Teachers face the challenge of accompanying teaching with technology

The new technologies put new remains to the teacher to teach in the classroom and many assume it with great dedication and commitment in the midst of difficulties and deficiencies.
In Bolivia, 170,000 teachers are registered and the The profession is fraught with challenges posed by the community.ad and modern times as educators of citizens.

EL DEBER reached the Buen Retiro Unit, in Porongo, a small rural school where commitment leads teachers to travel long distances to be in the classroom, bring their own equipment to teach their students and act as multigrade teachers. What happens in this school reflects the dedication of the teachersters who give everything so that their students receive the best education, despite the limitations.

Professor Johns Michael Limpias takes his laptop to teach his students

In this center there are 75 students and four teachers. Johms Michael Limpias Suárez (32) is one of them. He graduated last year and is now in his first year of teaching as a multigrade teacher, in fifth and sixth high school. “I wanted to start my career as a teacher in the little rural school that needed me,” he says.

He feels that he faces a great challenge, because his students are about to go to high school and many will move to the city to continue their studies, so he has insisted on guiding them in the technological tools that they can find. “I have to prepare them in the management of technologies and computers, but the educational unit It doesn’t have equipment, that’s why I charge my computerThere is a small projector with which I can teach you. The world is pointing to new technological advances and you have to start preparing children from school ”, she says.

You have to manage to teach some basic programs like Microsoft Word and Excel. To do this, it projects the icons on the overhead projector, the steps to paste a document, how to create folders, and shows images for them to become familiar with.

Professor Johms says he has a very good response from his studies.hell, because they like novelty. “That makes them assimilate quickly,” she remarked.
Given the need, he had to cover four cardboard with oilcloth and paste them on the wall to improvise a blackboard, they no longer have an acrylic blackboard. Children would be happy if the authorities provided them with one.

He improvised a blackboard, lining four cards

With regard to robotics, he is also teaching the basics, because he points out that in rural areas it is very difficult to access materials.

Every day this teacher’s day starts at 4:00 when he gets up to go to school, because he has to get up early to start his journey from the Normandía area, in the El Recreo neighborhood. At 4:30 he takes a bus that takes him to Abasto, from where he takes the third ring road to the 4 de Noviembre market, where board the trufi that crosses the river over the Mario Foia bridgenini and take the road to Porongo until you reach the little school. His vocation is to teach, which is why he decided to study to be a teacher and this will be his first celebration of Teacher’s Day, this June 6.

The teacher Yamila Zabala has spent two decades dedicated to teaching

Yamila Zabala (54) has been teaching for two decades, of which 16 years she remains in this educational unit. She came to this little school to do a year in the province and found herself with only seven students, because she was the only teacher. She finished the year with 18 students.

He also bustles every day. He lives in the Alto San Pedro area of ​​the Santa Cruz capital and takes a bus to the trufi stop that takes you to the little school. The first three years were more complicated, because the trufflesThey did not reach Buen Retiro, so to shorten distances they crossed the Piraí on foot. They met with teachers from other communities to get there, they even coordinated with parents who went out to the Santa Cruz capital to shop and picked them up on the way.

She is a third and fourth grade teacher, so youYou have to prepare material for both courses. “This year A teacher came to us and that relieved us, because before we had three classes”.
During the pandemic, virtual classes were held on WhatsApp, because the parents had only one cell phone for the family and the signal was not clear either.

ANDteaching with love and respect
“Good morning teacher, your students greet you with respect and with love!” This is how the teacher Norma Herrera, who has been teaching for 22 years, the last four at the Buen Retiro school, is received every day by her students.

Norma Herrera with her first and second grade students

He lives in the capital of Santa Cruz and regardless of the distance, he gets to do his job. He is in charge of the first and second grades, with 18 students: 10 in first and 8 in second. She is a classroom of normal dimensions and large windows, where students sit separately because teaching is different for each grade, although everyone has access to the common materials, as well as the closets, where they keep notebooks and work properly ordered.

On the walls, a large cockade and other didactic materials with which he leans on the table stand out. teaching. She points out that being a multigrade teacher requires double effort and commitment. “I have to make a double planning because the teaching for each course is different, there are different learning texts for each course”, he says.

At that moment, a girl approaches her to tell her that one of her classmates has a stomach ache. “I already gave him remedy,” he replies. And she goes on to say that the role of thes teachers go beyond imparting knowledge, many times they also attend to needs and even resolve medical emergencies.
Regarding the teaching of robotics required by the new curriculum, it indicates that with creativity and the support of parents, manual labor is done with recyclable materials, where this knowledge is applied.

Francis Tellería is a first and second section teacher, but she is also the director in charge of the school

Francis Tellería Justiniano is a multigrade teacher of the first and second sections of the initial level, and also works as director in charge. In addition to planning themes and progress, is in charge of doing all the documentation and the administrative aspect of the school without receiving an additional salary. She is in charge of 15 children, three, four and five years old.

Graduated from the normal school in Trinidad, she returned to Santa Cruz to be with her family and teach children in rural areas. “In times of pandemic we came to the school to leave activities and materials for the children resolve at home”, he says. Now they also work to teach robotics and chess, always hand in hand with the parents.