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6th Graders Visit the Dump

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In preparation for the town fair of San Marcos La Laguna, the sixth grade class discussed what they love about life in San Marcos (the trees, the mountain, the view of three volcanoes, the jocotes!) as well as what they would improve. The problem with trash in our town was their main concern, and at the end of the town fair there was a lot of it around.

So as a precursor to their upcoming study of economics, the students began a short study of trash — its history, its sources, and its treatment. The municipality of San Marcos recently finished the construction of a trash and recycling center, so we thought it a good time to visit and see how it is operating.

The students were surprised to see the relative order of its operations and how much recycling was actually happening. The center separates glass by color, plastic by its type, paper by color, cardboard, aluminum and other metals, and then sells those materials to recycling factories elsewhere. What remains is buried in a landfill on site. The job of sorting the trash is so big and made such an impression on the students that several of them later asked if the class could come and volunteer one day a week. They especially enjoyed the job of breaking glass bottles against the cement storage containers!

Below are some pictures from our visit to the trash dump with the best view in the world.

Our parade for the local fair of San Marcos La Laguna

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On the morning of April 24, all schools in San Marcos La Laguna participated in the parade which takes place during the Feria in our town. Our local fair is a joyous time that almost says goodbye to the dry season. San Marcos streets become full of music, games and activities, and thousands of people celebrate this occasion as it deserves.

The parade go across the streets of San Marcos La Laguna and ends with a common event in the football field , where local authorities celebrate the celebration with students , teachers, families and local residents .

Our parade began at Escuela Caracol, where teachers, students and parents met . Our delegation was led by the Kinder students. They carried the flag with the image of our school and a beautiful craft that they made in their classes, a ​​ paper and wool lion (see photos below). After the smaller children , the other courses were also carrying flags with the colors of our town and banners of their own making.

From our school we headed to the meeting point where we met with the other schools, and from there we started walking through the streets to get to our destination in the football field.

It was definitely a very special occasion and a time to enjoy together in a celebration where all schools come together to fill the streets with laughter and joy.

The first Holy Week carpet of Escuela Caracol

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The elaboration of sawdust, flower and fruit carpets is one of the most important aspects of the Guatemalan Semana Santa. The long and stunning carpets are a very significant part of the popular art and they are deeply rooted in the collective memory of Guatemalan people as a part of their cultural and religious syncretism.

Their functionality is also linked to the prayer. The faithful elaborate carpets not only as a form of decoration, but also to thank the divinity or to ask for some favor during the process.

We are lucky that in San Marcos La Laguna many people share their creativity in the form of amazing carpets. Different families and groups gather in the streets and combine their abilities to create beautiful pieces worthy of our admiration.

This year, the Escuela Caracol decided to create its first carpet, and the result was quite impressive! Without any previous design, and basically using only plants and flowers, all the people involved (students, parents, teachers, friends…) were able to create a lovely, improvised carpet.

This was our first experience elaborating carpets, but for sure that next year we will be filling the streets with colors again!

Below we share some pictures of other carpets made here in San Marcos La Laguna. Brilliant!

Chalkboard Drawings with Jana Senchan

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Escuela Caracol has had the good fortune to host a mentor teacher from Germany. Jana Senchan just finished taking a class from grades 1-8 at the Berlin Waldorf School, and during her sabbatical year she chose to dedicate several months at Escuela Caracol. She has spent her time observing all our classes and meeting with teachers, especially in the primary grades, as well as leading an art activity for all the faculty. Since she has considerable expertise as an artist, we asked her to work with us on chalkboard drawings. Below you can see the results.

Many thanks Jana, as well as to Svenja Büntjen, who put us into contact with Jana, and to the Freunde der Erziehungskunst, who helped to fund her travel expenses.

