by Lural Ramirez | May 9, 2019
Over the course of this year I will be sharing with you reflections on our school’s core values. My article in March explored the first of five core school values, “Futuro Verde: Always connected, forever evolving”. Today, I will be sharing reflections on our second core school value.
Futuro Verde: Feeling safe and comfortable to be ourselves helps our learning to thrive
Student well-being is an essential component to the educational experience. When a student feels safe and comfortable throughout their day at school they are more able to access their learning and acquire and internalize new concepts and enduring understandings. School safety includes being free from physical, social and emotional harm and it is an integral aspect to school leadership and design. Student comfort should include the ability by all students to feel accepted and understood by their teachers and peers and to also have an internalization of the school procedures, traditions and routines and to come to expect consistently how the school environment will be. When these conditions are in place, students not only learn and grow, but they thrive!
At Futuro Verde we are fortunate to be situated in the middle of the countryside and jungle. We have secure campus infrastructure and because our students are encouraged to take risks and explore their natural environment they are well-equipped to keep themselves physically safe. Our commitment to active staff supervision during all structured and unstructured times of the day ensures that adults are present to guide, correct and encourage. Our strong social-emotional structure at school includes whole school commitment to mindfulness, reinforcement of our learner profile throughout all aspects of student life, democratic and reciprocal processes of student-teacher engagement, and restorative justice approaches to behavior management. Through our Peace Practices and multi-age learning with Buddy Classes, our students feel connected to one another, they come to deeply know each other and they learn to interact and engage with one another under a pretext of respect and understanding. Our staff are highly qualified and then are trained and supported regularly in their ongoing professional development needs. This school-wide, professional focus on calibration and collaboration among all Futuro Verde staff leads to the consistency and coordination that allows for a predictable and stable learning environment for all students.
This is why students who learn at Futuro Verde can be described as thriving in their learning environment and we are proud of our structures, the articulated support systems we have in place, and our prioritization of student well-being throughout all ages and stages of the educational process!
by Lural Ramirez | May 7, 2019
Have you heard about Futuro Verde’s annual education conference held on our campus on the last Thursday and Friday of June each year? Attendees from years past can attest to how unifying the conference is with attendance by educators, community members, parents and students from around the peninsula, Costa Rica and the world.
This year’s conference is gearing up to be another great experience! Click on the link below to register and read the flyer below for details on the basics of registering and getting involved in this year’s conference! And, don’t forget! Our Call for Proposals is currently open for submissions. If you are an educator or community member with something to share in the area of bilingual, holistic or sustainable education, submit your proposal today!
Registration Form
Call for Proposal
by Lural Ramirez | Mar 29, 2019
Preface and Context
As a part of my role as Head of School for our International Baccalaureate (IB) authorization at Futuro Verde, I had the pleasure of participating in a Leadership and Governance Webinar Series offered to Heads of School over the long holiday. The learning and inspiration from the series covered four topics: consistency of mission and vision, growth and accreditations, research-informed models of teacher evaluation and school finance. On the basis of the mission and vision webinar, our teachers engaged in a series of reflective activities during their professional development prior to the start of the school year with the goal of articulating our school values. Throughout this school year, we will be sharing the articulation of these values across our social media platforms and our communications channels. When you come and visit us next, please also read our teachers’ Six Word Memoirs which are posted on a bulletin board in the main office. These amazing Six Word Memoirs are a further extension of the articulation of Futuro Verde’s values.
Futuro Verde: Always Connected, Forever Evolving
In 2018, the IB celebrated its 50th anniversary and, that same year, Futuro Verde celebrated its 10th anniversary. Over the course of our 10 years, much like the path taken by the IB in its anniversary book, “The International Baccalaureate: 50 Years of Education for a Better World” which was sent to all IB Heads of School, we have seen an evolution of our school and the benefits to our students of a coherent, connected educational experience. The Futuro Verde community continues to grow in size, but our evolution in numbers, in quality of teaching and learning and in scope and breadth of servicing for students has not led to a disconnection from our original mission as a school and our main goal of connecting our diverse communities.
For our staff and our board of directors, it is essential that our school community know that we will continue to grow and evolve and, as we do so, we will continue to prioritize our connections and support of each other! The heart of our school is the connections we have with one another, the multilingualism, the diversity in national origin, religion and beliefs and the unity we all share as we progress forward and evolve as a school.
Thank you for your connection to our school and for joining us on our journey of ongoing evolution!
by Lural Ramirez | Feb 28, 2019
Excellent news welcomed FV students to the 2019 school year with the announcement of a new scholarship available to all FV grads who achieve an IB diploma!
