Class Updates from Caroline

During the first few weeks of Literature and Composition, we began reading Ben Mikaelsen’s novel Tree Girl. The novel is a moving testimony of a young Maya girl's terrifying experience during the Guatemalan Civil War. The images of violence and horror Mikaelsen describes are haunting. Additionally, the students are working on their first drafts of a descriptive essay about a mentor. Along with honing their descriptive writing skills, they must identify a person in their lives who is a teacher, role model, and friend. The students have also been journaling extensively. We begin each class with ten minutes of reflective and creative journaling. Today in class we read and wrote praise poems that sing songs of who we are as part of our bi-monthly creative writing workshops. In the coming weeks, we look forward to exploring poetry and short stories by Central American authors.

We began our study of the History of Central America by looking at pre-Columbian America. We exploded the myth that before Columbus arrived, America was a lightly populated continent whose inhabitants did little to alter an Edenic landscape. Instead, we painted a picture of a vast and teeming continent rich in culture and civilization. We are currently looking at the rise and fall of the Maya empire in an effort to better understand the history and indigenous people of Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador.  The girls will begin giving oral presentations on different topics pertaining to our studies.  The first presentations will focus on various aspects of Maya culture. Finally, we explored how the study of history is as an interpretation of past events and the ways in which maps influence our perspective on the world. 

Travel Journalism students are learning to document events through image and written word. We are getting to know our cameras by experimenting with settings and trying out various ways of framing a photograph. The students are reading articles about journalistic writing and are honing their skills as journalists by completing short writing exercises and practicing writing with a deadline. Keep your eyes open for activity updates written by the TJ girls each week. 

P.E. and iLife has gotten off to a strong start. The girls have run and hiked the hilly trails around Earth Lodge; played capture the flag on a grassy field below the volcano Fuego; completed an 18 mile cross country bike ride through the outskirts of Antigua—visiting a women's textile co-op, a macadamia nut farm, and a jade factory; and roasted marshmallows on hot rocks after hiking up the volcano Pacaya. Additionally the students are working on creating SMART fitness goals and improving their strength and cardio through hiking, running, and plyometrics. iLife workshops focused on self-care and group living, personal safety, and creating and managing a budget. 

Global Studies is a class centered on discussing and understanding the invaluable experiences we have in and out of the classroom while traveling the world. Global Studies has thus far focused on orienting ourselves to Guatemalan culture, discussing cultural differences and the missteps that occur in trying to understand and interpret another culture, and debriefing our experiences at El Hato School and Safe Passage http://www.safepassage.org/, the educational non-profit operating around the Guatemala City Garbage dump. Additionally, two guest speakers, Diane and Isabelle, provided the group with insight into culture of present-day Maya people and the struggles they face in the modern world, specifically in regards to access to good healthcare. Diane, Liz's mom, lives and works in Antigua. She and her husband run clinics in remote Maya villages and help doctors and nurses from the United States reach patients in rural Guatemala. Her close friend, Isabelle, is an educated Maya woman trained as a school teacher. In addition to speaking about her own experiences in Guatemala and teaching about the Maya people, she dressed each girl up in traditional Maya clothes, much to their delight.  

As you can see, the academic component of The Traveling School can be found all around us. We have been quite busy these first two weeks and are looking forward to moving around Guatemala in search of more amazing people and places that will bring our classroom and textbook material to life!

Caroline Goodman