Mission
Jacaranda Education is a Sociedad Civil (S.C.) founded in 2005 by graduates of the International Education and Transcultural Studies Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. Its mission is to enhance education in Mexico`s public and private education sectors by providing a range of high-quality, cost-effective services focusing on teacher-training, curriculum design, teacher placement, and capacity building. In short, making new resources available to educators and students in Mexico.
Jacaranda Education supports a student-centered, constructivist, communicative language teaching approach which views local environment and socio-cultural context as an active and essential tool in the educational process and a necessary ingredient for active participation in today's globalized world. Jacaranda Education advocates that the best approach to preparing students for global change is through exposure to quality, passionate instruction and an educational approach which highlights the trans-configurative nature of culture and the relationship between the local and the global environment through a multi-disciplinary educational approach.
To these ends, Jacaranda Education is committed to supporting initiatives which offer sustainable, diversified training for teachers, and which encourage the production and implementation of a range of independent materials which expose one to a wider range of ideas, knowledge, and concepts. The cornerstone to these ideas is Jacaranda’s excellence in international education and development work.
Misión
Jacaranda Education es una Sociedad Civil (S.C.) fundada en el 2005 por graduados del Departamento de Estudios Internaciones y Estudios Transculturales en el Colegio de Profesores, de la Universidad de Columbia. Su misión es mejorar la educación en los sectores educativos públicos y privados de México, al proveer de un ámbito de alta calidad, servicios de costo efectivo enfocados al entrenamiento de profesores, diseño de curriculum, ubicación de profesores y capacidad de construcción. En poco tiempo, se realizaran nuevos recursos disponibles a educadores y estudiantes en México.
Jacaranda Education apoya el enfoque de enseñanza centrado en estudiantes, constructivismo, lenguaje comunicativo con vista en el ambiente local y un contexto socio cultural como una herramienta activa y esencial en el proceso educativo y como un ingrediente necesario para una participación activa en el mundo globalizado de hoy en día. Jacaranda Education defiende que el mejor enfoque para preparar a los alumnos para un cambio global es a través de una exposición de calidad, instrucción apasionada y un enfoque educativo con reflejos de la naturaleza trans-configurativa de la cultura y relación entre el ambiente local y global a través de un enfoque educativo multidisciplinario.
Para estos fines, Jacaranda Education está comprometida a apoyar iniciativas las cuales ofrecen entrenamiento sostenible y diversificado para profesores, en el cual se fomenta la producción e implementación de un ámbito independiente de materiales los cuales exponen a un ámbito más amplio de ideas, conocimiento y concepto. El ángulo de estas ideas es la excelencia en educación internacional y trabajo de desarrollo de Jacaranda.
Projects
- Instituto Blaise Pascale
- |
- iEARN
- |
- Instituto Politecnico Nacional
- |
- Adobe Youth Voices
- |
- Escuela Terramar
- |
- Open Windows (California Poetry Residency)
Instituto Blaise Pascale
website: www.ibp.edu.mx
In 2006 we began to construct a Department of English Language Studies for the Instituto Blaise Pascale in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca. Prior to our arrival there was no formal department of any type in place. English classes had been offered through a private entity with little or no interest in investing in any manner of long term vision or plan for the school nor its students and community.
To build a comprehensive and sustainable department we have focused our attention around developing four key areas: curriculum; staff and teaching; and evaluation.
1. Curriculum: At Blaise we have set out to design and write our own text-books and curriculum which promotes the study of English Language through a western context as it relates to local or national context. Each curriculum is built around a central theme, for example globalization. Themes are chosen on the weight of their significance within the local context and the interest of the recipient group. Books are designed and printed locally providing a small, but important resource to the local economy.
2. Staff and Teaching: To build a sustainable department of studies we have set out to build a strong network of teachers and educators. To this end we have begun not only to bring experienced, creative, and quality teachers to share their skills, but also educators whose expertise stretches to professional development and curriculum planning. All teachers, both Mexican and foreign, are certified and experienced teachers with education degrees in their experience.
