Most of my work has been with the newest public high school in town (UABIC, Prepa #3 ) but I wanted to be sure to visit the remaining two public high schools. At Preparatoria #1 I was able to meet with Nelly Ceballos, the school psychologist. Nelly has worked at the school for for 32 years as a teacher in front of the class, with psychology, social psychology, psychology of development. She gave me a brief overview of the school which is much larger than Prepa #3.
Preparatoria #1 serves 3,500 students and 138 teachers. Most of students live nearby (5% from out of state). Students must score well on the CENEVAL to attend (standardized test).
The school does not offer summer programs but there are afterschool and Saturday opportunities. The campus is not large enough to accommodate all of the students thus lab time and gym time are rotated. They do not offer a community service program but some students assist informally with tutoring. A few other interesting points:
How many students continue studying going to university?
We have a pretty high percentage, we are talking about around a 70% of kids who finish the high school and continue to faculties, in the different faculties, now, we have that from the 42 careers that the UADY has, some faculties have a much greater absorption of students than others, regarding room, but if we make an average, in general terms we are doing very well, we have about a 70% of kids who want to continue, given the circumstance that this high school has been propaedeutic, it had this approach, kids who got in here to high school already had the idea that they had to continue, now we will have a change, we will see what happens with this new plan, in which we are including in a certain way an occupational terminal that didn’t exist before, it was strictly propaedeutic, possibly there will be some variation.
Those kids who are in a, let us say, more urging economic situation or that when they get started into the study of these occupational terminals that are more operative, may give a turn towards the technological.We are waiting, we are still starting, in 2 years more or less we will have the idea whether this is going to affect their future prospective, of working or studying in a faculty like ours, or they will go to the technological, since we are opening this option.
Not before, before everyone had on sight that what was next, was university and many of them had the intention of staying in the same university, some of them not having such possibility given the room capacity, not being admitted, it’s when they went to look at private universities or technological schools as a second option.
Do you know how many students are Mayan? Also, how many low income students attend?
No. I don’t have this information. We may have some from inside the state, we are talking about a 2% that come from there, they must be Mayan-speakers, although many of the ones here, in which is the city, are of roots from inside the state, but kids who travel daily, come and go or that have their families over there and go on the weekends, we must have around 2-3% of such kids.
Low resources, we are talking about the same, among the studies that we have here in the high school and which are studies that were made in a very physical way, regarding the tutoring department, the tutoring and orienteering department have several programs, among them there is one called “generating information” and based on this the group’s tutors can define more or less who these kids are, but I can say there is not a formal structure, when the kids get in, ask to get in into the high school, all the information that is obtained through surveys and interviews, is not staying with us, it remains in the central building, which is the system.
So we get our information, let’s say it like that, more ex profeso, to point out some details and this is handled by the counseling department. So regarding how many kids with low resources are contemplated as such in the internal surveys, we are talking about around 100 kids, which are in a very evident economical problem.
How many books, uniforms and fees are charged per year?
When they sign up, included in what the inscription fee pays is, 2 T-shirts with the logo, and their sports short and T-shirt. This for example, let us say it like that, is paid at the beginning, and the selling of other T-shirts they may need is made personally here, we are speaking that each T-shirt costs around 150 pesos, which would mean maybe for them, to spend $1000 pesos in uniforms.
Regarding books, in the previous program, the kids had a book per subject, practically, in the new program the book situation is suspended, and all the didactical material is uploaded to a platform, and they are working with material that is in said platform. They get in, if they want they can print, if they want they can assemble their material. That is what is now being worked with them, which makes the book expenses minimal. Maybe photocopies where they print and work the exercises by hand. But there is no more spending on books.
We are waiting, because this process has been a little bit, from the evaluators point of view, complicated, the kids are really yet not ready to work without having a physical set. So we have had some problems regarding kids being unable to access, with no internet at home, some of them. There are kids that for example in a certain way, have made some social labor, giving a hand to their classmates and bringing them the copies. This has been a little bit confusing for them, maybe due to their immaturity, we are talking about kids between 14-15 years old, and they don’t have this ability, they haven’t been in this circumstance, since in secondary school they still handled their books, a set of books. So now it was a little bit complicated, we are on the look to see if this will stay like this for the next August when we start again for the new comers or if we instead introduce books again.
