Lets Be Ready

Hello! How have you been?
We hope everyone is well at home next to their loved ones...

Without a doubt, these last two years we have faced many obstacles in different aspects of life. But something that has helped us overcome them has been our positive attitude when facing them. We have verified what a Biblical Proverb says: "A joyful heart is good medicine, But a crushed spirit saps one’s strength” (Proverbs 17:22). How true those words are, a joyful heart has positive effects. In fact, a BBC News article quotes Dr Derek Cox, an official at the Scottish Ministry of Health, as saying: "He who is happy is less likely to get sick than he who is not". According to the same article, "people who are happier have better protection against things like heart disease and stroke".

For this reason, as a united group that aims to support the community with quality education, we have sought out different activities to continue and animate our classes. Because COVID infections have decreased and are different depending on the community; I am happy to tell you that in most of our communities they are working in person. Three times a week, for 3 hours. Obviously, always taking into account precautionary and biosecurity measures in each class and with each child. They wear the mask and are regularly disinfected.

This has given very good results, since the progress and development of the children is much better. In the beginning, it was a bit difficult with some children, because it was difficult for them to socialize after a long time. Despite that, everyone is very happy to attend the school. Even the parents are pleased with the progress. Their support has been very beneficial to our teachers.

I am not saying that the process of returning has been easy, because including teachers, it has cost us; for all restrictions and changing circumstances. But little by little we are coming back...

These last few months we have had many changes, such as the fact that some schools moved to other communities with more need of support, due to the abundant number of children. We also have two more teachers to serve these communities in Tecpán-Chimaltenango. We are very happy to be able to help more communities and to expand our program to more communities; because we see that our work is worthwhile and is both necessary and beneficial for our future professionals...

For this reason, we want to infinitely thank all our sponsors and donors for their support; May God Bless you for being so generous and giving us an opportunity to be part of the change. Thank you very much…

For the next report we will have more details about the new communities, so look forward to it…

Greetings from Guatemala.

Hello everyone, how are you?
I hope you and your families are well...

We are very happy and eager to start a new year with the program and to work with our children. And although classes start in February, we have prepared ourselves to welcome you with many ideas and activities.

We organize a workshop in January for our teachers, with the aim of reviewing and remembering some of the methods that we have been using in our schools; since these last two years, the classes have not been normal. In addition, we have 3 new teachers and one who had been there some time ago. Due to these changes, we found it necessary to focus on specific topics during the workshop.

Some of the topics to remember and review were: Critical Thinking, new ideas on Assessment, Reading and Writing Methods, Learning Centers, Small Groups, New Ideas for Star Books and a little about the Montessori Method. This workshop was held on January 26, 27 and 28.

For the presentations and exhibitions, we request the help of all our teachers; Of course, each one of them helped us in matters in which they are experts and that have had very good results when put into practice.

For example: Lidia, Gloria, Lucky and Roselia; who are part of the group of teachers with more years in the program, helped us with an excellent participation; exposing the methods we use: Learning Centers, Small Groups, Star Books and, Vowel Sounds and Alphabet.
Professor Edvin, who has been with us for 4 years, has been implementing the Montessori method, so we asked him to present us with some ideas that have been effective in his classroom.
Evelyn and Elba made a very good presentation about the Reading and Writing methods that we can use with 6-year-olds. By the way, this part, all the teachers loved it. The ideas you shared are very easy and effective. Personally, I learned the correct term for the method we use to teach reading, “Phonetic Method”.

In conclusion, despite the fact that it was only 3 days, due to the Pandemic; we left filled with many reminders, knowledge and ideas to do during this year. We hope to have good results by the middle of the year for our second workshop. Without a doubt, it was a lot of learning for everyone. Surely you will notice our excitement to start practicing these ideas in the images below…

For this reason, we always want to thank our beloved founder Fred Zambroski for his trust and support. Also for our dear donors, without you we could not continue helping to make Education better and of quality for all, despite the pandemic. Many thanks! For your contribution. May God Bless you and continue to give you health.