Summer 2019 Trip
On June 4, 2019, a team of 9 teachers and one support person took off from St. Louis for Quito, Ecuador. This was the 5th year of the Cotinga Foundation. We took a total of 1,680 lbs. of luggage, which included over 1,100 lbs. of supplies for the teachers and students. Although the team left on this day, their work had been going on since January. We met every two weeks to create curriculum and design documents to present during the trip.
There were many firsts on this trip, as well as many continuations of previous projects.
UDAI is the Ministry of Education department that oversees the inclusion of students with disabilities into the general education schools. Cotinga has a great relationship with this department. We presented an Inclusion Seminar last year that was considered a great success, so they chose 87 different teachers from 87 general education schools to attend this year. They came from all over the country. These teachers all have students with disabilities in their classrooms and have had not had any training in disabilities. They are also lacking in teaching ideas for differentiation of instruction. Our objective: the teachers will be able to modify instruction for students in the classroom and learn behavior and assessment ideas. We divided the teacher into four groups that moved through the stations: Language Arts, Math, Behavior and Assessments. The team shared the curriculum that Cotinga created especially for them. Terry and Dave met with the directors of UDAI in order to help them with ideas involving ongoing support for the teachers, including meetings with the teachers to share ideas, how to email ideas and how to support all subjects and
grades. They discussed differentiation ideas for all students. The teachers and directors were very enthusiastic about the content. We were able to give each school a flashdrive containing all of the documents for them to share with their entire school.
Cotinga Foundation had a new opportunity this year. In March 2019, Terry was invited to Natalia Jarrin, a general education middle school and high school. They presented many questions and asked if Cotinga would consider a seminar for all of their teachers, even though they are not a special education school. We agreed to hold that seminar in June with the entire Cotinga team. The school was not in session that day, so all the teachers attended. This big diversity of subjects (Math to PE to Physics to History to Art) created a new challenge. The objective for the seminar was for the teachers to be able to add universals to their classroom that will create a better learning environment for all students. We presented four sessions:
- Rules, Routines and Schedules
- Physical Environment and Teacher/Student Interactions
- Instructional Strategies
- Data/Learning Outcomes
After each session was presented to the whole group, the teachers split into breakout sessions by the subject that they teach, led by one of the team. This allowed them to interact with the subject presented and relate it to their subject. They also shared ideas among each other. This was the first professional development for all of these teachers and the first time they they were able to collaborate using new ideas.
During the breakout sessions, Terry and Dave met with the school administration and counselors to answer questions. There were many questions about how to better support and help the teachers implement these ideas.
At the end of the day, we gave the school a flashdrive of documents for each group of teachers to share.
During both days of these seminars, we were able to share some items with each teacher: pens, highlighters, notebooks, postits, and most importantly, some American chocolate!
We had a good break over the weekend, since these two days were difficult. We did some shopping and visited Iglesia Biblica Buen Pastor on Sunday to see our friends. Throughout our trip, many from the church cook for us and drive for us. They are vital to our success during our trip.
Starting on Monday, June 10th, we went to our special education school, Escuela Especializada Geovanni Calles. This is the 6th year that Terry has been there and the 5th year for Cotinga Foundation. We received a warm welcome. The teachers and students excitedly showed us things that they have used from previous years. During the mornings, the team divided into groups. Each group had a translator and a teaching curriculum and objective. The groups rotated through the classrooms by a schedule, so that at the end of the week the groups visited and taught in each classroom: math lessons, language lessons based on a new book, language arts lessons based on a book from last year, behavior ideas and vision therapy. It was very effective for them to teach the same thing throughout the week. They also gave the students fun things every day: scratch offs, pipe cleaners, clocks, washcloths (hand crocheted by ladies from the US), erasers, pencils. This year each student received their own set of markers for the first time in their lives. They were very excited.
Every morning, Terry and Dave met with administration from the school about ongoing ideas and requests. They also met with individual students and parents with various requests.
On Monday afternoon, we presented a continuation of Language Arts ideas by breaking them into two groups. This allowed more questions and the teachers interacted better in small groups. On Tuesday afternoon, we presented a continuation of Math ideas. We again broke them into groups.
On Monday, we gave each teacher a blank spinner and asked them to create something. On Tuesday there was a fun contest where they came up with some amazing ideas. We are encouraging these new ideas and re-purposing items for other uses. We have seen a big improvement in this kind of thinking since our first year.
On Wednesday, we took a break day in order to relax a little and regroup for the last two days. This was especially necessary since we taught on Thursday and Friday until late afternoon, then flew home that night.
Another first occurred on Thursday and Friday. One major goal of Cotinga Foundation from the beginning was for teachers to teach teachers. We want the teachers in Ecuador to take the information that Cotinga provides and share it with others. A teacher from our school, Geovanni Calles, now teaches at a school in the jungle, Escuela Especializada Archidona. She moved there 3 years ago and uses many things that Cotinga gave her. We arranged for the teachers and administrator from her school to come to Geovanni Calles on Thursday and Friday. They traveled 5 hours by bus, paying their own way and staying two nights. They observed our teaching in the mornings and we encouraged the Geovanni Calles teachers to teach them. In the afternoons, we presented subjects that would allow the Geovanni Calles teachers to share how they use these ideas with their students and how they have adapted some things. Sharing with other teachers is a new idea in Ecuador, so this was difficult. It is something that Cotinga continues to emulate.
While presenting new teaching ideas, we were able to share items with both schools like wonderful cloth charts for sentences, letters, and schedules. We shared markers, colored pens, lots of postit notes, dry erase markers, clocks, pencils, math manipulatives and other great items.
This year we received 40 obsoleted Ipads from a school district in Illinois that donated them to us. Brenda spent countless hours researching appropriate apps in Spanish. She found 30 reading, writing, social stories and vision apps that would work on these Ipads. We created rules for the classroom use and teacher use.
On Friday afternoon, we had to say goodbye to all of the teachers from both schools, along with the directors from UDAI. We presented everyone with a flash drive of all the documents. By using flash drives this year, we saved printing about 25,000 sheets of paper.
We always spend time enjoying Ecuador and learning about it. We visited the Equator, Hoja Verde chocolate factory, Puerto Lago at a volcano lake, had dinner at a hacienda, saw ‘Aladdin’ in Spanish, shopped in Otavalo, visited the candy store, wood shop and ceramics shop. Some were new places and others were old friends.
This was the most productive and best trip so far. The most number of teachers were impacted, the most number of schools, and as a result, the most number of students impacted. This team worked extremely hard for 5 months before the trip, then extremely hard while on the trip.
Our hosts, Dave and Brenda (plus their sons Daniel and Luke), not only translated for us daily, they arrange for all of our lodging and food. They stayed up late at night loading flashdrives and Ipads, along with translating and printing things at the last minute. Cotinga Foundation could not exist without their support.
We also rely heavily on all of the donations, such as markers and books and of course, money. It takes a large group of supporters to make Cotinga succeed.