Uruguayan Schools & Life: A Journey in Global Citizenship with Señora Koch

I can’t believe we are only two days away from heading back to Montevideo and being done with our time here insulting. Every day is unique and different from the day before and continues to offer solid insights into the unbelievably long hours of work teachers here in Uruguay tackle on a daily basis. The last two days have provided a unique perspective of the secondary and university educational systems for students ages 16 and older. Before we headed into the secondary education world, however, we started with the most wonderful and sweet experience at another rural school with our host teacher Ines. The student’s normally goes to school from 10 until two, but they came an hour early so that they could prepare us a very special breakfast. They made us some delicious omelettes with some bacon. This is some thing that they themselves rarely have. The special treat with our breakfast or two types of hot sauce that the teacher brought from her own home. None of the children have never see...

 Shanna, Kathleen, Allie and I: Salto cohort. The last two days were the weekend so this provided a different level of learning about Uruguayan culture. We spent time some quality, uninterrupted time with our host teachers getting to know them and their families. Our tome together included a tour to the hydroelectric dam and a soak in the local Thermal Hot Springs. Spending time outside was a welcome respite to a lot of bus travel. When they say rural, they mean rural. Imagine Lewistown; MT as your main town and then all those little towns around it are the schools that we go visit every day- most 1 to 2 hours away.  One of the things I’m learning most about Uruguayan Spanish is that they have many words of their own that are not used anywhere, but here, Argentina, and Chile. They chuckle sometimes when I use some of my words because they mean something completely different here than they do in Mexico! One of my overall research components, while here has been to compare and c...

These last days have been so full that I haven’t gotten to make a post! Nothing like bringing 16 absolutely amazing humans together and allowing them to learn and grow professionally as their only objective each day. We have had so much fun visiting schools in Montevideo and our rural placements. It seems like every spare moment is spent comparing and contrasting schools here to Montana, by brainstorming ways to improve our own classrooms by connecting with teachers here in Uruguay. Several of the days in Montevideo, We met with the ministry of education and other educational leaders for what is the equivalent of their department of state. What we learned is that well thought out programming is in place and altruistic motivations exist to provide the best for all kids in education. However, Jim ust like the United States, the on the ground reality looks very different than what is planned at the nation’s educational office (ANEP). One of the really grand objectives is that 4% of the Ur...

Started the day with my hat on and in a T-shirt by afternoon. We started with a visit to one of Montevideo’s larger (1400 students) and lowest income schools for ages 12-any age. Let me explain more. Grades 6-12 come from 8:20 - 14:20. Then, from 15:00 to 17:00 students can come for what would be the equivalent to our GED. At 18:00-23:00 the school is open to any adults 18 and older to work on Associate type degrees. This school focused on CTE (Career and Technical Education) with emphasis on sewing, shop, metals, FCS mixed with social sciences and language classes. This type of programming has become the focus in many regional schools for those students who will not be able to afford or access universities or colleges.  Some big differences from this school and US schools: the VERY tiny libraries and the cement ping pong tables that are the main attraction at recess, no heat, so students are all wearing their coats, and many hats and gloves and sadly no classroom technology to be ...

  Montevideo! My brain is full and if you geek out like me on the benefits of Public Education; then you would have fascinated by today. Like the U.S., Uruguay is redefining some of their educational priorities after the pandemic. The focus here is on Transformational Learning~ ironically something I have heard Matt mention is the focus in the Kalispell School District.  We were gifted today with time from the Director of Education at the Ministry of Education, the director of Fulbright, employees from the US embassy, university board members and the directors of Innovation programming.  They shared these highlights that might interest you. If you want to learn more- check this ANEP link. Uruguay was the first country in the world to implement the One Laptop Per Child program through the Ceibal Plan, ensuring connectivity and access to content for all children in the country’s public system. Education is compulsory for 11 years (between the ages of 4 and 15) and it is di...

 Travel Days can be enlightening! It’s amazing how much we can build our global competency just from airports and airplanes. This will be a quick entry as I have only slept about 10 hours in the last 48 hours. But we arrived to Montevideo safe and sound and only missing one of the 17 suitcases from our group- and it happened to be mine 😏. But, I have already connected with a friend of a friend (Kelly Elder: former MT teacher of the year who now lives in Montevideo and teachers at The American School) and he knows the lost luggage scene and has given me some inside information on how to navigate the scene. So, on to the learning that has already happened! 1. I have a whole new appreciation for US flight attendants-they keep order like now one else! 2. I’m going to enjoy trying all the different foods and even spotted one today that my students taught me about when we were doing our food and country unit this year~alfajores (super deliciosos)! 3. My friend and colleague Jenny random...