Guatemalan Teachers, Local Teachers Awarded in Riverdale Park

Six teachers from Guatemala will be spending the next two weeks in Riverdale Park and Beltsville working in classrooms and shadowing administrators as a part of a teacher exchange program.

The teachers are from Riverdale Park's sister town, Ipala, in the department (almost like a state) of Chiquimula, in the southeastern part of the country, about 108 miles outside of Guatemala City.

Mayor Vernon Archer, who is hosting some teachers, welcomed the teachers at a reception in their honor Monday evening at town hall where they, along with five teachers from Prince George's County and D.C. were recognized for the time they spent in Guatemala teaching over the summer.

Marcos Romero teaches English in five schools in Ipala. Romero said like in America, he teaches languages with the help of books and different visuals, but they are lacking in technology.

"We have some there, but it's not the same," he said.

Romero will be spending time in classrooms at Beltsville Academy.

"I want students to really experience our language," he said. "I was teaching them using real examples."

Another Guatemalan teacher Rosa Lydia Padilla said she was impressed with the education system here.

"It's very different there because we are a third world country and don't have access to that technology," Padilla said. "I'm so surprised with how the material is being used to educate throughout the day. Back at home we teach one group of students in the morning, another age group in the afternoon and another in the evening."

Pamela Aguiniga, an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher at Beltsville Academy, has been to Ipala twice since the partnership with the city began in 2008.

Aguiniga is now hosting two Guatemalan teachers at her home in Columbia and she's happy to return the favor.

"It's awesome having them here," Aguiniga said Monday.

The teachers will spend their remaining time at Riverdale Elementary, William Wirt Middle and Beltsville Academy learning from other teachers and teaching the children about their life in Guatemala.