by Lural Ramirez | Jan 24, 2018
Please note that Futuro Verde is changing to a later start time during the 2018 school year. School will now start at 8:00 am. Departure time each day continues to be 3:00 pm each day. Please adjust your family’s morning routine to assure that you are adequately prepared for this change. Other important considerations related to our 8 am start include the following:
- Teacher and administrative work days have shifted to 7 am to 3 pm. All teacher meetings will happen from 7 to 8 am, including any parent meetings needed. This change for staff allows us all consistent collaborative time and assures our staff enjoy a work/life balance with an afternoon free to enjoy personal health goals, hobbies , to coach sports teams or clubs, or in order to spend time with family and friends.
- The 10 minute homeroom time we used to have from 7:30-7:40 does not continue with our 8:00 start. Students need to report directly to their first class each day at 8:00 am and that teacher will take attendance. Being on time is important as instruction will begin in all classes at 8:00 on the dot, with no cushion built in for late arrival. Students who arrive after the 8 am morning bell will need to report to the office upon arrival as they will be marked absent by teachers, which will be modified to a tardy by our office staff once they have reported to the office before reporting to class.
- The bus companies that work with Futuro Verde families have been notified of our new start time. However, if you use the bus service, please assure that you have communicated with the company to fully understand any changes to pick-up times that may impact your family directly.
Please assure that one of your New Year’s Resolutions this year is perfect attendance (or near perfect attendance, in the case of an emergency or illness) for your child this year. Students who attend school daily and arrive on time, without missing out on instruction throughout the day and year, are shown to have better social-emotional skills and stronger academic abilities. Set good family routines at home that assure your child arrives on time each day!
Thank you!
Lural Ramirez
Director
by Lural Ramirez | Dec 28, 2017
As an international school, teacher retention is a tricky subject. Part of what makes learning at an international school so rich is the diversity of staff: different experiences, different teacher training, different perspectives and the unique approaches our diverse educators bring to the classroom. At Futuro Verde, we seek to hire and retain diverse and highly qualified staff each year. For the 2018 school year, we boast staff members from 11 different countries from across North, Central and South America and Europe. When new staff join Futuro Verde, they do so committing to a minimum two to three year contract (pending positive review and a renewal offer from FV). However, the diversity we seek is not only geographic, and we are proud to continue to hire with diversity of age, race and ethnicity, gender, life experience and personality. Our students are a diverse group and we strive to reflect that diversity among our staff.
The question is, what is the profile of an educator who will stay at Futuro Verde for an extended period of time? Is it important for all our staff to commit to the school for multiple years? In my experience, I would encourage the following mindset and considerations when committing to support teacher retention at our jungle, international, IB school:
- As a community, assure we support existing staff- send them a positive note, maintain open communication, invite them to form a meaningful part of our extended community and encourage support for school policies that retain our amazing teachers.
- For parents and students it is important to accept natural patterns of attrition. Some staff will come to FV, plant roots and stay for years and years. Others will choose FV for a set period of time and then move on to new adventures and experiences. Both types of teachers offer us enrichment as a school community and it is helpful to accept that these cycles of retention and attrition are typical in any international school.
As I enter into my fifth year here at Futuro Verde and as we come into our 10th anniversary as a school, I am most grateful for the amazing rate of retention of our committed Futuro Verde families! Thank you all for your ongoing support of our school, our progress and our future!
by Lural Ramirez | Dec 26, 2017
As Futuro Verde moves into its first year as an IB World School, we are excited for some new curricular changes in 2018 that will benefit students at all ages and stages in our school and better prepare all students for their new end goal of an IB diploma!
In preschool and primary school:
- Two sessions of mindfulness classes for each grade, each month- keeping kids in touch with their emotions and on the path to a healthy, calm and mindful self
- Weekly library time- to listen to a story read aloud by our librarian Daniela Ugalde and to check out or renew a book from our school library, which boasts over 5,000 unique titles at all reading levels. Building their love for reading one book at a time!
- CREW time twice weekly- this extension of ‘homeroom’ assures everyone in class is a part of the crew, no passengers allowed. A great time to set class goals, reflect and build community!
