Teaching Tip: Organization of a Professional Teaching Group - 2

Name:

Daniel Mauricio Castro Araneda

Economy:

Chile

School:

Curarrehue Public School

Subject:

English as a Foreign Language

Tip:

“THE MAGIC TRAIL”, AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE NETWORK EXPERIENCE

By considering that English learning and teaching is an important aspect to consider when we talk about education, the main aims of our English network is to establish new connections and relationships among the schools and school teachers who work in the public sector. It is important to make a distinction between the private and public schools system, in this sense, if we consider the private ones, we will find a considerable distance in terms of resources for teaching, infrastructure and salaries. However, the current government policy of English language development gives us an important chance to create professional teams where all of us have something to say, share and contribute in relation to our own classroom experiences.

The Magic Trail English Network is a new net that covers the cities of Villarica, Pucón and Curarrehue, Araucanía region, in southern Chile. All these places are potential touristic areas, so it becomes very important to train the students for the future touristic development. The net started in early May, 2009. The “English Opens Doors Program” from The Chilean Ministry of Education encourages this professional team to get together formally and apply to some projects. It is true that all these local teachers´ networks started to work several years ago (2004), but they never got here to our cities until this year, maybe because there were not the union or efforts required, or maybe the lack of leadership among the teachers. Fortunately, today we can say proudly that our job as a professional team has succeded in “the creation of a better vision of the future of our students”.

The facts are clear, in five months we did three important things in the zone: a) the creation of a Local English Network, b) the development of the English Winter Camp, which is a total immersion and innovative approach to English Education, and c) The Spring Carnival, project won by the network consisting of a mix of activities such us Spelling Bee Contest, Song Festival and competitive games and artistic presentations all in English, these activities were part of the English Week 2009, celebrated in the month of October every year. In order to achieve significant changes in the way citizens, teachers and students perceive the English language, and considering globalization we are facing today, our job has been directly focused on these facts, emphasizing effective communication skills among teachers – students and to promote and provide encounters where students get in contact with English native speakers.

On the other hand, students from the city of Curarrehue, (which is the poorest and less advanced town from the rest of the cities) have been conscious about the advantages of learning a foreign language, a sample of this, is the way they face the activities created for them, such us spelling competitions, song festivals and so on. They are also conscious about the reality they are living in, (this town was the place where salesmen came looking for noble wood, such us; Roblí rojo, Mañío, LLeuque, all native names). Today, the things have changed, some land’s owners are planting exotic trees like pine and eucaliptus, which are harmful for soil. The video shows how plantations are taking place in Curarrehue. Our goals as an English network is to create throughout English a new culture respecting nature and emphasizing the natural beauties we have around us, in this sense the touristic activities play an important role. Tourism is the key for developing our towns or cities, citizens must be prepared to face these changes, we as teachers are giving the language support, training the students for the future, in terms of how to receive and treat foreigners when coming to our towns. I’ve been working hard this year telling my students how important is to consider English a bridge between what their parents did in past and what they need to achieve in the future.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRNWsIwFwu8