Making Positive Change
BUILDING TANGIBLE NEW SKILLS TO ENGAGE STUDENTS
Lucinea Parra Solórzano has been working as a teacher for 18 years in rural Sarapiqui, Costa Rica. She teaches Spanish, math, science, and social studies to first-year and fifth-year primary school students at Finca Once School.
With five other teachers from Finca Once, Lucinea volunteered to join the TeachUNITED program where she has worked side-by-side with a TeachUNITED instructional coach and her peers at Finca Once to learn, practice, and refine her instructional skills. Called the School Accelerator, the year-long program helps teachers build capacity, and focuses on evidence-based, high-impact instructional strategies including personalized and blended learning, student engagement strategies, and using student data for effective lesson plan design. Lucinea expressed that she has been particularly inspired by the new strategies, like the station rotation model, which provide her students with different ways of learning and to better engage them in each subject area.
LOCAL TEACHER CONNECTIONS ENHANCE GROWTH, LEARNING, AND INSPIRE MOTIVATION
The Costa Rica program hosts an annual “Feria de Experiencias” in partnership with the Universidad Nacional and the Ministry of Education, where TeachUNITED alumni educators from around the district come together and share and demonstrate lesson plans so others can benefit from their learning and experiences. Lucinea shared that this experience was particularly useful for her. Seeing other teachers in action and collaborating with teachers outside of her small school provided tangible lesson plans that inspired ideas for her own classroom.
“Working with TeachUNITED coaches has awakened in me that light of wanting to make a positive change, that offers greater possibilities, for my students and myself, to acquire new skills.
We are so honored to support teachers like Lucinea who are willing to step up as to learn new skills and act as leaders and mentors for continuous transformation. Dedicated teachers are critical to ensuring that every child receives a high-quality education that prepares them to succeed in school and beyond.