3. Evaluation: In IBP project Jacaranda Education is implementing a series of high-quality, comprehensive evaluation materials. These include: A comprehensive entrance exam so that students can for the first time be placed successfully in a level of study which is challenging and rewarding to them. Students work with classmates at their level of language with a specialized curriculum.
4. Bilingual Education: In 2008 Jacaranda began to design and implement a range of new bilingual courses in a range of disciplines from Art History to International Media to International Communications. These efforts are part of a new strategy to build a comprehensive bilingual environment and to engage the student in a wider, more comprehensive format of education.
- International Communications
- Art History
International Education And Resource Network iEARN
Jacaranda Education is collaborating on a number of projects and initiatives with the Mexican chapter of the International Education and Resource Network. So far Jacaranda has registered some 600 students and more than a dozen professors in the network, each of whom are active daily in on-line projects. Jacaranda has also developed a series of bilingual textbooks which incorporate iEARN activities that are currently being used in international communications courses it manages in schools in Oaxaca. In April, 2008 Jacaranda sent a team of students and professors to the annual iEARN Youthcan Conference at the Museum of Natural History in NYC. The team presented its findings on the potential of agave as a source for alternative fuel. Jacaranda is also actively working to connect and engage Mexican teachers with the range of on-line courses available through the iEARN network.
The iEARN Network.
iEARN is a safe, low-cost, and dynamic way to connect your school with the wider world around. Students can choose from a range of projects in all disciplines and a host of languages to work in. For example, students studying water pollution in local rivers in Mexico City can construct a plethora of learning through collaborating with students perhaps in Islamabad, Pakistan who are undertaking a similar project with their local water supplies. This type of learning widens the vision of the student, builds cultural understanding and confidence in communication, as well as reflection on ones own particular context.
Terramar
Terramar is a community based education project in Tepotzlan. It began two years ago as an alternative primary school, which focused its education towards project-based learning in a multi-cultural environment. More than 60% of the student population receive financial assistance ensuring that children from all sectors of the local community are able to learn and devlop together.
In August 2010 Jacaranda Education will begin to collaborate with Terramar on a number of different educational projects. First Jacaranda will train and offer iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) project-based learning programming to the school and will provide on-going support to teachers and students towards its application and integration into daily curriculum.
Second, Jacaranda will develop with local educators a youth-media course of study which will instill with students the skills necessary to design, develop, and create their own documentary films creating a new forum for self-expression and expression of the lives in motion around them.
Lastly, Jacaranda has made a committment to assist Terrmar in the development of a brand new secundaria school for the community which will allow students to continue in the learning that they have so eagerly began at the primary level.
Instituto Politecnico Nacional (CIIDIR)
website: Instituto Politécnico Nacional
In March, 2007 Jacaranda Education established an educational partnership with the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Oaxaca. Through the partnership Jacaranda Education initially agreed to provide an advanced course in English language studies for students whose aim it was to continue their studies and academic work abroad in academic institutions in North America. The course is focused on preparation for the TOEFL iBT examination and translation which, if navigated successfully, can provide students with vital scholarships and grant money to support their research.
More recently, Jacaranda has added additional basic and low intermediate English Language Studies courses to its offering and has begun work to establish a more formal and sustainable department of English Language Studies with the IPN in Oaxaca.
Adobe Youth Voices
website: Adobe Yout Voices
Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) is the Adobe Foundation's global philanthropic initiative that empowers youth from underserved communities with digital media skills so they can comment on their world, share their ideas and take action on issues that are important to them. By harnessing the energy and insight of young people 13-19 years old, Adobe Youth Voices aims to inspire a dialogue for change in their communities.
The program teaches youth to express themselves through documentary film-making, photography, print journalism, radio diaries, animation, Web communications and other media. The Adobe Youth Voices global network now includes 158 sites, grantees and organizations in 31 countries, engaging over 20,000 youth and 1,000 educators in schools and out-of-school programs.
The collaboration focuses on giving youth access to multi-media production tools for video, dance, music and art. Through the creation of digital media, teens are given the opportunity to comment on critical issues and inspire social change in their communities.