Because we have seen that they really feel a bit scattered, confused with having to download information, they lose it, they mix it up in their confusion and this is really making it complicated for them in terms of their academic performance, when it’s something let us say , alien to the learning practices.
Could you describe a typical day for you?
Well, regarding the work, that I currently do here, and which is an administrative kind of work really, what many of us as administrates do, is the out-stage work, behind the scenes, we really coordinate, in my case, despite the redundancy, all the coordination or academic areas departments which in this case, we have 6 academic areas, here in what is the academic secretary are the 6 coordinators, the secretaries, the copies department and everything that includes tests, calendars, personnel staff, to physically accommodate the teachers according to the optative subjects, that’s the function I do. I am generally here since 8:30-9:00 in the morning, sometimes I go out for lunch, sometimes I don’t and we finish around 8:30-9:00 at night, it takes a while.
And it takes longer in this school year, due to having to integrate both plans, this has made it that we have 2 different academies, we have teachers who only work with the new plan, teachers who work with both. 2 calendars, right now we are on exam period for the first years, the one for seconds and thirds from old plan has already passed, so this has made the load to be stronger than it normally was.
Another important detail that is also under, let us say, our responsibility is that the university has been organizing the 3 high schools so that we are all on the same page, because there was a big difference among the program application for each one. That has also taken us a little while, regarding the analysis, the operability analyses of the academies, all of this that each school handled in its own style, its own way and now are trying to bring it all together and to really make it that the university and its 3 high schools manage the same operability regarding the processes, it has taken us a lot of time actually, so this part has been a bit loaded and that is what it makes that our working time is tiresome, sometimes activities , 2 or 3 at the same time and we have to see how to split, so that has been the tiredness regarding the administrative part.
One of the parts that has also taken us a little time, is tutoring and orienteering, which we have given much importance, so in this one we have several programs already, then the psychologist Gretel Herrera who is on charge of this are, of this coordination area of orienteering. She’s trying to monitor the kids, to generate information, the staff kids, the tutors, so all of this has been complex and at the same time new, it’s something we are trying to organize as best as we can, as an extra support for the teachers, and this also takes us a long while, the revision, the meetings with them, to check the monitoring with school control, how we are doing, how many are owing subjects, we make appointments with them.
Which are the most important issues in education for you?
Education in all senses, I can say that an educated kid is a kid who first of all, respects, a kid that can value himself and what is external to him, to know that everything that he says is a consequence, will have a social consequence, so this part, let us say, of what is his integration to society, I feel it’s the most important in education, outside of what it is the part of scientific performance, the subjects and the contents, that are very important. If the kid recognizes and values what school will bring for him in the future, I feel that’s most important.
If you could change anything in the school, what would you change?
What would I change? One of the things, that I would really like to change, and we are trying to, is the teacher’s view, the counselors, maybe because I have also this formation, I do feel that teachers have the key in their hands, but they don’t know how to use it.
So many teachers, maybe, especially at this level, which is high school, higher middle level, they have very diverse formations, graduates, medical doctors, lawyers and they aren’t immersed at a 100%, even with the years of experience that they could have, in what is teaching itself.
I see that they have a conception of what teaching is, like to pass on their knowledge, about their discipline and they aren’t immerse in that, to me as a teacher, regardless of me being a lawyer or a medical doctor, I have to pass on something else, the plus which is not in the book, that is not part of my line of work, that is the part that we are missing.
I feel that if teachers could understand this part, in which the teacher is not an information transmitter but a maker, in the civic area, of values, in the motivation area of the human being, I believe that if all teachers do this, the ambient itself will change, the kids will value more, but yes, in this transition process, with the new teachers, with this new program, we are trying, of course it’s permeating the others, the old program, but we are trying to strengthen the teachers who are starting with the new program in such a way that we can see how this first generation must be taking a different sense. This is the part that we are very focused to work on.
You have, I think, in your structure, in your operability in the schools, situations that may be very different and very positive, one time I found, in the little time we have left to look in other directions, a very interesting video of what is a school in Europe, actually it’s a video where a comparison is made between schools of USA and schools of Europe and the person who is narrating, the investigator that is conducting one of those researches is telling what is going on, how they handle it , how USA handles it, that is the purpose of that documentary, of that video and among the things that I was observing, specially all of this, very interesting things that make a very remarkable difference with the Mexican system, so and the difference that caused more impact on me, is this one, the teachers have a different view on what it means to teach.
