Mountain Lakes, una pequeña
comunidad al Noreste de los Estados Unidos, impacta
a primera vista por la belleza de su entorno. Hermosas
casas en medio de lagos y bosques cuyos follajes forman
un arco iris de distintas tonalidades de verdes, marrones,
ocres, amarillos y rojizos, confirmando que el otoño
es allí la estación más bella
del año.
Una comunidad con conciencia ambiental, con regulaciones
claras sobre el cuidado del agua, el reciclado de
basura y la preservación del medio ambiente.
Una comunidad con uno de los poderes adquisitivos
más altos del país y por ende con un
alto nivel educativo. Una comunidad con fuertes valores
morales y fuertes lazos familiares. Una comunidad
donde todos te reciben con una amable sonrisa y donde
nadie cierra la puerta de su casa con llave pues no
hay delincuencia.
Una comunidad que se preocupa
por la educación de sus jóvenes y donde
las escuelas son centros culturales abiertos a todos.
Para muchos argentinos esto es quizás una utopía,
sin embargo, tuve el privilegio y la bendición
de estar allí durante tres semanas inolvidables.
Aún resuenan en mis oídos las palabras
que muchos me decían cuando no me permitían
pagar ni siquiera un simple café y con un gesto
cordial repetían “welcome to America”.
Al entrar por primera vez a la High School impacta el
orden y la limpieza; al recorrer sus aulas sorprende
la abundancia de recursos materiales y tecnológicos
entre ellos los “smartboards” o pizarras
inteligentes; al caminar por sus pasillos asombran sus
instalaciones: un enorme gimnasio, un auditorio al estilo
del mejor teatro de Córdoba, carpintería,
taller de corte y confección, una cocina que
muchos envidiarían y un campus deportivo que
sólo algunos clubes de aquí pueden ofrecer.
Con el correr de los dias nos damos cuenta que más
allá de los recursos materiales y humanos, la
escuela puede cumplir con sus objetivos centrados en
el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje simplemente
porque todos respetan la autoridad y cumplen con las
normas. Sólo cuando hay orden, respeto, compromiso,
atención a la diversidad, solidaridad, padres
involucrados con la educación de sus hijos y
docentes capacitados, se puede decir que en una institución
educativa no hay fracaso escolar, deserción o
repitencia.
Esto es precisamente lo que más me impactó
y me ha ayudado a comprobar que mi teoría es
cierta: el desarrollo de un país depende del
nivel educativo de su pueblo; cuanto más alto
es ese nivel mejor será la calidad de vida y
menor la pobreza, la desigualdad social y la marginación.
Estados Unidos y Argentina son dos países con
similitudes y diferencias, con crisis y problemas internos;
pero hay algo que debemos imitar del gran país
del norte: ellos apuestan por la educación porque
sin ella no hay progreso ni futuro.Mountain Lakes, en
el estado de New Jersey, es un ejemplo de que esto es
posible.
¿Cuáles son mis proyectos para el
2010?
1) Redacción del “Código de Honor”
con participación de toda la comunidad educativa
y creación del Comité de Disciplina
y Comité de Evaluación docente. Todas
las escuelas cuentan con este código. La palabra
HONOR es precisamente algo que tenemos que recuperar.
2) Elaboración de proyectos interinstitucionales
en relación a temáticas ambientales
o de interés global y posterior puesta en común
a través de videoconferencia o la creación
de páginas educativas con foros de discusión.
Martin Costanzo,
Becario Mster 2007
El Nobel de Literatura John Steinbeck
alguna vez dijo que “un viaje es una persona
en sí misma; no hay dos iguales. Y todos los
planes, salvaguardas, controles y coacciones son inútiles.
Nos damos cuenta que después de años
de esfuerzo nosotros no hacemos un viaje; un viaje
nos hace a nosotros”. Tengo la impresión
de que es eso lo que me ha pasado a mí en los
últimos años. Mas allá de haberme
dado cuenta de lo acertada de su apreciación
después de muchos tropiezos, entendí
que muy pocas han sido las veces en las que me he
encontrado viviendo en un lugar que había planeado
como parte de mi futuro. Más bien esos lugares
parecían haberme arrastrado hacia ellos de
alguna manera u otra.
