Aprendiendo a Expresarnos: The first ever Starfish Debate!

We will be featuring a series of blog entries from our students, reflecting on the activities at Starfish during the February vacation period.  This year the vacation period started one month early due to heavy rain, so we took advantage of that by adding additional academic classes and extra-curricular clubs to our Starfish schedule! Today, some students share about their experience participating in our first ever debate.  4 groups divided to form teams for and against 2 topics: All students should have to wear uniforms to school and all schools should be mixed-genders.

Génesis Rivera: 
"What is important, in the debate that Starfish organized, is listening to others, and reciprocally, being listened to. We learned that it is important to debate topics that are truly interesting for us, and for the other side of the debate. My topic was: should all schools be mixed-gender? For us, it's important that they do exist as mixed gender, for that helps us develop our social skills, and we learn how to better interact among different groups of people. With regards to debating, I think it's very important to have debates about topics that are widely disputed between groups of people, but that it's even more important to choose a debate topic that doesn't have a clear solution; in that way, we debate and we hopefully find solutions, or at least justifications for our solutions. The art of debate helps us gain skills in interacting with our own team, and with those opposing our views, and through this, we learn how to dialogue successfully,  and respect each others' opinions while simultaneously holding on to our own, and not giving up on a topic we believe in." ~Génesis

"Lo importante es ser escuchado por medio de un debate de Estrellitas del Mar.  Aprendemos que es importante debatir en temas que son interesantes para ti y para los demás.  Mi tema era de que si debe existir las escuelas mixtas.  Para nosotros fue importante porque aprendemos a desarrollar nuestra capacidad de desenvolvimiento interactivo.  Es muy importante debatir sobre temas que tu crees que es muy debatido entre personas, pero que no hay solución.  Por eso es importante debatir para encontrar soluciones.  Te ayuda a interactuar con el equipo contrario y dialogar y aprender mucho más sobre el debate sin rendirse en un tema que tú crees que es necesario." ~Génesis

Luiggi Plúas 
"In 2016, we, the Starfish Community, began an activity called "Debate." This process includes defending a specific theme, and participating in groups. I the group that I participated in, we were discussing, why we should not wear uniforms in school.  We also had a group that opposed us, who defended why we should wear uniforms in school. My group prepared a Prezi slideshow. The debate went very well, and my group was chosen as the best. The process of debating will help us to further our talents, and enable us to better express ourselves." ~Luiggi

"En este 2016 iniciamos un proceso llamado "Debate".  Dicho proceso consiste en defender un tema específico.  El grupo en el que yo participaba, estábamos hablando sobre "¿Por qué no deberíamos usar uniformes escolares?"  Así que teníamos un equipo contrario, el cuál defendía sobre "¿Por qué sí deberíamos usar uniformes?"  Mi grupo preparó una presentación de diapositivos en "Prezi".  El debate salió muy bien, además fuimos escogidos como los mejores.  Estar debatiendo nos ayudará a desenvolvernos mejor y a expresarnos." ~ Luiggi

Alexander Lícoa
"To debate is to defend a topic given to us. In our debate, I learned to work in a group setting, to express myself clearly and efficiently, to listen, to formulate an opinion, and to respond to questions that the opposite side gives me. Moreover, I learned that, in order to achieve, you have to work as a team!" ~Alexander

"El debate es defender un tema que nos pongan.  En el debate aprendí a trabajar en equipo, a expresarme bien, escuchar, opinar y responder a las preguntas que me hacía el lado opuesto.  También aprendí muchas cosas especialmente sobre el tema que me tocó.  ¡Hay que trabajar en equipo para hacer las cosas bien!" ~ Alexander

Updates from Guasmo and Flor

We've been busy here at Starfish over the past few months, including celebrations for Navidad, vacacionales, community service projects (Melanie P's project was featured on our blog a few weeks ago!), and now our high school seniors are preparing for their graduation, which is only a month away!

Vacacionales - Due to schools altering their schedules because of the weather brought by El Niño, we have altered our format and structure of vacacionales. On Monday and Wednesday of our vacacionales, we implemented academic reinforcement (tutoring, study sessions) and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we introduced clubs! Our choices for clubs include: Manualiadades (Crafts), Dance, Community Service, Sports & Theater.


Our scholars enjoy their new Sports club on Tuesday's and Thursday's (we all know how much they love to play with la pelota, so our Sports club has gained quite the popularity).

As part of our Community Service club, our scholars brainstormed and together, created this definition for community service:

• helping others 
• uniting as one so we can achieve something greater 
• collaborating with one another 
• working as a team 
• everyone striving for one common goal, or objective 

After creating our definition of community service, our scholars chose projects based on the needs in the community.  Throughout the month, they are completing their projects, with results to be presented at our open house during the last week of February!


Our scholars discuss with each other their plans for their community service project. 

Community Service club participant Juliana delivers her "Random Act of Kindness" to Starfish volunteer Cristhian.

Our students prepare for their debate, working on skills such as logic, problem solving, and communication, as part of their after school activities!


In addition to our new extracurricular options, long-term Starfish volunteer and Program Advisor Sanchia along with a co-worker are offering high-quality English classes at Starfish- one class to our Educadores and one class to our top 10 scholarship students - equivalent to what they would get at the prestigious school where Sanchia teaches. Classes are being offered at Starfish for free!

And for some exciting news: Felicidades - Congratulations - to Starfish Scholar Angie! As part of the city's "Jóvenes Ejemplares" program, the top students at each high school are rewarded. The third level of prizes is a bus pass, while Angie reached the second level - a brand new laptop! Congratulations on your success and we are extremely proud of all your hard work, Angie.


