Chilean
educators at COE
Two groups
of Chilean educators will participate in professional development
programs Oct. 27-Nov. 30 at the UNM College of Education (COE).
UNM competed
with 50 universities internationally to attract the teachers
whose visits are funded by grants totaling $130,000, awarded
by the Chile Ministry of Education, said Guillermina Engelbrecht,
Ph.D., director of the COEs Office of Latin American Programs
in Education (LAPE), now part of the Multicultural Bilingual
Education Center.
UNM is
the only institution awarded more than one grant from the ministry.
LAPE, in
existence for more than three decades, today focuses on immersing
Latin American educators in the American education system and
promoting other international exchange experiences.
A group
of 21 Spanish-speaking teachers representing each of the 13
Chilean regions will take part in the program Environment
as an Integrating Context for Curriculum. A second group
of 21 teachers who are fluent in English will be at UNM to boost
their skills in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL).
Both groups
will take part in five weeks of seminars, workshops and discussion
groups. Field trips to area schools, a community center and
Pueblo feast day are planned.
Engelbrecht
says UNM students, staff and faculty and those in the community
who interact with the Chileans have much to gain. Im
fascinated by the comparisons and contrasts. We can learn a
lot by looking at ourselves through someone elses mirror.
Chile has
superb early childhood programs and daycare centers and successfully
employs a voucher system in secondary education, Engelbrecht
adds.
We
can look at how their systems have worked or how they havent.
We can model after the effective ones or keep from making the
same mistakes, she says.
LAPE also
hosted a group of educators from Chile in 2000. This year, the
educators will be in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. We
are looking for families who can host one or two visitors on
that day so they can learn the cultural aspects of this very
American holiday, Engelbrecht says.
For information,
call Guillermina Engelbrecht, 277-3910.