I got to study, a bit ago, in 2005, a masters in school management, which is a deal that the education faculty had here, from the UADY with Europe, Paris and this also opened up my vision a little bit to what is the teacher’s view, and that outside the, let’s say, political structures that could be limiting and dividing up our possibilities for action, if we can work inside the schools, with this, which I believe is the element that points out or is closer to the student, which is the teachers.
In this part, for example, of the integrative work between teacher and student is where, let’s say, the boom! The change comes from.
This had made, that, regarding me, I see this situation as the most important one, we in administration roles can say and try in certain ways to motivate the teachers, but if we achieve to make the teacher, that through our actions, visualizes the student in a different way, that he feels part of that, has that responsibility and to make the student to have a positive attitude towards what is to come, to what he is doing, that is the key.
Actually, the tutors which I think is something that got inside me, as a tutor for many years the teachers didn’t support us, so all tutoring programs, we tried to permeate them, it was like the orienteering department was very limited, it had a fence in a certain way, you can act here, not here and this part caused that we could not achieve this to permeate, because teachers are the ones with direct contact with students, the frequency of the meetings, we are a little bit more alien to them. So when we wanted to introduce our strategies, to share all this and make the teacher a participant, we hit a wall, like I said, tutors over there with the kids, teachers are another thing. So this made a very strong limitation, and we tutors really felt like we couldn’t do more, we weren’t allowed to do more, so now for example we are, now we have the option a bit more open, so we are working hard on teacher’s attitude.
I was telling you about the Montessori system, when I was starting, I started here, with few working hours, but I initiated a personal journey, which is a basic school, we have 45 year old kids, meaning they are babies, and this causes me to get involved with the Montessori system.
To me up to the date, I think that the Montessori system has many benefits, many advantages and one of them is what you tell us, the kid is presented with a problem, a situation, and the kid will find, among what is in his surroundings, the elements that will help him to forge, to find a solution for that, until he gets to capture it, to expose it, to evaluate it. A whole project that is not only in paper, it’s a project that is made.
This for example, makes me decide to get a certification, I’m a Montessori teacher on a basic level, and this opens up even more my vision, all of this, that for me is the key.
Preparatoria #1 serves 3,500 students and 138 teachers. Most of students live nearby (5% from out of state). Students must score well on the CENEVAL to attend (standardized test).
The school does not offer summer programs but there are afterschool and Saturday opportunities. The campus is not large enough to accommodate all of the students thus lab time and gym time are rotated. They do not offer a community service program but some students assist informally with tutoring. A few other interesting points:
How many students continue studying going to university?
We have a pretty high percentage, we are talking about around a 70% of kids who finish the high school and continue to faculties, in the different faculties, now, we have that from the 42 careers that the UADY has, some faculties have a much greater absorption of students than others, regarding room, but if we make an average, in general terms we are doing very well, we have about a 70% of kids who want to continue, given the circumstance that this high school has been propaedeutic, it had this approach, kids who got in here to high school already had the idea that they had to continue, now we will have a change, we will see what happens with this new plan, in which we are including in a certain way an occupational terminal that didn’t exist before, it was strictly propaedeutic, possibly there will be some variation.
Those kids who are in a, let us say, more urging economic situation or that when they get started into the study of these occupational terminals that are more operative, may give a turn towards the technological.We are waiting, we are still starting, in 2 years more or less we will have the idea whether this is going to affect their future prospective, of working or studying in a faculty like ours, or they will go to the technological, since we are opening this option.
Not before, before everyone had on sight that what was next, was university and many of them had the intention of staying in the same university, some of them not having such possibility given the room capacity, not being admitted, it’s when they went to look at private universities or technological schools as a second option.
Do you know how many students are Mayan? Also, how many low income students attend?
No. I don’t have this information. We may have some from inside the state, we are talking about a 2% that come from there, they must be Mayan-speakers, although many of the ones here, in which is the city, are of roots from inside the state, but kids who travel daily, come and go or that have their families over there and go on the weekends, we must have around 2-3% of such kids.
