Heartwarming description

This is my first year working as a remote teacher and I have experienced amazing things! Some days ago I asked my level one students to describe one of their friends. Juan Pablo from Artigas chose to describe his "maestra". The CT felt really proud of his production specially because he said she was slim and young! hahaha  Of course there are some punctuation mistakes in Juan's production but the message is crystal clear and really heartwarming!

Enriching Experiences

Children are the owners not only of the future but, most importantly, of their present.

Working for The British Council in Uruguay, has given me the opportunity to create bonds with Classroom Teachers. We work together to successfully teach children. Coordinating with them is the base of this Project. We are not teaching alone, we are a team cooperating with each other in order to provide children quality education.

To create a strong bond between you and the children, the Classroom Teacher is essential.

Coordinating does not only mean planning together what activities you will propose conduct in the next lesson, it means addressing children's problems, asking about personal situations, being interested in creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere to increase students enthusiasm and self-confidence.

The English lessons have a direct impact on children's behaviour in other subjects, we have to empower them to develop their language and social skills. State schools in Uruguay congregate children from different socio-cultural contexts and creating equality in the classroom is the base for creating equality out of it.

English teachers are educators, we are models for our students and not only speaking about English itself but in terms of values.

This project offers every child the possibility to learn English and feel they can do what they want, that they deserve quality education to think critically and by themselves. Because they do not have to study to 'be someone', they are someone and someone valuable who are capable of creating these posters, for example.

Remote Teacher Luciana Fontes

6to B Escuela 101 Montevideo - Classroom Teacher Mariela Pesce

(First year in the Programme)

Last week, I had one of the greatest experiences in my recent job as a remote teacher. I had to teach a lesson to 4th grade students in Durazno as every week but there was something different and special about it. I had to face a real challenge. I describe myself as a very serious teacher and during that lesson (week 9) I had to introduce some action verbs with the help of a song and of course...I had to...SING...and DANCE!!
I must say I was really nervous but at the same time I was happy and anxious. Well... at the end...we had a wonderful time singing and dancing together (students, remote teacher and classroom teacher!). I will never forget that day!

Last week we had our usual lesson with a 4^th form class in Durazno, right in the center of Uruguay. The teacher was absent that day and a substitute teacher was with the students. This might have been why the children adventured to show their curiosity and were more inquisitive than in previous lessons. Out of the blue they started asking how old I was, where I lived and other questions of that sort. It was very funny and heartwarming to see how they wanted to know more about that person they get to see just once a week and through a TV screen. I thought they might have been willing to ask for several weeks before that!

That group is very dear to me as they are really enthusiastic (and they were the very first group I ever taught remotely). They are always asking me to play the songs, new and old, over and over (which of course we cannot always do). Their class teacher sent me an email the other day saying how happy she was to see children who are usually on the slower side but who are very motivated and really stand out in English! That’s what I call an incentive.

Hello world! We at British Council Uruguay have just launched this Remote Teachers’ Journal to coincide with the official launch of our Remote Teaching Centre.
What is it that we do exactly? We deliver English language teaching via videoconferencing to primary school children in Uruguayan state schools nationwide, in partnership with Plan Ceibal.
I’m going to leave the rest of the story to our teachers, who have many inspiring experiences to share with you!