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Cris and Fernanda

Teachers of English as a Foreign Language in Chile 

Cris and Fernanda met when they were studying to become teachers of English, and have been married for five years. They have seven years of teaching experience. Fernanda teaches in a state school (from 5th to 8th grade, 250 students), and Cris works in a semi-private school (from 5th to 8th primary, and 1st, 3rd and 4th secondary, 400 students). In Chile, the school year runs from March to December, with two-week holidays in July (winter holidays), and one-week break in September (national holidays). This year, exceptionally, winter holidays were in late March. Primary school goes from 1st to 8th grade, and secondary is 1st to 4th grade.  

26 May 2020 

Before the lockdown  

Fernanda: Our context before the lockdown was rather complicated because of the current situation that Chile is facing resulting from the social unrest that started in October. When classes started in March, we had about two weeks of face-to-face lessons, but these were interrupted by the students going on strike some days, so things were unstable. 

Cris: Between November and December, I may only have had two weeks of normal classes: classes got cancelled, parents would pick students up from school when there were rumours of a sit-in, and the like. So basically, there was at least a two-month gap, then the summer break, and now this.  

How life has changed because of Covid-19  

Fernanda: It took about three weeks for all students to access Google classroom, before the winter holidays. When we came back, we had to start all over again, and it was very difficult. School authorities first intended to teach ‘as normal’ and then realised that it was not possible. 3rd and 4th secondary went on an online strike to protest as they were overwhelmed. The school then organised the working week by determining specific days to upload materials and videos to Google classroom, another one for students to submit their tasks, and a day for synchronous support for all groups together. Students are required 10 to 15 hours of online work. I didn’t have enough time to teach each group separately. I feel that I am doing the activities to prove that I’m doing something, but I’m not sure if they’re actually learning after all.  

¿qué va a pasar cuándo volvamos? Y uno no sabe nada tampoco. They ask me what will happen when we go back to school, but I don’t know either

My school is still doing summative assessment, and that is overwhelming for both students and teachers, although the local authorities and the Ministry of Education have advised schools not to do so. Students are very anxious. On top of being in lockdown, they have to get all their work done, be assessed, and they fear to fail the year. They ask me what will happen when we go back to school, but I don’t know either. It’s all very uncertain. My students try to do their homework to their best of their ability. Some of them have internet access, but not all of them. I did a survey and 50% of my students ask their parents for help, particularly the little ones. Students have to wait for their parents to be available or to have time to help them, so there are children that are making good progress, but others aren’t. There are different realities. I can’t teach my classes in English anymore, as now I’m only teaching my students, but for the parents as they need to understand as well. Otherwise children won’t do anything, and parents will complain that they don’t understand anything.   

Este trabajo lo continuamos en clase, para que por último tengan un sentido de continuidad, para que no pierdan. So I tell students that this work can be continued in class, so whenever we go back to the classroom, students can see some continuity, and don’t feel that what they are doing is going to be lost   

Cris: When the classes got suspended, my school sent handouts to students, and then we had the winter holidays. Upon return, I started teaching 40-minute sessions online from Monday to Friday to children that weren’t used to working in English, and don’t have a lot of agency of learning English. I modified the learning objectives to adapt to the current circumstances, initially planning for eight weeks, so I tell students that this work can be continued in class, so whenever we go back to the classroom, students can see some continuity, and don’t feel that what they are doing is going to be lost. I am now working with reading and writing, and working towards a single product towards the end of the semester, otherwise, you are going to kill students. Not all the students have the textbook, so I have to design PPT slides and materials, so all students access to the same resources, so my workload has increased considerably. I still have to take the register and report any misbehaviour to the school. I have changed my classroom management a lot. In face-to-face classes, you can pair students to support each other, but here it’s impossible. Now classes are a mix of Spanish with a lot of translation, otherwise many students would be falling behind. It is impossible to know if children are understanding, unless the odd one says something on the microphone. I’m even not sure if all my students are there, as they turn off their cameras and when the class is over, they don’t log off, and I have to remove them from the classroom. I think we all have very good intentions for this to work, but if children don’t say anything, there is no way to know.  

What concerns us   

We are both demotivated. We are professionals, we get paid. We want our students to learn. But we don’t see any point to what we are doing. We wonder how we will go back to school. How are we going to catch up with the learning? How are we going to be able to be in the classroom? How many children will there be per classroom? How are we going to complete all the admin work? In Cris’s school, there was a teacher that had to give students materials to be able to work from home, and got the Coronavirus. All the teachers fear getting infected. There is a lot of fear to get back to classes. What if children get infected? What if one their relatives dies? Just fear involves a lot of things.   

El solo miedo es un conjunto de cosas. Just fear involves a lot of things.

Fernanda: My main concern is whether students are actually learning. As I have to assess them, it is very difficult to know who did the work: was it Google Translator? Was it a relative? Was it themselves? Did they cheat? I’m also worried about socioemotional support for us teachers. The school has asked how we are doing but it has mainly been symbolic. Nobody asked me if I had good internet access, if I had a place where to work, anything. I’m also apprehensive about the Ministry of Education’s decision-making. I wish we focused on learning, but without having this pressure on assessment. I really feel it doesn't do them good, it doesn't do us teachers good.   

que de verdad siento que no les hace bien a ellos, no nos hace bien a nosotros los profesores.  I really feel [the pressure of assessment] doesn't do them good, it doesn't do us teachers good

Cris: I’m very stressed. I know I’m lucky I’m working; I’ve got a job. But I live in a 25 m2 flat, working, eating, and entertaining in the same space. If the table is set, I get stressed because it is the same space where I work. I have no energy left, and it’s only May, and I feel like it is December. We already had our winter holidays. I’m able to keep producing materials, and delivering them, but I am not motivated to keep teaching.   

Emerging opportunities  

Fernanda: One of the things I have liked the most is to engage with my own class and simply talk about how we are all doing. I haven’t had a parents’ evening yet, but it is likely that will happen soon. I have also learned about new apps, websites and Google classroom, which I think I will take forward when we go back to the classroom. My students have learned a lot about ICT, so I will be able to assess them in a more varied way, maybe through a presentation, a comic, anything, online. It will be easier to use technology in the future. Recently, I took part in a socioemotional support workshop for our students. However, we teachers also worried about our own socioemotional support. As an English department, we speak about everyday things when we meet and that helps.   

Cris: My English department works really well. We have supported each other, and I have a good coordinator, that helps a lot! Regarding training, there has been some, but it is mainly for those teachers less versed in ICT. I don’t really want to be in front of the computer anymore, and I was a gamer in my teens!   

Future fears and hopes  

We both fear that the MoE decision-making may undermine the work that we have done during these months. There isn’t anything clear from the ministry, and if they don’t know where this is going. We fear that they may decide that semester 1 is not going to count or if everyone is going to fail. We fear that students may be demotivated as a result of the MoE decisions. We wish they announce what they will do soon, so we could focus on strengthening our relationship with the students and everyone’s wellbeing.   

We hope that schools and education are seen differently: that we look at school as a learning and social space, where we can develop our identity and that we develop a sense of community. We hope that students’ learning becomes a better experience, a rounded one, rather than becoming test-answering machines as the system currently sees students.  

De que ha sido una experiencia única, lo ha sido. Hay sido algo totalmente diferente. A veces uno se queja de que todo es siempre lo mismo, esto ha sido muy distinto, esto va a marcar mucho a esta generación.  This has been a unique experience. It has been something completely different. We sometimes complain that things are always the same, but this has been too different, and this will surely mark this generation.