Escuela Caracol Project Summer 2009

I have less than 10 minutes left on my account at Blind Lemons internet cafe, so this post will be brief.

Diego taught his second class today, and he was fantastic.  The class split into two groups with the older children going first and the younger second.  Diego maintained a pace that was appropriate for the varying age groups as he refreshed their memories about holding position and how to properly play the flute.  Andrew and I were like proud parents watching him calmly run two 20 minute classes.

As I write this, I can hear a sample of the San Marcos soundscape that has made this trip so interesting from the standpoint of my Monroe Project.  I can hear what might be called stereotypical Latin American music with strong male vocals, guitars, and a heavy beat.  I can also here different birds calling, including one particularly vocal rooster.

Within the next few hours I expect to hear a robust voice that wavers between shouting and singing as the evangelical church begins its service.  Every night in San Marcos, the local churches broadcast their singers over the load speakers.  Upon first arriving here back in March, I was confused to hear what most closely resemble an Islamic call to prayer.   A passionate voice made proclamations in words that I could barely understand.  As I slowly made out words such as “Jesus” and “Dios” I realized that this sound must be coming from the local churches.  Occasionally I can here a keyboard or guitar in the background of the strong voice, which is female on some nights and male on others.

This strong type of singing, which more closely resembles an American pop “belt” than any classical singing surrounds the students at Escuela Caracol daily.  Thus it is even more striking how quickly those students manage to learn and enjoy songs of the pentatonic scale with a light and airy sound.  This trip has been an amazing musical experience for me because of those students ability to learn music so different from that which surrounds them.  I cannot wait to delve more into the implications of this in my Monroe Scholar paper upon my return.

Today Diego finally got to stop practicing teaching methods with Andrew and me and teach his first music class.  Josh began the class with his usual collection of fun songs with movements and games.  After a bit of rhythm work and a calmer song, Josh handed the class over to Diego.

Diego began by teaching the primary class a song entitled, “El Viento”, which will be the song to open and close all of his music classes for the rest of the year.  He started by having the children guess the title of the song by asking what is constantly moving all around us.  Next, he sang the short song in its entirety before teaching the class one section at a time.  Although it might have been easier for the kids to learn the song by reciting the words first, they seemed to follow his call and response teaching style.  When the students had trouble remembering the melody, Diego moved his hands on his body with his head representing higher notes, his waiste representing middle notes, and his knees representing lower notes.  This seemed to help a bit, although Diego got mixed up once or twice while trying to do the movements and sing clearly.  Although this teaching process took a little long and seemed to stretch the limits of the class´s attention span, Diego did well on his first run.  After the class, he said that he had learned from the class and hoped to be even more effective in a later class when he will be less nervous and under less scrutiny.

After Diego finished teaching the song, Josh reviewed the story he told the class last week to introduce the flutes.  Meanwhile, Diego, Andrew, and I set up chairs in a circle and organized the flutes to prepare for the instrumental part of the class.  When the children were all seated, Diego introduced the flutes by first asking that each student pay attention, follow directions, and remember to be careful with the flutes.  He then handed out each flute by looking in each student´s eyes and saying “This is your flute”.  This seemed to help the class take their flutes more seriously until Diego confused a couple names because I had mixed up the order of the flutes.  Diego recovered nicely by moving on quickly and making sure that the class understood that they now had flutes made of pear wood just like the boy in the story.

Next, the students took out their flutes and wooden cleaners.  Diego explained what the cleaners were for and had the students place their back in their flute bags.  Next, he asked the students to look at their flutes and try to see how it was different or similar to other instruments they had seen.  After they had explored their flutes a bit, the students repeated a little promise that Diego had made up.  The students promised to treat their flutes like their best friends and to treat them with respect.  Then Diego instructed the students to look for the two large spaces between holes on the fronts of their flutes.  He explained that they would hold their flutes at those places without covering any holes and this would be called holding position.  Josh and I walked around and helped each student figure out which fingers to place in the spaces for holding position while Diego explained how to hold the flutes in more detail.