Jacaranda Education in collaboration with iEARN Mexico is proud to coordinate and manage the AYV program in Mexico for the year 2009-10. The program is currently working with sites throughout the republic including Oaxaca, Mexico City, Juanajuato, Valle de Bravo and Matamoros providing administrative and technical support to local educators.
For more information on the program visit: www.plantandinspire.org
Open Windows (California Poetry Residency)
In 2010 Jacaranda embarked on a new collaboration called Green Stone House (Writer Residency) with Open Windows from San Francisco, CA. Through this new collaboration young poets from the Bay Area will have the opportunity to take residence in Oaxaca for a 2-3 month period at the central residence of Jacaranda Education where they will develop their writing and add new learning and experience to their creative thought processes. During the residency, poets will direct workshops for local youth and connect with local writers and artists through readings and open forums. At the same time, local Oaxacan poets will also have the opportunity to take residence in the Bay Area in an exchange program. Green Stone House is the brain child of Joshua Edwards and Lynn Xu.
Joshua Edwards is currently a Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University.He was a Garcia-Robles/Fulbright Grantee in Oaxaca in 2007-2008, and has also worked there on several NGO projects. He edits Canarium Books and lives in Berekeley, California.
Canarium Books: www.canariumbooks.org
Lynn Xu is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of California-Berkeley. In 2008 she lived in Oaxaca, where she completed most of her first manuscript of poems. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Poetry Daily, The Walrus, Boston Review, and elsewhere. She was recently a Fulbright grantee in Shanghai.
Proyectos
- Instituto Blaise Pascale
- |
- iEARN
- |
- Instituto Politencio Nacional
- |
- Adobe Youth Voices
- |
- Escuela Terramar
- |
- Open Windows (California Poetry Residency)
Instituto Blaise Pascale
website: www.ibp.edu.mx
En el 2006 empezamos a construir un Departamento de Estudios de Inglés para el Instituto Blaise Pascale en la ciudad de Oaxaca. Antes de nuestra llegada no había un departamento de ningún tipo en ese lugar. Las clases de inglés habían sido ofrecidas por una entidad privada con poco o ningún interés en invertir de ninguna forma a largo plazo una visión o plan para la escuela ni para los estudiantes ni la comunidad.
Para construir un departamento completo y sostenible hemos centrado nuestra atención en desarrollar cuatro áreas clave: curriculum, profesores y enseñanza; y evaluación.
1. Curriculum: En el Blaise no hemos propuesto diseñar y escribir nuestros propios libros de texto el cual promueve el estudio del idioma inglés a través de un contexto occidental que relaciona el contexto local o nacional. Cada curriculum es construido alrededor de un tema central, por ejemplo la globalización. Los temas se escogen de acuerdo al peso de su significado dentro del contexto local y de interés del grupo receptor. Los libros son diseñados e impresos localmente proveyendo un pequeño, pero importante recurso de la economía local.
2. Personal y enseñanza. Para construir un departamento de estudios sostenible hemos propuesto construir una fuerte red de profesores y educadores. Para este fin hemos empezado no solo con traer profesores experimentados, creativos, y de calidad para compartir sus habilidades, sino también educadores cuya experiencia se extiende al desarrollo profesional y planeación de curriculum. Todos los profesores, Mexicanos y extranjeros, son profesores certificados y experimentados con grados de educación en su experiencia.
3. Evaluación: El proyecto de Jacaranda Education del IBP está implementando series de alta calidad , materiales de evaluación comprensiva. Esto incluye: un examen de ingreso comprensivo para que los alumnos puedan por primera vez ser colocados exitosamente en un nivel de estudio el cual los desafía y gratifica. Los estudiantes trabajan con compañeros a su nivel de lenguaje con un curriculum especializado.
4. Educación Bilingüe: el 2008 Jacaranda empezó a diseñar e implementar una variedad de un nuevo curso bilingüe en un ámbito de disciplinas desde Historia del Arte a Medios de Comunicación internacionales y Comunicación internacional. Estos esfuerzos son parte de una nueva estrategia para un construir un ambiente comprensivo y bilingüe y para atraer al estudiante a un formato de educación más amplio y más comprensivo.
