Taller Colibri Open House March 3

Taller Colibri school in Huayapam, Oaxaca is holding an open house Saturday, March 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
We will show student work and take a trip to the nearby river. Snacks and refreshments will be served. We are located at the intersection of Union (the main road into town) and Campo Santo in the house on the corner with the dark red fence. A map is reproduced below.

Here's a few pics from our recent field trip to the ruins at Yagul

 Taller Colibrí (Hummingbird´s Workshop) is currently located in Huayapan, a small town about 20 minutes from the center of Oaxaca City. Huayapan is rich with natural areas to explore, including rivers, mountains, and ponds. The school has a welcoming and home-like environment, with shared work areas, garden, a small library, kitchen, and garden. A mixed-age group of children between the ages of 6-10 spend their days Taller Colibrí, there is currently one lead teacher. The children have the opportunity to use both English and Spanish during school activities and in their interactions with each other and members of the community of Huayapan.

The mixed-aged group of students at Taller Colibrí participates in an active, experiential curriculum that integrates art, the natural and community resources of the local area, and the interests of the children.

The curriculum is based around interdisciplinary themes of study that incorporate language arts, history, social studies, math, and hands-on experience in the world. Theme investigations and projects are done in both English and Spanish.

Sounds Good to Me

Taller Colibri in Huayapam, Oaxaca is off and running in it's second year. I'll post some update soon as to what we're up to, but today this was brought to my attention by Suzanna Elkin, our teacher at Colibri.

Tomorrow, the Manhattan Free School is having an information session. I'm reproducing their notice here, and I am delighted with how they articulate their philosophy of education. Here's the notice:

You are invited to attend
The Manhattan Free School's Information Session

Friday, September 9
6-8pm

115 East 106th Street
between Lexington and Park Avenues


The Manhattan Free School is a non-public school for people
ages 5-19. Our school’s fundamental premise is based on the resolution
constructed and adopted at the 2005 International Democratic Education
Conference, which states:

In any educational setting, young people have the right:
to decide individually how, when, what, where, and
with whom they learn,
to have an equal share in the decision-making as to how their
organizations—in particular their schools—are run, and which rules and
sanctions, if any, are necessary.

We believe people are born curious
and because of this we can trust in their desire to learn and their
enormous capacity to make sense of the world on their own terms.

We believe children learn best by actively engaging with the natural
world through firsthand experience.

We believe that people learn best when they decide what they want to
learn, when they learn for their own reasons, and when they have
maximum control over the pace and the manner in which they learn.

We believe that children are innately good and that schools should fit
the child instead of the child fitting the school.

We believe that people of all ages learn responsibility when they
possess and can exercise the responsibility and liberty to govern
their own communities.

We believe children are naturally inclined toward wholeness
and happiness.

We believe democratic free schools restore childhood to children and
allow children to form healthy relationships with people of all ages.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Wow, now that is a concise statement. Right on.

Steve Lafler
parent at Taller Colibri

Taller Colibri Philosophy

The parents and teacher at Taller Colibri have collaborated on creating this statement of our philosophy and intent at the school. We are just about to conclude a successful first year.

On Curriculum:
--A child-centered curriculum promotes motivation and self-determined challenges.
--A project-based curriculum helps to ensure a multimodal approach, addressing diverse learning styles.
--Find the teachable moments instead of pushing a prefabbed agenda - in each situation and with individual children
--Contact with Oaxaca's culture, natural attractions, language, traditions and historic places is an integral part of the school's identity.
--Real learning emerges comes from the freedom to explore (especially within the natural world, or with the help of interesting resources and materials.)

On structure:
--A multiage classroom promotes deeper learning and more open peer relationships.
--The day follows a rhythm that reflects the needs of the students, moving between outdoor, indoor, whole group and individual activities.
--The school is cooperative. Members make decisions together and share work and responsibilities.

Educational philosophy:
--Traditional academic knowledge is no more valuable than other types of knowledge and ways of interacting with the world
--ACTIVE learning and CURIOSITY about the world are the most important things to foster and help inspire.
--Learning is fun. We all learn from each other (teachers are students, students are teachers).
--The best way to 'teach' children to care for the natural environment is to give them time and space to enjoy it - children naturally love the world
--Trust the growing process of each child - do not push children to achieve outward measurements of success
--Let kids be kids
--Model kindness
--Learning can be messy

Field Trip Friday

One of the best features of the Taller Colibri school in Oaxaca is Field Trip Friday. These are trips led by parents on a rotating basis. We've done regular field trip stuff like the local zoo, to more exotic stuff like a visit to the ruins at Yagul, more than 1000 years old.



On Fridays, we meet at the Organic Market in the Xochimilco neighborhood of Oaxaca City to catch a delicious breakfast.



From there we move on to a short seminar with Maestra Suzanna, then we head out to the field trip location.



This past week we had a great time, heading up toward the mountains to the north of town for a picnic and a swim in a cool stream on a hot day.



The kids found a huge rock to slide down. They had to pour water on it to get it working right--an experiment that dovetailed nicely with last Autumn's physics unit.
We also experienced some little leeches first hand, and boy did we get those things off quick!
It was a bit buggy up there, but we wisely brought along some medicinal clay from the Donahi neighborhood (from another great field trip Friday mission)--we coated our legs with it and the bugs couldn't bug us.
A good time was had by all.

Slug Hunt

One of the coolest things about Taller Colibri is that the back yard is a combination science lab / semi-tropical jungle. And it's gorgeous.



And let me tell you, preschoolers Genevieve and Samuel have discovered the perfect way to start the day at Colibri... SLUG HUNT!

Carnivorous Plants

This past week at Taller Colibri, the kids have been working with carnivorous plants--as any parent knows, most children just go nuts for them! Lucky for us, we were able to find some for cheap at a gorgeous organic nursery here in Oaxaca -- we scored a sundew plant for all of 30 pesos, less than three bucks.



We also scored a venus flytrap and more to bring to the school site, where the students can enjoy watching the plants eat a few bugs.

The picture here is a drawing I made of a sun dew plant. Okay, so they don't really have eyes, I just added that for a dramatic effect.

Next up, Taller Colibri is doing a unit on magic. We'll look at the life of Harry Houdini and learn some tricks.