Finally it was time for the students to play their flutes.  Diego first had them practice breathing gently and in rhythm as though they were playing the flutes.  Then Diego played a patter of three short notes on the high E of the flute (the note that does not require any holes to be covered).  The students echoed him back, and most played very well on the first try.  The few who had not played their flutes properly recognized the difference between their sound and Diego´s instantly.  Josh and I went to each student who had a different sound and explained why their sound had been different.  These students had either covered one or more of the holes, blown too much air into their flutes, or had not breathed with enough force into their flutes.  When Diego tried again with three short notes on a high E, the echo was much softer and gentler.  After repeating a couple more patterns, the class ran out of time.  Diego quickly explained how to clean the flutes after playing and then had the students play their flutes and put them away.  After collecting the flutes once again, Diego had the class applaud themselves for receiving and successfully playing their new flutes.

The ease with which Diego handled the flute class reflected his strength as an instrumentalist.  While he seemed to struggle a bit with the vocal song, he appeared much more comfortable when working with the flutes.  I am confident that his next flute class will go very well!  Diego´s previously formed bond with the students in the primary class will also help ease Diego into the position of music teacher.  He already has an imaginative teaching style and a natural affinity for working with children.  Andrew and I had yet to see these qualities in our private classes with Diego, and we were both impressed with his level of comfort in front of the class.

Since I arrived here a little over 2 and a half weeks ago, I entered a world that I did not know existed. A school that was as close to nature as you can possibly get. The Students are more than just magnificent and they inspire me everyday I get to work with them. As the only non-spanish speaking member of the team of volunteers I have found it tough to communicate with Diego, and some of the kids. I think that I have reverted back to hand motions and body language to get my point across most of the time. I´ve been so impressed with the progress that Diego has made over the time I have been here in San Marcos and at Escuela Caracol. I got to see both Adam and Maurene work with him. I´ve been getting my points in here and there. I especially got to focus on my roots as an instrumentalist when working with Diego on the Flute. He has picked it up so fast, and I am confident that he will be able to teach a meaningful flute class. We´ve been combining songs that he sings into flute songs that he will also teach the kids. We been focusing a lot on his teaching technique and lesson plans the past few lessons. Maurene and I have been acting in the demeanor of the kids in the class. We´ve been giving Diego, a sorts of ¨worse case scenario,¨ situations and for him to respond to them. He has  done marvelously in keeping his cool and patience with us. We always remind him that there are only two of us, versus a class of about 15 kids. I am however confident that he will do a wonderful job teaching music to the kids at Escuela Caracol.

Today Andrew and I had our last full class with Diego.  Mondays have become my favorite day of the week here in San Marcos because Andrew and I get to do exactly what we came to Guatemala to do.  In the morning, we help out in Miss Yalena´s 1st and 2nd grade class with reading/writing time.  Then we meet Diego and work for an hour before lunch with Yalena´s class.  After lunch we work for about another 2 hours before wrapping up for the day.  It will be the Mondays that I miss most about San Marcos!

Diego wrote his lesson plans for his first two classes today.  He and Josh will jointly teach a music class on Thursday, and then on Friday Diego will fly solo for the first time.  Josh and Yalena have set up a schedule in which the whole 1st/2nd grade class has a music class with singing, rhythm, and movement for 40 minutes on Thursday afternoons.  Then on Fridays the 1st graders and 2nd graders rotate so that each small group gets a 20 minutes flute class with Diego.  This way the whole class can make music together, and the next day Diego can vary the pace of the class based on skill level with the flutes.

