Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC): Teachers from schools across the country are trained in literature and linguistics
About 190 teachers of Basic and Secondary Education participated in the traditional Winter School of the Faculty of Letters. The free training instance for its attendees had an online day and another face-to-face where various talks were offered with specialists from the faculty.
This year’s traditional Winter School, organized by the Faculty of Arts, received some 190 elementary and middle school teachers from various parts of Chile . Through an online conference and another face-to-face session held in the faculty auditorium, the teachers participated in the various talks given by academics of Literature and Linguistics from the faculty, including Francisca Folch, Margarita Vidal, Felipe Toro, Carmen Gaete, Marcelo González, Leyla Lobos, María José Navia and Francisco Orellana.
The trainings, mainly in literature, writing and English teaching, were the ones that received the most calls . The face-to-face session held at the Faculty of Arts was attended by teachers from schools from various districts of the Metropolitan Region (Central Station, La Florida, Maipú, Las Condes, Peñalolén, Puente Alto, San Bernardo, among others) and even from some regions such as Valparaíso, Bío Bío and O’Higgins , which shows the high interest in being part of the 2022 Winter School.
The challenges of teaching Shakespeare today, detective literature, the relationship between modernism and sports, ways to integrate book clubs and creative workshops into the classroom, interculturality in contexts of English as a foreign language, and the teaching English in a pandemic , among others, were some of the numerous talks where enthusiastic teachers from all over the country were able to train.
“The Winter School is a precious opportunity to establish bridges between what we do here at the university and what happens in schools. It is a very enriching experience; it helps you to see your own work (research, creation, teaching ) with different eyes. I try to participate every year”, says María José Navia, deputy director of Continuing Education and Academic Letters.
“The Winter School is a precious opportunity to establish bridges between what we do here at the university and what happens in schools. It is a very enriching experience; it helps you to see your own work (research, creation, teaching ) with different eyes” -María José Navia, academic of Letters UC
As in other years, the teachers were very grateful to have this type of instance open to the educational community throughout the country, expressing their interest in applying what they had learned in their respective classrooms. “As an English teacher, and being my first time participating in a UC instance, I have been very satisfied and grateful for the knowledge provided by the exhibitors,” says Camila Álvarez Muñoz, a teacher at The Greenland School, in Estación Central. “You can recognize their great level of expertise and that is greatly appreciated. They touched on relevant topics that, in some cases, I think are considered in my practice. However, I find it necessary to have dedicated this time at school to review them again so that its integration is more explicit,
The participation of the almost 190 professors was accredited with a certificate at the end of the talks . This time, holding the talks in two modalities allowed not only that “professors from different parts of the country could participate, but also that we were able to share and meet in person with those attending the session that took place in our faculty,” says Bernardita Bas, Manager of Continuing Education Development, Letters UC.
“They touched on relevant topics that, in some cases, I think are considered in my practice. However, I find it necessary to have dedicated this time at school to review them again so that their integration is more explicit, updated and/or pertinent” – Camila Álvarez, teacher at The Greenland School, Central Station