teach. I was an ESL teacher for 20 years in California, and I know how important it is to continue improving and sharing techniques. Good luck!

[Frankardenas]

Committed Colombia
Yes, it is a good start for there are things to do but with an organised project like Cascade, I am sure we´ll start having results soon. I am lucky to be part of the project. Thanks for your comment.