Time to leave Borja...

Tuesday 8:48pm, the balcony at Casa de Izel

It’s amazing how quickly it can happen. We held our debrief meeting today at noon at the Borja School, after a day and a half of working together, and there were tears and hugs. The teachers from the school, the visitors from the US and Guatemala, and ConTextos staff testified to the power of working together with a shared agenda for the benefit of students. We who are visiting did not want to leave.

My day opened with breakfast on the balcony at 5:30, where we met the newest members of our team: Celena and Ixkik (pronounded, “Ish-kik”), two teachers from the Collegio Impacto School in the town of Solola, Guatemala. Their school is supported by a Denver-based organization called Starfish, which has partnered with ConTextos. On Monday, they took one bus four hours to Guatemala City, then another bus four hours to San Salvador, arriving late on Monday night. Nevertheless, they were energetic and ready to go early this morning.

On the bus on the ride to school (about 45 minutes, partly through farmland, partly past fields of residual lava left over from the volcano's last eruption many years ago), several of us discussed poetry as metaphor, and Lily translated Bread Loaf’s Six Rules for Writing Workshop (Be Kind, Speak Your Truth, Share if You Want To, Write In Any Language, Have Fun, and There Are No Mistakes). We reflected on the “no mistakes” rule, realizing that good writing is re-writing. I mentioned how the great US poet Walt Whitman kept revising his seminal poem, “Leaves of Grass” for his entire life, and how Lin Manuel-Miranda, inspired by Whitman, described the US as a “great unfinished symphony” in his musical “Hamilton.” We talked about the idea of El Salvador as a poem, and how its people each day add a new verse. Again, Whitman: “The beat goes on, and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” (props to Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society)

We arrived at school by 7:10, which was good because Carlos and I had class with AnaRuth starting at 7:30. I was happy - almost giddy so - walking into school. Our class of 10th graders read the story “Un Arbol Para Una Vica,” which is reminiscent of The Giving Tree. We planned a write-talk-read-talk-write model for the 50-minute class, and kept the students reading, writing, listening and thinking. First we asked them to write about the meaning of sacrifice for five minutes, then share with a partner. Then I asked for a show of hands – how many of them changed their minds after talking with their partner? Nearly every hand went up. Next, they read the story using a Kindle, taking notes on key quotes about sacrifice. After they read, we divided them into groups of four for discussion, then they wrote, then shared. The sharing was impressive. The students were thoughtful, engaged, and used plenty of textual evidence. We were pleased with the result.

For the rest of the morning, I joined AnaRuth’s classes as they delivered presentations. This class had worked for weeks in small groups of three or four to study high order questions in literature. The presentations took place in the computer lab, which was lovely, and air-conditioned, a particular bonus on this hot, humid day. The speakers were uniformly well prepared and confident. They used Power Point slides, but were not governed by them. The audience took notes following a series of questions we had devised, and AnaRuth called on students to ask questions and provide feedback to the presenters. The depth and thoughtfulness of the questions was impressive. It got me thinking a lot about my own AP Literature class, and how I need to ask students to explore the values implicit in our literature, and pedagogy. AnaRuth is a very good teacher - she know what she's doing, and how to push kids beyond what they think they can do. 

There were, in all, eight presentations. Several looked closely at a piece of literature, examining the values implicit to that piece of literature, including one critical analysis of Tom Sawyer. One looked closely at a story that had been written by a learner in the Soy Autor ("I am an author") program run by ConTextos in a prison – one of Carlos’ students. The high school students treated this story as a piece of literature and applied the tools of literary analysis to the story. Carlos was especially moved.

During the presentations, two students shared Odes they had written, and two boys shared personal stories. Both stories were true. One was about a boy whose mother moved to the US to work in agriculture, leaving him in the care of his grandfather. The grandfather was killed in a shooting, the mother died of cancer after exposure to pesticides. The second boy’s story was equally emotive and moving.

It was an honor to be at the presentations, and I did my best to communicate that at the end, along with compliments to their confidence, leadership skills, use of technology, creativity, bravery, and hard work. I urged the students to stay rooted in the text, and to always speak their truth. They are the future of El Salvador.

During the de-brief meeting, Anne led a short writing exercise to facilitate reflection, then we spoke in pairs for a big-group share. Rex wrote, and then shared, a spectacular poem that he has promised to share with me in writing. I shared greetings from the Bread Loaf International Peace Literacy Network, and explained our deep-rooted belief that working together for social action literacy is the path to a more peaceful world. It is an honor to work with people such as these, dedicated to serving young people and making the world a better place. We agreed that we must work together moving forward to do so. More specifically, I’d love to see a partnership between the Borja School and a US-based school. There is much we need to explore. Tears and hugs followed.

After lunch, we took a group photo of all of us – the Bread Loaf visitors, ConTextos staffers, Starfish visitors, the Borja teachers we partnered with, and Principal Cerritos. It is a pretty cool group of people. I posted the photo to Facebook, and Lou Bernieri quickly commented, “that’s the real United Nations.” We represent El Salvador, the USA, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Navajo Nation, and I am sure a few more places...

My own teaching day was done, so I had the chance to visit other classes. Alan, Melvin, and Celena worked with the pre-K students – the four-year-olds – using music and the body. It was beyond cute, and an engaging, interactive lesson co-planned by Alan, Melvin and the teacher that taught listening, movement, and music. Melvin (a ConTextos staffer) was a strikingly talented teacher. He is a professionally trained clown, and his body and facial expressions show the result of that training. 

I also visited the class where Lorena, Enrique and Lily led an “I am from…” poem writing project with eighth graders. Their sharing session was electric. And of course, every poem referenced pupusas.

At three, it was time to leave. It seems so incongruous, that we have been at the school just two days, but it feels much like home. I’d be happy to spend the rest of the week teaching there, but we have other items on our agenda. Tomorrow (Wednesday), we will meet at the ConTextos offices to plan for Thursday’s teacher conference. There are 79 teachers plus 8 people training to be teachers signed up to attend, and we anticipate walk-ins. On Friday, we will drive to Perquin, in the northern area, and conduct a workshop for students.

Dinner this evening was on the rooftop terrace of Cafeteria TIN, a block away from Casa de Izel. Several of us ordered and enjoyed gigantic frozen fruit drinks as the sun set over the mountains.

Thanks for reading,

Rich