Angie with her new laptop!

October Update from Flor

Our educadores in Flor highlight the recent events of the past month at Starfish. October has been packed with activities for our students! In the past few weeks, there has been a short vacation from school, in which the Flor Starfish educadores hosted a flea market to generate funds for Starfish. Also in the past month, our students have participated in several workshops, including a Sexuality and Gender Equality workshop, whose aims are to bring awareness, knowledge, and confidence to our students!

Words from our educadores: 

We began vacation time with a flea market that for us, was very successful! Many people came and bought large amounts of clothing, and other items as well. There was such a high demand for items that we sold out, and people had to wait for a second batch of items to come in. This in and of itself was very rewarding, as this was the first time that we had organized this type of event and, prior to executing our plans, we were worried that perhaps people wouldn’t be interested. Our fears weren’t realized, as all went well and many more people attended than we had anticipated!


The rest of our vacation time was very relaxing and chévere (cool, fun), and we were able to spend time with the children in different groups. The variety of activities brought us and the students a lot of enjoyment. For a few days, we were able to leave behind the monotony of everyday work activies and the daily routine, such as homework and other work-related activites, and instead focus on fun and friendships. Furthermore, we were able to see how the group team-building activities and workshops strengthened our bonds, both in and out of the classroom. The group activities included contests and other games, and we witnessed the students working together. More importantly, these activities were, in reality, a way to teach the students cooperation in the group setting. In these activities, the students share ideas and knowledge, and by doing so, they realize that they learn and achieve much more together than they do separately. Witnessing the students' infectious, enthusiastic energy brings us joy as educators, and being a part of this environment enables us to realize that each moment with our students in unique and special in its own way.

Successful flea market shopping^

Our community enjoys the flea market during their vacation time.

Members of Starfish and the Flor community wait in line to check out the flea market!

Our students work together during the Gender Equality and Sexuality workshops.

En español:

Iniciamos Los vacacionales con un mercado de pulgas en el cual nos fue muy bien ya que muchas personas llegaron y llevaron prendas en gran cantidad al igual que los diferentes artículos, que incluso esperaron a la segunda ronda, para continuar con la compra, esto fue muy gratificante ya que era la primera vez que hacíamos este tipo de eventos y tal vez no habrían muchas personas interesadas, pero no, tuvo buena acogida que incluso llegaron más personas que las que se había planeado.


El resto de los días fueron muy chéveres ya que pudimos compartir con todos los chicos de los distintos grupos y los cuales se alegraron de verse nuevamente; en las diferentes actividades que realizamos nos permitieron divertirnos más, dejando por unos días la monotonía de los deberes y dar cavidad a la diversión y el compañerismo, pudimos ver como el trabajo grupal en los concursos y en los talleres se veía fortalecer, eso nos entusiasma mucho ya que ellos demuestran que pueden lograr muchas cosas tan solo con proponérselo y eso hacía que ellos puedan lograr ganar, además que podíamos intercambiar conocimientos y adquirir nuevos, pero de maneras didácticas, ser parte de ese entusiasmo hacia que el momento se tornara diferente, que cada uno sea especial y ameno.

Vacacionales and First Ever Starfish Open House!

Hola again from Guayaquil, Ecuador.  We've had a few really exciting weeks here.  Last week we shared about the graduations of our 6 seniors, but that's not all we've been up to!

For the last 3 weeks we've held vacacionales, sort of like day camp, for our students with a wide range of activities planned mainly by our educadores.

Some of our female students were able to participate in community service at a local shelter and school for young girls who either don't have families or have suffered some sort of abuse and have been removed from their homes.  Our students were able to share some activities and friendship with them several days during vacation.  We hope this partnership can continue so that our students can continue to give back to their community!

Other activities included spiritual retreats, teamwork activities, a treasure hunt, and more.  On the last day we also thought about our dreams for Starfish and created this poster (above, right) so that we may keep our dreams in mind always.

  

In Flor, the main activity was learning how to make various things from recycled materials (above).  Spearheaded by educadora María, the students learned how to make many items using just plastic bottles, newspaper, empty toilet paper rolls, and other materials found around the home.  On the last day we held an open house where parents and other family members came to learn about the projects the students had been working so hard on over the past few weeks.  We concluded the open house with the first ever "Miss & Mr. Starfish" where students modeled various outfits - including their very own dresses & suits made from recycled material. Congrats to Oscar & Itaty for winning this year due to their hard work on their recycled outfits as well as their confidence in expressing themselves!

Towards the end of our camp, we also held our closing ceremony for the 2014-15 school year, recognizing our students, employees, and parents for their efforts during the year.  We started off with some inspiring words from Milena's mom, Mariana & Scholars Geovanny & Mirka.  Then we recognized all of our employees with some awesome Starfish hats and awards.  Educadores Tyrone from Flor and Cynthia from Guasmo were recognized by their co-workers as "Educador del Año" or Employee of the Year.  Jordy's mom Norma was recognized as "Parent of the Year" for always going above and beyond what is asked of her.  Yesenia from Guasmo and Jordy were recognized for earning the most stars on our star chart that tracks grades, attendance, behavior, community service and more.  Our 6 graduates also received framed graduation pictures as our special gift to them!

Scholars who have been with us since the first year!

Mariana, Milena's mom

Flor Scholars with their families!

All of our students acting a little loco to celebrate their hard work!