Category: Featured

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What do children want most?  We let them tell us on this annual Dia de los Niños.  They want songs – especially the traditional ones they’ve been singing as a school community since they started here.  They want games – trampoline, twister, spider web, gunny sack races, carry-egg-on-spoon, musical chairs (Monteverde-style, where we keep taking away chairs but not children, so they have to get more and more co-operative), face-painting.  And they want ice-cream.

But we made them work for it.  After the assemblea sing-along, multi-age groups were each handed a gunny-sack full of odd costumes and props and given 20 minutes to come up with a skit.  They were of course fun, funny and cute, with the exception of one rather dark portrayal of the death of the Pink Panther…

Thank you to all the parents for providing snacks, volunteering, and for sharing your magical children with us.  They deserve a day to be celebrated.  And thank you to Marvin and Rise for these photos to share the fun with you.

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We are ready for your children tomorrow.   But don’t be deceived by the fresh, smiling faces of our teachers in the morning – getting here was a lot of work!

Our orientation for new teachers began the last week in July, when we introduced them to the many special ways of our school.  Then the new teachers joined in last week, starting with a full-day retreat during which we met in curricular teams and committees to get right down to the nitty gritty of planning a fantastic year.  We also did some fun team-building exercises to keep our esprit-de-corps strong.

Due to many room changes, there was a huge amount of book and furniture moving – thankfully, everyone (and often their children) pitched in.  Though once the books are all on the desks, it’s the teacher’s labour of love to sort through each one and find it’s place on the shelf and in the year’s plans.

We were blessed with the many families who came out for the day of “Limpieza” (cleaning).  Parents, grandparents and children rolled up their sleeves and scrubbed floors, removed painted murals from windows, removed yard debris and scrap wood, and a million other tasks that make our facilities a pleasure to come to school each day.

And somewhere in the middle of all that action, our team has been getting mentally and spiritually ready for the honour of guiding your children through another year of their growth.  Lesson planning, gathering resources (please bring 2-liter pop bottles and empty cereal boxes, by the way…), lovingly writing children’s names above their cubbies and coat hooks, reviewing files…  So much goes into being truly prepared to embrace these children in the morning, ready to jump into another year together.

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Here’s a video shot of Sue’s English classroom:  https://www.facebook.com/SueGabrielson/videos/10153906571263562/

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As a parting gift, outgoing English teacher Andrea Folds shared this poem at the final assembly, describing every single student she taught (Grades 5-12):

They say to get your message through, best to put it in a song.
Humans have short attention spans, and rhyming helps them drag along.

So here it is kids listen up, your teacher’s speakin straight
Forget your teenage insecurities, and believe me when I tell you, you’re great.

Sure roll your eyes and yawn and slouch, pull out your phone, that’s fine.
But these words will still sneak in  and linger in the back of your mind.

I see you morning day and night, both at your best and worst
I hear you gossip, flirt and fight, I hear you bless and curse

So I speak with no illusions of your seeming innocence
You’re teenagers I’m well aware, victims of adolescence

Despite all this, for some strange reason, I actually really like you.
So I made a song of all the things that I think best describe you.

Alden gets the subtle jokes
Ale keeps kids alive
Angel brings the counterpoint
Angelee does a happy jive

Angelina floats above it all
Annalisse holds it all together
Anthony’s a walking almanac
Ayen laughs at all human endeavors

Camila’s earnest
Cata’s feisty
Cristina’s the future president
Cyrus keeps a perfect poker face
Dani’s artista in residence.

The other Dani has a secret joke with life
Diego has a secret everything
Elena’s sarcasm cuts like a knife
Eli has the driest wisecraking.

Emma bakes like Martha did before prison
Ernesto orchestrates wiles
Estesiy kindly calls you out when you err
Fabi intuits with ease through her trials.

Fabian fabricates
Fio enamors, and
Francis can stick draw the universe
Ga deftly legislates
Galen keeps going, and
Gilbert’s a human in blank verse.

Grace plays for team wins
Gudi pro tinkers, and
Izzy’s supremely confusing,
Jean Ca keeps cheer up
Jose Pablo dodges me, and
Josue does it all with fine swing.