The past couple classes have involved extended periods during which Diego practices teaching while Andrew and I act like kids.  This has made classes much more entertaining for Andrew and me as we´ve gotten to imitate the personality traits of the students in the class in order to give practice dealing with a fairly realistic classroom setting.  Diego continues to thrive as he memorizes pentatnic music and masters the pentatonic flute.  Andrew gave him a basic introduction to the pentatonic lyre, and he was very intrigued but maintained that guitars are far more appropriate for Guatemalan students.

Diego´s biggest challenge in the coming weeks will be his vocal range.  Because he is a bass/baritone, he has difficulty reaching the higher notes of the Waldorf songs.  However, when I suggested that we transpose some of the songs, he insisted that he prefered vocalizing with me in order to become more confident with his higher register instead.  That kind of enthusiasm and drive is what has made our time with Diego so enjoyable and productive.  He has been able to deal with far less than perfect Spanish, new concepts of music theory, a new singing style, new insturments, and a new scale without batting an eyelash.  Thanks to his efforts, the timing of his first class will work out perfectly.  Andrew and I will be able to see two music classes before heading back to the States, and I could not be happier with Diego´s progress.

I am so excited to be back in Guatemala with Andrew Tran!  Adam and Andrew have done a fabulous job building up Diego´s repertoire of pentatonic songs and his understanding of the wooden pentatonic flute.  Now Andrew and I are working with Diego on lesson planning and teaching techniques.

Diego continues to exceed our expectations with his enthusiasm and energy during every class.  He has begun practicing teaching methods by pretending that Andrew and I are “niños” in his class.  He has taught us several pentatonic songs and one flute song.

Today was a particularly exciting day as Josh and Diego co-taught a music class in which they introduced the flutes for the first time.  The students have been anticipating  the arrival of their flutes, and many have asked me when they would finally get to play them.   After singing some songs and playing a rhythm game, Josh had the students sit in a circle and listen to a story that described the origin of the flute.  Josh had composed a little fable about a boy who had to use his machete to overcome a snake.  Instead of using his machete to kill the snake, the boy made a flute from pearwood and charmed the snake with beautiful music.

Then Diego played Oliver Twist on the flute for them.  Adam, Erek, and I had taught the class this song a couple weeks ago in a music class, and they recognized it right away.  Next class they will get to hold their own flutes and learn about proper care and technique.  After that, hopefully Diego will be ready to take over the class and begin teaching the students how to actually play the flute.

We have finished up the basics of music theory with Diego. Our initial impressions were confirmed; he sped through all of the chapters and is well on his way to becoming a Waldorf-influenced teacher.

On Thursday and Friday, Andrew and I worked with him on establishing a repertoire of child-appropriate songs. Though they seem less engaging than the ones he has been using to teach the kids Kaqchikel, he is incredibly interested and wants to spend increasing amounts of time working on them. This, obviously, is a good sign. We want him to learn the songs by ear, as the children will, so most of the songs we will teach him will be in Spanish.

Furthermore, Diego’s voice has already improved in the week and a half the volunteers have spent working with him on proper technique. He supports his voice more, and is obviously practicing proper breathing technique. He tends to want to work on these techniques the most out of anything else during our lessons, and we are glad to help him!

That’s all for now. I have three more lessons with Diego, after which Maurene returns; she and Andrew will finish out the program’s time here setting up a Waldorf curriculum with Diego for the following year.

¡Hasta Luego!

Ah, the rainy season. How impeccably named, almost quaintly so.

After a week of sunlight, we three silly Americans had grown used to the sun, the exotic semi-tropical atmosphere, and the ability to go out anywhere without being soaked to the bone.

What foolishness.

Yes, it has rained and rained. And then it rained some more. Without fail, anyone who speaks a lick of English has said to us in the past five days, “Welcome to the rainy season!” They are so smug. Erek keeps reminding me of the impeccable naming of the season. I keep reminding him that I bought him a brownie yesterday, and he should quit it with his callous and entirely accurate observations.

