by Lural Ramirez | Dec 14, 2016
As we enter the new year, the administrative team at Futuro Verde sends a heartfelt appreciation to all parents who were able to confirm their child’s registration for the 2017 school year! We look forward to an excellent year ahead; full of learning, fun and growth for your child. We appreciate the confidence you place in us and the opportunity to work with your child each and every day!
If you have not yet paid your child’s registration fee, we urge you to do so as soon as possible! Prompt payment of new school year registration supports the Futuro Verde staff in confidently planning for the new school year and gives your family peace of mind that your child has a spot saved in their respective grade level. Did you know that our projected enrollment for 2017 shows full classes in multiple primary grade levels and only a few spots left in each secondary and preschool class? Wait lists already have the first students in queue, hopeful for a spot to open in our full grade levels. Make sure your child has their spot secured by confirming registration via payment of the annual registration fee and completion of the online registration form!
If you have any concerns or questions regarding registration for your child or need support from Futuro Verde’s finance department, please contact our staff via email at: finanzas@futuro-verde.org or come meet with us in person when our offices open for the new school year on January 16, 2017!
Futuro Verde
Inspiration. Dedication. Innovation.
by Lural Ramirez | Dec 3, 2016
Those familiar with Futuro Verde know that we are a community of professionals committed to on-going self-reflection and with a strong desire for continual school improvement. As we look toward the 2017 school year, I am excited to announce some incredible curricular improvements to come:
- Our whole-school 50-50 Spanish/English immersion program’s additional language component (currently French) makes a groundbreaking transition! Following the advice of current research and experts in the field of language acquisition, Futuro Verde will now provide a new course to all preschool and primary students called “Comparative Language Study”. This class will replace the current French lesson students receive in the primary grades. The reason for this change is responsiveness by Futuro Verde to new research that shows that one of the highest leverage investments in our young language learners is direct instruction and support “bridging” across all of their languages. Students will work with Futuro Verde’s language specialist and polygot, Debbie Bruylant, as the main teacher and will receive additional input and support from Futuro Verde’s new classical languages teacher, Futuro Verde’s new secondary French teacher, FV classroom specialists and even from me, the school director! The focus of the class will be students exploring all their languages within a context of: communication, culture, connections, comparisons and community. The goal is to foster young learners with strong metacognitive and metalinguistic skills, irrespective of their home language(s) and current proficiency in Spanish or English. This is a very exciting and innovative addition to our curricular offerings!
- Speaking of Classical Languages, I am proud to announce that Futuro Verde secondary students in 7th-9th grade will now have the option of choosing between French or Classical Languages (Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic) as their additional language! Did you know that Futuro Verde’s music teacher, Oscar Leal Mendez, is also an accomplished scholar of classical languages? Students can now learn all about these classical languages by choosing to take the Classical Languages tract, starting this coming 2017 school year. French or Classical Languages- what will your middle years student choose?
- Speaking of our music teacher, Oscar Leal Mendez, Futuro Verde is proud to announce that we are finally able to increase music instruction at all grade levels in 2017! More music is music to our ears here at Futuro Verde!
- We are also proud to announce that next school year our primary students will have 2 arts classes a week from our new full time Arts teacher! So exciting, so inspiring- so much to learn and explore!
These are only a snapshot of the curricular improvements to come! Please make sure to schedule our end of the year whole-school celebration- Respect, hArmony, Peace (RAP), to be held on December 13th, into your personal calendar. Beautiful student presentations are not to be missed from 3:00-5:00 pm. Potluck dinner to follow! We hope to see you there!
by Lural Ramirez | Oct 28, 2016
Living here on the peninsula, we all know how fortunate we are to have Futuro Verde as a high-quality educational solution for our children. But, did you know that Futuro Verde’s reputation as an innovative two-way immersion school is growing internationally as well?
During the second week of November, Futuro Verde’s special programs coordinator, Stuart Millar, and former Futuro Verde teacher and retired University Professor and Researcher, Eileen Waldschmidt, will join me, Futuro Verde’s director, in leading a presentation at the prestigious La Cosecha conference in the United States. Our presentation will target interested universities and researchers, encouraging them to come to Futuro Verde and study our educational program while encouraging qualified pre-service teachers to choose Futuro Verde for their practicum schooling requirements.
But, how will these opportunities benefit your child? In so many ways! For example:
- Futuro Verde’s collaboration with university researchers and experts in the field of bilingual and international education gives us immediate feedback and access to high-quality professional growth opportunities for FV administration and staff.
- On-going inclusion of diverse student teachers, in complement to our highly qualified FV staff, allows for more opportunities for small group instruction and learning enrichment.