Alumna Family Returns to Help with Class Play

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The Devoe-Talluto Family — Kristin, Jim, Sienna, Willow & Kai — came from Vermont to Escuela Caracol in 2009 as a part of their family sabbatical. They stayed the entire year and took with them memories for a lifetime. In February 2014, the whole family decided to come back for a visit using “pay-it-forward” money that they received. They were impressed by how much the school has grown, and were eager to find ways of helping out while they were in town.

One of their contributions while visiting was to design and help make the costumes for the 2nd-3rd grades class play. It was a short play based on the fable, El Velorio de Tio Tigre (“The Wake of Uncle Tiger”) by Venezuelan writer, Antonio Arraíz.

Click here to read more about and see some pictures of the play.

Thanks Devoe-Tallutos!

Mineralogy Studies in the Sixth Grade

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The students are starting the year with a three-week study of mineralogy — a subject that is particularly potent when you live in front of three volcanoes! The students have learned a little about the volcanic history of Atitlán, as well as about the rocks of fire, igneous rocks, which comprise almost all of the rocks one finds around Lake Atitlán. The class is also studying the rocks of water, sedimentary rocks, and since it is nearly impossible to observe these rocks around Lake Atitlán, they hope to make a sixth grade class trip to another part of Guatemala in order to see first hand limestone rock formations and experience a sedimentary rock landscape. The cost will be about $100 per student, and if you would like to help the local Maya students in the class with this expense, you can make a donation by clicking here. Just be sure to write in “class trip” as a blank field (like “fax”). Thanks!

Below is an image of blackboard art in the sixth grade class at Escuela Caracol.

Mineralogia

Central American Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers Gather at Caracol

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Escuela Caracol is proud to be hosting this week the fifth annual Conference of Central American Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers with over 40 participants. The guest lecturers this year are Inés Spittler, from Peru, and Tamara Chubarovsky, from Spain. Inés is presenting the principal seminar on the 12 senses and their development in early childhood, and she is also leading a workshop on doll-making. Tamara is leading the morning rhythm, speech and singing, as well as presenting a seminar on the art of the word (working with Rudolf Steiner’s formative speech).

In these photos you can see an assortment of images from the week thus far.

Teachers from Retalhuleu visit Escuela Caracol

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Yesterday we were visited by teachers of “Escuela Mixta Sinaí” from Retalhuleu in Guatemala. They received a workshop on Waldorf pedagogy, rhythmic movement in the classroom, and form drawing. As you can see in the following photographs, it was a sizable group that came to experience something of the Waldorf way. We are grateful to the Sinaí school or their interest in Escuela Caracol as an example of integral education.

Chalkboard Drawings

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If you walk into any Waldorf classroom in the grades, one of the first things to strike you is probably the chalkboard drawing. Chalkboard art has become a time-honored tradition in Waldorf schools. It is how the teacher brings to imaginative life the content of the lessons. In a day when dry erase wipe boards (and their fumes) have taken over, Waldorf schools remain a sort of classic throwback to the days of chalk and slate. Dry erase boards, however, simply do not lend themselves to the artistic sensibility and emotional range that bright colored chalk can bring to a classroom.

It is also an important part of how the teacher’s own artistic activity — his or her own development and activity — relates both directly and invisibly to the child. Children experience great anticipation of the teacher’s next awe-inspiring image, which they later have a chance to recreate in their own books, in their own way. The images connect to the curriculum content and take the child deeper into the experience, through his or her feelings.

Here you can see a few of our teacher’s recent chalkboard drawings at Escuela Caracol. We cannot get slate chalkboards here, so we have to make our own using plywood and homemade chalkboard paint. Sometimes the grain of the wood is a challenge for the teacher, but the overall experience in the classroom is worth it.

 

You can also see the video of one of the most famous Waldorf Teacher Brian Wolfe in action With Some chalk.

Escuela Caracol in the newspaper “Prensa Libre”

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The national newspaper Prensa Libre recently published an article about Escuela Caracol and our pedagogic method.

We reproduce the text below. You can also read the entire article here.