Diego continues to grasp theory in leaps and bounds. A piece of advice for any of you who are looking to pick up a music teacher in a foreign country: if he or she plays piano, they will be miles ahead in grasping scales and chords. I was particularly impressed at his ability to understand that there is no audible difference between an augmented fourth, a diminished fifth, and a tritone. Even I have trouble with that sometimes! Professor Hulse, one of the theory professors at the college, would not be proud of me–but he would love Diego.

For someone who has so much going on in his life, Diego approaches every challenge with optimism, enthusiasm, and a sense of humor that transcends languages. All of us must have patience all around, but he is simply so much fun that sometimes it hardly feels like work.

Tomorrow, Erek and Maurene leave for the States. We will all be carefully monitoring the weather in Mexico (as it turns out, it is a pretty big country that must be flown over when traveling from Guatemala City to Houston). Andrew Tran will be replacing them for the next ten days, after which I will depart and Maurene will return to finish out the last two weeks of our summer here in Guatemala. Andrew is a brilliant violinist; furthermore, he is well acquainted with the Waldorf method of teaching. No doubt he will outshine me in this department. I can’t wait to show him around, take him to some of the restaurants, and put him to work on the water tank column at the school (we will see about that last thing; no doubt we will be very busy with Diego for the next ten days).

That’s all for now. Andrew will begin posting his thoughts in a few days. Until then!

¡Hasta luego!

So after several attempts at bribery including food, drink, and free reign of her boyfriend´s Wii, Maurene was finally fed up and threatened to remove all of my privileges to the bag of M&Ms if I didn´t post. So here are today´s events from the colorful point of view of ECP´s very own Biology Major and member of the infamous KWAH.

The day started out uneventfully: dogs barking, roosters crowing, the heavens´deluge soaking our little plot of Guatemala thus postponing our plans to go kyaking. But all was not lost as I had procured my grandfather´s recipe for a delicious breakfast that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike pancakes. Adam proceeded to wolf down his share as I continued to slave over our kerosene stove to make Maurene´s stack which she insisted on being served in bed.

After breakfast we planned today´s lesson with Diego over several hands of solitaire and our usual banter; we also took some time to call our fathers and wish them well. The lesson would consist of chapter three in our theory book which focuses mostly on rhythmic aspects including dots, ties, and compound meters.

With the lesson planned we took a launch over to San Pedro for some souvenir shopping. Maurene was able to pick up some nice local art for her family, but upon learning the outrageous price asked Adam and I to step out. Several minutes later, she walked out with her merchandise having been purchased at the desired, much lower, price. The shop, however, was left in shambles and the owner was clinging on for dear life from the apparent beating he had received.

We took the launch back to San Marcos and met Diego at Aaculaax for his lesson over coffee and a delicious prosciutto and avocado sandwich. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly he got the concept of dots and basic dotted rhythm. However, the concept of ties was difficult for him. In my opinion, this difficulty was caused by some of his own personal troubles with math. It took him quite a while to understand that an eighth note (un corchillo) was a half of a quarter note (un negro). I tried to explain the concept of fractions to him, but Maureen was able to save the day with her calm teaching style and brilliant Spanish.

That´s all for now, Josh and Courtney have asked us to come over for dinner and a movie, but I´ll try to post again later…my share of the M&Ms depends on it.

The past few days have consisted of unexpected twists in our volunteer schedule, but Erek, Adam, and I remain flexible and excited just to be here!  Classes resumed on Tuesday, and I got to start working in the first/second grade class.  For about an hour each day, Miss Yalena (the grades teacher) splits up the first graders (who she calls hummingbirds) and the second graders (who she calls parakeets) for reading and writing time.  I spend that time with the hummingbirds helping them sound out words that they write and read.  This is especially challenging because some of the students understand the Spanish alphabet better than the English and vice versa.  The reading and writing is in English, but a several of the students need to be instructed and guided in Spanish.  The bilingual nature of the group work makes the moment when a student grasps a concept even more rewarding!

