Disruptive TEFL Practices: Strengthening the TEFL Department at a Rural Colombian School

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Location: Bogota, Colombia

Project Dates: July 15 - August 25, 2023

Project Length: 6 weeks

Summary: A U.S. TEFL educator will help strengthen the TEFL department at a rural school located outside of Bogota.

Name: Colegio Rural El Verjon IED

Type: Primary and secondary school (grades K-12)

Website: https://www.redacademica.edu.co/colegios/ied-colegio-el-verjon

About: The Colegio Rural El Verjon IED is located in the outskirts of the southeast Bogota in the rural town of Santa Fe at an altitude of 3,600 meters above sea level which provides sweeping views of downtown Bogota. For more than 30 years, the school has developed an institutional project for rural education based on the regional and local particularities of where it is located. Currently operating in person, it welcomes about 280 K-8 students. The students come from both the surrounding rural, mountainous areas and the vulnerable, urban areas of southeastern Bogota.

Background: The Colegio Rural El Verjon IED seeks to bolster the transversal reading, writing, and oral TEFL skills of its educators. Specifically, the school aims to increase its students’ appropriation of reading, writing and orality to help make it possible for them to create identities, assume positions, enhance reasons and arguments, and build more complex knowledge for social interaction and understanding of the world.

Goals: This project will improve the abilities of a small group of TEFL educators at the Colegio Rural El Verjon IED through interdisciplinary pedagogical actions, preferably related to the STEAM and SIOP models, in order to strengthen their students' communication skills in English. For this, it is preferable that the visiting TEFL specialist not only has pedagogical training in TEFL, but also has knowledge and experience in disruptive educational methodologies, such as Thought-Based Learning, Gamification-Immersive Technologies, and/or Design Thinking.

Activities: Leading seminars, workshops, or other teacher professional development for educators; Developing academic curricula or educational materials; and assessing academic curricula or educational materials

Target Beneficiaries: TEFL educators

Teaching Level: Primary – Secondary (grades K-12)

Years of Teaching Experience: TEFL, Curriculum Development, Teacher Training

Subject Area Expertise: 3+ years

Language Requirement: Intermediate – Advanced Spanish