De todas maneras, a pesar
de nunca saber cómo será el derrotero
de mis próximos días hay una cosa que
tengo en claro. Uno de los varios lugares desde donde
el viaje empezó conmigo fue en la Comisión
Fulbright Argentina. Hoy a casi tres años de
mi primer encuentro con “La Comisión”,
como muchos la llamamos, trato de responderme muchas
de las preguntas que me hacía cuando recién
la conocía, pero en la ciudad de South Bend,
Indiana, EE.UU. “¿Qué me trajo
hasta acá?”; o ¿por qué
estoy acá? Interpelaciones que me hago bastante
seguido, esté donde esté.
El camino tiene más recodos de los que este
artículo me permitiría describir, por
lo que arbitrariamente voy a elegir el año
2007 como el momento en el que este viaje se decidió
a “llevarme”. A mediados de ese año,
gracias a una beca Fulbright, comencé una maestría
en Negociación y Resolución de Conflictos
<http://kroc.nd.edu/> en la Universidad de Notre
Dame, EE.UU. <www.nd.edu>. La maestría
dura dos años y consiste en un primer año
“típico” de clases y exámenes,
luego una experiencia de trabajo en una zona de conflicto
o semi conflicto durante el primer semestre del segundo
año, para después volver a la universidad
con el propósito de cursar el último
semestre y escribir una tesis en la que podamos combinar
el saber académico con la experiencia práctica
del semestre en “el campo”. Así,
yo estoy nuevamente en Notre Dame después de
un semestre en Indonesia. Como yo, hubo compañeros
y amigos que estuvieron en Uganda, Israel, Sudáfrica
y Filipinas.
Desde junio de 2008 hasta diciembre de 2007 viví,
junto con mi esposa, en la ciudad de Kupang, en Indonesia,
cumpliendo el requisito del semestre en una “zona
de conflicto”. Kupang es una ciudad de unos
200.000 habitantes y ubicada en la mitad indonesia
de la isla de Timor; la otra mitad de la isla, que
fuera colonizada por Portugal, forma parte de lo que
a partir de 1999 es la República de Timor Leste.
La isla está en el extremo oriental del archipiélago
indonesio y por ese mismo motivo comparte las características
geográficas del desierto australiano. En Timor
sólo llueve durante tres meses al año
y es muy difícil poder desarrollar actividades
agrícolas o ganaderas ya que la isla no es
otra cosa que una masa de coral que asoma sobre el
Océano Índico. Es una de las zonas más
pobres del mundo y además se vio afectada por
la violenta represión indonesia a la independencia
de Timor Leste.
Mis actividades en Kupang desde que llegamos estuvieron
muy relacionadas con su pasado, topografía
y cultura. Nuestro primer desafío fue la vida
cotidiana, en un lugar donde nunca podíamos
pasar desapercibidos, por el color de nuestra piel,
y donde al principio no entendíamos nada de
lo que la gente decía o hacía. Poco
a poco fuimos aprendiendo la lengua y haciendo amigos,
enterándonos de cómo funciona la vida
en ese rincón del mundo, tan diferente del
nuestro o de lo que hasta ese momento habíamos
vivido. Conocimos lugares increíblemente hermosos
y otros increíblemente pobres, pero por doquier
encontramos personas amables, afectuosas y cordiales,
siempre felices de poder charlar con nosotros y ver
nuestros esfuerzos por usar su lengua (con resultados
a veces ridículos).
Con respecto al trabajo, mis responsabilidades se
repartían entre mi trabajo en una ONG internacional
desarrollando propuestas de subsidios, y el trabajo
de campo para mi tesis de maestría. La primera
labor se trataba de escribir propuestas de actividades
en respuesta a las llamadas para otorgar fondos que
hacen los ministerios de desarrollo internacional
de varios países desarrollados, entre ellos
Holanda (país que colonizó Indonesia
hasta 1945), Australia, España, EE.UU. y Alemania
para mejorar la calidad de vida en esta región
del mundo. Por lo general, las propuestas giran alrededor
de temas como agricultura, salud y socorro post conflicto.
En lo que se refiere al trabajo de campo para mi tesis
hice entrevistas en profundidad con líderes
locales, académicos y personas que trabajan
en el ámbito de desarrollo internacional, y
un análisis un tanto más cuantitativo
de los medios gráficos locales.
Esta experiencia duró hasta fines de diciembre,
y luego vino un semestre cursando en Indiana con nieve
hasta la cintura, temperaturas promedio de -25°C,
tratando de armar mi último semestre, mi tesis
y algunos otros planes, y (espero) una graduación
en mayo de 2009. Después dejaré que
el viaje me siga llevando por donde quiera, aunque
algunas pistas tengo (eso creo yo).