- Comunicación Internacional
- Historia del Arte
International Education And Resource Network iEARN
Jacaranda Education está colaborando en un numero de proyectos e iniciativas con el capítulo mexicano de la Educación Internacional y Red de Recursos. Hasta ahora Jacaranda ha registrado unos 600 estudiantes y más de una docena de profesores en la red. Cada uno de ellos está activo diariamente en proyectos en línea. Jacaranda también ha desarrollado una serie de libros de texto bilingües los cuales incorporan las actividades de iEARN que están siendo usadas actualmente en los cursos de comunicación internacional realizados en Oaxaca. En abril del 2008 Jacaranda envió un equipo de estudiantes y profesores a la conferencia anual de iEARN Youthcan en el Museo de Historia Natural en la ciudad de Nueva York. El equipo presento sus investigaciones sobre el potencial del agave como fuente para combustible alternativo. Jacaranda esta también trabajando activamente para conectar y atraer a los profesores mexicanos con la selección de cursos disponibles en línea a través de la red de iEARN.
La red iEARN.
iEARN es una forma segura, de bajo costo y dinámica para conectar a su escuela con el amplio mundo alrededor. Los estudiantes escogen de una gama de proyectos en todas las disciplinas y una gran cantidad de idiomas para trabajar. Por ejemplo, los alumnos estudian la contaminación del agua en los ríos locales de la ciudad de México esto puede construir una plétora de aprendizaje a través de la colaboración con estudiantes posiblemente de Islamabad, Pakistan quienes están realizando un proyecto similar con suministros de agua locales. Este tipo de aprendizaje amplia la visión del estudiante, construye su comprensión de la cultura y confianza en la comunicación, así como el reflejo de su propio contexto particular.
Terramar
Terramar is a community based education project in Tepotzlan. It began two years ago as an alternative primary school, which focused its education towards project-based learning in a multi-cultural environment. More than 60% of the student population receive financial assistance ensuring that children from all sectors of the local community are able to learn and devlop together.
In August 2010 Jacaranda Education will begin to collaborate with Terramar on a number of different educational projects. First Jacaranda will train and offer iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) project-based learning programming to the school and will provide on-going support to teachers and students towards its application and integration into daily curriculum.
Second, Jacaranda will develop with local educators a youth-media course of study which will instill with students the skills necessary to design, develop, and create their own documentary films creating a new forum for self-expression and expression of the lives in motion around them.
Lastly, Jacaranda has made a committment to assist Terrmar in the development of a brand new secundaria school for the community which will allow students to continue in the learning that they have so eagerly began at the primary level.
IPN (CIIDIR)
website: Instituto Politécnico Nacional
En Marzo del 2007 Jacaranda Education estableció una asociación con el Instituto Politécnico Nacional en Oaxaca. A través de la asociación, Jacaranda Education inicialmente acordó proveer un avanzado curso de estudios de inglés para estudiantes cuya meta fuera continuar sus estudios y trabajo académico en instituciones académicas de Norte América. El curso está enfocado en la preparación para el TOEFL(iBT) [examen de inglés como lengua extranjera, examen basado en internet] examen y traducción la cual, si se navega exitosamente, puede proveer a los estudiantes con vitales becas y efectivo para apoyar su investigación.
Recientemente, Jacaranda ha añadido a su oferta los niveles básico e intermedio bajo a sus cursos de Estudio de Inglés y ha empezado a trabajar para establecer un departamento de Estudios de Inglés más formal y sostenible con el IPN en Oaxaca.
Adobe Youth Voices
website: Adobe Yout Voices
Adobe Youth Voices (AYV- Adobe Las Voces de la Juventud) es una iniciativa filantrópica a nivel mundial de la Fundación Adobe que permite a jóvenes marginados o de comunidades de escasos recursos desarollar sus habilidades digitales para que puedan opinar acerca de su mundo, compartir sus ideas y tomar medidas sobre cuestiones que son importantes para ellos.
