by David Brookshire, MPH/ School Counselor & Special Education Case Manager | Aug 30, 2018
Empathy is a complex skill that involves understanding another person’s perspective and responding appropriately. This skill grows to become the foundation of how we learn to interact with others in an effective way and can determine the quality of relationships we build throughout our lives. Needless to say, it’s important. We all want our children to grow up as caring, considerate, and understanding human beings. So, how can we help them become this? Here are a few tips for developing caring and empathetic children:
1. Model:
One of the best ways for children to learn anything is through modeling. Quite simply, when they observe someone modeling a particular behavior, they are much more likely to learn and repeat that behavior. Parents can model empathy by verbalizing their understandings of others’ feelings in various situations. For example, if your child is crying, you can say, “I see that you are crying. It seems like you are sad. Are you sad? I know it’s hard sometimes.” These few short sentences validate the child’s perspective and verbalize the connections between their thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Providing them an experience where someone shows them empathy helps them build those pathways in the brain. This is important to do for them and can also be demonstrated in situations involving others’ feelings.
2. Make connections through observation:
In any public or family situation, you can point out situations where a person is behaving in a certain way and ask your child if they have any guesses for why they might be doing what they are doing. For example, “Why do you think that man is yelling?” If he or she doesn’t know you can discuss different possibilities and connect it with how we act when we are feeling a certain way. Another way to practice this type of perspective taking is to apply this to any conflict the child might have. For example, if she hits her brother, you can ask her how she thinks her brother feels when she hits him. A follow up question would be, “How do you feel when your brother hits you?” This type of dialogue is great for empathetic brain development and a great way to practice the Golden Rule (Treat others the way you would like to be treated.). Practicing this type of perspective taking at home, in public, and even through literature by discussing the characters, can be a great way to make connections through observation in order to develop empathy skills.
3. Listening and vulnerability:
Through interactions, we learn and practice empathy. One of the best ways to do this is by being a good listener. Allowing others to fully express their perspective naturally helps us to understand this perspective. This, of course, requires us to express our perspective appropriately when it is our turn to do so. This requires vulnerability and honesty as we express how we are feeling. This is one of the best ways we can model and practice empathy with our children.
4. Unplug:
If building empathy skills requires interaction with others, it is absolutely essential that we limit electronic screen time for ourselves and our children. If most of our free time is spent staring at our respective screens, this obviously reduces that amount of time we are interacting with others. This is only the tip of the iceberg, however. Studies show that too much time on electronics for developing brains can cause such problems as irritability, insomnia, poor social skills, poor memory, difficulty focusing, poor eye contact, impulse control, and disorganized behavior. Dr. Victoria Dunckley explains in her book, Reset Your Child’s Brain, that a child’s brain that is overly engaged in electronic screen time creates imbalances in the brain by providing too much activity in the reward centers and too little activity in regions associated with empathy. By substituting screen time for family game time, a leisurely walk, conversation, or other activities, you can have a major impact in building connection, modeling social interaction, and strengthening brain development.
By incorporating these strategies, you are well on your way to developing caring and empathetic children.
by Noelia | Aug 30, 2018
The month of patriotic celebrations is approaching quickly! Our country is celebrating its 197th anniversary of independence and we have already started preparing for the event.
We begin on Wednesday, September 12th at 6:00 pm, with our civic week participation at the Cóbano bull ring.
Next, on Friday, September 14th, we participate in the torch run, and in the evening we take part in the lantern parade
at 6:00 p.m., walking from the municipality building towards the circle of Cóbano.
The culminating activity is the independence day parade on Saturday, September 15th, at 8 pm, in the center of Cóbano.
by Stuart Millar, IB coordinator | Aug 29, 2018
While we excitedly await the arrival of our new high school and IB English teacher, Vidhi Gada, I have been the substitute teacher for our 11th-grade students. Often we teach what we already know, but I think I have the most fun when I learn with the students. Did you know that Shakespeare invented countless words and phrases that we use in English? 1,700 words actually, and countless was one of them. You just can’t get “too much of a good thing!” (Shakespeare). I feel the same teaching Business Management. It has re-awakened my passion for the subject and I find myself spending hours reading the business news and researching company statistics. It’s all worth it when you see students light up and get involved with their learning as well. Show them how to learn, model how to learn, and most importantly model how fun it is to learn.
We have made an auspicious (thanks Shakespeare!) start to our IB program. We’re learning so much and learning together – not just facts and figures, but about ourselves and each other. Students continue to learn how to research, how to write according to the MLA style guide, and to question not only their sources but what they think they know or believe. They are starting to plan their Extended Essay as well as their Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) project, and have already completed some IB Internal Assessments which will contribute to their final grade. Oh! And we’re talking about university applications as well!
With so much going on we are all learning something else that is very important. Organizing their priorities and time will be the key to our students’ success. There is a lot to do in IB. There is no getting away from that. It is a rigorous program of study and makes a lot of demands on students. An important realization must be that classwork and homework is not optional and deadlines are not suggestions! Some might have to adapt their outlook and how they use their time. For example, the weekend can still be a time for relaxation and fun, but sometimes it’s not. What I have seen so far is that those who put in the time and effort are really moving forward and making big gains.
