A new member has arrived to our family.
Hoy, felizmente les informamos de la reciente contratación de Viviana Contreras como nuestra nueva Gerente de Campañas de Recaudación.
Posts
Waldorf Pedagogy and Social Distancing
How has Waldorf pedagogy adapted to Social Distancing? Can we continue calling ourselves Teachers during these times of implementation of distancing between students and tutors? “The study of men” is a text written by Rudolf Steiner as the fundament for Waldorf Education, this text gathers 14 conferences from which he guides the practicing teachers and […]
Teachers and students celebrate the Mayan Solar New Year.
The Mayan Solar New Year, Waqxaquí Toj, was celebrated with a Mayan Ceremony, where every student delivered an offering according to their very own Nahual. All the teachers and students were part of this celebration in which the teachers guided a small but very significative ceremony. When the ceremony ended, everyone enjoyed the local tradition […]
The importance of music in the classroom
“There is no complete spiritual life without music, for the human soul has regions which can be illuminated only by music.” Zoltan Kondaly.
In 1951, Zoltán Kodaly (Kecskemét, 1882 – Budapest, 1967), Hungarian researcher and musical composer who introduced Hungarian schools to the music lessons period ampliation into a complete hour daily. Results were amazing, having an overall performance increase compared with the rest of the region’s schools; a remarkable point is that in order to dedicate a complete hour to music the rest of the lessons had their period’s time shortened.
Music influences in a great way the sensitivity development, creativity, discipline, and the human’s social behavior; These can be seen holistically reflected on the self’s development.
In Escuela Caracol, music is a basic tool used to holistically nurture our Caracolitos and Caracolitas. It begins during the first septennium (ages 0 – 7) with singing until reaching the melodic instruments such as the flute or the guitar during the second septennium (ages 7-14).
Students show such happiness every time they master any task related to this subject, such as tuning the guitar or interpreting a whole song, beyond that, its wonderful to see the way they share their achievements instead of falling into competitive or comparative conducts.
Once you know this, it’s no hard to understand why Escuela Caracol is the place where children are happy.
Become part of our community and help us continue nurturing Mayan children from the western region of Lake Atitlán; share our posts and newsletter with your friends and family, speak about Escuela Caracol with your workmates, sponsor a student, or make a one-time donation.
Click the link to donate https://escuelacaracol.org/make-a-one-time-donation/
Desks and chairs for our new classroom!
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.
pen-pal friends
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.