Classes began January 18th and it is hard to believe that four months have already flown by! This year we have welcomed many new teachers to Escuela Caracol as well as doubled our student enrollment.  Was it really just a few years ago that Josh and Courtney sat under the stars thinking, “If we even had just twelve students, that would be pretty great”? The school’s third formal academic year is now approaching the midway point, bringing 42 students and 6 new teachers to Escuela Caracol. 

Among these teachers, we would like to welcome Ervin Quiacain from San Marcos to KinderCaracol (and the primary grades PE class), Annie Thorstenson from South Dakota to Handiwork class, Andrea Arrivillaga from Xela, Guatemala to the 2nd-3rd Grade class, Shad Qudsi from New Jersey to Gardening class, Courtney Wilson to KinderCaracol, and Katey Dolezal from Minnesota to English class.  We are excited for so many wonderful people to be joining us this year!


                           
                           
      

Ervin Quiacain, KinderCaracol Teacher Asst.   Annie Thorstenson, Handwork Teacher       Courtney Wilson, KinderCaracol Teacher


                    
                      

      Andrea Arrivillaga, 2-3 Class Teacher            Shad Qudsi, Gardening Teacher                Katey Dolezal, Admin. Coordinator &

                                                                                                                                                                        English Teacher



Lake Atitlán Update

The algal bloom which covered the lake in a carpet of green at the end of 2009 has receded, at least for now, returning to us the crystalline lake waters to which we are so accustomed. Many efforts are underway to combat the problem of pollution around the lake, but it will take years for any serious progress to be made. The good news for the moment is that the official test results from last November show only trace levels of toxicity, though further testing was suggested. Click here to learn more.



Our New Palapa

Just days before classes began, the finishing touches were put on the palm thatched roof of our brand new palapa!  The space is wonderful – open and airy
– and provides sufficient room for all 22 of our kindergarteners to play, create and imagine.  Inside the palapa there are designated areas for playing with natural materials (building houses and castles, restaurants and circuses), for working on projects (such as painting, weaving and carving), and a special area for storytime. During the first few days of class however, the short
bamboo wall around the classroom was not completed and the children were finding many ways to enjoy life inside and outside of the palapa.  Needless to say, Sabina, Marilily, and Ervin were quite relieved once the bamboo doors were finished!  Many thanks to Freunde de Erziehungskunst and a generous family in Vermont for their support in helping us build this palapa. Eventually we hope to have a separate kindergarten space and to convert this palapa into a general salon for meetings, parties and movement classes.   Click here for more pictures.


Visiting Waldorf Music Teacher  
During the month of February, we were fortunate to host Hartmut Reuter, a visiting Waldorf professor of music from Germany.  During his stay with us, Hartmut offered the school general mentoring, music classes for the flute and lyre, and musical presentations and performances for the entire community of San Marcos. Our music teacher, Diego, was able to train with Harmut in flute lessons and learn new pedagogical practices.

Click here to visit Hartmut’s web site.

                

      


Coffee Harvesting: From the Bean to the Cup!

During the first two weeks of school the primary grades spent part of their ma
in lesson time working with the school’s organic coffee grove.  They took the coffee from the bean to the cup, a process that involves picking the coffee fruit, removing the pulp with a stone mill, setting the bean to ferment for a few days, washing,
drying for about 10 days, removing the outer shell by stone mill, roasting the bean over our kitchen stove, grinding and finally serving it to parents at our Back to School Afternoon. Quite a process to get a cup of coffee! Many students said their favorite part of the coffee process was removing the pulp with their fingers – a process that involved squeezing the bean and shooting the seeds across the yard!

Click here for more pictures.




Back to School Afternoon & Our New Parent Committee

On February 11, we held our Back to School Afternoon at school.  Parents got the chance to spend time in their child’s classroom, meet other parents from the class, and participate in activities with their child’s teacher.  At this meeting, all parents elected the Comité de los Padres y Madres, a Parent Committee.  This committee is composed of parents from the kindergarten, first grade, and mixed second-third grade class and helps foster more parent participation in the life of the school (planning events, activities, programs) and also aids in major decisions at the school.



Celebración de M
ayo
On Saturday, May 8, the entire school community gathered to celebrate three very
important events: Escuela Caracol’s 3rd birthday, the arrival of the rains, and Mother’s Day. It is a special change in the seasons here, moving from six months without rain to rain nearly every day. The earth explodes with green as leaves sprout from branches and grass and stems grow faster than you’d believe possible. 
Our party began early in the morning with the children making crowns from bamboo branches, ferns and bougainvillea flowers, and continued with a Mayan corn planting ceremony which the third-graders helped to lead. Making our way to the Maypole strung with beautiful ribbons of all colors, the kindergarten class presented songs, followed by the grades classes who had their own special
songs and poems celebrating the life brought by the rain as well as our mothers. 

