FCL: Updates
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
FCL Updates: Web Updates - April 2012
20 Years and Growing!
Help celebrate our 20th anniversary year! The civil unrest of 1992 initiated the need for Full-Circle Learning, as we saw the relationship between capacity building in context with personal and community transformation. Over the course of the next year, the elements of the first programs were put into place and the educational model began to evolve. Now in 50 schools in 15 countries, Full-Circle Learning is proud that about 90% of projects are self-sufficient. However, about 10% of those projects have specific needs to assist their growing programs. Click on DONATE NOW to send a congratulatory anniversary contribution, to participate in the successes of projects in Africa, India and the US!
Full-Circle Learning is hosting Girls United ongoing activities in Liberia for 98 girls. Currently, 98 girls in three participating schools have taken up the United Nations challenge of reversing the trend toward childhood marriage in Liberia. Watch for reports and samples of their creative works by clicking on the Liberia button.
Teachers from Fairview Elementary Magnet School, in Sunnyvale, California, participated in a workshop at the California Endowment, along with international volunteers gleaning insights for India, Zambia, Gambia and Bali. Meridian assisted with the workshop.
The Full-Circle Learning Club at Oak Park High recently received publicity for its service to the Tarzana Habits-of-Heart Club. Here, students unite three generations in a serve project with adopted grandparents.
Friday, January 06, 2012
FCL Updates: Winter Letter and Photo Essay 2011- 2012
Happy New Year to our Friends of Full-Circle Learning!
Dear Friends of Full-Circle Learning,
Many people feel good about sending a small package during the month of December, but you who have given recently have offered a gift much more significant than material goods or best wishes. You have given the next generation a chance to apply their capacity in service to humanity. Here are just a few recent examples.
Children from a small school in Liberia marched through the streets to a central gathering place last Friday and gave a public presentation on Unity and Peacemaking. Their teachers had helped them prepare songs, signs and speeches, to help the community understand the role of these habits-of-heart in Liberia’s long walk out of civil war. They were the leaders; adults the learners.
Meanwhile, Full-Circle Learning students in India shared their creative talents in a city-wide event and were awarded with awards beyond what they had imagined, competing against large, well-funded schools. Still, this school struggles for the funding to meet government mandates.
In Haiti, children at the tiny April Woods School inspired their parents to dispose of rubbish without incineration (turning trash into art). The adults began community development projects, challenged each other to become positive role models, and rallied a new vision of how to fuse goals for personal and community transformation.
In faraway Los Angeles, a class of Humanitarians wrote letters to President Obama asking him to preserve the coral reefs in his home state of Hawaii. This came after the teacher had infused the habit of Awareness into their science, social studies, writing, and character education activities for a trimester. They had cleaned beaches, studied coral reef degradation, and developed a conviction that protecting ecosystems in one part of the ocean affects the quality of life around the world.
Simultaneously, in Tarzana, California, the generations also came together, with high school students helping young immigrant children paint flower pots, then traveling with them to share the pots with adopted grandparents. The youth helped the elders plant flowers in the pots, and the elders then accepted their plants as gifts. At departure time, neither elementary nor high school students wanted to leave their loving “grandparents.”
These are the deep and enriching experiences that your contribution helps to fund, as children continue to shape communities around the world. We invite you to donate now or to become a monthly or annual pledge donor if you have not yet done so, for yours is a gift not just for the children but for all of humanity. (Click on Donate Now for details.)
Loving appreciation,
The Full-Circle Learning Board
Photo Essay of December 2011
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Liberian kindergarteners shared what they have learned about Peacemaking and Unity at the Deborah Kaye Moore Bee and Dee Model School. School leader Awena Dorbar explained that her teachers worked tirelessly to teach the themes during the academic day before pursing advocacy projects in the community. Mrs. Dorbar thanked regional FCL trainer Davidson Efetobore for his continuing guidance for the school.
Students marched out, carrying signs about Unity and Peacemaking, and made presentations in the community. Many stopped to read and watch. When the students returned to school, other children in the community followed them. In a country recovering from a decade-long civil war, the bold project drew interest from all ages.
