Teacher in Lambayeque (Peru)
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“Technology’s our ally, not our enemy. If we learn to use it properly, we’ll improve the quality of our students’ learning”
Aleyda Leyva is a Social Sciences teacher at the Peruvian-Spanish School in the Lambayeque region of Peru. Since her early days as a teacher she’s advocated ICT in the classroom. Her commitment and her students’ excellent results took her through to the final of the Varkey Foundation’s Global Teacher Prize. She’s also received numerous awards and acknowledgements, as listed in her personal blog, where she writes about educational innovation.
The power of technology
When Aleyda discovered the power of technology to teach her students, she confirmed that it would be the best way of encouraging them to learn and engage with the learning process. “I could see my students getting excited about the idea of using different resources”.
Besides, she realised that teaching through ICT would be directly reflected in benefits for the whole community. “At the outset I used it to generate resources, but, as time went on, my students generated their own resources based on the use of technology and these resources benefited the community. They became active agents of change through technology”.
An award-winning teacher
This Peruvian teacher’s involvement in the search for new learning methodologies for her students has resulted in numerous awards and recognitions from the educational community.
Thus, Aleyda was named one of the 50 most innovative teachers in the world by the Varkey Foundation. Her nomination for the Global Teacher Prize enabled her to represent Peru and showcase its education system in keeping with the 21st century.
“Although it gives me great joy to know that my work is having an impact on the community and that it’s being acknowledged, it also provides anopportunity to show the whole world that we’re bringing innovation to education in Peru and that there are hundreds of thousands of teachers striving each day to improve the living conditions and educational quality with their students”.
Aleyda: a ProFuturo teacher
ProFuturo arrived in Peru in 2017. Since then we’ve been working on local development in partnership with other players involved in teacher training and children’s education in the country. This teaching is also based on the use of the new technologies. More than 800,000 children have already benefited at 930 schools where our educational programme operates and more than 38,000 teachers have learnt with ProFuturo.
Among them is Aleyda, who confirms that ProFuturo has enabled her to come up with different strategies to make her students more aware of their reality and, with them, design solutions that can help to improve the community.
She also adds: “I’ve been able to meet teachers from all over Peru, leading me to understand the diversity of our country and design strategies that can be replicated in the country and abroad. I’m really grateful for all the courses, meetings and learning communities that allow me to grow every day, improving my practice and impacting my students”.
Aleyda Leyva is convinced: “Technology’s our ally, not our enemy. If we learn to use it properly, we’ll improve the quality of our students’ learning”. In addition, she declares that training in the technology and methodological aspects is vital. Aleyda hopes that other teachers will share the undertaking to link ICT and education, because “it’s worth it, given that what we’re doing is improving our students’ quality of life and quality of learning”.
