FCL: Updates
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
FCl Updates: William Foster School in Liberia
A decade of civil war heightened the challenges in Liberia when schools closed and children went to war. Now schools are opening again and teachers are learning once more how to design educational systems that accommodate the generation left behind. Full-Circle Learning provides a way for students to learn with a new sense of purpose.
At the William Foster School, in Liberia, approximately 20 teachers were trained in Full-Circle Learning strategies for ten days in June 2010. They felt a new resolve to promote education reform in their community and to exercise transformative leadership as they begin to implement Full-Circle Learning in their region.
Trainer Tamiru Mikre Degefe reported:
The leadership training has helped the teachers to re-examine their mental models and adopt a new conceptual framework. After the first two days of the training, relationship has been improved very much. Instead of blaming one another they began to see inwardly and uprooted those mental models contrary to ideal of Full Circle Learning. They wrote their own journal. Some of them volunteered to share to the group. I will write you more about the process when we finish the training.
Today, we started lesson planning. Tomorrow we will start our group presentations. We learn the songs from the FCL CDs everyday. The group volunteered to contribute one traditional song based on one of the Habit-of-Heart themes. We will have a graduation ceremony at the end.
By the last day, the teachers were so excited, they had elected representatives to share the model with other interested schools. The following month, the Ambassadors class at Rancho Sespe, Fillmore, California created the first global challenge for students of the new school. Their habit-of-heart was cooperation. They created a hypothetical business plan for three fruit growers to maximize their resources by developing a co-op and business plan, to make funds stretch farther and to give money back to the community and save some for hard times. They sent their idea with a request for suggestions for improvement and a request for shared ideas from their Liberian counterparts experiencing their first habit-of-heart unit.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
FCL Updates: Helpers and Healers in Haiti
Haitian children began to benefit from Full-Circle Learning-inspired activities for communities in trauma in early March 2010. The research-based activities used are designed to build resiliency, address immediate PTSD needs, create a sense of community and gradually reorient identities, to help youth envision their role as the solution-givers, healers and rebuilders of the community.
The first photo depicts the group putting together a puzzle of the world. (No one had ever seen a world map.) Afterward, the teacher discussed the many people who care about them and had sent cards and blessings, and about the doable challenge of reconstructing something, no matter how difficult. The second photos show the eagerness of children, after receiving many other activities, to express their feelings artistically. These and many other activities were led by Judy Rector and an assistant. Another team, Dr. Kira Mauseth and Dr. Tona McGuire, provided clinical support for families with PTSD at the neighboring temporary health clinic. There, the Love for Haiti volunteers worked out of the Anis Zunuzi school. Meridian Health Foundation co-sponsored the effort. Seventy-five children joined in activities and hundreds of adults and children received direct service. Plans for the next phase of capacity-building, in the form of training community workers, is underway.
Haitian child pictures the falling blocks
Haitian children eager to create art after FCL resiliency activities
Haitian parents and children - puzzle activity - Putting the world together again
Monday, October 19, 2009
FCL Updates: 300 Teachers Trained
300 teachers were trained between January and September, 2009. Leaders in many areas are now able to train others in their regions, with only occasional site evaluations.
Training sometimes includes site visits for teachers to see a successful project. Here, South African teachers visit the country of Lesotho to observe before training multiple schools in their country.
Guest Speaker Ms. Fanela at St. Peters Primary School grade 4 talking about similarities between South Africa and Lesotho.
View Gallery
Guest speaker Community worker, Ms. Alina and Nurse, Mr. Sekonyela talking about cleanliness and also encouraging students (those in nurses’ huts) who want to be Nurses when they grow up. Ms. Fanela and Mrs. Yimpi look on.
View GalleryTuesday, October 13, 2009
FCL Updates: Climate Change
To Change the World, Change the Identity
Luis Cruz learned to wire a birdhouse with a webcam, with the help of Rob Mobini, to observe nesting songbirds while studying the environment
View GalleryCurricula of Full-Circle Learning span various grade levels, from age two upward, with titles such as
Habits of Helpers, Habits of Heroes, Habits of Humanitarians, etc. One new pilot project,
Climate Change Agents, specifically reaches secondary students with the message that they must creatively apply their ethics and skills to safeguard the future while managing the effects of
Students learn to integrate their academics, arts and conflict resolution skills in a series of character- and service-infused projects as generate public awareness of climate change in their own communities and develop the tools for change. Schools on three continents are currently using the pilot program.
A collaboration of several organizations participated in the project:
United Nations Department of Public Information, United Nations Environment Programme – Regional Office of North America, Fraser Communications, andMeridian Health Foundation.
The Full-Circle Learning integrated course content also features Full-Circle Learning music, as do all FCL curricula. The accompanying Change Agents CD was created using specially donated funds and pro bono professional talent.
See FCL Sites Around the World for news of global projects.Tuesday, October 13, 2009
FCL Updates: Model Charter School
The effectiveness of the model is confirmed in quantitative and qualitative surveys at multiple sites, echoed in 2009 standardized test scores at the Los Angeles charter school, which an increase of 19% since its first benchmark year.
In the most recent standardized test scores submitted, 63% of students improved in both language arts and math after their first year of enrollment.
Special Resources Specialist Mark Christenson wrote to congratulate the school, saying: “…to see such significant growth in many areas is quite remarkable. I believe you are well on your way to becoming a model charter school, which could serve as a fine example for other charter schools to follow.” Helping students aspire to self-mastery and find a higher purpose for their learning, through service to humanity, truly enhanced their academic goals.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
FCL Updates: Climate Change CD
The new pro bono curriculum Climate Change Agents for secondary students has been completed, with its music CD Change Agents.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
FCL Updates: New School
FCL assisted the charter school, Full-Circle Learning Academy, in opening an overflow site for its middle school grades on the campus of Baldwin Hills Elementary in the fall of 2009.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
FCL Updates: Nobel Peace Prize Center
The Nobel Peace Prize Center housed a summer-long exhibit with artwork connecting peace and the environment in 2008. Full-Circle Learning student artists from multiple countries participated.