Lets Be Ready

Hello everyone, it’s a pleasure to write you again and be able to share our accomplishments from 2016. As a continuation, the following is a short summary of the communities and number of children we worked with this year:

During the year of 2016, Let’s Be Ready worked in 20 communities total, with 23 total teachers in charge of the schools, and 3 communities with 2 classrooms. It was a year of hard work, but with very satisfying results.

In San Martín Jilotepeque we had 5 schools, each in a different community. In the community of Pacoxpon, Dina taught a group of 12 very attentive students. In Santo Domingo the teacher was Glendy, who had 12 students as well. In Panatzán, Beatriz was in charge of 13 children, and in Chuisac a teacher named Oscar taught 14 kids. In El Sapito, María was the teacher of 12 students.

In Patzicía we had a total of 7 schools. In the community of Sajcap, teacher Evelyn was in charge of 15 kids. In San Lorenzo, Roselia taught 11 children. In Pahuit, Elba taught 17 kids. In Las Parcelas, Heidy taught 8 students. In Los Cerritos, Noemy Xicay taught 12 children. In the community of La Canoa, María taught 15 children. In Xejuyú, Nery taught 8 kids.

In Santo Domingo Xenacoj we had 3 schools. In San Antonio, Diana  taught 15 students. In Los Izotes there was Lidia  with 14 children. In the center of Xenacoj, Cindy taught 18 students in the morning; and Gloria taught 18 students in the afternoon.

In Sumpango we had one school with two rooms, in the community of San Rafael El Arado. There Claudia taught 15 kids and Betzabé taught an additional 15, both teaching in the morning.

In Patzún we had 2 schools: one in the community of La Pila, where Lucrecia taught 13 children, and the other in La Vega, where  Johana taught 15 children.

In Antigua we had 2 schools. In San Juan del Obispo, Paola taught 14 kids. In Alotenango, Annelise and Margarita taught 24 children total, both in the afternoon.

By the end of the year all of our young students had made great achievements, thanks to the presence, patience, creativity and persistence of every teacher and the attention they gave to each individual child.

In order to accomplish our goals and objectives, we conducted 2 trainings during the year: one in January and the other in July, with the intention of improving our teaching methodology and understanding of preschool education. In these trainings the teachers learned new ideas and activities to implement during the year. The Common Hope foundation in Antigua is a large supporter of Let’s Be Ready, and they provided us accommodations and the conference room in which we conducted the trainings.

It was a dynamic year for the students and teachers alike, and was worth the effort, making the most of the support from our sponsors. Because of this, we are always grateful for the unconditional support, council and suggestions we receive, and do all that we can to keep them informed with monthly reports discussing our goals and accomplishments with the children as a group or as individuals. In this way our sponsors are always a big part of what goes on in our classrooms.

Ultimately, we can say that we achieved all of our goals during the year, thanks to the support of our sponsors and founder who has given so much to help this country.

Thank you for your support- not only of Let’s Be Ready but of the entire country. Thank you for everything.

(This report was written by Sara, and translated from Spanish to English by Drew)

A letter from a teacher to her sponsor: Translated from spanish:

How are you? I hope that very good. Happy New Year 2017 that is full of blessings, receive a strong hug from me, I have much to tell you but I will be specific.

After 7 years supporting the community of the heap, the parents very grateful for the great help that has been given to their children for 7 years when Pequeños Pero Listos entered the community supporting with a teacher for preschool children because At that time did not have a pre-primary teacher, this year 2017 thank God children already have a teacher who is hired by the government, for that reason I decided to support another community that is in need.

This year I will be working in the community called La CIENAGA, the school does not have a preschool teacher and there are only two teachers to attend the elementary children, each of them is in charge of three grades. It is a very beautiful community, the parents are collaborators, they survive planting milpa, beans and other vegetables to support their family, has approximately 25 families. The school was built thanks to the help of Milagros in Action in 2011, That means that thanks to his person and the family of Milagros en Acción that this community has a school where children can study.

In my classroom I have 6 girls and 7 children that makes a total of 13, it is a great joy and happiness to have this group of little ones, to be part of their dreams in wanting to learn many new things.

During the month of January, the second week, I attended the training sessions at the Families of Hope Foundation, it was a very beautiful week and a lot of learning, with the experiences and the new ideas that were given about how to teach math to the children was very interesting. Each of us as teachers of Pequeños Pero Listos had his presentation with a storybook showing activities we can do with our children. The next week we were cleaning the classroom and fixing the learning corners we are going to have in the classrooms always supporting the Creative Curriculum.
It is a true pleasure to be able to greet you in this little letter, wishing you many blessings in your life, I have no words to thank you for the great work you do for the children of our country and our communities.
See you soon kisses and hugs.
Att. Lucky. ( Teacher)

Hello everyone, it is a pleasure to write to you again and inform you everything we do for and for our children.

