First full day at Colegio Madre Marcilena

I have just showered to refresh myself before heading out for dinner. It's 6:45pm and we are due in the lobby by 7:00pm. It's been a full day of classroom visits, conversations with children, a tour of the school and planning for tomorrow. It was a very hot day and the teachers tried their best to find air conditioned spaces for us; even moving whole groups into empty classrooms just to make it more comfortable. The third grade classes were on the second floor of the main building and were the rooms without air conditioning. In one room there were four fans mounted on the walls and two standing fans in the front of the classroom. The teacher said it still gets pretty hot most days. It is interesting to think that the seasons never change here. This is it. Hot and dry or hot and wet, humid and occasionally rainy. When asked by the children what the weather is like in America it was hard to begin to describe a country with seasons in most regions. I have not yet figured out if they have a word for the season that we are in and that endures all year long.

We observed 5 classes in 3-5th grades and the children had prepared interview questions for us. They didn't have a strong grammatical structure, but they had good vocabulary and were able to write down answers with some accuracy.

4th grade Englishlunch

3rd grade English
1st grade
The tour of the school included a walk through the nursing home that is in the older part of the property and belongs to the church. The school is funded and run by the Ministry of Education, but the nursing home is run by the church. The building is over 100 years old and is a Caribbean style architecture and tiling. All students in Barranquilla are required to complete 200 hours of community service, 80 hours in theory and 120 hours of service, before completing 11th grade, their final year of high school. This school decided to complete the requirement in 9th grade because they said that 11th grade is too busy. The students go over to the nursing home to help care for the residents, bringing them activities such as word puzzles and coloring books. As we entered the area where the students and residents were gathered at tables we heard one student explaining to a group of women that their life decisions were their own; no one else, they said, could decide what you need or how you should live.

We also walked through the area where elderly nuns live, separate from the nursing home. A picture of Pope Francis was on the wall and when asked, the head of school said that she was very happy to have him in charge as his humanitarian values were what religion was all about.

As we walked through the church Sister Luz Marina pointed out a St. Anthony statue, the patron saint of lost things. She gave us St. Anthony bread that symbolizes promises to help the poor in return for favors given by St. Anthony to those who pray for his help. 

A few thoughts on the culture of Colombia that contributes to differences in approach to education. The sense of group is defined in these schools by large classrooms. Here, at least 30 per classroom; in Bogota as many as 45 in one classroom. The large number, however, has not prevented interaction between teacher and students or between students and other students. There is a lot of consulting with peers when a question is posed and a lot of pushing forth one student to respond to a teacher's request for a single voice. Another concept is the dominance of oral language rather than printed word. There are few signs around the school except for the official signs of mission and vision, church-related signs and location signs. There is not a heavy presence of signs that inform or reinforce content knowledge and no signs of behavioral expectations or articulated values except for those associated with the church. A concern for all is evidenced in the interactions among students within and across grades. Today we watched a volleyball session where older students had been paired up with younger students to teach them.