Why wouldn’t I start a Connected Class as a facilitator with the purpose of helping me and others? – A testimony from David Chamorro

Por David Chamorro Pereira
Nov 16th, 2022

Dear members of our Global Community,

My name is David Chamorro, I am an English teacher and the Head of Foreign Affairs at «Colegio San Ignacio Alonso Ovalle» in Santiago de Chile, Chile. And proudly, an active member of the Global Community of Educate Magis.

The Educate Magis Connected Classrooms have been an activity of paramount importance to me since I started using the platform. I had always attended to the various invitations made by the global community, just as a guest and never as a facilitator. After having the opportunity to co-host a Global Citizenship course, intended for teachers, I asked myself, why wouldn’t I start a Connected Class as a facilitator with the purpose of helping me and others?

In October and November of this year, I ventured into this new idea, hosting a Connected Classroom where students would meet and talk about the major environmental issues that are affecting their countries. For this, I reached out to the team in Educate Magis seeking help on promoting and co-hosting this Connected Class with me. The results were excellent. The students were very engaged. We ended up offering two Connected Classes on the same topic due to a large number of interested schools! We had teachers and students from Jesuïtes de GràciaSpain; Colegio de la Inmaculada ConcepciónArgentina; Jesuit Primary and High SchoolPoland; Ateneo de Manila Grade School and High SchoolPhilippines; St. Ignatius CollegeZimbabwe; Belen Jesuit Preparatory SchoolUnited States; Colegio San IgnacioBolivia; Colegio San Ignacio Alonso OvalleChile; Colégio Santo Inácio Rio de JaneiroBrazil, and Ateneo de Davao Grade School and High SchoolPhilippines.

With this idea, I was really looking to be more active in the global community of Educate Magis besides having the chance to help teachers around the world to discover new opportunities to participate as members, which is how I discovered how to participate in it many years ago. It was thanks to fellow teachers from Spain and The Philippines, who were patient enough to give me their time and heart to coach me. I do feel the need to give all the good vibes back to other teachers around the world who are kind of struggling to connect their classes virtually for various purposes.

What drives me to continue pushing this forward are the following objectives:

1. Providing my students with chances to speak in English and interact with other school peers from around the world.

2. Being able to build up the chance to create a Connected Classroom by myself and leaving my comfort zone.

3. Getting Connected Classrooms video samples to invite other teachers from my school or others in the global community to create new Connected Classrooms.

4. Having enough experience in Connected Classrooms to coach other teachers from my school and other Jesuit schools.

Here are two summary recordings of the two Connected Classes «Meet and talk about the major environmental issues that are happening in my country». And some testimonials from the students.

I invite all teachers around the world to participate and generate activities in our global community! This is the way we may build up a better and more committed global community.

«Hearing how all of us from countries around the world have similar issues, particularly with the environment and water, puts into perspective the level of connection we have. We’re all going through this together, and can solve our problems by solving each other’s.» Joseph, Belen Jesuit Preparatory School – Class of 2023

“The connected classroom opportunity is truly something all students should be able to have a chance to participate in. I feel like the connected classroom experience allowed us not only to be able to come together as students from different countries sharing their experiences and views, but students from one world coming together to solve issues that affect us all. The connected classroom situation allowed us to come together and show that our problems are very similar to others around the world and that we are truly one Earth. God Bless.” John, Belen Jesuit Preparatory School – Class of 2027

«Desde el Kostka agradecemos la coordinación del encuentro, al terminar nuestros alumnos seguían haciendo comentarios sobre la reunión entre ellos, esos es lo importante! Crear debate.» Laura Ceraldi, Educació Mediambiental, Jesuïtes de Gràcia – Spain

St. Ignatius College – Zimbabwe