Author: Interamericano

posted July 30, 2013

After a long summer, all Inter teachers were eager to return to school and start another year – and what would be better than starting off with a big laugh? On the first day of their return, all teachers gathered in the cafeteria and for an hour they were engaged in ice breaking and team building activities.

A favorite was the “Portrait Game,” where teachers had to face each other in two circles. The person in the outside circlehad to start drawing a portrait of their partner in the inside circle. After five seconds, everyone in the outside circle had to move one place and continue drawing the portrait of the person that was not in front of them. In the end, everyone got a portrait of their own that was created by numerous colleagues.

Since many new teachers came to Inter this year, we also did some other team building exercises to make them feel welcome to our group. We have an extremely pleasant group and it was not hard for the new staff members to integrate quickly into the group!

The hour of playing and laughing together helped all teachers to then go back to preparing for their students with a smile on their face and a lot of motivation for making this upcoming school year 2013/2014 a year full of challenging learning opportunities and lots of fun.

 

posted July 29, 2013

Dear Interamericano Parents and Students,

It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that we welcome all of you for an exciting 2013-2014 school year. As most of you know, the school has undergone several major construction projects and we are in the progress of concluding these projects. We have experienced some minor delays, however, that will affect the beginning of the school year, so we would appreciate it if all parents and students would keep the following dates in mind:

• Friday, August 2: First day of school for all Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students. Class on this day will be from 9 AM – 11 AM.
• Friday, August 2: All parents and students are invited between 1 PM – 3 PM to drop off their supplies and quickly meet their teachers.
• Monday, August 5: First day of classes for all students in grades Pre-Kindergarten – 12. The school day will start promptly at 8:20 AM.

On April 6^th Middle School Community Service members traveled to the village of Las Colmenas to build chicken coops for two families in the village. This effort was the culmination of several months of fund raising to purchase the materials for two coops as well 50 chicks, feed and the feeders needed to give two families the means to generate income through raising and selling chickens.

The 21 students spent the better part of a hot, sunny Saturday measuring and hammering away as they built the coops in the yard of one of the two families that was going to receive a coop and chicks. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to meet and interact with a less affluent Guatemalan family.

At the end of the day, tired students returned to Interamericano feeling good in the knowledge that they had helped two families by providing these families the means to help themselves make a better life.

I would like to thank the Jaber family for the donation of the rolls of chicken wire, as well as Mr. Murillo, a parent who joined us for the day with hammer in hand.  I would also like to thank the wonderful teachers who generously gave up their Saturday to join us.   And, finally, I would like to thank Carol and Mike Claypool whose organization, Give and Teach, along with their crew, made this opportunity for Middle School Community Service members possible.