La misión AYV es crear con propósito y utiliza la energía y la visión de los jóvenes 11-19 años para motivar un diálogo que inspire cambio. El programa enseña a los jóvenes a expresarse a través del cine documental, fotografía, periodismo impreso, diarios de radio, animación, las comunicaciones Web y otros medios. El red de AYV es global y incluye 158 sitios en donde se desarolla el programa, becados y varias organizaciones que asisten en el desarollo en 31 países, con la participación de más de 20.000 jóvenes y 1.000 docentes en escuelas y en programas no escolares.
La colaboración se centra en dar a los jóvenes acceso a herramientas multimedia de producción de video, música y arte. A través de la creación de medios digitales, los adolescentes se les da la oportunidad de hacer comentarios sobre cuestiones críticas e inspirar el cambio social en sus comunidades.
Jacaranda Educación en colaboración con iEARN México esta orgulloso de coordinar y gestionar el programa de AYV en México para el año 2009-10. El programa está actualmente trabajando con sitios en toda la República como Oaxaca, México, DF, Guanajuato, Valle de Bravo y Matamoros, ofreciendo la prestación de apoyo administrativo y técnico a los educadores locales. Para obtener más información sobre el programa visite: www.plantandinspire.org
Open Windows
In 2010 Jacaranda embarked on a new collaboration called Green Stone House (Writer Residency) with Open Windows from San Francisco, CA. Through this new collaboration young poets from the Bay Area will have the opportunity to take residence in Oaxaca for a 2-3 month period at the central residence of Jacaranda Education where they will develop their writing and add new learning and experience to their creative thought processes. During the residency, poets will direct workshops for local youth and connect with local writers and artists through readings and open forums. At the same time, local Oaxacan poets will also have the opportunity to take residence in the Bay Area in an exchange program. Green Stone House is the brain child of Joshua Edwards and Lynn Xu.
Joshua Edwards is currently a Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University.He was a Garcia-Robles/Fulbright Grantee in Oaxaca in 2007-2008, and has also worked there on several NGO projects. He edits Canarium Books and lives in Berekeley, California.
Canarium Books: www.canariumbooks.org
Lynn Xu is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of California-Berkeley. In 2008 she lived in Oaxaca, where she completed most of her first manuscript of poems. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Poetry Daily, The Walrus, Boston Review, and elsewhere. She was recently a Fulbright grantee in Shanghai.
Staff
Michael A. Beckwith
President and Executive Director
Michael Beckwith is the founder of Jacaranda Education. He was born and raised in London, UK. After studying for an under graduate degree in Hebrew and Arabic language at University College London and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Michael’s early career began in Washington DC as a research assistance and translator for a Middle East think tank. Disillusioned with the pessimistic reality of modern-day Middle Eastern politics and development initiatives he pursued a Master’s degree in International Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University with the aim of participating in more constructive activities. After several years coordinating adult, international and public education projects in NYC he established Jacaranda and set up an office in Oaxaca City, Mexico, where he currently resides and works. He has lived in Europe, the Middle East, The United States, and Mexico.
mbeckwith@jacarandaeducation.org
G. Liliana Castellanos
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Liliana Castellanos is a co-founder of Jacaranda Education. She was born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in Europe and Washington D.C. She began her university studies at Pratt Institute in NYC and concluded her studies at Columbia University in NYC. In her early career she worked for investment banks and law firms handling pension funds in the competitive financial industry of New York. She soon found the desire to help the underdog and have a stronger impact in changes she foresees necessary in the world. Her focus moved to theatre film and development. She received a two-year post graduate degree in theatre in NYC. After working in the film-documentary industry for several years she began aiding immigrants with their education and writing grants for an education based non- profit in NYC. Soon after she moved to Oaxaca, Mexico to help establish Jacaranda Education and is now happy to be connecting education to film making by coordinating the Adobe Youth Voices Project.