So students, dig deep, be resilient, accept that it’s important to do your best work, stay up to date, and don’t forget to ask for help and support. We’re here for you! The IB diploma program is about many things, including building character and developing lifelong learning skills. It’s also about scoring as high as possible to give yourself as many opportunities as possible in the future. You can do it!
by Lural Ramirez | Aug 28, 2018
For over a year now Futuro Verde students, staff, parents and our greater school community have worked together to raise the funds needed for a multi-use sports court for the school. With our efforts thus far we have raised over $5,000. The total cost of the court is estimated at $40,000, which would include the court base and roof. Our board president, Rico Reolon, has been working hard to secure an external donor willing to support the funding needed for our court and just this last month the good news came in- a Swiss donor has committed to $20,000 toward our sports facilities!
We held a surprise announcement with our staff and students and filmed the moment to share with our social media community and as a thank you to our donor. Students and staff celebrated in full- overjoyed to have achieved such impressive progress on this important goal for our school community! It is never lost on our school community that we have and continue to thrive thanks to the support of generous donations just like our current Swiss donors and we are tremendously grateful for this ongoing support.
Phase one of construction for the sports court will begin as soon as possible. This phase will complete the court base and will boast a purpose-built facility designed for:
School Enrichment
- Basketball
- Indoor football (soccer)
- American 5-man football
- Handball
- Goalball
- Acrobatic gymnastics
- Artistic gymnastics
- Volleyball
- Tennis
- Hockey (roller skate and tennis shoe)
- Badminton
Community Enrichment
- Pilates classes
- Yoga classes
- Zumba
- Dance classes
- Crossfit
- Group recreation activities
Multipurpose Uses
Community and school events
- Assemblies
- Guest speakers
- Civic events
- Band practices
- Graduation
We would love to achieve Phase 2 of the sport court construction, primarily the construction of a roof over the facility and bathrooms, showers and lockers, and encourage donors interested in supporting this to contribute to our current online campaign. Thank you!
Donate here
by Stephanie Smith | Aug 6, 2018
It didn’t take long to make the decision. The forest fires were out of control in Southern California; 2017 turned out to be the most destructive year on record. The day I walked our son, Django, to his school in Venice, the sky was eerily yellow, almost apocalyptic. Ash fell like snow into my scalding latte. News of another mass shooting. The inevitable insane tweets of a madman followed. The air was thick with contaminants of all kinds.
It seemed like the perfect time for a change. France or Spain perhaps? We’d travelled extensively around Europe and could imagine ourselves living there. Dreaming up Django’s perfect future school – a mix of Waldorf, Forest and multi-lingual education, we began our search. My husband, Gary, was in between jobs and had started a consulting gig. I was in the midst of financing post-production for my documentary so as long as there was internet, we figured a digital nomadic lifestyle could work. Then a friend mentioned Costa Rica. It was never on our list of countries to visit, let alone live.
Two months later, our apartment packed up, we found ourselves Costa Rica-bound on an unexpected adventure. As it turned out, Futuro Verde was the school of our dreams – at least on paper.
With a couple of weeks to get settled before the first day of term, the reality of living in an actual jungle had not quite sunk in. I hate to use clichés, but there was no question we were fish out of the water. The first night in the little village of Panica, we lay awake under the sheets, terror-stricken by the sounds of a demon-like creature, bellowing ever closer to the pitch-black bedroom. No-one had warned us that power outage were the norm. Having just recovered from the fright of a scorpion scuttling by our feet at dinner time, these urbanites were truly panicked. Or only the adults, should I say, as Django was in his element, relishing every bit of the drama. Discovering that those supernatural sounds came from the sheepish howler monkey was a great relief.
It’s no exaggeration that we were immediately spellbound after the first week of school. Observing Django’s excitement in his new environment surrounded by nature, was nothing short of joyous. Futuro Verde was beyond anything we had imagined and a place that fueled this 7-year-old’s imagination. Intricate accounts of a cat world under the assembly stage; lizard rescue missions from the magical Banyans; eating mangoes straight from the trees during recess – dinner time stories were endless.
Although it took longer than expected to settle in due to the setbacks of a labyrinthine banking and postal system, finding places to work and live with good internet coverage, appalling and dusty road conditions, which made us feel like bit players in a Mad Max movie, it was all worthwhile for an extraordinary educational experience for our son. The jungle has provided us a new way of seeing and a deep appreciation of the natural environment.
by Angie Briceño | Aug 3, 2018
Year after year, we continually improve our grant application process at Futuro Verde. This year for the first time, this process was carried out by a professional social worker, Mariela Quirós Meza, who was in charge of receiving the scholarship packages and forms, collecting and analyzing the information, paying home visits, and conducting interviews with families to remove doubts. At the end of the process, the social worker delivers a complete report containing recommendations.
For the 2019 school year, we established three different percentages after analyzing the financial scope of the John Dolan Scholarship Fund: 30%, 50% and 70%.
The 2018 scholarship process involved the following:
- Interview and hiring of a professional in the area of Social Work.
- Period of scholarship and document submissions from June 18 to July 16.
- Case analysis by the social worker and home visits from June 18 to July 16.
- Report deliveries to families from July 17 to July 20.
We remind you that the scholarship program is an annual condition, so the scholarship or discount awarded lasts only one school year. This process will be repeated every year for all families who wish to participate and meet the requirements for a scholarship or discount.
We invite you to participate in the scholarship process for the 2020 school year starting in June 2019.