Laura is thoughtful
Liam’s big picture
Luis is a house full of mirrors
Monica’s patient
MP is still pro, and
Nahomi’s a renaissance thinker.

Nahual is naughty, there’s no other word, and
Pablo is just as mischievous.
Riley’s a go-getter,
Ryan’s a love letter, and
Samir is abstractly frictionless.

Sara is wisdom,
Sebas integrity
Sequoyah a stop-motion camera.
Sierra’s a peace-maker
Suyen a care-taker
Swatty a galloping Samurai.

Tara scribes beyond her years
Tati inks new worlds
Thony has never been bored in his life
Zekiah’s an orange flag unfurled.

There you go that’s everyone, now I’ve proven that I know you.
So for the love of god, take my word when I say
That even though you kids take years off my life, like a decade so far
I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

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Tears, inspiration, family, transition, fear, excitement – graduation is a whole lifetime of experience and emotion wrapped into one magical day.

On Saturday, we honoured 6 outstanding young men and women as they prepare to move on from our precious school community onto whatever path they choose next.  They each spoke of how important this school, this community, their friends and their family have been in their journey thus far, and we spoke of how we believe they have learned far more than just the basic academics they’ll need at University.  We believe that each one of them has learned the value of community, of being a good person and a lifelong learner.  One community member observed:

“Los discursos de los graduados me parecieron excelentes, demuestran una vez mas que los exámenes de bachillerato están casi sobrando. Fueron discursos emotivos, inteligentes, adornados incluso incluso con citas de Aristoteles y de Walt Whitman, en los que ademas reconocen todo lo importante que ha sido la escuela y su filosofía para la formación de cada uno.

I thought the graduation speeches were excellent, demonstrating once again that the final exams are almost superfluous. They were intelligent, emotional speeches, even adorned with quotes from Aristotle and Walt Whitman, in which one could see how important the school and its philosophy has been for the formation (education) of each student.”

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It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of the passing of Wilford Guindon, better known to all as Wolf, at the age of 85. His last days were spent surrounded by his loving family and friends in his home in Monteverde.

Wolf and his wife Lucky were part of the original group of Quakers who came from Fairhope Alabama and started the community of Monteverde in 1951. For the first twenty years Wolf spent his time dairy-farming, selling chainsaws and clearing land, but then he heard the concerns of the biologists and started spreading the seed of conservation in the early 1970s. He was a founder of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and the Monteverde Conservation League and was employed by both as Head of Protection. For nearly four decades he was a forest guard and, guided by his Quaker beliefs, he refused to carry a gun, instead diffusing difficult situations with respect and humor. His principles continue to influence the nature of protection work in the area.

As part of the community, Wolf helped build and was a strong supporter of the Monteverde Friends School since its beginnings in 1952. Although he was often working deep in the forest, he would hurry back for school events, arriving with his pack still on his back, his clothes wet and his rubber boots muddy. He was always one of the best patrons of the bake sales as well as contributing his exuberant spirit to all school activities. He was a caller at the square dances, a natural and shameless performer in skits, and a huge supporter of pie socials!

Wolf and Lucky together contributed eight children as students to MFS – at one time the Guindon family made up one third of the student body! They were good students and community members, all sharing their infectious laughter and quick minds with the school and meeting. Their youngest daughter Melody Guindon has been our Kinder teacher since her own graduation, guiding the next generations of young children into their school year.

Wolf’s dedication to the conservation of the forests and his love for being in the wilderness has been an inspiration for everyone in the community, particularly for the students of MFS. He enthusiastically shared his joy and his concerns and welcomed children and teachers to join him on hikes. He devoted the last half of his life to the future of the forests and his love for the community, the woods and all its inhabitants has influenced each of our students to be respectful of this beautiful place we call home. His legacy remains in the sea of green that covers the mountain, in the songs of the returning Bellbirds and Quetzals and in the hearts of all who follow the paths that he forged through the dense cloud forest. He will be deeply missed.

– Shared by Kay Chornook, author of “Walking With Wolf”