Escuela utiliza sistema pedagógico Waldorf

Helen Estrella Celeste Porón Cuc, de 8 años, sale temprano de su casa, en San Pablo La Laguna, Sololá, para ir a la escuela Caracol, donde cursa segundo primaria. Camina hacia el establecimiento, a un kilómetro de su vivienda, en San Marcos La Laguna. Como las clases empiezan a las 8 horas, la niña toma mototaxi si va retrasada, ya que no le gusta faltar ni llegar tarde.

En la escuela Caracol, Celeste Porón comparte clases con 48 niños de comunidades de varios municipios de Sololá, que hablan kaqchikel, tz’utujil o k’iche’, y con hijos de extranjeros de Estados Unidos, Francia, Alemania, España y otros países de Europa que radican en Sololá.

La pluriculturalidad que se vive en la escuela Caracol no es su única peculiaridad, algo que la distingue del resto de establecimientos del país es también que es la única donde se práctica el sistema pedagógico Waldorf, que al contrario del sistema educativo tradicional, no es jerárquico, dirigista ni competitivo.

Sistema novedoso

El sistema Waldorf estimula la libertad, creatividad y el conocimiento desde una perspectiva integral y holística. Los niños relacionan lo aprendido con la propia experiencia, para lo que utilizan cabeza, corazón y manos.

El director de la escuela Caracol, el estadounidense Joshua Wilson, detalló que el sistema que utilizan es diferente: “Vivimos en una era de información. Todas las respuestas están a unos clics de distancia. Saber la respuesta correcta no es lo importante. La pregunta importante no es ¿qué sabes? Lo importante es ¿quién eres?”.

Wilson indicó que el sistema se enfoca en las preguntas: “¿Eres una persona que sabe manejar la información, cómo aplicarla de manera efectiva y responsable?”.

Según Wilson, otros cuestionamientos que deben responderse son: “¿Eres una persona con confianza en sí misma para manejar la vida con la voluntad de hacer algo, de producir algo? ¿Eres una persona que puede ver varios lados de un problema? ¿Una persona que puede seguir aprendiendo? ¿Eres una persona que se siente responsable al mundo, que cree en un mundo mejor, que puede imaginar un mundo mejor, y que se siente que puede tomar un papel en este mundo?”.

El maestro Erbin Samuel Quiacaín Sajvín contó que cada docente hace su propio currículum, y los niños elaboran sus propios libros, de acuerdo con la necesidad en el aula.

Las evaluaciones se llevan a cabo de manera técnica y con métodos de observación, para determinar el desarrollo del niño en su manera de expresión, aprendizaje, forma de actuar y relación con los demás.

La maestra Sandra Pérez, maestra cakchiquel, indicó que son ocho docentes y a los niños de primaria se les imparte danza, música, arte, jardinería, educación física, matemáticas y los idiomas inglés, español y kaqchikel.

Los alumnos locales son becados hasta en 97 por ciento, mientras que los extranjeros pagan colegiatura completa.

La administradora Mercedes Franco comentó que los padres de familia interactúan con sus hijos. “No solo vienen a inscribir a sus hijos, sino deben mantenerse cerca para participar en el desarrollo estudiantil”.

Manuel Tuch Sancoy, padre de familia, expuso que la educación que recibe su hijo es distinta a la que él recibió y tiene más enfoque en la naturaleza.

Trayectoria

Siete años  

La escuela Caracol está aprobada por el Ministerio de Educación y  es una de las más de 900 que   utilizan la pedagogía Waldorf   en 83 países, la cual   fue promovida por el austriaco Rudolf Steiner.

El director   Joshua Wilson  recuerda que la  escuela fue establecida en Guatemala en el 2007 por él y su esposa, Corina,  con el apoyo de  Nicolás Sacach Mendoza, albañil;  Amarilis Sancoy, cocinera, y Andrea Arrivillaga, quien este año se gradúa como la primera  maestra guatemalteca Waldorf. Para más información consultar el sitio www.escuelacaracol.org