We spent the morning at an elementary school in Solola
What a remarkable experience. We thought we would be watching the teachers and students. They divided us up in groups of 2 and 3 and we went to the classrooms. When we got there we realized they wanted us to engage with the children. Everyone stepped up to the plate and did beautifully. Everyone is managing to communicate in order to create a musical community. Parents would be VERY proud. I will upload a few photos but again we are loosing internet. Tomorrow we return to the city and everyone will have internet.
We have some amazing videos that will take time to upload....
We were asked to sing for the children and the students chose Oh Canada!
During our time at the local municipal school in Solola, I immediately felt welcomed and deeply humbled by their community of students and teachers. We first heard from the principal, a lovely woman who had a deep investment in each and every single one of the teachers and students. She knew what we may have seen as tiny details, such as class sizes or aspects of the curriculum, which made me feel like she had an honest concern for the wellbeing and development of the school and its students.
There was such an openness and willingness to share and learn together from everyone. The students were eager to share their landscape drawings with us and the teacher was eager to teach us some of the kaqchikel words and prononciations. We also shared some English words for the colours, and everyone joined in enthusiastically trying to pronounce the words; there was such a joy for learning together present in the room, and for me this pictures represents exactly that.
From hearing stories from other members of our group about their interactions, I could tell how much pride and agency was present within this community. There was such joy in sharing with us who they were, who they truly were. It was incredible to have been given the opportunity to interact more closely with their community through an educational lens and partake in joyful learning together.
There was such an openness and willingness to share and learn together from everyone. The students were eager to share their landscape drawings with us and the teacher was eager to teach us some of the kaqchikel words and prononciations. We also shared some English words for the colours, and everyone joined in enthusiastically trying to pronounce the words; there was such a joy for learning together present in the room, and for me this pictures represents exactly that.
From hearing stories from other members of our group about their interactions, I could tell how much pride and agency was present within this community. There was such joy in sharing with us who they were, who they truly were. It was incredible to have been given the opportunity to interact more closely with their community through an educational lens and partake in joyful learning together.
We had been working with the UVG students for a couple hours playing games and singing songs. It was clear that there was a disconnect between us and them because of our differences in language. It wasn't until the children taught me a game that only used hand signs that I felt like we were fully engaged together. There was no need for verbal communication what so ever. This is evidence that language is not necessary in order to interact with others. This something that I plan to work on... how to communicate with others other than through language.