At Liberia’s Kingdom Foundation School, in Liberia, students constructed future homes as a part of the integrated service learning project.
Connecting service, science, early learning and the arts was exciting for young students of the new April Woods school, in Haiti. The children collected trash from the hillside where their school sits. Next, they sorted the trash into colors. After it was clean, they used the bits of paper to study geometry and to make colorful mosaics.
Students at the Annex School, also in Haiti, learned to use poetry not only as a tool for appreciating their environment but for preserving what they value or creating community change. Their group poetry was inspired by older girl poets in Haiti (produced through the Girls United Project).
We received New Year’s greetings from one of our colleagues in China, Yu Shuigen. As he reflected on the progress of the educational system while writing his annual report, he reached out with gratitude to say, “I’m so glad to see how our kindergartens have adopted the theme of love in their teachings.” The photo depicts one example incorporating conflict resolution, history, a global partner project and the habit-of-heart theme taught by the teacher.
Lisa Perskie, the director of School of the Nations, in Brasilia, reported at the end of 2011 that Full-Circle Learning program has “grown, evolved and taken on a life of its own…We are very grateful for the input of FCL.” Their annual report demonstrates the diversity of the students who attend this prestigious school.
Friday, November 18, 2011
FCL Updates: The Year of One Human Family
Thank you to supporters! FCL’s 2012 calendar is here! Let us extend an Attitude of Gratitude to you once again. As a friend of FCL you can help us seed the next generation with people just as forward-thinking and compassionate as you are.
We invite you to enjoy some recent stories about the children whose lives you may have touched this year. Please enjoy the stories and photos in the calendar for 2012, the Year of One Human Family produced as part of the 2011 Attitude of Gratitude year-end giving campaign and paid for by private donation.
The programs and projects of FCL have now reached 50 schools, traveling by word of mouth. Critical and time-sensitive requests come in each month from our schools in the most disadvantaged communities in the world, while we still need to continue supporting the general work of all the projects from month to month. This is an important time of year when children around the world rely on us to fulfill our pledge to them. You can best help with an unrestricted check to Full-Circle Learning, so that we may apply the funds where they are most needed. To understand where your dollars go, please refer to reply card below.
Please continue to help young people become the humanitarians, heroes and change agents of their generation by making a fully tax-deductible donation here or by mail to the address listed on the reply card. In exchange, you will receive a wallet card as an official member of the Full-Circle Learning Society and periodic updates from programs around the world.
We look forward to hearing from you soon. As always, we extend an attitude of gratitude for your generous spirit of giving throughout the years.
Loving thanks,
Teresa Langness, Board President, and the Development Committee
Thursday, November 17, 2011
FCL Updates: Haitian Students Inspire Hope
Recent projects in Haiti have included a training for a school in the mountaintop village Bois de Avril (April Woods). The community of parents, teachers and villagers quickly embraced a vision of service and transformation in this town. In the first service project, students learned counting, sorting, colors and recycling by cleaning up their community and turning trash into mosaics to promote cleanliness.
Meanwhile, in the city of Port au Prince, CAFT sponsored a training for 20 educators, NGO workers and teacher trainers from various agencies. Some schools received presentations and related activities from the Girls United anthology.
Haiti - children at the April Woods School delight in their first service project
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Haiti - children collect trash in a recycling, sorting and mosaic project
View Gallery
Students from Tony Phillipe's class at the Annex school learn to write group poems based on inspirations from the Girls United anthology.
View GalleryMonday, September 05, 2011
FCL Updates: Rancho Sespe Summer School Touches Lives
Students between the towns of Fillmore and Piru gathered for their traditional summer school. The project serves students from preschool through high school. Site director Sugey Lopez led the team of teachers in developing habits-of-heart into a curriculum of applied learning opportunities in the community, this year focusing on the Habits of Humanitarians module. A study of hunger and a student of the universal connection to people from all walks of life drove this year’s projects. Guests at a facility for developmentally challenged adults, as well as coordinators of a local food distribution facility, expressed heartfelt emotion at the level of understanding and sophistication behind the students’ service-learning projects. In a banner year, one of the program’s long-term students, Gorgonio Tobias, has now become a teacher in the summer program. Gonis will also teach evening enrichment classes during the school. (See photo gallery for more photos of the Rancho Sespe program.)
