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Today is the day! watch our campaign launching video!!!
Today is the day! We are kicking off our holiday giving campaign and we need your help to make it a success! We have an ambitious goal of raising $50,000 to ensure Escuela Caracol continues to grow and remain a learning haven for the children of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala! Every week we’ll be giving you a glimpse of “A Day in the Life” here at Escuela Caracol. This week, we are excited to introduce you to Teresa, who is finishing sixth grade and Andrea her teacher! We believe that through education we can plant the seed of transformation in one of the most vulnerable places in Guatemala. Escuela Caracol is the first Waldorf school in Guatemala. It facilitates K-6 education to children in San Marcos La Laguna in Lake Atitlán. 90% of our students are indigenous Mayan children from the lake. 80% of them students have the opportunity to study at Escuela Caracol thanks to our scholarship programs made possible by private donations from generous individuals and institutions in the U.S. and Europe. In this video we meet Teresita who is 12 years old and is currently in sixth grade, and Andrea, her sixth grade teacher. They share with us a glimpse of their experiences at Escuela Caracol. Check it out and make your gift here: http://escuelacaracol.org/make-a-one-time-donation/ “A Day in the Life” 2018-2019 Holiday Campaign Escuela Caracol Lake Atitlán, Sololá, Guatemala ... read more
Travis, the man who makes things fly.
During the last few weeks we had as a guest an incredible person, Travis Whitfield; an American aerospace engineer, who paused his trip across the American continent to share with us his charisma and knowledge. He worked as a volunteer doing endless tasks such as translations, helping Chico in the garden and making video recordings with his incredible drone; He also shared with the students of a great workshop in which our boys and girls learned about the work of an engineer and much about physics, in this same workshop the students built some “rockets” propelled with a kind of slingshot. We had an amazing time. Thank you very much for everything Travis! Have an incredible trip, we hope to see you soon back... read more
Theatre, an important artistic discipline at Escuela Caracol:
On Waldorf Schools around the globe, one of the many artistic disciplines integrated on a different way to each class is theatre. Starting from kindergarten, as a part of the weekly rhythm during specific moments, children have the experience of participating together with their teachers using puppets; and of playing different roles from the fairy tales listened during class. And altho the kindergarten experience is quite different from the one with elementary and high school, it is a small step to what will be, in the future, the staging of stories related to the curricula studied at the time. These theatre plays variate depending on the age and come as a result of the development of our students. These theatre plays are picked to complement the stories told during school year; so, they go hand to hand with the curricula and with the nurturing needs of each of the students need according the development stage he or she might be at the time. I can clearly remember the first play I staged at Escuela Caracol, it was an amazing experience to adapt a play about Nordic Mythology that had been narrated in fourth grade class. And so, during elementary years we’ll begin by staging small plays about fairy tales; after that, the Fables, Hebrew stories, Saints and Heroes, Nordic Mythology, Local Mythology; until reaching fifth grade, where the plays are meant to represent an historical stage of one of the main civilizations studied in the classroom (India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Etc.), but the traditionally picked is Greece; on sixth grade, it should be a play related with Rome or... read more
Kaqchikel Language in Escuela Caracol
The most valuable inheritance from our mayan ancestors is the culture that has developed surrounding our language. At Escuela Caracol we look to promote it to strengthen the communication process with the local kaqchikel population in San Marcos la Laguna. At Escuela Caracol, action and exchange has build up based on respect an appreciation of cultural diversity, thats why the study of mayan languages is taken as an educational process within the life of children with the idea of strengthen our cultural roots with the purpose of achieving common wealth end the growth of our people. On each grade or level the pedagogical approach used to teach kaqchikel depends specifically of the age and phase the students are passing through. During the first three grades of primary school, students enter the classroom listening, singing and playing; they develop creative crafts among other activities through which the learning of the language is socialized in a very special and natural way. As from the fourth grade, children write and read the language, understand and communicate in Kaqchikel; they learn through the development of a more complex creative process that involves thinking, feeling and wanting, both in social activities inside and outside of school. Ervin Quiacain Sajbin Maestro titular de segundo... read more
Thomas Wildgruber, You are always welcome.
During October, we had the visit of one of the greatest Waldorf mentors, german teacher Thomas Wildgruber, an expert on Waldorf pedagogy and arts. On each visit, teacher Thomas shares with students and our team, leaving a trace of light and knowledge that translates into general growth of all of us at Escuela Caracol. Teacher Thomas is author of one of the most popular art books in the Waldorf community around the world, “Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools, Classes 1 to 8”. Danke für alles liebe Lehrer Thomas!... read more
Festival del Jocote y Barriletes 2018
Another memorable “Festival del Jocote y Barriletes” is added to the history of our school. Every year, during the season of Jocotes and season change, we celebrate this wonderful festival. Students, teachers, local community and friends from all over the world gathered in the facilities of our school to share and enjoy our wonderful festival as a family. This year we met on Saturday, October 27, and had the pleasant visit of our friends from the Trinus school community and had the participation of great artists like the very popular singer-songwriter “Wacha” (Quetzaltenango), Karla and Jorge Herrera, the Hip Hop group Juun Ajpú Koj, and our very own and always impressive “Flor de Jocote segunda generación”. We played, sang, flew kites, ate and learned a lot. Thanks to all the Caracol family for accompanying us and being always present!... read more
Roles were assigned for the fourth grade theatre play!
