Marivel Palomino Arango

Teacher Secondary School

As an individual education teacher I offer reinforcements to the children who present greater learning difficulties and at the same time many of them are discriminated against, for their academic level. I reinforce them using didactic learning materials and above all with a lot of motivating patience. My students are referred by the public school teachers at the school, so I work in coordination with them. Also within this program, home visits are made to parents so that they become more involved in their children’s learning. On the other hand, I help the Mama Alice students at the primary school and secondary school levels with their homework, support in the development of school tasks for children and reinforcement of the difficulties that each of them has at the primary level and secondary education. Together with my colleagues I also give tutoring. This is complemented by strengthening the child’s self-esteem day by day with the small and great achievements that I value in each of the boys and girls who attend Mama Alice.

When I was a student, I imagined that I would work in schools in my country, teaching classes, reviewing tests and guiding my students, getting involved in my students’ problems to help them and sharing experiences with my colleagues wherever I go. In all the schools where I work, I always showed my commitment and responsibility in my work. I maintained respect with each of the teachers I met and above all, I demonstrated my professional ethics wherever I went because I love being a teacher. In Mama Alice, I found a new way of working as a teacher because I now know more deeply the reality of each of the children who attend, in search of my support. They are affectionate, they give you their trust when you know how to earn it. The reality of the children is totally different compared to those who study in cities and with better opportunities. Compared to the other schools, Mama Alice is a diversified way of providing support to children since it has the integrated support of very important areas such as Health, Social Work and psychology, which intervene in the comprehensive training of children and teenagers. This integrated work is the one that most of the schools in the state do not have, which is why it makes a difference, also personally it gives me the opportunity to apply different learning methods, strategies and techniques to each child according to what suits the child best. While in a state school, you have to obey the methodologies that the state forces you to do.

From the children, I learned humility, simplicity, hope, trust, gratitude, joy, strength and many more values. In each glance of each of the children, I can see the hope and trust they have towards me, to be able to help them and change their future. With them, I learned that my problems are insignificant compared to theirs and yet they give me a smile and the brightness of their eyes. They taught me to be strong and brave to face many difficulties.

I don’t frequently go to restaurants, sometimes we go with my family to the restaurant “Las Flores” where we eat fried guinea pig with potatoes, japchae and salad and another dish El Chicharrón.

Another restaurant is La Pollería “El retablo” where we eat grilled chicken. I can recommend both restaurants.

 If I was a millionaire, I would live in a big house with a garden, a pool and located close to a beach. Probably in Trujillo, the north of Peru, because they say that the water there is crystal clear.

Last year we had a very difficult time during the rainy season. The children were in despair because of the torrential rains. The sound of the calamine roofs of some classrooms is horrible and even some ceilings have holes where water enters the classroom and these become pools. The little ones started crying because the loud noise of thunder scares them and they desperately wanted to escape to look for their mother. On top of that, the classrooms are flooded with water because the drought (water channel) that passes through the school overflows and ends up entering the classrooms carrying mud. Faced with this, we ended up wet on many occasions, because we wanted to prevent water from entering the classrooms and we opened channels with a spout so that the current of the water goes in another direction and thus preventing wells in the classrooms.