by Stuart Millar, IB coordinator | Nov 21, 2018
We are looking forward to another first as we celebrate a decade of Futuro Verde, our first year of twelfth grade! Some of the students might not be sure why that is something to celebrate, but one of the best things for the teachers and staff is that we don’t have to say goodbye to the students just yet! They have another year to prepare themselves for university or whatever comes next, and our younger students have another year to benefit from their maturity and learn from the good examples they set.
Twelfth grade means more than just a change for the students who normally would have graduated after their national exams at the end of 11th grade. This progress positively impacts our enrollment, there will be some exciting changes for some our teachers and administrators, and we will be examining how to make the most effective use of our learning spaces.
This is an exciting new chapter in Futuro Verde’s history and we look forward to keeping you informed about the progress of our seniors throughout the year.
by David Brookshire, MPH/ School Counselor & Special Education Case Manager | Nov 18, 2018
With a holistic approach to learning and growth, it’s often important to support the emotional needs of children as they go through different ages and stages of life. At Futuro Verde we emphasize character education, social emotional learning, and access to counseling as ways to support the unique needs of every student. This allows every student to acquire emotional intelligence in addition to academic skills. As a result of this approach, students become self-aware individuals able to make responsible decisions, resolve conflicts, and manage their emotions.
Sometimes, as problems arise, children may need additional support as they tackle some of life’s challenges. This is where counseling can be very beneficial. Building a rapport with a neutral counselor, can allow children to open up about what’s troubling them. Through conversation and activities, this can help them identify and express emotions as they broaden their perspective through confiding in a counselor. This is very helpful in reducing stress, increasing self esteem, and building healthy relationships.
There are also ways for parents to support social emotional learning and growth at home. Being a good listener, for example, is an easy way to build this core competency in our children. This helps them become good listeners themselves, especially when it is modeled for them. Modeling is an excellent way to support emotional development because our choices and actions have a huge impact on our children. Be conscious about what values you hold as a family and carefully making choices aligned with those values is an excellent way to reinforce learning. Nurturing self esteem, giving age appropriate choices, and showing appreciation are also excellent ways to develop character at home.
Whether at home, through character education and social emotional learning our with the help of a counselor, it takes a village as we support every child as they learn and develop. Challenges are inevitable but with healthy coping skills, self esteem, and additional support when needed, our students are becoming self-aware, resilient individuals as they continue to learn how to engage with those around them in meaningful ways.
by Lural Ramirez | Nov 17, 2018
At Futuro Verde we look forward to each new school year because the start of a new year brings with it opportunities to implement new and improved curricular plans! Here is a short summary of some exciting changes coming to our curricular offering:
World Languages: Our ever-expanding additional languages program in secondary is taking new shape in 2019! Eight different teachers will be collaborating together for this class and the structure will bring together multiple languages to be learned and explored (Classical Languages, French, Translation Studies and more!). The class will also provide for a time for students in need to receive additional support in their development of either English or Spanish, if they are newer to either of the languages. With a self-study, student-directed component to the World Languages course development, this new class is a perfect fit for our inquisitive secondary students!
Reaching that 50-50 English/Spanish goal in secondary!: New staffing choices and curricular decisions in 2019 are allowing for us to finally achieve a more perfect balance between English and Spanish instruction in the middle and high school grades. A more ideally balanced linguistic program makes for more well-developed language in both Spanish and English!
We finally add in 12th grade!!: 2019 starts with a real bang with 12th graders joining our preschool through 11th grade campus for the first time. We are immensely excited and proud to take this important step as a school! 12th grade also brings the final year of a two-year program of study for our first generation of International Baccalaureate (IB) graduates! This first group of 12th graders will take their final exams in November 2019 and, depending on their exam results, can qualify for two diplomas simultaneously: MEP bachillerato and the Bilingual IB Diploma.
Improved pool rental facilities and a brand new multi-use sports court!: 2019 marks a year of huge gains in sports programming within the Futuro Verde curriculum. We are working out the final details for the agreement with the privately owned, semi-Olympic pool facility directly across the street from Futuro Verde and construction will be complete before the new school year on our very own multi-use sports court facility located right on our campus!
