Fwd: Arlington-Teosinte curriculum October newsletter

[std...@aol.com]

FYI - this went out to all the teachers.  please take a second to check that your school's teachers are correct on the email list and to read the update.

 

Anyone want to do this for next month?

 

Also looking for anyone who wants to write an Advocate article.... maybe about the Salvadoran guest speaker...?

 

Let me know.

 

gracias

Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: std...@aol.com
To: ccap...@arlington.k12.ma.us; mtri...@arlington.k12.ma.us; ply...@arlinton.k12.ma.us; flar...@arlington.k12.ma.us; nsch...@arlington.k12.ma.us; fcan...@arlington.k12.ma.us; lmar...@arlington.k12.ma.us; mmu...@arlington.k12.ma.us; acalc...@arlington.k12.ma.us; jkarw...@arlington.k12.ma.us; nha...@arlington.k12.ma.us; jviv...@arlington.k12.ma.us; jharr...@arlington.k12.ma.us; ebr...@arlington.k12.ma.us; abru...@arlington.k12.ma.us; sje...@arlington.k12.ma.us; sfo...@arlington.k12.ma.us; kdu...@arlington.k12.ma.us
Sent: Wed, Oct 20, 2010 8:59 am
Subject: Arlington-Teosinte curriculum October newsletter

                                                                                                                                                                           October 20, 2010

Dear Fourth Grade Teachers-

Bienvenidos (Welcome) to the second year of the fourth grade curriculum “Learning from International Friendship:  Bringing Teosinte to Our Schools”.  I would like to thank you for your warm welcome this year and for opening your classrooms to the parent volunteers.  We all appreciate the time that you have made available to us, as we know that classroom time is precious and limited.

By now you should have all had a visit from a volunteer who took your students on an “imaginary trip to Teosinte”.   As a volunteer who visited 10 classes this Fall, I have to say that I enjoyed every presentation and each was unique.  While my presentation was basically the same in each class, the questions and conversations that evolved from it were different in each room.  I loved it and loved the depth of questions that the kids had.  It was obvious that many of you had been talking about Teosinte before my visit and that the kids were soaking it all in.

I think one of the reasons that the classroom visits were so rich with information this year was because of your generosity with classroom time.  Many of you gave us 45 minutes to an hour of time.  This allowed a deeper level of questions once we got through the more basic ones.  We had conversations about democracy, the value of community and family (things you can’t buy with money), the impact of weather on life in Teosinte, the experience of a refugee, similarities and differences between the kids, what it would be like to visit Teosinte if you don’t speak Spanish and even what it is like to be a non-native English speaker here in our schools and how students can extend a hand of friendship to their classmates.

Several classrooms were able to take advantage of an extra enrichment opportunity when we found out that we would have 4 visitors from El Salvador in town for 1 ½ days.  German Gonzalez, a Salvadoran who grew up in a village smaller than Teosinte and who does community organizing in rural villages such as Teosinte, and 3 women who work for the Sister Cities Project in El Salvador, visited 9 fourth grade classrooms and the AHS Spanish class that translates our letters.  Thank you for squeezing us into your days with such short notice.   Visas to visit the US are very expensive and difficult to obtain.  I am not sure when we will get another opportunity like that.

The Arlington –Teosinte Sister City Project is having our big fundraising concert this Nov. 21, 3pm at the Town Hall.  The Family Folk Chorale, along with special guests Sol y Canto (from last spring’s concert), is presenting “Our Global Village”, an uplifting concert for all ages.  We would appreciate if you would allow us to send home information with your students.  As you know, high school and college education is not free and is unaffordable to families in Teosinte.  Proceeds from the concert go to educational scholarships.

Now to the letters, the letters are due to your school representative on Tuesday Nov. 9^th.  In response to your feedback last year, we pushed back the due date a few weeks so you had more time.  Many of you did not like the idea of choosing one letter to send and suggested writing a class letter.  We agree.  As a result, many of you have already decided to have the students work together to write a class letter.  This should result in a richer, more complex and informative letters as well as making everyone feel a part of it.