Monday, September 05, 2011
FCL Updates: Southern California Schools Hold Mastery Ceremonies
Four year-round school projects in Southern California held mastery ceremonies in June 2011. At Piru Preschool, Tarzana Elementary, the Full-Circle Learning Academy-LA (elementary) and the Full-Circle Learning Academy (middle school) parents and community members came to hear about the impact of students’ learning and authentic service on the broader community. They heard teachers deliver individual awards for habits-of-heart to each student, and parents were each honored for their own good habits, through speeches and certificates delivered by their children.
Parents are asked each year whether the program enhanced their children’s development in 19 areas of academic or social skills development, in areas ranging from motivation to learn, ethical leadership, compassion, and global awareness to the development of specific capacities and communication skills, understanding unique perspectives, self-restraint and self- mastery and other features. In the spring of 2011, in programs operated by Full-Circle Learning:
80% of parents surveyed in general programs marked every indicator of growth.
20% marked 10-16 of the 19 indicators.
The schools are now preparing for another year of applied academic learning and humanitarian service to local communities and to multiple global partner schools. (See the photo gallery for scenes from each school.)
FCLA: Architecture Field Trip
FCLA: Graduation 2011
Piru, CA: Conflict Bridge
Piru, CA: Adopted Grandparents
Tarzana, CA: Nursing Home Field Trip
Tarzana, CA: Nursing Home Field Trip
Monday, September 05, 2011
FCL Updates: Sudanese Youth Learn from Brothers and Sisters in Sudan
SANAD, a project for Sudanese Americans in Southern California, held many cultural celebrations this year. The students are learning from leaders such as teacher Marisol Rexach how to reach out to other members of the human family. A high achievement for the students was the realization that we can all learn from our global partners. Students had a chance to recognize the many ways love is demonstrated, both at home and in Sudan. They prepared a wisdom exchange project to try to better understand how we can advance our understanding of how various cultures exhibit the habits-of-heart. Students were urged to think beyond our traditional manifestations of love and instead consider the many opportunities we have to demonstrate this habit-of-heart in a way that benefits all of humanity.
This page is from the love book entitled, Love Knows No Boundaries. It was delivered to a school in Sudan in June, when one of our parents traveled there with her children. We asked the Sudanese students, "How do you demonstrate love?"
This particular page was the work of Reel Eltahir pictured here showing love by serving the mothers during the mothers' event. When asked, "What would you do to make the world a better place?" She answered, "Stop racism. One-by-one, a person can make a difference. A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.”
Monday, September 05, 2011
FCL Updates: Haitian Girls Create Transformation Through the Arts
The Haitian earthquake displaced many families, increasing the sources of trauma for some girls and leaving others with less than an ideal level of education to guide their goals for the future. Adolescent girls from Bolous, in the J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO) tent city, and in the YWCA camp at Petionvillle, had an opportunity to develop new skills as peer counselors and to explore their own capacity to create change through the arts. They learned to listen and to share their stories through narratives, poetry, visual arts and photography, presenting exhibitions for their communities in June. Their resulting anthology will serve as a global gift, to inspire arts advocacy and the concept of transformation (seeing the world through new eyes)-- for youth in Haiti and in other Full-Circle Learning communities.
Girls United: Haiti Through Our Eyes, a project of Full-Circle Learning, the Meridian Foundation and the United Nations Foundation, involved the participation of professional artist-educators from multiple genres. Kathryn Adams and Holiday Reinhorn taught creative writing skills, John Paul Thornton gave visual arts workshops, Nadia Todres led the photography group, Actor Rainn Wilson led drama exercises, and Valerie Velazquez mentored the girls in multiple areas. Local youth served as translators and, of course, anthology contributors. (For more photos, see the photo gallery. For project details and an upcoming reading of the anthology, watch the website (www.girlsunited.info)
Monday, September 05, 2011
FCL Updates: Deborah Kaye Moore School, Monrovia
The Deborah Kaye Moore School, in Monrovia, requested a training in Full-Circle Learning in late August 2011. Here, teachers pose as students for a breakout group activity.