lcastellanos@jacarandaeducation.org
Chris Lockwood
Project Coordinator
Christopher Lockwood is the Coordinator of the English Studies programme at Instituto Blaise Pascal. He is from Halifax, U.K. and studied English & American Literatures at the University of Keele, U.K. and Loyola University New Orleans, U.S.A. During this time he began his explorations of Mexico, regularly visiting Cuidad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua. He went on to gain a place at Girton College, University of Cambridge to undertake an M.Phil in American Literature where he specialised in the role of the American Frontiersman in the Nineteenth-Century, and the literary and artistic movements surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Chris has served in the post of Headteacher at summer schools in Northern Spain, and is looking forward to expanding his teaching career in Oaxaca, Mexico.
chrislockwood@jacarandaeducation.org
Frank Van Schaik
iEARN Coordinator
Dutchman Frank van Schaik (40) has been living in Oaxaca with wife and three children since July 2009. He has a degree as a Dutch linguistics teacher, and has worked for 18 years in the field of economic globalisation and its social and environmental effects. He lived in Uppsala, Sweden for half a year, and traveled extensively in Europe and Latin America, visiting many local communities affected by environmental pollution and shortage. Having given many workshops for young people (16-25) in Europe and Latin America, he greatly values linking the bigger picture of globalisation and international trade with local effects on people and nature. Part of his approach has always been to inform and discuss, and to promote alternatives, usually with a clear long-term perspective for the local population and environment. Frank will bring his network, experience and knowledge of international institutions, activist movement and methods of mobilisation (video, art, etc) to teach and help the pupils of Jacaranda Education to find their own way of joining the broad international community for a better world, and encourage discussing and questioning the information before them at the same time.
frankvanschaik@jacarandaeducation.org
Hazel Lewis
Adobe and English Language Teacher
Hazel Lewis was born in London, England. Growing up in a large family with many brothers and sisters she has always had a passion for working with young people. After studying Film at A-level she developed an enthusiasm for the subject and continued studying Film with Creative Writing at Kingston University London where she was a representative for her Film class as well as the Film and Cult Television Committee. Eager to travel and see more of the world Hazel took a year out after her degree to embark on a solo world trip in order to gain more experience in film as well as cultural awareness. In Mumbai she gained invaluable work experience with Bollywood studios as well as production companies in Hollywood. During her travels she met a range of nationalities keen to learn English which helped her realise that this is what she wanted to do with her career. On returning to England she completed a Masters in Contemporary Film and spent the year tutoring English language learners in London. Since then she has gained her Celta qualification and volunteered further one-to-one tuition as well as teaching for Queen Mary University, London.
hazellewis@jacarandaeducation.org
Maria Gabriela Avendaño Cruz
English Language Studies Teacher
Maria Gabriela Avendaño Cruz was born and raised in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has been an English Language Studies teacher with Jacaranda Education with the Blaise Pascale project since 2007. In 2002 she graduated from UABJO with a teaching degree in foreign languages. In 2006 she was the recipient of a Fullbright scholarship to study and work at Gardner Webb University in North Carolina. Gabriela currently teaches both secundaria and preparatoria classes. In 2009 she began to focus her teaching on Beginner level studies and has had a lot of success in developing this area of studies for the English Language Studies Department at Blaise Pascale. Gabriela is constantly looking to further her skills. In the fall of 2009 she successfully completed a diploma course with the University of La Salle which focused on Classroom Management and constructivism in teaching.
gavendano@jacarandaeducation.org
Jasper Zandstra
English Language Teacher
To come...
jzandstra@jacarandaeducation.org>
Mariana Vásquez Jiménez
English Language Studies Teacher
To come...
mvasquez@jacarandaeducation.org
Soledad Zamora
English Language Studies Teacher
To come...
szamora@jacarandaeducation.org
Personal
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Michael A. Beckwith
President and Executive Director
Michael Beckwith is the founder of Jacaranda Education. He was born and raised in London, UK. After studying for an under graduate degree in Hebrew and Arabic language at University College London and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Michael’s early career began in Washington DC as a research assistance and translator for a Middle East think tank. Disillusioned with the pessimistic reality of modern-day Middle Eastern politics and development initiatives he pursued a Master’s degree in International Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University with the aim of participating in more constructive activities. After several years coordinating adult, international and public education projects in NYC he established Jacaranda and set up an office in Oaxaca City, Mexico, where he currently resides and works. He has lived in Europe, the Middle East, The United States, and Mexico.