Low resources, we are talking about the same, among the studies that we have here in the high school and which are studies that were made in a very physical way, regarding the tutoring department, the tutoring and orienteering department have several programs, among them there is one called “generating information” and based on this the group’s tutors can define more or less who these kids are, but I can say there is not a formal structure, when the kids get in, ask to get in into the high school, all the information that is obtained through surveys and interviews, is not staying with us, it remains in the central building, which is the system.
So we get our information, let’s say it like that, more ex profeso, to point out some details and this is handled by the counseling department. So regarding how many kids with low resources are contemplated as such in the internal surveys, we are talking about around 100 kids, which are in a very evident economical problem.
How many books, uniforms and fees are charged per year?
When they sign up, included in what the inscription fee pays is, 2 T-shirts with the logo, and their sports short and T-shirt. This for example, let us say it like that, is paid at the beginning, and the selling of other T-shirts they may need is made personally here, we are speaking that each T-shirt costs around 150 pesos, which would mean maybe for them, to spend $1000 pesos in uniforms.
Regarding books, in the previous program, the kids had a book per subject, practically, in the new program the book situation is suspended, and all the didactical material is uploaded to a platform, and they are working with material that is in said platform. They get in, if they want they can print, if they want they can assemble their material. That is what is now being worked with them, which makes the book expenses minimal. Maybe photocopies where they print and work the exercises by hand. But there is no more spending on books.
We are waiting, because this process has been a little bit, from the evaluators point of view, complicated, the kids are really yet not ready to work without having a physical set. So we have had some problems regarding kids being unable to access, with no internet at home, some of them. There are kids that for example in a certain way, have made some social labor, giving a hand to their classmates and bringing them the copies. This has been a little bit confusing for them, maybe due to their immaturity, we are talking about kids between 14-15 years old, and they don’t have this ability, they haven’t been in this circumstance, since in secondary school they still handled their books, a set of books. So now it was a little bit complicated, we are on the look to see if this will stay like this for the next August when we start again for the new comers or if we instead introduce books again.
Because we have seen that they really feel a bit scattered, confused with having to download information, they lose it, they mix it up in their confusion and this is really making it complicated for them in terms of their academic performance, when it’s something let us say , alien to the learning practices.
Could you describe a typical day for you?
Well, regarding the work, that I currently do here, and which is an administrative kind of work really, what many of us as administrates do, is the out-stage work, behind the scenes, we really coordinate, in my case, despite the redundancy, all the coordination or academic areas departments which in this case, we have 6 academic areas, here in what is the academic secretary are the 6 coordinators, the secretaries, the copies department and everything that includes tests, calendars, personnel staff, to physically accommodate the teachers according to the optative subjects, that’s the function I do. I am generally here since 8:30-9:00 in the morning, sometimes I go out for lunch, sometimes I don’t and we finish around 8:30-9:00 at night, it takes a while.
And it takes longer in this school year, due to having to integrate both plans, this has made it that we have 2 different academies, we have teachers who only work with the new plan, teachers who work with both. 2 calendars, right now we are on exam period for the first years, the one for seconds and thirds from old plan has already passed, so this has made the load to be stronger than it normally was.
Another important detail that is also under, let us say, our responsibility is that the university has been organizing the 3 high schools so that we are all on the same page, because there was a big difference among the program application for each one. That has also taken us a little while, regarding the analysis, the operability analyses of the academies, all of this that each school handled in its own style, its own way and now are trying to bring it all together and to really make it that the university and its 3 high schools manage the same operability regarding the processes, it has taken us a lot of time actually, so this part has been a bit loaded and that is what it makes that our working time is tiresome, sometimes activities , 2 or 3 at the same time and we have to see how to split, so that has been the tiredness regarding the administrative part.
One of the parts that has also taken us a little time, is tutoring and orienteering, which we have given much importance, so in this one we have several programs already, then the psychologist Gretel Herrera who is on charge of this are, of this coordination area of orienteering. She’s trying to monitor the kids, to generate information, the staff kids, the tutors, so all of this has been complex and at the same time new, it’s something we are trying to organize as best as we can, as an extra support for the teachers, and this also takes us a long while, the revision, the meetings with them, to check the monitoring with school control, how we are doing, how many are owing subjects, we make appointments with them.
Which are the most important issues in education for you?
