News of my town - Beasain

“I hope my contribution would be positive in this experience”

Carolyn Corrie

Visitor teacher on the IES

JUANTXO UNANUA

BEASAIN. The Secondary School of Beasain is living, within another centers in Euskadi during this course, a positive, new experience. It is a part of the innovative programme of the General Sub-direction of International Relations of Education Department. This entity has signed an agreement with US authorities in order to concede 60 visitor-teacher's grants. Carolyn Corrie is the person who has arrived to this educational center in Beasain, who is already working as an English teacher on those buildings in Ugartemendi neighborhood. This American teacher will remain the whole 2011-12 course in Beasain.

-What is exactly doing a teacher from New York in the classrooms of Beasain's Institute?

-Well, I've been teaching English in Los Angeles for some years. Before being a teacher, I was a laboralist lawyer, but that was a career I didn't like. I've always be looking forward traveling, to learn about other parts and cultures in the world, framing them on my profession. And the opportunity reached with the pilot program “North American Visiting Professors in Spain” of the Education Department.

-Which are the goals that the program should apply on the Institute of Beasain?

-To support the English bilingual programs they are working with here. And, at the same time, we take advantage of the exchange through communities around different teaching forms, which sometimes are quite similar. Besides, it is an opportunity to make some exchanges about the educational systems, as well as about the culture and history of both countries.

-And you chose Beasain for that experience.

-There were different possibilities, some of them in order to work on school subjects where I couldn't. It was very important for me to teach English, as it is my specialty, and the Institute of Beasain was looking for a teacher to work on the specialty of Social Sciences on the English area. I am very haunted here.

-Which is the contribution you are hoping to make in the Institute and your students through this course?

-I have some experience on helping students that are looking for talking English very well. That's my specialty. Besides, at the same time, to get to know the social and political history, the culture, ecc, of the United States is another goal of myself and the course. Because of that, we work around different issues in the lessons. For example, Halloween has been one of the last topics. The students have made and oral presentation about it, as if they were going to explain the celebration, its origins and sense to someone else, and they have had to make it in the better talking English they know. By January, we will work on another topic; that is the History, Culture, Society and Politics of the Basque Country. That will be another oral presentation the students will need to work on as if they werw going to explain it in best talking English, to someone from abroad, in this case, to me. Before finishing the course, we will work on the same topics, but about the United States.

-So, are the students being an active part in the program?

-The important thing is that they get involved, because they are gonna gain when they improve the practice of the English language. They will acquire fluency, security and richness with the language.

-Which was your first impression when you arrived to the Institute?

-Well, the first thing I have met are some nice, kind colleagues. On the other hand, when you go out of your country and you arrive to another one you realize that there are another teaching systems that are as good or better than the one of your country. The difference is that on the United States the compulsory education is until you are 16, but they give you the Secondary School Title when you are 18, not like here where, at the same time, you can apply to make FP. That fact makes that, on the United States, when they are around 17, many people leave their studies, so the school failure is questioned. I also noticed that the subjects are not taught everyday of the week and that their timetable change. I think that it is better to the student when the languages' lessons are imparted as many times as they can.

“I defend the trilingualism on the classrooms”

Another fact Carolyn Corrie made remarkable was the the centers in the Basque Country work on the bilingual way, in the relations through the people, as well as on the educational world. She finds very positive the bilingualism of Basque centers, besides in some centers a third language appears. “In some US zones is unthinkable to apply the bilingualism. The problem appears where quite a lot latin migrants live and there Spanish is only learned as a subject. It would be unthinkable for both languages to work on the same level. And I don't find that positive, the lessons should be imparted on both languages”, says Carolyn.

Uxue Garro Irastorza