All of these changes come in addition to the holistic offering Futuro Verde has always shown commitment to: swimming, physical education, art, music, environmental education, comparative language study, global studies, technology classes, peace practices and all the basic subjects required under Costa Rican law and our MEP accreditation.
In middle and high school:
- Electives! Choose between-
- Physical education options: for the first trimester students will choose between swimming and cycling to complement their general physical education classes. Each new semester will bring fun new options to choose from!
- Additional languages: French or Classical Languages
- The Arts: choose which semester to take music or visual arts
- CREW time twice weekly- same goals as in primary and preschool grades with an added emphasis on self-management and organizational skills.
For students in 11th grade, the choices abound:
- Language Arts and/or Acquisition: Literature (Spanish), Language and Literature (English), English B or Spanish B
- Business Management
- Biology
- Math Studies
- The Arts: Music or Visual Arts
For all IB classes, students choose from within each group and, additionally, which classes they would like to take at a higher level. These classes come in addition to their Core classes: Theory of Knowledge, CAS and Extended Essay.
It is looking like it will be a fantastic 2018 school year ahead at Futuro Verde!
by Lural Ramirez | Nov 1, 2017
Often in the world of education you will hear, “Good teaching is good teaching”, with the meaning that there are universal qualities of a good teacher that are equally valid and important in any educational context. This argument is often made regarding teachers working with language learners, with the idea that good instruction for a native speaker is equally high quality for a student in class still acquiring the language of instruction. While it is true that there are universal defining qualities of excellent educators: patience and attentiveness, creativity, critical thinking, a great personality, among other qualities; in my experience, there are additional and essential qualities specific to educators working in an international context and with language learners.
These necessary qualities include:
- Professional qualifications in both the pertinent content area(s) and in the area of teaching and education: whereas we have all met someone we consider to be a “natural” teacher, it is important to not discredit the value of formal education and training in teaching and education just as it is equally important to hire educators who are experts in their field of study. Both of these qualifications should be highly valued and sought out during the recruitment and hiring process at any international school. Lack of one qualification or the other can undermine a student’s education and lead to learning gaps.
- Superior emotional and cultural intelligence skills: respect and understanding for the culture of the host country and language in combination with an open-minded perspective and openness to divergent ideas and ways of being are especially essential for educators who work in international schools and with diverse student populations. It is essential that students’ feel accepted and valued within their school context.
- Knowledge and application of strategies and techniques that support language acquisition through content: in an international context a good teacher has to become a great teacher by not only providing appropriate content instruction and learning experiences, but by providing instruction with the use of techniques and language supports that have been proven by research to be the most effective in students optimizing their language acquisition whilst they acquire new content learning. These strategies and techniques are not necessarily taught in most teacher education universities and it is, therefore, a goal to hire staff with additional training and qualifications related to language learning. High-quality additional qualifications might include: ESOL endorsements and certifications, TEFL certifications from respected and validated training programs, International Baccalaureate (IB) trainings, among others.
- Ability to impart content knowledge with a local and global lens simultaneously: an international school has the unique goal and responsibility to prepare students for success on both a national and an international stage. Content cannot be taught within only a narrow lens of national realities and context. International school graduates are much more likely than their traditional school peers to have future careers with an international connection and therefore their education from a young age must reflect that unique reality. Furthermore, a commitment to contextualizing learning in relation to the diverse schema of all students in an international school assures they optimize their solidification of concepts and maintains students connected to their learning in as meaningful a way as possible.
In Futuro Verde, we are grateful and fortunate to have a highly qualified staff with strong professional qualifications and ways of being consistent with high-quality international educators!
by Lural Ramirez | Sep 3, 2017
Our Futuro Verde community have been so enthusiastic regarding the recent improvements made to our campus as we comply with the requirements of IB* verification! Read below for a summary of the improvements we’ve had and the students who will access these beautiful, new spaces.
- State of the art science laboratory: designed to support exploration and experimentation, our science lab features science counters with stations for up to four students to work together as they do experiments. Each station features a sink, gas connection for a Bunsen burner and electrical outlet. Our adjacent science prep room keeps all our lab materials and equipment safe and ready for student use! Beakers, graduated cylinders, scientific sensors, petri dishes, microscopes and much, much more. Our science lab is a space that all students, preschool through secondary, will use in science and environmental education classes!