Monday, September 05, 2011
FCL Updates: 500 Newly Trained Teens in South Africa Better their Community with Full-Circle Learning Skills
Youth from 19 schools in the Alexandra townships of South Africa seek new role models and positive structures for living through the Alexandra Basketball Society. Thanks to the training of Maureen Mungai, their facilitators now integrate Full-Circle Learning into their program. Through the Full-Circle Learning model, the ABS members apply their natural and acquired skills to uplift their impoverished community. Students range in age from 9 to 20.
Monday, September 05, 2011
FCL Updates: Ten Schools in Liberia Prepare for a Year of Change Agent Education
Thirty-nine school administrators representing ten schools gathered for an intensive Full-Circle Learning training in July, 2011, hosted by the Kingdom Foundation in Monrovia, Liberia. Facilitator Davidson Efetobore assisted them in workshops on the Full-Circle Learning curriculum, culture and leadership model. The educators planned August workshops to assist teachers at their various schools in implementing the model. Evaluations emphasized the renewed sense of purpose participants felt about the opportunity to bring their students a sense of the relationship between the application of skills and the transformation of self and society. Fall workshops in Zambia and Chad will involve up to ten more schools. (See photo gallery for more pictures of the Liberian training.)
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
FCL Updates: Friends Around the World
Friends Around the World: Read the most recent FCL Online Journal, Igniting the Ideals of Heroes. Click here.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
FCL Updates: Piru Holiday Parade 2010
One little "elf" learning the Habits of Givers smiles at the camera during the holiday parade in Piru California, 2010. The Full-Circle Learning Preschool float won first place for their group participation. Parent involvement is a key to the success of the school. Parent fundraisers ensure that service learning field trips as well as cultural celebrations, take place for children in this hamlet, which sits amid the hills in the heart of the citrus fields and farms of Ventura County.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
FCL Updates: Love Brings Results
Love Brings Results
(November 2010) The first graduating class of preschoolers preened for the camera at a parent-initiated Full-Circle Learning school called Lerato (Love) in Lesotho. The school’s 42 students is operated by a community of parents and Full-Circle Learning trained teachers, who are also enrolled in a training program with the Ministry of Education. According to African Continental Director Maureen Mungai, “the parents are pleased with the results they see in their children.”
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
FCL Updates: China Report: Full-Circle Learning in Hangzhou
We pass a caterpillar in the school yard. The caterpillar is not a furry one but is made of very young children, each one holding the waist of the next as they move quietly into the classroom. Inside, each one puts their own chair on the tape measured out in a square on the floor. Some are barely big enough to walk, but they work together cohesively, sharing space, each child patiently waiting for the next before settling the chair into a space. After hearing about a faraway place called America, they give their visiting foreign grandparent presents they have made. A self-portrait drawn by an American child is presented as their constant new companion, to share a new friendship with them. When their guest leaves, some come forward to offer kisses and hugs of immediate acceptance and love.
In the yard of many kindergartens, we see tiny farms where children grow vegetables. In the hallways, creative works—usually made of recycled materials—say as much about the dedication and energy of the teachers and parents as they say about the innate qualities of the students. It is no wonder that the teachers’ room at Fuyiu kindergarten bears the motto: “Work is love made visible.”
Creative works and photos abound at Greentown Schools as well. They illustrate the love between grandparents, parents, teachers and students. The best acts of love, however, require no materials, only time and concern. At one school, we enter a room crowded with tiny beds. Twenty sets of eyes look up with instant wonder. Nap time is ending for the two-year olds. A door opens and in rush the big “brothers and sisters,” now four years old, who each go directly to the bed of the child they care for each day as expertly as a well-practiced mother. They know the routine. They lay out the trousers and stuff the little legs into them. They place the shoes on the feet, first the right, then the left. They carefully tuck in shirts and put arms into coats and help the two-year old down from the beds. Next, the little ones help the littlest ones make up the beds with military precision.