When not helping out in class, I´ve been helping out with office work that involves writing update emails and putting together an announcement board.  Meanwhile, Erek and Adam excercise their strength by helping to build a new water tower for the school.  I have offered my assistance, but my ineptitude for heavy lifting has made the guys and Nicolas (who is heading up the building project) hesitant to accept my offer.  Maybe tomorrow I´ll get my chance to carry some cement bags up the steep and rocky path to the school…but for now I´m more than happy to work with the students and in the office.

Today was a particularly exciting day for all 3 of the volunteers because we had the opportunity to serve as substitutes while Miss Yalena was home sick.  Erek taught the main math lesson, worked with the hummingbirds and parakeets during reading and writing, and told them a couple stories from 9am unti l11am.  Meanwhile, Adam hauled cement and rebar up the hill, and I slept in because I felt a bit under the weather.  At 11am, the kids had snack and a 15 minute recess.  Afterwards, Erek, Adam, and I ran a 45 minute music class outside in the garden.  We sang the opening song that Josh composed for the class.  One of the lines from that song, “la voz unida cantará” (literally, the united voice will sing) is the title of this post.  They then showed us an “ohm” circle, which consists of 2 students holding hands in the middle, 4 students holding hands in a circle around the first 2, and the rest of the class in a circle on the outside.  Each circle has it´s own pitch and vowell to sing.  The circles spin in alternating directions moving slowly faster and slower, louder and softer.  It got a little chaotic, but at the end I asked what they had heard during the circle.  That opened up a flood of surprisingly insightful comments.  Perhaps my favorite was from Luna, one of the older students, who said she could feel a melody develop and grow with increasing energy as the group moved.

Next I taught the class a song that I learned at Washington Waldorf called Oliver Twist.  I made up a Spanish translation of the lyrics as well, but the whole class clearly prefered to sing the original English.  We played a game with that song, and all of the students seemed to really love it.  Thus, our first attempt to directly implement a Washington Waldorf song at Escuela Caracol was definitely successful!

After the song, we moved on to a game called “move the way the music tells you”.  Adam played his guitar with different rhythms, tempos, chords, and volumes, and the students had to dance and/or move the way they thought the music said.  When Adam stopped playing, the students had to freeze, and Erek and I would try to get them to talk or laugh.  If the students moved then we won, if they didn´t move then they won.  This was another game I saw done at Washington Waldorf, and it went over very well.  Apparently they have played similar games in other classes, so they picked up very quickly.  Next, Erek led us in singing “I´ve Been Working on the Railroad”, during which we all moved together and played a bit with the tempo.  At one point I had to stop them and ask that they not shout or let their movements affect their singing because it could hurt their voices.  After that, they stayed very close to on pitch with a lovely tone!  Yet another dorky music moment for me.  Finally, we closed the class with the same song used to open.

Overall, the class went incredibly smoothly, and the 3 of us were quite pleased with it.  All of the students seemed to really enjoy it, and several asked when we could play the games again.

Next came lunch, which was pretty rambunctious because Adam, Erek, and I were the only adults there to monitor the kids, and I think we have trouble being super strict.  At one point they got a bit out of hand so I had to ask them to be quiet or else I would get in trouble.  They seemed to listen to that, and lunch stayed under control after that.  After lunch, the students all begged us to play “The Game”, which we had played yesterday when one of their classes had been canceled.  “The Game” is pretty close to freeze tag, but a bit more competitive.  My family plays it a lot in our house, and Josh and Althea played it with us when they visited McLean in May.  So we ended the day playing a crazy game of “The Game”, after which the students said their closing verse with Erek.  As they left school, they lined up to say goodbye by shaking Adam´s, Erek´s, and my hand.