College Counseling starting in 7th grade: We know that Futuro Verde is many things, to many people! Two of the aspects of our school that we are the most proud of combine next year for a new class for our 7th through 12th graders- College Counseling. Students and families love how we provide personalized and loving attention to all our students and most families choose our school because of the academic rigor and opportunity for a bright post-secondary future. The college counseling class will be co-taught by two Futuro Verde teachers whom have university and post-secondary experience in Costa Rica, Europe, Africa and the United States and they are excited to support our students in identifying their interests and passions, exploring university options or helping students to find their path in life.
Art/music/PE plan: Two big changes are coming to three of the biggest contributors to our holistic programming at Futuro Verde:
- In the early grades, we have hired a new specialist generalist who is tasked to teach Physical Education, Music and Art to our students grades preschool through 4th grade. All swimming classes will still be taught by Alejandro Ramirez, our certified swim instructor, with assistance from our new specialist generalist, Katie Reading.
- In the middle school years students will have a slight modification in their art and music classes, in that they will end each school year with a class that will be a collaborative performance and production class between the art and music classes. Students will be putting theory into practice in this collaborative performance and production class and we can’t wait to see their creativity applied to a real context!
As you can see, the curricular offering is just getting better and better in 2019 at Futuro Verde!
by Lural Ramirez | Oct 20, 2018
There are a number of events we hold at Futuro Verde each year – events to look forward to from year to year and events which highlight our unique school culture, our students’ talents and creativity and our focus on sustainability and critical thinking. Each December, as the school year comes to a close, we hold a beautiful whole school celebration called RAP: Respeto, Armonia y Paz. This event began in 2016 with the intention to bring together our diverse school population with a showcase of memorable dances, music, theatre presentations, lyrical poetry and much, much more!
This year’s event is scheduled for Friday, December 7th and will include the same quality of unforgettable performances plus some additional surprises not to be missed, including special presentations from two of our graduating classes- Prepa and 9th grade.
We ask parents to help us in two ways as we prepare for this fun-filled event:
- Please encourage your child to actively participate in the event!
- Please plan to attend the day’s event as an audience member by setting aside the date now in your social and work calendar!
Thank you and see you at RAP 2018 on Friday, December 7th!
by Stuart Millar, IB coordinator | Oct 18, 2018
One of the exciting things for students about the IB Diploma Program is that they get to choose their subjects. As our first cohort advances to year two, the current tenth graders and their parents attended an informational meeting and started to choose their courses for next year. The program requires them to study the three core subjects: Theory of Knowledge; Creativity, Activity, and Service; and complete the Extended Essay. To ensure breadth of study they are also required to select one subject from each of six different groups: Studies in Language and Literature; Language Acquisition; Individuals and Societies; Experimental Sciences; Mathematics; and the Arts. The majority of options are offered at Standard Level (SL) or Higher Level (HL), with students being required to take their studies deeper with three or four subjects at higher level. It is important to clarify that Futuro Verde offers students the IB course of study over two years in 11th and 12th grade, giving students the opportunity to graduate with a Bilingual IB diploma. Our students can also graduate with the Costa Rican (MEP) diploma as long as students study and successfully pass the national exams in Estudios Sociales and Cívica during 11th grade. It is not possible to study exclusively for the MEP high school diploma at Futuro Verde.
It was exciting to talk with the students and their parents as they made their choices and to hear their plans and reasons for the decisions they made. We wish them luck and look forward to supporting them in the next stage of their high school education.
by Lural Ramirez | Oct 10, 2018
With the 2018 school year coming to an end and the 2019 school year already taking shape in the minds of the Futuro Verde leadership team, teachers and current and future parents, I share with you some interesting facts regarding enrollment projections for the coming year! Please note that there are still three months of time remaining for families to enroll students and we usually have significant increases in enrollment over that period of time. Numbers shared today are current to the first week of November.
