Without a doubt, this experience has been absolutely extraordinary, generator of a never-ending stream of lessons, full of sacrifices and a lot of work" - Karla Villalpando
Almost a year since the in-school classes suspension in Mexico, the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) launched in April 2020 their TV program "Aprende en Casa". Karla Villalpando takes about how this transition from teaching in a classroom to teaching on National Television.
"A little over a year ago life changed for everyone, education included, we stopped seeing our students along with the hope of getting to meet again in the classroom. We started to create an emergency plan with booklets and activities parents could do at home.
Unfortunately, what we thought would only last for a short time, became something never-ending and it generated a huge challenge, not only in designing a plan and new content for our students but also in thinking about how parents could help and how we could assess this as well as managing and evaluating our students’ progress.
We started with what was closer to us and the parents. Cellphones, WhatsApp, sending activities, and receiving evidence of schoolwork through pictures taken from phones. However, as teachers, we had to look for alternatives that could systematize the work and allowed us to have a better organization and vision of our student's work.
Training sessions opened through different webinars that taught us the use of distinct tools from Google that would benefit our work such as Classroom, Google Meet, amongst others.
Little by little, education took a new course, and the entire educational community has tried to face the challenges posed by the pandemic. I consider that one of the largest challenges has been to reach the largest number of students and for these to have access to all the tools and content that exist.
Looking for a solution
New platforms and tools have gradually allowed teachers, parents, and students a better use of the technological innovations the market has to offer as well as the development of new abilities when it comes to handling diverse content.
From the beginning, I considered the pandemic a huge disadvantage, especially for preschool teachers since most of the students of this level don’t have a proper literacy level which makes the role parents have, even more important. When I was offered the opportunity of participating in the program “Aprende en Casa”, I thought it was a very smart option to reduce that disadvantage. Children would be able to be accompanied by the teachers on the TV which would cover content that approached the learning expectancies required from them, along with technological support.
Without a doubt, this experience has been absolutely extraordinary, a generator of a never-ending stream of lessons, full of sacrifices and a lot of work; but with the support of my family and my dedication, I have achieved all my goals.
There is still a lot to do in order to reach a proper, high-quality long distanced education, however, this is a start, for both teachers and online educational content creators. This creates more job opportunities and I think we are on the correct path in which we’ll continue despite the adversities".
"I'm Karla Villalpando Díaz, with a degree in preschool education and graduated from the National School of teachers for Kindergartens I have 14 years of experience as a teacher in front of a group. I consider myself a dedicated and professional teacher with a great vocation and love for my job, I have always wanted to impact positively the children of my country. Currently, I work in a kindergarten called “Lic. Fidencio Soria Barajas” and I am currently part of the cast for “Aprende en Casa III” as a teacher who is in front of the cameras".
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