Si dejamos que el viaje nos cruce nos vemos pronto.
Nazarena Calí
- Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program, 2009
Ever since I arrived to the United
States (September 22nd 2009) I have been thinking
about writing down some notes as regards the experience
itself so that they can be useful to the TEA fellows
that participate in the program in the future. From
the very first moment we, the first 8 (eight) Argentinean
teachers that were chosen to be part of this wonderful
experience felt accompanied by the IREX people: they
met us in the airport and took us to the hotel; once
there, they gave us as much information as we required
and as much assistance as they were able to. Washington
(first three days) Orientation Conference: The IREX
people gave us there all the money we would need during
the program -$90 per week for incidentals, $100 for
books, plus a phone card-.
We were to share our beautiful and comfortable rooms with
a teacher from another country –usually with someone
who didn’t speak Spanish so that we were able to practice
and polish our English all the time. I shared my room with
a lady from Azerbaijan –this was the first time in my
life I had heard about that country… luckily we were
given a huge binder with information about every country and
every TEA fellow once we stepped in the hotel.
The three days we were in Washington for the Orientation Conference
were intense and of hard work: we woke up early and started
work immediately after breakfast. We could share our meals
with people from our country or from any of the other 20 countries.
The atmosphere was of hasty work all the time. We were able
to visit the city during these first three days since we had
some free time during the evenings (and the IREX people provided
us with a map of the city in which the subway routes were
included). Not everybody was as adventurous as us, but we
can say that we enjoyed our time as fully as possible.
We were provided breakfast and lunch at the hotel and we were
supposed to take care of dinner: we did so by visiting different
places in the city. They also took us on a tour of the city
so that everybody could see some museums, memorials, and important
places –as the White House-. We also had the opportunity
to share lunch with the Argentinean Embassy’s cultural
attaché and talk over some matters that were, mainly,
of our concern –as the fact that some of us traveled
to the US although knowing that would not be paid our salaries
while we were abroad-.
After these first three days in Washington, the whole group
–we were 105 people from 21 different countries- was
divided into 4 subgroups according to the university we were
going to: Lincoln University –Nebraska-, University
of North Dakota –North Dakota-, Purdue University –Indiana-
and George Mason University –Virginia-. I was chosen
to go to this last one –lucky me!!!- and my group was
taken there by bus –as Fairfax, the city where the GMU
Campus is, is only 25 km from Washington; the rest of the
people were taken to the different airports to take their
planes to their final destinations.
George Mason University, Fairfax (Virginia): Once we got to
the hotel –we lived the 6 weeks the program lasted in
a very –VERY! - nice hotel in Fairfax: Comfort Inn.
We were welcomed there by the program coordinators –Dr.
Farnoosh Sharohki and Dr. Sherry Steeley. They arranged us
in pairs to share our rooms –a different roommate this
time: Phanet, from Cambodia, was the person I shared the room
with while in Fairfax-. Luckily, when we had our PDO meeting
here, in Argentina, we had been told about this possibility
and had been asked to go with an open mind –we were
reminded of this all the time while we were in Washington-.
However, as much as I loved the idea of sharing my room with
a person from a different culture, and at the beginning everything
was interesting and new, as time passed by and we had to put
up with each other’s habits, traditions, likes, moods
and so on, I found out it wasn’t so easy.
Anyway, I have to say that the TEA GMU group was so beautiful
–we sang and danced and chatted and visited each other
and organized parties and went out for dinner and dancing
and shopping together so much that we got attached very soon
and we really enjoyed learning about each other’s cultures,
languages, experiences, ideas and feelings-. It was a huge,
deep and brightening learning experience from different points
of view: as we had been told in the PDO, I grew as a person
and as a professional in the US. I had so much to thank for
to the TEA program and to the Fulbright Commission for letting
me live this!
The program coordinators: Dr. Sharohki and Dr. Steeley were
always there for us during the whole program. That first day
we arrived to the Comfort Inn they were waiting for us with
binders, books –we used during the program for our seminars-,
pens, pencils as presents and a laptop per room so that we
can work on our classes, assignments and, even, chat with
our friends and families on Internet. The following day Dr.
Steeley picked us up and showed us how to take the bus to
the GMU campus, how to get our GMU ID card –which we
showed to the bus driver every time we took it and paid no
fee and also had $460 dollars that we could use to buy our
meals at university (we had different choices), books, computer
stuff and even clothes. Dr Sharohki and some other professors
that we would have in the different seminars in the university
were waiting for us with a reception. We had classes scheduled
every day from 10.00 to 4.00 –some days- or 7.00 –some
other days-. On Saturdays we were invited to the coordinators’
houses where we share our day with them and their families
(all of us took a present: I took alfajores as something representative
of our country): they were all so kind and warm…they
even cooked for us….imagine we were 26 people and they
cooked homemade meals for us!