I wanted to take a moment to plant a seed for anyone interested.  We would love to send a teacher ( or teachers) on a delegation to Teosinte and perhaps another small village.  We would work with you to apply for grants (AEF is interested in helping) and to fundraise for you if needed.  Cambridge has a sister city in El Salvador named San Jose de las Flores.  They send a few delegations a year to El Salvador, including educators.  They are interested in either helping us send our own delegation, or inviting you to join a joint delegation that would visit both villages.  You would have a staff person with you at all times who would deal with all the logistics and would translate for you.  Please think about it!

On behalf of the Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project and the village of Teosinte, I would like to thank you for your participation, your enthusiasm and your time.  Please let your representatives know if there is any way that they can enrich this experience for you or your students.    We are here as resources for you.

 

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Dray

School programs Coordinator, Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project

std...@aol.com

www.arlingtonteosinte.org

[std...@aol.com]

YIPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Who's next?

-----Original Message-----
From: Siobhan Foley <sfo...@arlington.k12.ma.us>
To: std...@aol.com
Sent: Fri, Oct 22, 2010 8:10 am
Subject: Re: Arlington-Teosinte curriculum October newsletter

Hello,

I believe you have aleady spoken with Sarah Marie Jette about when you will come into Thompson.  I think she also mentioned that you will come to one of our planning meetings on Tuesday or Wednesday morning to meet with us. 

I am writing mostly to express my interest in being a part of the delegation of teachers to El Salvador. I think it would be a great experience and I am already fluent in Spanish.  I served in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic and I was hired initially by Arlington years ago as an elementary Spanish teacher.  Hopefully, we can discuss it more next week.

Thank you.

Siobhan Foley

[std...@aol.com]

pinch me!

-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Trivino <mtri...@arlington.k12.ma.us>
To: std...@aol.com
Sent: Mon, Oct 25, 2010 1:50 pm
Subject: Re: Arlington-Teosinte curriculum October newsletter

 Dear Elizabeth-
        I am very interested in going to El Salvador to visit Teosinte.  I am curious if the visit would be for a week or over the summer etc. Also, is there an application process?  Thank you so much! - Maggie Trivino, 4th grade, Hardy School

[Kim Holt]

Awesome!  I am definitely planning to take a few youth the week of August 14 if some others want to go at the same time.  We can figure out logistics for that trip soonish.

Thanks.

Kim

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teosintecurriculum" group.
To post to this group, send email to teosintec...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to teosintecurricu...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teosintecurriculum?hl=en.

--
Kim Kay Holt
Director
Leadership Enrichment Adventure Project (LEAP)
kimka...@gmail.com
www.leaparlington.org
http://kimkay-leap.blogspot.com

kimka...@gmail.com
781-572-6812

[std...@aol.com]

thanks

[Evelyne Delori]

Do we know if school is in session June, July, August.....I am thinking we would want delegation to go while school in session?

Evelyne

[Beth Soltzberg]

Wow!� This is wonderful!

On 10/25/2010 8:34 PM, std...@aol.com wrote:

pinch me!

-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Trivino <mtri...@arlington.k12.ma.us>
To: std...@aol.com
Sent: Mon, Oct 25, 2010 1:50 pm
Subject: Re: Arlington-Teosinte curriculum October newsletter

�Dear Elizabeth-
������� I am very interested in going to El Salvador to visit Teosinte.� I am curious if the visit would be for a week or over the summer etc. Also, is there an application process?� Thank you so much! - Maggie Trivino, 4th grade, Hardy School

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 8:59 AM, <std...@aol.com> wrote:

�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� October 20, 2010

Dear Fourth Grade Teachers-

Bienvenidos (Welcome) to the second year of the fourth grade curriculum �Learning from International Friendship:� Bringing Teosinte to Our Schools�.� I would like to thank you for your warm welcome this year and for opening your classrooms to the parent volunteers.� We all appreciate the time that you have made available to us, as we know that classroom time is precious and limited.