Futuro Verde presents: John Dolan University Launch Scholarship
John J. Dolan valued the power of a high quality education and he showed this commitment through direct student sponsorship at Futuro Verde and, following his untimely passing, the establishment of a scholarship fund in his name.
John’s legacy at Futuro Verde continues to grow with our high school students now having a new motivator to strive for! They say that education is the gift that lasts a lifetime and, in John’s name and to promote his legacy of giving and generosity, eligible FV high school graduates will now have a leg up as they head off to university via our new John Dolan University Launch Scholarship! An entirely merit based award, the John Dolan University Launch Scholarship is available to all FV high school graduates who earn the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. Each year a $1,000 John Dolan University Launch Scholarship will be awarded to every 12th grade student who meets eligibility requirements. Scholarships are non-repayable and are awarded on the basis of a student’s academic success while a student at Futuro Verde and during the final IB exams.
A Futuro Verde education, and respective IB diploma, just became that more valuable! We can’t wait to see what our first group of 12th graders do with their new scholarship funds as they pursue their university dreams!
by Lural Ramirez | Jan 22, 2019
Aren’t all schools the same? Or, if they are different, they can’t be THAT different, right? I have heard comments like these so many times in my 16 years as a teacher and an administrator.
Futuro Verde is accredited by the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) here in Costa Rica and we are authorized to offer the Diploma Program (DP) as an IB World School. We then choose to align all our grade levels- preschool, elementary and middle school to the IB way of teaching and learning in our DP program. The philosophical groundings of MEP and IB could not be more different from one another- quite literally they are nearly polar opposites. Both ways of learning can get you a high school diploma, but did you know that the IB philosophy does something for students that a traditional MEP education simply does not provide? But what is this difference, you ask?
IB: Guided by a Holistic and Inquiry-Based Education
An IB education is grounded in inquiry and constructivism and is built strongly on a curricular structure that requires students to be critical thinkers and active participants in their learning. Unlike in traditional contexts, IB teachers are guides on the side, not sages on the stage. IB teachers are also entrusted with their own curriculum development. This makes each IB course unique in every school as teachers develop and create their curriculum to match their students’ needs and interests and their specific school context. This pedagogical freedom requires teachers to be smart, creative and excellent models of the critical thinking they then seek in their students.
The other impressive hallmark of an IB education is its commitment to the holistic development of students. So many educational systems, including MEP, place ultimate importance on only a few basic, academic subjects and they do so at the expense of holistic development. IB is dramatically different in this sense! In the DP, the three requirements that make up the core studies for a student are not even any of the basic, academic subjects. Without fulfilling the core successfully, students do not achieve an IB diploma! Core IB classes are: Theory of Knowledge (TOK)- a two-year course designed to critically analyze how we know what we know; Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS)- a course that requires students to be balanced- to be physically active, to try new things, to serve others and to explore their creativity; and finally, Extended Essay (EE)- which is essentially a 4,000 word mini-thesis, written on a topic of the student’s choice. This commitment to core abilities like social connection, critical thinking and research and written expression make IB’s core elements a fantastically holistic graduation requirement!
The final element of IB that is firmly committed to holistic development comes from the final requirements for graduation- passing grades in all of the basic, academic subjects AND in the arts! Gone are the days that students can be so narrowly focused. IB develops in students a liberal arts inspired approach to teaching and learning, leaving students, parents and teachers alike to fully embrace the notion that ALL student learning is equally important, not just success in basic, academic subjects!
As you can see, an IB education is drastically different from a traditional model of learning and, in our modern society focused on 21st Century Skills, the IB provides students with the advantage they need in high school in order to set them up for the most successful university experience possible!
by Lural Ramirez | Jan 20, 2019
A new year brings both new and updated infrastructure to our campus!
*A note on our much anticipated Sports Court: Unfortunately, we hit a snag on our permits that is being worked out diligently by our Board of Directors. Fortunately, we have external collaborators ready and waiting to help us with a cement truck pour of the court, so when our permits are clear the court will be up in no time!
And now, on to our beautiful new and updated spaces!
3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders have updated spaces with improved air flow, walls and repaired floors
Our Futuro Verde main stage is ready for performances to begin, with new and beautiful stage lighting!
Permaculture classes will resume with Adriana from Escuela de la Jungla in our new outdoor classroom and gardening space! Thank you Green Wave, for the sponsorship of this beautiful space!
