World Water Day is celebrated on March 22 to reflect on the importance of this natural resource that allows us to live. We are very fortunate to live in an area where there is water everywhere and we do not have to travel to get drinking water. In spite of this, there is a lack of awareness about the proper use of this natural resource. That is why the celebration of World Water Day is extremely important, as it allows us to remember how urgent it is to use water responsibly and to be grateful for its abundance.
Possibly the misuse of water results from ignorance, as few have any idea that more than 2 million people do not have access to safe water or have to ration their use on a daily basis due to the threat of drought. During the COVID-19 pandemic we have reinforced the importance of water as hand washing is essential to control the spread of the virus. This reinforces the need to make proper use of the resource so that it remains available now and in the future.
As part of the celebration World Water Celebration and with the interest of providing information about water management in Montezuma, we present to you an interview with Donatella Luxardo, president of the ASADA of Montezuma, who was kind enough to answer questions generated by the students about the ASADA and its operation. Below are the questions that were asked to Donatella:
What is the ASADA?
The Asociaciones Administradoras de Sistemas de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Sanitarios (ASADAS) is the administrative body of communal aqueducts and sewers. The ASADAS operate as non-profit organizations, have five members, a fiscal, which are volunteer members who are elected by the community in assembly. It is worth mentioning that the ASADAS are regulated by the Ministry of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA), the national water resource administration entity.
How many ASADAS are there in Cóbano?
The aqueduct of Cobano, Santa Teresa and Mal Pais is administered directly by AyA. In the other towns there is an association that manages the aqueduct, for example ASADA Montezuma, ASADA El Molino de Delicias and ASADA San Isidro. Currently the ASADA of Montezuma and Delicias have agreements established with AyA.
How many users does the Montezuma ASADA have?
Currently the ASADA has 310 users.
How much is the average monthly consumption of the users?
The consumption per user depends on the area of usufruct. The central area of the town is where there is more consumption, mainly due to the number of hotels and restaurants located in the area. In residential areas consumption is normally less than 30 m3.
What are ASADA’s plans for the short and long term?
In the next few months we will be working on the connection of two new wells to supply certain densely populated neighborhoods. In the long term we intend to start building a sanitary sewer system from the Montezuma School to Las Palmeras Beach.
Stay tuned for the second part of this interview, which we will transmit through a conversation on Zoom, in which we will discuss the origin of our water, how to use water responsibly, and how to save water consumption, among other topics.
Thank you very much for reading us and remember that water runs out drop by drop.
I come to you today with some reflections on educational response to the global pandemic, specifically an argument for why curricular enrichment should always be prioritized and, during times of immediate crisis, why it is needed more than ever.
For years, national governments, pedagogical leaders and individual school leaders have battled with the choice of curricular structure.
What is best for each and every child? What is most important? And, most often, where should we invest our limited budget?
During my 7-year tenure here at Futuro verde we have journeyed through these exact questions and pedagogical ponderings. We have arrived at the conclusion that “everything is equally important”. But, what do we mean by that? Many schools place extraordinary emphasis on specific subjects or areas of expertise, but at Futuro Verde we are strongly committed to a holistic curricular commitment. That is why, when you divide our subjects between academic and what are often referred to as “specials” classes, you find a much more even split than can be found at most schools. If there is imbalance, it can often be found to be skewed toward more specials than not with classes such as: Comparative Language Study, Mindfulness, PE, Music, Art, Environmental Education, and the like. The culture of our school is strongly aligned to the notion that, even if I love math and want nothing more than to be an amazing mathematician, I also know that physical and mental strength and health is important and so I practice that too and I ensure a healthy and balanced mind and body during my PE and mindfulness classes. This same approach permeates throughout our school, with an approach very similar to that often championed by elite Liberal Arts colleges and universities around the world.
But, how has our holistic curricular approach translated to crisis schooling in response to the global pandemic?
We continue to self-reflect on this throughout our response to the crisis and our implementation of our COVID-19 protocol, but what we have seen is that, whereas a holistic curricular approach is what we consider best during normal conditions for learning, it has become a lifeline during a time of crisis. And so, we have strengthened our commitment to our holistic values and we maintain our commitment to the liberal arts development of all of our students, from preschool through 12th grade. This commitment has brought with it some inspirational student growth, processes and products during our online model, including:
A whole school music project to create a virtual choir that is currently in the works and will bring our student voices, instrumental and technological skills together across all grade levels in our unique interpretation of “Where is the Love”. How will we do this? Watch an interesting instructional video on the process here.