After the presentation, families participated in cooperative games such as Beanbag Pass (no hands!), and finished the celebration with a feast prepared by by our parents featuring pepián, a traditional Guatemalan dish. Every family contributed something to the extravagant lunch table, from rice and tortillas to a delicious chocolate coconut cake!

Click here for more pictures of our May Celebration (part 1).

Click here for May Celebration (part 2).


A glimpse into a day at school. . .

As is the local custom with the return of the rains in May, the primary grades students have been busy preparing and planting their own milpa or field of corn and beans. They chose a spot in the garden of a house the school manages (thank you Haydee & Pierre!), cleared the area with machetes (and lots of supervision), dug their holes, piled the rocks and planted the corn. When we return in June from our two week vacation, the kids will clear the weeds in the milpa, organically fertilize the corn, and prepare to plant the beans.  Click here to see more photos of the milpa planting.

The kids in KinderCaracol have weekly activities in drawing, watercolor painting, modeling with beeswax and cooking. In addition, various children have on-going projects in weaving, woodworking and puppet-making.

The first grade class is learning the letters of the alphabet, knitting, and they have just started to get to know their pentatonic flutes. The second graders have been learning cursive and preparing the song, Mariposa (Butterfly), for performance on their flutes.  The third graders have also prepared this song for performance on their flutes and are working on spelling and dictation. In addition to the milpa, the primary grades have been learning about and working with compost (including our composting toilets!), they’ve prepared and planted beds with squash and beans, and they’ve also planted a medicinal herb garden with lemongrass, spearmint, mugwort and horhound.


Farewell Sabina

Sabina came to us from Switzerland at the start of the year and earnestly began work as our KinderCaracol teacher. Due to personal reasons in her family, however, she has decided to return to Switzerland. Courtney will be stepping in as the interim lead teacher in KinderCaracol (and stepping down as our yoga teacher). She founded KinderCaracol three years ago and already knows most of the children in the class, so we feel extremely fortunate that she is eager .

It is with sadness in our hearts that we say farewell to Sabina. We wish her the best in Switzerland.




Thanks to Our Community of Support

It is a widespread and varied community of support that is making Escuela Caracol possible.  Below we would like to extend a special thanks to those who have provided support over the past several months.

• All of our sponsors whose generosity enables indigenous students from the Lake Atitlán community to attend Escuela Caracol.

• New Mozart School in Palo Alto, California and Chesterbrook Elementary School in McLean, Virginia for their enthusiastic fundraising which is helping to sponsor a total of seven students.

• Freunde de Erziehungskunst (Friends of Waldorf Education) in Germany for continued development support.

• Internationaal Hulpfonds in the Netherlands for funding Waldorf training for two of our teachers for the next five years.

  1. •La Paz Hotel in San Marcos for use of the palapa for weekly yoga classes with the primary grades.

• A Washington Waldorf School Family, for helping cover the cost of each classroom’s wooden cabinets.

• A Family from Australia for their generous donation toward our general operating expenses.

• Villa Sumaya Retreat Center for sponsoring our faculty retreat in January with lodging, food and use of their beautiful facilities.

  1. •Christopherus Homeschool Resources: Many thanks to Donna Simmons at Christopherus who generously donated her 2nd & 3rd grade curriculum materials for our use at Escuela Caracol.

  2. •Thierry, Maria and their son, Lucas for the beautiful sign for the school.


Our Immediate Needs

  1. •Kindergarten Sponsorship for Román ($1020/year or $85/month for 12 months)

  2. •1/2 Grades Sponsorship for Heber ($1020/year or $85/month for 12 months)

  3. •Partial Kindergarten Sponsorship for Gadiel ($22/month for 12 months)

  4. •Kindergarten Teacher: see our job posting.

  5. •Mentorships from experienced Waldorf teachers.

  6. •Class supplies (Stockmar watercolor paints, Stockmar block & stick crayons, quality colored pencils, main lesson books, watercolor paper, etc.)


Please see our Wish List for a list of supplies as well as other ideas.


Your generosity is making our work possible.

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Holistic Education for an Intercultural Community


San Marcos La Laguna • Lago Atitlán • Guatemala

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More Photos

by Katey Dolezal & Joshua Wilson

The photos below are from a parade during the San Marcos Feria (Saint Mark’s day) as well as a hike with the first grade. In addition, there are a number of public Facebook albums which you can view, including:


Planting Our Milpa

Coffee

May Celebration

May Celebration cont’d

and more.....