mbeckwith@jacarandaeducation.org
G. Liliana Castellanos
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Liliana Castellanos is a co-founder of Jacaranda Education. She was born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in Europe and Washington D.C. She began her university studies at Pratt Institute in NYC and concluded her studies at Columbia University in NYC. In her early career she worked for investment banks and law firms handling pension funds in the competitive financial industry of New York. She soon found the desire to help the underdog and have a stronger impact in changes she foresees necessary in the world. Her focus moved to theatre film and development. She received a two-year post graduate degree in theatre in NYC. After working in the film-documentary industry for several years she began aiding immigrants with their education and writing grants for an education based non- profit in NYC. Soon after she moved to Oaxaca, Mexico to help establish Jacaranda Education and is now happy to be connecting education to film making by coordinating the Adobe Youth Voices Project.
lcastellanos@jacarandaeducation.org
Chris Lockwood
Project Coordinator
Christopher Lockwood is the Coordinator of the English Studies programme at Instituto Blaise Pascal. He is from Halifax, U.K. and studied English & American Literatures at the University of Keele, U.K. and Loyola University New Orleans, U.S.A. During this time he began his explorations of Mexico, regularly visiting Cuidad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua. He went on to gain a place at Girton College, University of Cambridge to undertake an M.Phil in American Literature where he specialised in the role of the American Frontiersman in the Nineteenth-Century, and the literary and artistic movements surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Chris has served in the post of Headteacher at summer schools in Northern Spain, and is looking forward to expanding his teaching career in Oaxaca, Mexico.
chrislockwood@jacarandaeducation.org
Frank Van Schaik
iEARN Coordinator
Dutchman Frank van Schaik (40) has been living in Oaxaca with wife and three children since July 2009. He has a degree as a Dutch linguistics teacher, and has worked for 18 years in the field of economic globalisation and its social and environmental effects. He lived in Uppsala, Sweden for half a year, and traveled extensively in Europe and Latin America, visiting many local communities affected by environmental pollution and shortage. Having given many workshops for young people (16-25) in Europe and Latin America, he greatly values linking the bigger picture of globalisation and international trade with local effects on people and nature. Part of his approach has always been to inform and discuss, and to promote alternatives, usually with a clear long-term perspective for the local population and environment. Frank will bring his network, experience and knowledge of international institutions, activist movement and methods of mobilisation (video, art, etc) to teach and help the pupils of Jacaranda Education to find their own way of joining the broad international community for a better world, and encourage discussing and questioning the information before them at the same time.
frankvanschaik@jacarandaeducation.org
Hazel Lewis
Adobe and English Language Teacher
Hazel Lewis was born in London, England. Growing up in a large family with many brothers and sisters she has always had a passion for working with young people. After studying Film at A-level she developed an enthusiasm for the subject and continued studying Film with Creative Writing at Kingston University London where she was a representative for her Film class as well as the Film and Cult Television Committee. Eager to travel and see more of the world Hazel took a year out after her degree to embark on a solo world trip in order to gain more experience in film as well as cultural awareness. In Mumbai she gained invaluable work experience with Bollywood studios as well as production companies in Hollywood. During her travels she met a range of nationalities keen to learn English which helped her realise that this is what she wanted to do with her career. On returning to England she completed a Masters in Contemporary Film and spent the year tutoring English language learners in London. Since then she has gained her Celta qualification and volunteered further one-to-one tuition as well as teaching for Queen Mary University, London.
hazellewis@jacarandaeducation.org
Maria Gabriela Avendaño Cruz
English Language Studies Teacher
Maria Gabriela Avendaño Cruz was born and raised in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has been an English Language Studies teacher with Jacaranda Education with the Blaise Pascale project since 2007. In 2002 she graduated from UABJO with a teaching degree in foreign languages. In 2006 she was the recipient of a Fullbright scholarship to study and work at Gardner Webb University in North Carolina. Gabriela currently teaches both secundaria and preparatoria classes. In 2009 she began to focus her teaching on Beginner level studies and has had a lot of success in developing this area of studies for the English Language Studies Department at Blaise Pascale. Gabriela is constantly looking to further her skills. In the fall of 2009 she successfully completed a diploma course with the University of La Salle which focused on Classroom Management and constructivism in teaching.
gavendano@jacarandaeducation.org
Jasper Zandstra
English Language Teacher
To come...