Today was the role distribution for one of the theatre plays to be presented by the fourth grade students within the 2018 theater season of Escuela Caracol. It was amazing to see the faces of illusion in all the students when they saw the roles assigned. The learning experience at Escuela Caracol is full of love and happiness. The play “Stories of Yggdrasil” tells two stories inspired by Nordic mythology and will be presented on November the 7th at 3pm in “La Palapa” at Escuela... read more
September bulletin is finally here!
K’ow friends from around the world! After a few days struggling, the second number of our monthly bulletin is finally here, it brings a lot of news from what have been happening at Escuela Caracol. We hope from the bottom of our hearts you enjoy reading it and watching the pictures as much as we enjoyed watching the kids growing and having such good times. caracol boletin sept 2018 eng — K’ow is a word in Kakchikel language that means “Is anybody home?”, It can be used to say “Hello”. — ... read more
Test of Courage
As part of the celebrations of Michael the students had two days for performing the “proofs of courage”. On September 27 it was the turn of the boys and girls of first, second, and third grade. They made an exciting journey worthy of an adventure novel, in which they had to navigate an obstacle course made with tables and chairs to demonstrate their courage. The following day it was the turn of the fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. The level of difficulty and danger was greater for these students as they had to walk a tightrope with only the help of two poles for balance. They supported their own weight as they crossed a rope of several meters over a pool of mud. The importance of these challenges is that the children feel valued and courageous, feelings that will help them in the future to overcome difficulties that arise in their paths and to experience the feeling of “I can!”. It was an amazing and very fun day; all the boys and girls did an incredible job on their challenges. We are proud of the courage of our... read more
Escuela Caracol was part of the independence parade.
On September the 15th, our students participated from the municipal independence parade, they got prepared with handmade posters with civic messages that expressed their feelings and thoughts about current events. They walked happily all over the town among the students from all the other schools in San Marcos. At the end of the parade, our musicians from “Flor de Jocote II” played many melodies for the general audience at the Central Park.... read more
Viva Caracol!
During September’s last weekend, we had our first “Viva Caracol”, a day in which our team shared their expertise which teachers and members of Panajachel community. The activity took place in “Casa de Arte”, three workshops focused on first learning, language and math were imparted. ... read more
Escuela Caracol students develop their artistic vein.
During September, an extracurricular painting group was formed. It was guided by our dear Lucía (school mother), Santiago (substitute teacher), Andrea (sixth-grade teacher) and Maria Eugenia (school administrator); they taught our children some really cool acrylic techniques. The paintings were exposed during “Viva Caracol” in Panajachel and enjoyed by all the... read more
The magic of handcrafts.
The experience acquired as a handcrafts teacher for the last 8 years lets me affirm that by working with their hands, children transform conventional materials like threads into more complex objects (animals, bags, socks, among other things), and do a lot more than just occupy their time doing something “useful”, it is a therapeutic activity that fills children with joy that can’t be explained. But there is a lot more to tell… Steiner said: Criteria comes from imaginative forces, working through the heart. It is not the head by itself but the whole human being that shapes criteria. Just think about how many senses are used when working on handcrafts –sight, touch, movement, balance, among many others–. Senses receive many impressions from the world and unite to form criteria. Our hands take us to a deeper and closer relationship with the world and, therefore, to a higher understanding of humanity. Manualidades y Artesanías (Hauck, 1968). For this and many other reasons, handicrafts are a “must” in every classroom, above all at these times of human development (ages 7 to 12) where technology has occupied many moments and spaces of childhood. In any case, we must be careful about what types of manual activities to perform. It’s quite common to find publications on all kinds of media about handcrafts workshops for children that are basically on cutting, folding and pasting paper, cardboard, fabrics, or even materials that are very harmful both to the child’s health and nature. We should ask ourselves: “Are these really the kinds of handcrafts that should be accompanying the child’s development between 7 and 12 years... read more
Michael, celebration of the powerful will
Escuela Caracol was born as a Micaelic impulse of a young couple filled with “initiative and inner vigor”; at the present time, it keeps growing in the hands of a group of young teachers that look to offer this new pedagogical alternative to our and nearby towns, with the strength left by their momentum and their own successes. Last Sunday, a celestial revelation appeared in the San Marcos la Laguna sky – it was the day designated to celebrate the archangel Michael – as an announcement of the festivity to come. Now this revelation which appeared on his day shows us the opening of a snail (spiral) that expands brilliantly in the sky, and “as in the skies, also on earth”. The meaning behind these festivities is exposed in the forcefulness with which the image portrays the balancing scale between compassion and steadiness on one side and the iron sword of truth on the other. Scale and sword have to live on in the imagination in the daily chores of a school that fights against laziness, fear, distrust, and intolerance; and that looks for the strength to keep developing towards initiative, creativity, and healthy coexistence. The process of preparation for the small proofs of courage that the children experience attracts to the school, in the form of willpower, the grace that it brings to each of them, which is expressed in a force of will which is free, strong, and brave, and thus Michael ́s scale opens as a generous and protective cloth, and the iron of his sword glows in the blood of our school and screams: here... read more
Knitting and the learning process:
Knitting builds neuronal connections by using both brain hemispheres simultaneously; children must pay attention to instructions, fine movements, colors, interaction with peers, and daydreams at the same time.
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