Well, I am writing to you that in the month of November, TEACHERS 2 TEACHERS International, the Families of Hope Foundation and the Ministry of Education invited us to a Mathematics conference in La Antigua Guatemala; The topic was "Practical Learning in the Early Years"

We learned how practical and fun math can be in our classroom. It was led by a diverse team of international and national educators, the presenter was Sara Delano Moore, PHD; Who is an educator focused on helping teachers and students understand mathematics as a coherent and connected discipline; His work emphasizes the power of deep understanding and multiple representations for learning. She worked as a math and science teacher in elementary and high school grades.

From the group of Let's be ready we attend 8 teachers, one representing the sector where they belong. We were very excited about the invitation, because the area of mathematics is usually a bit complicated for us; But it was very helpful.

We learned how we can use literature to teach math, in an easy and fun way. They taught us activities and games designed to support knowledge and fluency with numbers, addition and subtraction. We saw that it is important to stimulate students' learning with activities that they can deepen, when the problems they solve have meaningful connections to real-world problems. They showed us how we can use materials made by ourselves to improve our understanding of operations with whole numbers.

In the workshop on the second day, they presented how we can work with areas of the pre-primary level - basic concepts, quantities and operations, measures, geometry and location in space, logical mathematical thinking - using strategies from the developmental perspective of mathematical logical thinking, Using resources present in the environment of children. They shared research-based teaching strategies that help students become fluent with basic addition and subtraction. Suggestions for practicing the facts and assessing student fluency, as well as games that students can play.

Undoubtedly, they were two days of much information. We really loved it, because here in Guatemala we are accustomed to a very traditional, difficult and boring mathematics; But this conference made us see how useful, easy and fun math can be if it is taught that way - Easy and fun. Also show the child that will be useful for his whole life.

 We are very happy to be able to tell you again what progress we have made, and to thank you especially for the support provided in this year.

  We want to tell you that in the last month we completed the 2016 school year, and the teachers are very happy that most of their children have completed the year successfully. The most satisfactory thing for a teacher is to see that the effort, the commitment, the love, and the teaching that she gives to her students, has had a positive effect on them.

 It is very satisfying and surprising to see how we have progressed and already reached this stage of the year, and to see the development that our students have had over the course of the year. Many of them came out reading and writing words, others recognizing the form and the sound of the vowels and some consonants which greatly facilitated the writing of their name. Some learned the numbers 1-20 and others up to 30. We taught them to follow patterns, sequence and discrimination in mathematics.

 Finally our biggest goal this year was to involve more parents in reading at home. It was a challenge but we can say with certainty that we put it into practice We still need to improve, but we can say that we are progressing more and more. For example, our teacher Paola in San Juan del Obispo worked with this new system and she says: "We did not expect so much dedication, effort and support from the parents. Applying this method made it possible for both children and parents to become more and more interested in reading "

 We know that it is just the beginning of a goal, but that we want to fulfill it every year, better each day, as people and professionals. That's why Lets Be Ready we are very grateful for so much support and encouragement from our sponsors.

 For the closing of 2016, the children were awarded a diploma in recognition for having been with us this year, we did fun activities with the children and the parents, and in addition the mothers made a rich and delicious lunch for their children.the activities were attended by their closest relatives to share and celebrate this achievement of children. Everyone was very comfortable, and in the end everyone appreciated the patience, the effort, the creativity, the dedication, the support and above all the LOVE that we showed our children during the year.

 Now we just have to say Thank you, Thank you very much for all your support! We successfully completed this year ...

 * Attached are photos of closings in some schools.

Part of education is the change for a better world. That is why this month we will talk about the project that our children made in Santo Domingo Xenacoj, to contribute to the care of the environment ...

The month of August was the Patron Saint of Santo Domingo Xenacoj. For this reason several activities were realized in this community; One of them was Reforestation to help our planet.

The project was called "Reforestando Xenacoj"
The Municipality of Xenacoj organized this activity and invited several establishments, schools, schools and community institutions, including Pequeños Pero Listos. Our teachers Cindy and Gloria, gladly participated in this activity, also invited the Parents to go with their children to plant. The children of Little But Ready of Xenacoj planted 200 trees. Startling, right?
But in all, among those who participated, they planted an incredible 14,000 trees! ... The workers of the municipality were in charge to look for and to clean the place to plant the trees. They selected a place that used to be used as a dump, but soon it will be a forest with many trees.

 In short, it was a fun, productive and satisfying activity for all, because they helped to heal the environment a little.

It is good to raise awareness in children since they are small, that they must care for their home, their planet; And that they should feel happy to have participation in this important part of their life.

We are sure that this event will leave a mark on your life and transmit it to other children at all times.