Overall the day was a little crazy and hectic, but so much fun!  The music class felt the most rewarding for me because we came here for the purpose of setting up a permanent music program.  Hopefully we can introduce the wooden pentatonic flutes soon!  I was playing mine during recess, and one of the girls came up and asked if the class was finally getting flutes.  She was very disappointed when I told her that it would be another couple of weeks before flute classes could begin.

While we´ve been having a blast at the school, our work with Diego still remains on hold.  Unfortunately, he´s still quite sick and unable to attend out little classes.  Hopefully he´ll recover soon so that we can make up for lost time and get the theory train rolling again!  In the meantime, we´ll continue to help with the water tower, work in the office, and help out in the classroom!

We have hit a couple speedbumps on our road to Escuela Caracol´s new music program, which have temporarily slowed our progress but have not affected our high morale or our musical vision.  On Friday, the Guatemalan government announced that all public and private schools needed to close for two weeks for fear of the swine flu pandemic.  Unfortunately, this mandate included tiny little Escuela Caracol.  School was cancelled today, but fortunately, the local representative of the Ministry of Education has agreed to allow the school to resume classes for at least the remainder of the week.  Although we were hoping to make up lost time at the school by working a little extra with Diego today, he has been battling a little sickness and was unable to make it to class today.

However, these past few days have been incredible and very worthwhile.  We have had two classes with Diego, and both have been enjoyable and productive.  As Adam mentioned earlier, we largely struggle with connecting the abstract music theory with Diego´s vast practical experience with singing, keyboard, and guitar.  We began both our classes with Diego teaching us songs in Spanish and the local Mayan language.  As he accompanies us on the guitar, we try to pick up the tune and text of each song.  Then the volunteers take a turn with Adam on guitar or with acappella classical music.  This creates an atmosphere of cultural exchange and openmindedness that helps us remain flexible as we endeavor to discuss rhythm, tempo, and pitch.  Diego approaches everything with a positive attitude that proves infectious and keeps the volunteers in high spirits and good humor.  The lessons are productive, but I also often find myself feeling like I´m just hanging out with friends talking about music, which makes the whole experience even more rewarding.

The weekend consisted of planning for more lessons with Diego, relaxing, swimming, and recovering from small a sickness that has made its rounds through all three of the volunteers.  Today 6 members of the 1^st and 2^nd grade class went on a hike up the mountain on which San Marcos is located, and I got to join them.  While Adam and Erek helped out with some manual labor at the school, I spent an hour and a half hiking with energetic kids who kept pointing out plants, rocks, and animals that they thought I would like to see.  I gave my digital camera to the students, and they took turns photographing different plants, animals, rocks, and people.  Looking through the hundreds of pictures on my camera provides a very cool glimpse of Guatemala through these children´s eyes.

I have yet to substantially post anything about my research for my Monroe Project, and that´s largely because I get so caught up in talking about the experience of living and working here, that I forget to mention how much life this has brought to my project.  Classes at Escuela Caracol embody the ideal Waldorf education for young children.  The environment fosters imagination and creativity that makes each student excited to come to class and learn each day.  The artistic and hands-on nature of education at Escuela Caracol begs to be honed into a Waldorf music program.  After the first day when the children reacted so strongly to our classical singing, I am interested to see whether a strict Waldorf music program will by culturally relevant.  Financial restraints clearly limit the extent of an instrumental music program.  But the concept of music in this town appears to differ greatly from that which serves as the foundation for Waldorf music.

In the days and weeks to come, I will hopefully get a first-hand look at the relevance of pentatonic music, the pentatonic flute, and more classically-based singing within Escuela Caracol.  These experiences and my interactions and discussing with the faculty and students at the school will help shape my understanding of the ability of Waldorf music to cross cultural boundaries.  I feel confident that this experience will allow me to broaden and deepen my close and interactive study of early music education.  My paper will ultimately discuss and compare the transplantation of the theories behind each music program that I study into the classroom.  My experiences in San Marcos will add nuance to my discussion of Waldorf music by analyzing the relevance of its theories across cultural boundaries.