By now you should have all had a visit from a volunteer who took your students on an �imaginary trip to Teosinte�.�� As a volunteer who visited 10 classes this Fall, I have to say that I enjoyed every presentation and each was unique.� While my presentation was basically the same in each class, the questions and conversations that evolved from it were different in each room.� I loved it and loved the depth of questions that the kids had.� It was obvious that many of you had been talking about Teosinte before my visit and that the kids were soaking it all in.

I think one of the reasons that the classroom visits were so rich with information this year was because of your generosity with classroom time.� Many of you gave us 45 minutes to an hour of time.� This allowed a deeper level of questions once we got through the more basic ones.� We had conversations about democracy, the value of community and family (things you can�t buy with money), the impact of weather on life in Teosinte, the experience of a refugee, similarities and differences between the kids, what it would be like to visit Teosinte if you don�t speak Spanish and even what it is like to be a non-native English speaker here in our schools and how students can extend a hand of friendship to their classmates.

Several classrooms were able to take advantage of an extra enrichment opportunity when we found out that we would have 4 visitors from El Salvador in town for 1 � days.� German Gonzalez, a Salvadoran who grew up in a village smaller than Teosinte and who does community organizing in rural villages such as Teosinte, and 3 women who work for the Sister Cities Project in El Salvador, visited 9 fourth grade classrooms and the AHS Spanish class that translates our letters.� Thank you for squeezing us into your days with such short notice.� �Visas to visit the US are very expensive and difficult to obtain.� I am not sure when we will get another opportunity like that.

The Arlington �Teosinte Sister City Project is having our big fundraising concert this Nov. 21, 3pm at the Town Hall.� The Family Folk Chorale, along with special guests Sol y Canto (from last spring�s concert), is presenting �Our Global Village�, an uplifting concert for all ages.� We would appreciate if you would allow us to send home information with your students.� As you know, high school and college education is not free and is unaffordable to families in Teosinte.� Proceeds from the concert go to educational scholarships.

Now to the letters, the letters are due to your school representative on Tuesday Nov. 9^th.� In response to your feedback last year, we pushed back the due date a few weeks so you had more time.� Many of you did not like the idea of choosing one letter to send and suggested writing a class letter.� We agree.� As a result, many of you have already decided to have the students work together to write a class letter.� This should result in a richer, more complex and informative letters as well as making everyone feel a part of it.

I wanted to take a moment to plant a seed for anyone interested.� We would love to send a teacher ( or teachers) on a delegation to Teosinte and perhaps another small village.� We would work with you to apply for grants (AEF is interested in helping) and to fundraise for you if needed.� Cambridge has a sister city in El Salvador named San Jose de las Flores.� They send a few delegations a year to El Salvador, including educators.� They are interested in either helping us send our own delegation, or inviting you to join a joint delegation that would visit both villages.� You would have a staff person with you at all times who would deal with all the logistics and would translate for you.� Please think about it!

On behalf of the Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project and the village of Teosinte, I would like to thank you for your participation, your enthusiasm and your time.� Please let your representatives know if there is any way that they can enrich this experience for you or your students.��� We are here as resources for you.

�

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Dray

School programs Coordinator, Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project

std...@aol.com

www.arlingtonteosinte.org

[std...@aol.com]

good point- I will find out once we know teacher's timelines (this summer, next...)

[std...@aol.com]

FYI

-----Original Message-----
From: Julie Harrington <jharr...@arlington.k12.ma.us>
To: std...@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Oct 28, 2010 2:51 pm
Subject: Re: Arlington-Teosinte curriculum October newsletter

Elizabeth,

Thank you for the update. The students absolutely loved having a visitor from El Salvador. I am very interested in finding out more about a teacher visit to Teosinte. Please let me know if you think that this could become a possibility. Thank you for all of your hard work in making this experience so accessible to the children.

Julie Harrington

[Evelyne Delori]

4th teacher?

[std...@aol.com]

yes, #4

-----Original Message-----
From: Evelyne Delori <evelyne...@mcmxi.com>
To: teosintec...@googlegroups.com