You can also become a part of Futuro Verde’s development as a flagship school in the world of bilingual education by signing up now to attend our 3rd annual Conference on Bilingual, Holistic and Sustainable Education, to be held on June 29th and 30th, 2017 at the Futuro Verde campus. We are thrilled to be welcoming, as a keynote speaker to our conference, Dr. Kathy Escamilla, one of the most prolific and respected researchers in the field of bilingual education. Join the movement and become an informed advocate for the high-quality learning environment Futuro Verde provides!
by Lural Ramirez | Aug 31, 2016
Dear families and Futuro Verde supporters,
As I come into the final trimester in my third year at Futuro Verde I am rejuvenated and positively looking ahead to the coming years! Every time that our school community comes together to work through difficult decisions like those made at our assembly meeting in August, I am reminded of what an incredible honor it is to lead this educational project through so many transitions and improvements. I thank you for your commitment to Futuro Verde, your support as we continue to invest in quality infrastructure and programming for all of our students and your thoughtfulness and care as we continue to nurture our incredible teachers, of which we will have only 7% attrition from this school year to the next! These are celebratory days at Futuro Verde!
I remind you of some of our current projects and plans for the coming year:
- Continued fundraising toward our capital campaign to build our new campus in Las Delicias: this includes events like the Media and Construction Forum in San Jose on the 31st of August which highlighted the “Future of Construction through Light and Sustainable Building”. The plans for our new Futuro Verde campus were featured and all proceeds from the event will benefit our school’s capital campaign!
- If you take a Nature Air flight in the next few months, make sure to check page 9 of their in-flight magazine, Landings, for a full-page spread donated to Futuro Verde’s efforts to fund our new campus!
With the assembly approval of our funding needs for a financially healthy school and an improved educational experience for all students in 2017, we are also pleased to announce the addition to our current campus of:
- A science laboratory to be used by all Futuro Verde students and designed to meet IB* standards
- A remodeled multimedia center with a dedicated space for technology classes and another for library browsing and study space. This will come accompanied next year by a fully barcoded, inventoried and searchable database for Futuro Verde library resources!
- Dedicated classrooms spaces for all Futuro Verde subject areas!
We are also thrilled to announce that the parents of one of our preschoolers have generously offered to donate substantial improvements to our preschool facilities! Thank you Thoren and Silvia!
With further projected curricular improvements in 2017, a decisive year for us with our accreditation visit as a candidate school for IB*, and all but two of our current employees committing to another year at Futuro Verde, we are looking forward to an even brighter future at Futuro Verde!
And so, I appreciate you, the families, for your continued trust and commitment to Futuro Verde and for your belief in the high quality bilingual education our non-profit school provides to all of its students. I am so pleased to serve you on this journey!
Inspiration. Dedication. Innovation.
Lural Ramirez
Director
*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 2, 2016
We just ended our 2nd Annual International Education Conference on Bilingual, Holistic and Sustainable Education this past Friday, July 1st, 2016. What an incredible success this event was! Dr. Fred Genesee joined our participants all the way from Montreal, Canada and we all came away with new insights and practical applications for the classroom. What an honor to spend two days with such an accomplished and renowned expert in the field of dual language education! A huge appreciation as well to all of our other session presenters: Dr. Eileen Waldschmidt and Dr. Irene Welch – both experts in dual language education and effective teaching and learning strategies with language learners and our huge group of classroom teachers and administrators who passionately shared their knowledge on areas that ran the gamut in bilingual, holistic and sustainable education. Incredible learning, dedicated professionals and much hope for an even brighter future in the world of progressive, international education!
Mark your calendars now for the 2017 BHS conference, when we will be welcoming Dr. Kathy Escamilla as our conference keynote. Dr. Escamilla has done groundbreaking work in the areas of simultaneous biliteracy and minority language students and has published two books and over 50 research articles throughout her career. We are already looking forward with great excitement to the conference on June 29-30 2017 and would like to remind our parent and school community that the BHS conference is open to all – parents, student teachers, community members and local, national and international educators. Together we can assure that the ideals of progressive education continue to grow and develop for the benefit of all of our local and global communities!
by Lural Ramirez | Apr 1, 2016
“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”
– John Dewey
The promise at Futuro Verde is that of a progressive education. Our teachers’ commitment can be seen each and every day and the effect of that commitment is perhaps best reflected in the words of a new local student to our school whom, at the end of his first day at Futuro Verde exclaimed joyously, “…this has been the best day of school in my whole life!”
Our community is more diverse every day, with 27 countries of origin represented at Futuro Verde this year and 8 different native languages spoken at home. In our global school, with our roots firmly in our local community and with an open mind toward the rest of the world, we actively promote tolerance of differences. We strive to achieve incredible dreams- the construction of our new school building, achievement of verification as an IB World School* and teaching and learning from day to day that inspires our students and guides them toward an innovative future.
Your children work hard each day, but, what have you done lately to learn more about our school? How have you become involved? If you would like to return to school, becoming newly inspired by our educational model and actively participate in an exchange of knowledge, sign-up now for our International BHS Conference. Local, national and international experts will share their knowledge during our event. Sessions will include topics on sustainability, holistic learning and multilingual development. With sessions in English and in Spanish, there is something for everyone! There is no better way to support our school while joining an international community of educators and lovers of education.
Become an active part of our paradigm change, remembering that you are also a teacher, since we know that “home is the first school and parents are the first teachers”.
Futuro Verde
Inspiration. Dedication. Innovation.
