“We are all learners and we are all teachers”: Day 1 at Asturias

After months of planning and anticipation, we finally arrived at Asturias! This was day one of five that will involve setting up a solid foundation for the future of their school library. The library will be up and running in January 2011 for the next school year.  Steve gave us a tour and history of the school.

Asturias is a pretty special school: their education system is based on Paulo Freire‘s education theory where “systems of injustice are confronted and transformed on the basis of all as teachers and learners”. The Academy has small class sizes, huge basketball court, and soon-to-be library and technical skills classrooms. It is also the least expensive private school in Xela, allowing access for children with limited options for education. The children could attend a public school with 30-40 students in a class for the same tuition. Many of the students are able to attend the school through sponsorship. Contact Asturias if you are interested in helping out with this.

The third floor of the building is now being constructed and it will house the library as well as technical classrooms where vocational courses will be taught. All the electrical wiring is being done by a graduate of the school.

Today we started planning short and long term tasks that LWB can accomplish. We divided into smaller groups to work on different planning aspects for the library:

• Library mission and objectives, training & programming
• Planning the library space
• Collection development policy and cataloguing practices

We have lots of  opportunities to interact with the kids. Tomorrow we will play basketball and soccer and get a chance to meet with the Reading Club.

We’re looking forward to going back tomorrow!

–Valli, Carolyn, Amanda & Ryan