- Big and welcoming school library: with separate library wings for preschool/primary and secondary, all students in Futuro Verde have full access to our continually growing collection of books. We have over 4,000 books in our collection currently, all cataloged within a library inventory system and with a schedule for weekly visit and lending processing for all grade levels. Comfortable seating, private study space and a beautiful mural welcome our students to develop their love of reading daily! Our collection ranges from board books for our preschoolers to non-fiction texts on global warming for our oldest students and all the way to classic literature in both Spanish and English and texts in multiple languages other than Spanish and English (Hebrew, French, German and Italian- just to name a few!). Our school library is a space that all students, preschool through secondary, access daily during both free play times, before and after school times and integrated into regular classroom instruction and learning!
- Spacious multi-media center: 20 desktop computers are available to our students of all ages in a dedicated computer lab, set up to support all multi-media needs. With regular technology classes at all grade levels, Futuro Verde students from preschool through high school learn about all aspects of Information Technology Systems. A new, and exciting, addition to our multi-media center is our school site license with EBSCO, which offers research databases for our students, Ebook collections for students in kindergarten through high school, access to thousands of online magazines and periodicals and so much more! Our multi-media center is a space that all students, preschool through secondary, use in support of their learning in all subject areas and classes!
- Dedicated and creative art studio: with two separate levels and an open design, all students from preschool through secondary enjoy weekly art classes in our dedicated art space, with adjacent and spacious art supply space full of art supplies and materials of all kinds. With a studio approach deeply rooted in our constructivist methodology, students explore collage, painting, drawing, printmaking and so much more! Coming soon: the electrical installation for our new pottery kiln! Our school art studio is a space that all students, preschool through secondary, use during their weekly art classes and access as desired during secondary flex blocks.
- Dedicated music classroom: constructivism is alive in our music classes with a balance between music theory, instrumental work and music creation for students from preschool through 11th grade at Futuro Verde. Recent improvements include new instruments for student use: two electric pianos, multiple professional quality recorders and percussion sets that join our current collection of string and wind instruments already available at the school. With new recording equipment currently en route from the US, we are excited for the upcoming music creation possibilities. Also, stay tuned for a new purpose built music classroom that is coming soon! Our music classroom is a space that all students, preschool through secondary, use during weekly music classes and access as desired during recess and flex blocks.
If you haven’t yet seen our new and renewed spaces in person, please come by for a tour and be amazed by our inspiring improvements. Remember, these changes, which directly supported our candidacy for IB*, now benefit Futuro Verde students of ALL ages and grade levels!
*Centro Educativo Futuro Verde is a candidate school* for the Diploma Programme. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy- a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Centro Educativo Futuro Verde believes is important for our students.Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org
by Lural Ramirez | Jul 5, 2017
Futuro Verde’s secondary program, which currently assures a high-quality, fully MEP accredited education for students in middle and high school grades from 7th to 11th grades, has a new requirement coming in 2018. All 11th graders starting in 2018 will be required to own a personal computer and will be expected to bring that personal computer to each of their classes each day. We recommend that students in 7th through 10th grade, starting in 2018, also have access to a personal computer, which they may be asked to bring to class as the teachers deem fit.
The main purpose for this new requirement is to assure that our students have access to a personal computer for their classes; to both access Google Classroom and other G Suite applications but also to assure that a word processing capability is available to all secondary students at all times, without having to access the school computer lab.
If you have a secondary student, or are soon to have one in the years to come, please begin to plan now for the upcoming laptop future at Futuro Verde. As you plan for the purchase of a laptop computer for your child, please assure it has the following minimum specifications:
- i3 processor
- 4GB RAM
- Mac or PC, 2012 or newer
- Windows 7, 8 or 10 or Ubuntu o MacOSX 10 or higher
- WIFI capabilities
- A Chromebook, though acceptable, is not recommended due to its software limitations
- A tablet with an external keyboard, though acceptable, is not recommended
- A smart phone is NOT an acceptable substitution for the laptop requirement
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this new requirement for the 2018 school year, please contact me at any time for a personal appointment time.
Futuro Verde
Inspiration. Dedication. Innovation.