It is no wonder that the children in these schools can apply their skills so well to honor grandparents on their special holiday for grandparents, that they can easily make friends and can show love for others in the family and in the community. Here, in a place with a one-child policy, the children have instead created one family, one very big family, and the ties go beyond blood ties. They are ties of deep, abiding love.
The Zhejiang Normal University College of Preschool Teacher Education sponsored its second Sino-American Full-Circle Learning conference , October 28-29 2010. At least 150 educators from throughout the province registered to hear presentations of classroom teachers who had mastered Full-Circle Learning processes in the classroom as well as experts on theory and practice.
One highlight of the conference was a presentation on earthquake relief at one of the university-affiliated schools, in which students practiced sacrifice, raising money for children in an affected community in a very systematic service project. The students practiced sacrifice, giving up their favorite toys, their pet silk worms and other items to organize a toy sale for earthquake victims. Heartwarming testimonials told how students as young as four years old carried out difficult tasks to improve life for others. Two year-olds participated by purchasing the toys, with their parents.
Another highlight of the conference was a moving dramatic presentation by students who reenacted a folk tale. In the play, a series of animals in a forest each found a gift of food on their doorstep and carried it to the next hibernating animal rather than eat it themselves, until the original carrot given to the rabbit ended up back at her own door.
Dr. Gan JianMei (Angela Gan), the character education director at the university, organized the conference and lectured on the basics of Full-Circle Learning. Other presentations considered the effects of holistic education on society, nurturing altruism in early childhood development, aspects of ecology and the spiritual journey of a teacher. Several days of school tours and a lecture at a Greentown primary school followed the conference.
The university was introduced to Full-Circle Learning five years ago. During this time, the research program has blossomed. The university has trained teachers in its own schools and invited teachers throughout the province to its workshops. Greentown Education System, a recipient of those services, has now conducted exchanges back and forth (with six principals visiting America in January 2010), and both organizations have applied many efforts toward adapting the model to the Chinese culture and customs. Teachers use university-adapted translations as a springboard for their own creative ideas.
With positive role models surrounding them, the children in these fine schools not only learn to face the world as future decision makers who will be trained academically but who will become benevolent leaders or better citizens, as members of one loving family.
The 2010 trip to China also included a school presentation and conference presentation at the International Conference on Process Philosophy, celebrating the Establishment of the China Process Society. This conference was held in Beijing, the city, where the first volume of a Full-Circle Learning book was also translated by Peking University Press.)
Monday, November 22, 2010
FCL Updates: Thank You for Your Good Wishes
Thank You for Your Good Wishes
We feel an attitude of gratitude toward those whose good wishes, support or participation benefited local and international projects at the Thanksgiving fair on November 14th. Sacrificial efforts by performers, gift booth hosts, donors, well wishers and volunteers made the day very special. Many also participated by casting a wish for today’s generation. We want to thank you by publicizing your joint creed.
Imagine an evolving world where all your wishes for this generation come true. Thank you for helping to make it happen, by seeing that learners around the world engage in meaningful participation in society, through integrated education programs.
I wish….Each and every child will be loved and cared for.
I wish for a world where everyone has an equal chance at pursuing their dreams.
My wish for this generation of children is that none of them knows hunger, thirst or homelessness, nor anyone they know.
I wish for the children to evolve in education to remedy the world of problems and obstacles.
My wish is love, acceptance and for them to encourage each other.
My wish for today’s child is that the feel completely free to be themselves and nurture their unique gifts knowing that their uniqueness is an integral part of the ever-advancing civilization of humankind.
I wish their hearts could stay pure…wish they will cherish their inner child and not rush to grow up…wish they’ll remember to smile and that kindness will get them far…wish they will show by example that love and unity can achieve.
I wish for children to live without worry or stress about the future.
As an elementary school teacher for twenty-five years, I earnestly hope that the focus will soon stop being on testing and swing back to the real needs of children.
My wish for all students is an equal education that prepares students to be creative and ready to function in society.