Education in all senses, I can say that an educated kid is a kid who first of all, respects, a kid that can value himself and what is external to him, to know that everything that he says is a consequence, will have a social consequence, so this part, let us say, of what is his integration to society, I feel it’s the most important in education, outside of what it is the part of scientific performance, the subjects and the contents, that are very important. If the kid recognizes and values what school will bring for him in the future, I feel that’s most important.
If you could change anything in the school, what would you change?
What would I change? One of the things, that I would really like to change, and we are trying to, is the teacher’s view, the counselors, maybe because I have also this formation, I do feel that teachers have the key in their hands, but they don’t know how to use it.
So many teachers, maybe, especially at this level, which is high school, higher middle level, they have very diverse formations, graduates, medical doctors, lawyers and they aren’t immersed at a 100%, even with the years of experience that they could have, in what is teaching itself.
I see that they have a conception of what teaching is, like to pass on their knowledge, about their discipline and they aren’t immerse in that, to me as a teacher, regardless of me being a lawyer or a medical doctor, I have to pass on something else, the plus which is not in the book, that is not part of my line of work, that is the part that we are missing.
I feel that if teachers could understand this part, in which the teacher is not an information transmitter but a maker, in the civic area, of values, in the motivation area of the human being, I believe that if all teachers do this, the ambient itself will change, the kids will value more, but yes, in this transition process, with the new teachers, with this new program, we are trying, of course it’s permeating the others, the old program, but we are trying to strengthen the teachers who are starting with the new program in such a way that we can see how this first generation must be taking a different sense. This is the part that we are very focused to work on.
You have, I think, in your structure, in your operability in the schools, situations that may be very different and very positive, one time I found, in the little time we have left to look in other directions, a very interesting video of what is a school in Europe, actually it’s a video where a comparison is made between schools of USA and schools of Europe and the person who is narrating, the investigator that is conducting one of those researches is telling what is going on, how they handle it , how USA handles it, that is the purpose of that documentary, of that video and among the things that I was observing, specially all of this, very interesting things that make a very remarkable difference with the Mexican system, so and the difference that caused more impact on me, is this one, the teachers have a different view on what it means to teach.
I got to study, a bit ago, in 2005, a masters in school management, which is a deal that the education faculty had here, from the UADY with Europe, Paris and this also opened up my vision a little bit to what is the teacher’s view, and that outside the, let’s say, political structures that could be limiting and dividing up our possibilities for action, if we can work inside the schools, with this, which I believe is the element that points out or is closer to the student, which is the teachers.
In this part, for example, of the integrative work between teacher and student is where, let’s say, the boom! The change comes from.
This had made, that, regarding me, I see this situation as the most important one, we in administration roles can say and try in certain ways to motivate the teachers, but if we achieve to make the teacher, that through our actions, visualizes the student in a different way, that he feels part of that, has that responsibility and to make the student to have a positive attitude towards what is to come, to what he is doing, that is the key.
Actually, the tutors which I think is something that got inside me, as a tutor for many years the teachers didn’t support us, so all tutoring programs, we tried to permeate them, it was like the orienteering department was very limited, it had a fence in a certain way, you can act here, not here and this part caused that we could not achieve this to permeate, because teachers are the ones with direct contact with students, the frequency of the meetings, we are a little bit more alien to them. So when we wanted to introduce our strategies, to share all this and make the teacher a participant, we hit a wall, like I said, tutors over there with the kids, teachers are another thing. So this made a very strong limitation, and we tutors really felt like we couldn’t do more, we weren’t allowed to do more, so now for example we are, now we have the option a bit more open, so we are working hard on teacher’s attitude.
I was telling you about the Montessori system, when I was starting, I started here, with few working hours, but I initiated a personal journey, which is a basic school, we have 45 year old kids, meaning they are babies, and this causes me to get involved with the Montessori system.
To me up to the date, I think that the Montessori system has many benefits, many advantages and one of them is what you tell us, the kid is presented with a problem, a situation, and the kid will find, among what is in his surroundings, the elements that will help him to forge, to find a solution for that, until he gets to capture it, to expose it, to evaluate it. A whole project that is not only in paper, it’s a project that is made.
This for example, makes me decide to get a certification, I’m a Montessori teacher on a basic level, and this opens up even more my vision, all of this, that for me is the key.