Mariana Vásquez Jiménez
English Language Studies Teacher
To come...
mvasquez@jacarandaeducation.org
Soledad Zamora
English Language Studies Teacher
To come...
szamora@jacarandaeducation.org
Contact
Address : Antequera 119 Barrio Jalatlaco 68080 Oaxaca, Oaxaca. México
info@jacarandaeducation.org
55 1 951 12 12 875
Contacto
Dirección : Antequera 119 Barrio Jalatlaco 68080 Oaxaca, Oaxaca. México
info@jacarandaeducation.org
55 1 951 12 12 875
Gallery/Galería NEW YORK
About this Website.
This website is inspired by the work of the anthropologist Ruth Benedict and her work Patterns of Culture. Jacaranda Education neither works in the fields of chemistry or anthropology. Nonetheless, it sees in the formatting and idea of the Periodic Table a reflection of the traits (elements in the case of the Periodic Table) that we select and reject as groups in forming the variety of cultures that we use to define ourselves and the world around us.
Just as a scientist would mix and match the wide variety of elements of the table available to him/ her to create new inventions and wonders for our world so an educator or student might mix and match a variety of traits to create new meaning from the ever changing and increasingly globalized world around him/ her. It is for these reasons that we have chosen the Periodic Table as a symbol of the work we are pursuing and as a reflection of the variety of cultural elements that both define our fundamental commonality as well as our unique and beautiful differences.
"The diversity of culture results not only from the ease with which societies elaborate or reject possible aspects of existence. It is due even more to a complex interweaving of cultural traits. The final form of any traditional institution, as we have just said, goes far beyond the original human impulse. In great measure this final form depends upon the way in which the trait has merged with other traits from different fields of experience.
A widespread trait may be saturated with religious beliefs among one people and function as an important aspect of their religion. In another area it may be wholly a matter of economic transfer and be therefore as aspect of their monetary arrangements. The possibilities are endless and the adjustments are often bizarre. The nature of the trait will be quite different in the different areas according to the elements with which it has combined."
- Ruth Benedict Patterns of Culture.
About this Website.
This website is inspired by the work of the anthropologist Ruth Benedict and her work Patterns of Culture. Jacaranda Education neither works in the fields of chemistry or anthropology. Nonetheless, it sees in the formatting and idea of the Periodic Table a reflection of the traits (elements in the case of the Periodic Table) that we select and reject as groups in forming the variety of cultures that we use to define ourselves and the world around us.
Just as a scientist would mix and match the wide variety of elements of the table available to him/ her to create new inventions and wonders for our world so an educator or student might mix and match a variety of traits to create new meaning from the ever changing and increasingly globalized world around him/ her. It is for these reasons that we have chosen the Periodic Table as a symbol of the work we are pursuing and as a reflection of the variety of cultural elements that both define our fundamental commonality as well as our unique and beautiful differences.
The diversity of culture results not only from the ease with which societies elaborate or reject possible aspects of existence. It is due even more to a complex interweaving of cultural traits. The final form of any traditional institution, as we have just said, goes far beyond the original human impulse. In great measure this final form depends upon the way in which the trait has merged with other traits from different fields of experience.
A widespread trait may be saturated with religious beliefs among one people and function as an important aspect of their religion. In another area it may be wholly a matter of economic transfer and be therefore as aspect of their monetary arrangements. The possibilities are endless and the adjustments are often bizarre. The nature of the trait will be quite different in the different areas according to the elements with which it has combined. - Ruth Benedict “Patterns of Culture.”
Libros
Libros
