Monday, July 6, 2009

Ideas and suggestions: Helping the Cambiando Vidas School




What are the best ideas to help the school to strengthen its presence and impact on the lives of the children and families it serves?

The Cambiando Vidas School (CVS) is a Montessori school that is operating at a very small scale in Antigua.  The recent good fortune that has allowed the school to build a brand new facility on a near-by lot has allowed its leader, Janeth de Reyes, to envision a school that is K-6, a nearly 6-fold increase in the number of students enrolled.  Some of the challenges she faces are:

1.  Comparing her aspiration for the school to a school in North America or elsewhere to better understand issues like staffing ratios, administration, etc.  Helpful ideas would include, as an example, the appropriate size and scale of a computer lab for a school this size (how many computers, type of software, etc.)
2.  Borrowing or leveraging the proven ideas and/or themes from other Montessori schools (e.g. lesson plans, etc.).  This would help to reduce the amount of time teachers would spend building plans vs. teaching.  
3. Limited resources:  books, pencils, materials, etc.
4.  How to best use the school facilities to teach as many students as possible.  The vision is K-6.  The teaching hours are only 4-5 hours per day, which means the facility is not filled with students for half the day.  Ideas may include:  two shifts of teachers and students:  morning and afternoon;  etc.

Share your ideas on possible partnerships or approaches that can help make the school successful.


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