Participation by our Visual Arts students in the #gettymuseumchallenge, which challenged them to recreate a famous work of art and, in so doing, express their worldview and perspective or reality through art. See some of their inspirational recreations here.
Commitment to the theoretical and practical aspects of physical conditioning and activity through challenges, research and resources for a variety of physical activity, at-home options.
These are only a few samples of the way that a holistic curricular approach has brought balance, peace and creative development to our students during this difficult time we are all living. As a school, we remain committed to a holistic curricular approach and we hope that our school community joins us in this doubling-down during the hardest of times on ensuring a well-rounded approach to learning and to life.
For further exploration on why holistic learning is important in education, please enjoy this Ted Talk from Sir Ken Robinson and shared with me from our own IB 12th grader, Tristan.
If you love our holistic programming and you want to help us through this difficult financial time, please consider contributing to our fundraising campaign at chuffed.org. And, in advance, thank you for supporting an example of what education should look like around the world!
The end of the year is always a busy time for everyone and school life at Futuro Verde is no exception. The end of the 2019 school year comes loaded with many fun activities and important family events, so we wanted to make sure you wouldn´t miss anything by sharing the dates with you today!
December 6th, 8 am – 3 pm: Sustainable Solutions Fair, preschool to 10th grade students share their innovative projects and ideas on how to best protect our environment and how to live a healthy life making sustainability part of our daily lives.
December 9th, 7 am – 3 pm: Professional development – no school.
December 11th: RAP (schedule to be confirmed): the end of the year event that brings together our diverse school population with dance, music, theatre, lyrical poetry and much, much more.
December 13th, and 14th: The Mousetrapp, a fabulous play adapted and produced by the students.
December 13th, 8 am – 1.30 pm: Futuro Verde Trail Fun Run – on the last day of school we hold our traditional Futuro Verde Trail Fun Run race, a fun event for the whole family. Sign up here! School release time is at 1.30 pm.
December 16th and 17th, 8 am – 5 pm: Parent-Teacher Conferences – no school.
December 18th, 4 – 6 pm: 6th grade graduation ceremony.
The holidays are a time to reflect, share and give! Our annual donation campaign, Holiday Giving Campaign, benefiting our community´s families in need has begun! From November 28th to December 6th, bring your used clothes for all ages that remain in good condition and new or barely used toys to Futuro Verde. Do not wrap the items and deposit them in the corresponding boxes before Friday, December 6th! Let’s contribute to a happy holiday season for everyone!
We look forward to your presence to celebrate the end of a great year together!
Over the course of this year I have been sharing with you reflections on our school’s core values. My article in September explored the fourth of five core school values, “Futuro Verde: We Take the Best of our Diversity to Live in Harmony”. Today, I will be sharing reflections on our fifth and final core school value.
Futuro Verde: We Grow and Learn in Harmony with Nature
With a name like Futuro Verde, this final core school value might be the most obvious one to pop into your mind! Futuro Verde has green in its name but most importantly we are truly ‘green’ in our hearts- not perfect in our ecological footprint but certainly striving and working hard to be the model of what green, sustainable, harmonious living with nature can be like. From one year to the next our commitment strengthens and grows and here is a quick sampling of how we grow and learn in harmony with nature at Futuro Verde:
Purpose-built new classroom construction:
Our board of directors and leadership team has purposefully committed to our new construction, regular education classrooms having half walls, no doors and no traditional windows. Why, you might ask? Because we are located in the middle of the jungle and we want our students to feel connected to that beautiful jungle each and every day as they learn and grow! The design also has a practical purpose as the air flow keeps the space cool and lets moisture in and out as needed.
A full permaculture campus is in the works:
Through a long-standing collaboration with our fiscal sponsor, Green Wave, we are dedicated to the development of a campus wide alignment to permaculture practices and restoration of our green spaces. This design includes development that takes the land, flow of air and water and the needs of the community into consideration before ground is broken and building and development begins. As our Green Wave consultant is prone to say “the problem is the solution!”. This beautiful mindset shift is an inspiring guide post as we learn and grow in this area.