I wish for children to have enough water and food to survive. (a child)
I wish for the young generation to say no sugar…yes to love (an adult)
I wish for better teachers so kids will grow up responsible and intelligent (a child).
I wish that every child could feel loved.
Kittens and puppies for all.
I wish we could feed everyone.
I wish for better education for all.
I wish there could be virtue-based education for every child.
Spiritual education for the world’s children – equality as the foundation.
I wish for the next generation a joyful rise in consciousness and awareness.
To find ultimate happiness and achieve success in whatever makes you happy and radiant and to thrive.
We’re all in this world for each other. One world. One love.
My wish for the next generation is...Peace.
Warmest thanks for these wishes - from the Full-Circle Learning team.Sunday, October 24, 2010
FCL Updates: Attitude of Gratitude, a benefit event for the work of Full-Circle Learning!
Thanksgiving brings an Attitude of Gratitude for Full-Circle Learning, a non-profit organization celebrating almost two decades of education reform. Rainn Wilson (“Dwight” on TV’s The Office) and broadcast personality/comedienne Neshia Braithwaite-Farhangi will co-host the festivities on Sunday, November 14, from 11:00 – 4:00, at the Vasa Park in Agoura Hills.
Recording artists JB Eckl, Kristin Barnes, Chris French, and actor/performing artist Elly Jaresko will complement the entertainment agenda. Gift booths, a puppet show and cooperative games will ensure fun for all ages. A full chicken dinner—included in the ticket price—will be served buffet style in the midday, with hot dogs (vegetarian option upon request) available all day.
Full-Circle Learning helps youth embrace their role as society’s humanitarians and change agents. It does so by infusing character education, the arts, conflict resolution and service learning into every academic unit in the schools it serves. This event will raise funds, in part, for its performing arts programs in Los Angeles and for basic service to global partners.
Tickets must be purchased online, in advance, for $20 ($10 for children). Please go to:
Full-Circle Learning Attitude of Gratitude Event Registration
for more information and to purchase tickets. Tax-deductible donations will also be met with an attitude of gratitude.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
FCL Updates: William Foster School in Liberia
A decade of civil war heightened the challenges in Liberia when schools closed and children went to war. Now schools are opening again and teachers are learning once more how to design educational systems that accommodate the generation left behind. Full-Circle Learning provides a way for students to learn with a new sense of purpose.
At the William Foster School, in Liberia, approximately 20 teachers were trained in Full-Circle Learning strategies for ten days in June 2010. They felt a new resolve to promote education reform in their community and to exercise transformative leadership as they begin to implement Full-Circle Learning in their region.
Trainer Tamiru Mikre Degefe reported:
The leadership training has helped the teachers to re-examine their mental models and adopt a new conceptual framework. After the first two days of the training, relationship has been improved very much. Instead of blaming one another they began to see inwardly and uprooted those mental models contrary to ideal of Full Circle Learning. They wrote their own journal. Some of them volunteered to share to the group. I will write you more about the process when we finish the training.
Today, we started lesson planning. Tomorrow we will start our group presentations. We learn the songs from the FCL CDs everyday. The group volunteered to contribute one traditional song based on one of the Habit-of-Heart themes. We will have a graduation ceremony at the end.
By the last day, the teachers were so excited, they had elected representatives to share the model with other interested schools. The following month, the Ambassadors class at Rancho Sespe, Fillmore, California created the first global challenge for students of the new school. Their habit-of-heart was cooperation. They created a hypothetical business plan for three fruit growers to maximize their resources by developing a co-op and business plan, to make funds stretch farther and to give money back to the community and save some for hard times. They sent their idea with a request for suggestions for improvement and a request for shared ideas from their Liberian counterparts experiencing their first habit-of-heart unit.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
FCL Updates: Helpers and Healers in Haiti
Haitian children began to benefit from Full-Circle Learning-inspired activities for communities in trauma in early March 2010. The research-based activities used are designed to build resiliency, address immediate PTSD needs, create a sense of community and gradually reorient identities, to help youth envision their role as the solution-givers, healers and rebuilders of the community.
