By Michael Estill | Program Director
Hey friends!
We’ve ben awfully busy this past month as we prepare for the upcoming schoolyear and we were recently very fortunate to earn and share with our compañeros from our sister program, Let’s Be Ready, during their annual teacher training held in Antigua. Like Magic Classroom, Lets Be Ready prepares kids for success in primary school, with the main difference being that they work in semi-rural to urban areas and work with graduated teachers. Due to the remote nature of the communities where we go and the dearth of high school graduates, Magic Classroom seeks to mold motivated and creative youth leaders without previous formal teaching experience into effective educators in their communities. This past year we enjoyed tremendous success with our first generation youth leader facilitators, and we like to think that a lot of that success was made possible because of our emphasis on practical and responsive trainings and site visits in the field sprinkled throughout the year. In a continuation of that same model, we wanted to reward some of our standouts from last year and give them the chance to travel from their communities all the way to Antigua to take in the goodness that is Let’s Be Ready’s bi-annual workshop.
Each region currently enrolled in Magic Classroom was represented at the training by one delegate, leading to total of four reps from our different regions currently served: The Western Highlands of Quetzaltenango, the Pacific Coast, Lake Atitlán and the Sierra de Los Cuchumatánes mountain range. There’s no need to question these young ladies’ commitment as coming to Antigua was no easy task, as some had to travel from as far as eight hours away!
By the end of the week, all four were in unanimous agreement that the workshop was well worth the long bus ride, as they acquired new ideas for the classroom and some new friends as well. In addition to learning new techniques and strategies, all of the workshop attendees were outfitted with tablet technology equipped with our new and greatly improved curriculum components.
For those unfamiliar with the different components of our program, our facilitators receive a guide with specific activities and learning outcomes established for each and every day of the school year. This guide book of activities is accompanied by a careful reading of a suggested book, PLUS an accompanying scripted daily audio capsule that goes in hand-in-hand with the subject of the day. These audio capsules have been completely revamped this year in an effort to help reinforce the day’s content in a fun and creative way.
The introduction of tablet technology was viewed as a logical next step for our program as we wanted to continually make changes to our curriculum based on teacher feedback without having to physically print and deliver new copies each time. Having a tablet and Bluetooth speaker combo will allow our teachers to view their guidebook, play their new and improved audio programs, take pictures in the classroom and provide us with feedback all with greater ease! How cool is that!?
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Please consider making a contribution today if you or a friend is interested in helping prepare rural Guatemalan children for success in the first grade and beyond.
By Michael Estill | Program Director
By Michael Estill | Program Director
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