School-wide environmental campaigns:
Most of our community already knows about our trimester beach clean-ups which are a dependable and welcome service project our students participate in three times per year at a range of our local beaches. But, you may not have known about the on-site, open to the community recycling center we have, or the compost bins run by our students? Perhaps you’ve never heard of our program to support wild animals staying wild or our farm to table goals through our student-developed garden? Our environmental campaigns are many, are led by our environmental education teachers and our students at every grade level and are supported by each and every school teacher, staff member and community member who joins us in this strong commitment to the environment!
Advocacy and activism:
One of our newer aspects as a school when we consider the importance of living in harmony in nature is serving as an advocate for our beloved mother Earth! As the years have passed, as our school has grown and as our level of academic rigor has continued to improve, our students are increasingly working as activists and advocates for policy change, awareness campaigns and social and political influence regarding environmental and nature related topics. As a school we also have an ongoing commitment to, and work intentionally with, the Global Goals, especially in the sense of raising awareness among our students and encouraging their advocacy and activism related to a variety of different areas related to sustainability within the Global Goals framework, to include: education, citizenship, equality, environment and health.
We encourage our entire school and greater community to continue to support our school’s commitment to a life filled with connection to nature and a determination to seek a harmonious existence with the nature in our lives and a dedication to ongoing development, growth and learning from each of us every day as we strive to best support the health and longevity of our Earth!
Last Friday, July 26th, four Futuro Verde students were invited to be the Masters of Ceremony for the fifth annual Scarlet Macaw Release at Wild Sun Rescue Center. Futuro Verde is excited to be collaborating with ASOPROLAPA and Wild Sun Rescue Center with several different projects so our students participate in hands-on experiences with various environmentally focused entities and learn to take action for a cause they support. It was an emotional event and wonderful to see our students as leaders within our community.
Reflections from our student and teacher participants:
Ashlen in 10th grade: “It was a really great experience to be able to encounter the release of a reintroduced animal who goes out and explores once again in an area. It was also great to have the possibility to speak in front of lots of people to improve my public speaking skills. It was a big responsibility to take part in representing the school in such a sensitive topic.”
For her CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) Project, Ashlen was volunteering at Wild Sun Rescue Center. When asked about the connections she was able to make between these two experiences, Ashlen responded, “because of my CAS project, it was great to come back and experience WIld Sun from another standpoint, seeing it from another point of view, seeing a different side. We were working on bringing more volunteers and educating students for my project and this was helping in the release of reintroduced animals.”
Rafa in 8th grade:“It was really beautiful to see the work that Wild Sun and ASOPROLAPA did together and how all that work was reflected in the release. It was also really amazing to be involved in the event as a presenter.” Rafa’s mother also expressed her pride in her son for being chosen to take part in the event as a Master of Ceremony.
Lian in 5th grade:“I liked when Jeremy (Wild Sun Director) talked with so much emotion about how much effort he and his team put into the project and how much he loves animals. It was very exciting when they opened the gate and all the macaws went out, especially when one went out first and then called to the others to come.”
Atila in 4th grade:“The best part was when I saw the first Macaw. It was so cool because I had never seen one so close. Then, suddenly they were going to freedom. I also liked seeing so many people together at an important event.” When Atila turned to Don Alex, Operations Manager for Los Delfines – ASOPROLAPA base and said “this is the first time I have been involved in such an important event” with very wide eyes as he looked at all taking place around him his teachers got a bit emotional.
Javier, IB Biology Teacher and Sustainability Coordinator:“Activities such as the Macaw Release at Wild Sun Rescue Center are those that make one proud of being part of a community so united in environmental conservation issues and efforts.”
Katie, Curriculum and Special Programs Coordinator:“It was very exciting to see the joint efforts from so many different community groups, including local businesses, non-profit institutions, schools, and community members. The 5th Annual Scarlet Macaw Release is an excellent example of the power of collaboration and the importance of involving youth in community initiatives. I was so proud to see our Futuro Verde students take active roles in this important environmental event.”
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!
