January the seventeenth was a special day for everyone at Escuela Caracol, it was the day when we welcomed for the first time all the new families of our community.
The spark in the eyes of every parent as they were imagining their happy children being holistically nurtured in our gardens and classrooms was priceless.
We welcome you all to our community, to our school, to our home, lets become a family and grow together.
Here we are presenting you a traditional Waldorf tale, recounted exactly the way it is told in the classroom to our kindergarten students. We hope you enjoy it.
Escuela Caracol keeps a symbiotic relationship with its community, this supportive network has made many of the current achievements possible.
Hellen Dorff and her family during their visit in 2018.
In August of 2018, Hellen Dorff came along with her husband and daughters to visit our school. They brought a huge box of delicious fruit for our students and spent a few minutes walking the gardens and chatting with some of the school’s staff and teachers.
A connection was naturally built; Hellen, a Waldorf teacher back in Germany, felt identified with Escuela Caracol’s mission. Soon after the visit, Hellen sent the link to an article she published at a local newspaper where she mentioned her experience in Escuela Caracol. A few weeks later, she organized a fundraiser with her community on behalf of Escuela Caracol, they gathered enough funds to donate a whole set of classroom chairs and desks to be used in our new building.
During November’s last week, a representative of Hellen came to San Marcos la Laguna. He was Max Hesse, Hellen’s cousin and owner of the workshop where the donated desks and chairs were constructed. On that beautiful morning, Max came along with his family to deliver a wonderful and priceless donation, desks and chairs to be used in our new classroom.
Max Hesse and his family during the delivery of the donation.
Families, like the Dorff’s, are one of the main pillars of our community, and thanks to kind donations like this, Escuela Caracol can continue nurturing heads, hearts, and hands of Mayan children from the western region of Lake Atitlan within an environment of dignity, love, and respect.
If you, like Hellen and her family, are interested in becoming part of our community and support Escuela Caracol, follow the link below and donate now.
Asociación Caracol recently had its last Regular Assembly of 2020, where new members of the board were elected.
Asociación Caracol is the legal body that represents the interests of the Escuela Caracol community. It is formed by members of the community, friends of Escuela Caracol, school parents, and teachers.
During the last regular assembly, three of the members of the Association’s board resigned their positions: Maria Eugenia Contreras as President, Enrique Perez as Vice President, and Martha Lynd as Alternate. Maria and Enrique served as President and VP for more than 3 years and in accordance with the Association’s statutes, they have passed the baton to other members of the assembly.
Many members of the association were nominated to fill the positions. The new board members were chosen in a general election held during the assembly.
The new board is constituted by:
Luisa Larios – Alternate (New member)
Carmen Alvarado – Secretary
Colleen Donovan – Treasurer
Ignacio Porón – Vice-President (New member)
Diego Sacach – President. (New member)
If you’re old school and were part of a pen-pal program, you’ll surely remember the excitement of writing a letter and sending it to someone far away, and the thrill of getting a response through the mail.
Something like that is currently happening to our third-grade group, that got enrolled in a pen-pal program with the third-grade students of Luis Horacio Gomez School, in Cali, Colombia.
This happened thanks to our dear Pedagogical Advisor, Gloria Elena Londoño, and to her sister and third-grade teacher of Luis Horacio Gomez School, Adriana Lucía Londoño.
Just before the holidays break begun, our third graders wrote letters to a previously assigned Colombian friend. All the letters were unique and special, the children wrote about the way we live in San Marcos la Laguna, the weather, the games they play, our school environment, and many other subjects chosen by our lovely writers.
Recently, Gloria Elena went to spend the holiday’s vacations in Cali, once there, she played the role of Escuela Caracol’s messenger taking these letters to our little friends. She entered the classroom dressed as a mailman, and while singing a beautiful song, she delivered the mail.
We are eagerly waiting for our messenger’s return next January to read, with our Caracolitos, the responses from the Colombian third graders of Luis Horacio Gómez School.
Listen to the song, here.
The 20th of June was a very special day for Escuela Caracol, It was our 7th anniversary! Celebrating another birthday is truly magical for us. Escuela Caracol is a dream come true for our entire school community, seeing it fulfilled every new year reflects the enormous effort and devotion in our daily work. Offering San Marcos La Laguna this excellent educational opportunity fulfills a community need for nurturing, arts-integrated, multi-sensory, intercultural education. It is with great joy and satisfaction that we continue to work towards increasing access to this education.
Our celebration brought together students, teachers, members of the school team, families and many other people who accompanied us on this fantastic celebration. We started the day with a meeting in our palapa, where students delighted the audience with their art. The palapa was filled with music and dance, as you can see in the gallery we share at the end of this article.
After that we held a raffle. Members of our community donated prizes, and this year they really surprised us! A few of the prizes were accommodations in some of Lake Atitlán’s most beautiful hotels, breakfasts and lunches in local restaurants, handicraft materials, honey, clothing, cakes, hours of internet, massages. The money raised through the raffle will support our important daily work. The continued success of Escuela Caracol depends almost entirely on the contributions of our donors and sponsors. We deeply thank all of the people who contributed, for they made possible this amazing activity.
Students in grade six participated in an exercise of courage and valor by jumping over the bonfire, a symbolic annual tradition offered to the graduating class. As they jump they ask for desires to be fulfilled in their future. This moment is a very special one and marks a farewell to our grade six students.
Students and their families also shared game time in front of our new classroom building, newly built with the support of donors and sponsors who strongly believe in our educational project. The students especially loved seeing their families and teachers laugh and play with them enjoying the party as if they had themselves returned to childhood.
Following game time everyone enjoyed a feast that was made possible through the contributions of all of the families. Each family brought food and helped serve and clean. Escuela Caracol is a team that involves families in the educational process of their children and conveys values that enrich the development of the students, the families and the San Marcos community.
Many thanks to all who joined us, which made it possible to enjoy together as a community!