Some other Saturdays we had visits to great places planned:
Baltimore and Annapolis, Mount Vernon, WATESOL (Washington
teachers of English Conference), the Smithsonian Museums…
Internship: Twice a week we had our internship: we were designated
a mentor teacher and we went to their schools to observe their
lessons, assist and participate in some activities and, finally,
teach a whole lesson –mine was about Argentina: in the
ITT (Intensive Technology Training) Seminar we learned how
to work with Power Point, so I designed one and presented
it in my mentor’s class –she is an ESOL teacher
that teaches Science in 6th grade this year-: it was a wonderful
experience to work with Mrs. Nadherny in Holmes Middle School
(Alexandria) and her students from the US, El Salvador, Pakistan,
etc….Holmes is an international middle school, so students
from different parts of the world that had moved to the US
study there. As Mrs. Nadherny is teaching Science this year
I must admit I learned a lot having to prepare for her lessons,
since kids asked for help from me all the time. When my internship
ended, some of the kids gave me presents to remember them;
unluckily, I hadn’t thought about that before the program,
so I had no presents for them; only for their teacher –my
mentor-: a copy of one of Molina Campos’s paintings
(she loved it).
Presents: I also took a present for the program coordinators
for the day we spent at their homes –alfajores-. I also
gave them copies of Molina Campos’s paintings at the
graduation ceremony. It was a way of thanking them for everything
they did for us –they were there for us all the time.
Some of the TEA fellows from other countries also gave us
some souvenirs as bracelets, key rings, bookmarks, pencils.
I gave them pens and bookmarks, but I also gave some personal
belongings to those people I became friends with –some
CDs, my own mate and bombilla, t-shirts-.
GMU Seminars: From Monday to Friday we attended lessons in
the George Mason University. We had 5 seminars: Reflective
Practice, Educational Leadership, U.S. Culture, Intensive
Technology Training and ESL Research, Methods and Assessment.
We were supposed to attend to all the classes and to do all
the readings, practical works and assignments we were suggested.
We were even graded in some assignments and practical works.
We were also supposed to participate in every class as much
as possible: in American classrooms –not only in the
university but also in schools- discussion is the most important
way of working; students are to read for every class so they
can participate actively in the day’s work; students’
opinions are taken as relevant and every one of them is respected
as valuable.
At the beginning of the program the coordinators told us to
collect everything we did in the program and compile it into
a portfolio that was to be presented at the end of the six
weeks. So we did: some of us did it in Word, some others in
Power Point and some others as a website –mine is for
you to look, use and comment on as you wish…I hope you
find it useful: www.nazarenacali.webs.com- This portfolio
was the assessment instrument they had to evaluate our work
in the TEA program.
Personal experience: I cannot thank you –Fulbright Commission
Argentina- for this wonderful opportunity to visit the United
States, enjoy the possibility of walking the streets in Washington
DC, see incredible places such as the museums, memorials,
buildings, historic places, tourist sites, attend lessons
in a state-of-the-art university, take part in regular and
ESOL lessons for kids in a marvelous middle school, and last,
but not at all least, meet beautiful people: Americans that
helped me in the street to find my way somewhere, wait my
table in a restaurant, etc, professors that share their knowledge
with warm and kindness, and teachers from all over the world
–TEA fellows- that made my stay in Fairfax, Virginia,
the most educational professional moment in my career and
the most enriching personal experience in my life: today I
can call people from Ghana, Guatemala, El Salvador, Georgia
and Kazakhstan FRIENDS. With these great people we designed
a website you can also visit and you’ll find our portfolios,
photos, comments and so on: www.teamason.webs.com
I hope these lines help you have a better picture of what
you are going to live and enjoy in your near future. I hope
you count on me as just a TEA fellow that is happy that you
have been chosen to be part of this great group and whatever
you need, I’m just a ring or e-mail away.
May you have such a wonderful time as I did!
Comisión de Intercambio Educativo entre Estados Unidos y Argentina
Viamonte 1653 2º (C1055ABE) Buenos Aires, Argentina - Tel (54 11)
4814.3561/2/1956, (54 11) 4811.1494 - Fax: 4814.1377 -