The first photo depicts the group putting together a puzzle of the world. (No one had ever seen a world map.) Afterward, the teacher discussed the many people who care about them and had sent cards and blessings, and about the doable challenge of reconstructing something, no matter how difficult. The second photos show the eagerness of children, after receiving many other activities, to express their feelings artistically. These and many other activities were led by Judy Rector and an assistant. Another team, Dr. Kira Mauseth and Dr. Tona McGuire, provided clinical support for families with PTSD at the neighboring temporary health clinic. There, the Love for Haiti volunteers worked out of the Anis Zunuzi school. Meridian Health Foundation co-sponsored the effort. Seventy-five children joined in activities and hundreds of adults and children received direct service. Plans for the next phase of capacity-building, in the form of training community workers, is underway.
Haitian child pictures the falling blocks
Haitian children eager to create art after FCL resiliency activities
Haitian parents and children - puzzle activity - Putting the world together again
Monday, October 19, 2009
FCL Updates: 300 Teachers Trained
300 teachers were trained between January and September, 2009. Leaders in many areas are now able to train others in their regions, with only occasional site evaluations.
Training sometimes includes site visits for teachers to see a successful project. Here, South African teachers visit the country of Lesotho to observe before training multiple schools in their country.
Guest Speaker Ms. Fanela at St. Peters Primary School grade 4 talking about similarities between South Africa and Lesotho.
View Gallery
Guest speaker Community worker, Ms. Alina and Nurse, Mr. Sekonyela talking about cleanliness and also encouraging students (those in nurses’ huts) who want to be Nurses when they grow up. Ms. Fanela and Mrs. Yimpi look on.
View GalleryTuesday, October 13, 2009
FCL Updates: Climate Change
To Change the World, Change the Identity
Luis Cruz learned to wire a birdhouse with a webcam, with the help of Rob Mobini, to observe nesting songbirds while studying the environment
View GalleryCurricula of Full-Circle Learning span various grade levels, from age two upward, with titles such as
Habits of Helpers, Habits of Heroes, Habits of Humanitarians, etc. One new pilot project,
Climate Change Agents, specifically reaches secondary students with the message that they must creatively apply their ethics and skills to safeguard the future while managing the effects of
Students learn to integrate their academics, arts and conflict resolution skills in a series of character- and service-infused projects as generate public awareness of climate change in their own communities and develop the tools for change. Schools on three continents are currently using the pilot program.
A collaboration of several organizations participated in the project:
United Nations Department of Public Information, United Nations Environment Programme – Regional Office of North America, Fraser Communications, andMeridian Health Foundation.
The Full-Circle Learning integrated course content also features Full-Circle Learning music, as do all FCL curricula. The accompanying Change Agents CD was created using specially donated funds and pro bono professional talent.
See FCL Sites Around the World for news of global projects.Tuesday, October 13, 2009
FCL Updates: Model Charter School
The effectiveness of the model is confirmed in quantitative and qualitative surveys at multiple sites, echoed in 2009 standardized test scores at the Los Angeles charter school, which an increase of 19% since its first benchmark year.
In the most recent standardized test scores submitted, 63% of students improved in both language arts and math after their first year of enrollment.
Special Resources Specialist Mark Christenson wrote to congratulate the school, saying: “…to see such significant growth in many areas is quite remarkable. I believe you are well on your way to becoming a model charter school, which could serve as a fine example for other charter schools to follow.” Helping students aspire to self-mastery and find a higher purpose for their learning, through service to humanity, truly enhanced their academic goals.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
FCL Updates: Climate Change CD
The new pro bono curriculum Climate Change Agents for secondary students has been completed, with its music CD Change Agents.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
FCL Updates: New School
FCL assisted the charter school, Full-Circle Learning Academy, in opening an overflow site for its middle school grades on the campus of Baldwin Hills Elementary in the fall of 2009.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
FCL Updates: Nobel Peace Prize Center
The Nobel Peace Prize Center housed a summer-long exhibit with artwork connecting peace and the environment in 2008. Full-Circle Learning student artists from multiple countries participated.