Producing and Recreating School: Models for Strengthening School Knowledge
This effort includes multiple formats that are constantly being experimented with and developed: summer courses for public school students; activities with educators related to the exhibitions produced by Casa Gallina in the Geology Museum; visits to Casa Gallina’s garden as support for curricular subjects; agriculture and cooking workshops, and courses focused on reflecting about consumption; film projections and conversations in school premises; and the distribution of didactic materials among school communities.
Casa Gallina serves as a professional ally for the educational authorities in basic and upper secondary education in the community of Santa María la Ribera and is able to provide the necessary mediation with diverse neighborhood residents, associations, and professions in order to implement new content and activities that diversify what is learned within the schools. Conversely also, Casa Gallina corresponds to the interests of the neighborhood and allows different residents and civil associations to experiment with new forms of education that, rather than contravening the institution, traverse and recreate their fixed structures and pedagogies. This is the case of the other platform which was started recently: the prototype laboratory for educational initiatives developed by heterogeneous groups of neighbors and that are designed in the framework of the public school plan for curricular autonomy, and the creation of educational infrastructure for classrooms, in which neighborhood residents and other professionals are invited to design educational materials that support activities related to respecting the Earth and all living beings. These initiatives are recognizable as vehicles that renew and energize the connection between problems in contemporary social life and basic education, and promote the creation of subjects that are empathetic with the social and natural world.
Street Garden
Dates: October to November 2023
Facilitated by: Alonso Camilo Pérez
Allies: Augusto César Sandino Primary School
Participants: 30 parents from Santa Maria la Ribera
Format: in-person
This workshop was held throughout the month of October and half of November in Augusto César Sandino Primary School. Parents gathered to improve the communal garden outside the school, where they learned theoretical/practical tools on how to plant, water, care for and the growth of certain plants.
Literary Moments – training in activation of literary collections for school libraries
Dates: March to June, 2023
Facilitated by: Martha Garay and Gabriela Almeida
Allies: Augusto César Sandino Primary School, Santo Remedio Children’s Literature.
Participants: 8 primary teachers and 211 students from Santa Maria la Ribera
Format: in-person
A workshop held between March and June in which students from all six grades of Augusto César Sandino primary school participated. The girls and boys were linked to reading while they were brought closer to nature.
Talk - Homeschooling
July 20, 2023
Coordinated by: Casa Gallina
Facilitated by: Guadalupe Noriega Velasco
Participants: 6 women from Santa María la Ribera
Neighbors discussed how to promote socialization, how to carry out the necessary procedures at the SEP (Ministry of Education), how to establish support networks, as well as how to save and manage resources surrounding homeschooling.
Literary Momento - Training in the Activation of Literary Collections for School Libraries
March 2 to June 30, 2023
Coordinated by: Casa Gallina
Facilitated by: Martha Garay
Allies: Augusto César Sandino Primary School
Participants: 150 students and 8 teachers.
This training, held in Augusto César Sandino primary school, consisted of accompanying the school’s teaching staff to help their groups establish emotional ties with literature. This process also included the handing over for safeguarding of the Earth Nook.
On-line Training for The Little Earth Nook
Date: April-May, 2023
Facilitated by: Mónica Alba
Ally: Alya Natura, environmental consultant.
Participants: 19 preschool teachers
Format: virtual
A support program was held to apply the implementation manual for the mobile fun library “The Little Earth Nook - Environmental Education for Very Young Children”. Through discussions during the sessions on theoretical and practical tools, teachers in public preschools, trainee preschool teachers and educational promoters developed proposals to carry out environmental activities in their places of work, along with the materials that comprise the library.
From the Library to the Garden
Date: Febuary - April, 2023
Coordinated by: Casa Gallina
Facilitated by: Moisés Ledesma
Allies: Pensador Mexicano Primary School
Participants: 210 students from Santa Maria la Ribera
Format: in-person
Over the course of two group sessions, students from 4th, 5th and 6th grades reviewed several gardens to learn the reciprocal relationship between species within them. The students designed imaginary gardens for their homes according to their personal interests.
Inhabitants
Date: 9 March. 2023
Coordinated by: Casa Gallina
Facilitated by: Alejandro Chávez y Andrés González
Allies: Moisés Sáenz Secondary School
Participants: 780 students from Santa María la Ribera
Format: in-person
Three performances of a play inspired by the biodiversity in Santa Maria la Ribera were performed in the auditorium of Moisés Sáenz Secondary School. All of the student community participated in this event, through body expression and music, with the aim to promote their interest in botanical observation.
Workshop on Environmental Education Methodologies in Preschool Learning
Date: February 2023
Facilitated by: Ketzali Arreola, Rodrigo Flores, Rodrigo Simancas and Mariana Malinalli
Allies: The National School for Preschool Teachers
Participants: 16 students at the National School for Preschool Teachers
Format: in-person
In the framework of its 75th Anniversary, the National School for Preschool Teachers welcomed the Casa Gallina team to share with their students strategies for community intervention and learning regarding environmental education at preschool level. This opportunity allowed the exchange of experiences and knowledge with their students, with a view to future collaboration with them.
Generational Exchange
Date: November to December 2022
Coordinated by: Casa Gallina, Ari Monroy
Taught by: Yolanda Melgarejo, Teresa Mendoza, Martha Garay, Rosalía Terán and Moisés Ledesma
Allies: Public Primary School República de Cuba
Participants: 17 girls and boys, students from Santa María la Ribera
Format: in-person
Third grade of primary students participated in three workshops implemented by neighbors in the Casa facilities, one on traditional festivities and two on urban agriculture techniques. Furthermore, they attended a session on literary creation and the environment, led by literacy promoter Martha Garay, in which they integrated conclusions from this process.
Training Program on Environmental Education for Preschool Teachers: The Earth Nook
Date: October 2022
Facilitated by: Mónica Alba
Allies: Alya Natura
Participants: 16 Preschool Teachers
Format: in-person
Training was held in environmental education for preschool students, in which Mónica Alba, who designed the program and contents of the mobile ludic library that goes with it, worked over 3 intensive sessions with preschool teachers in public preschools and informal educators in Santa María la Ribera, with the aim to implement the program with their students in early 2023.
Education, Play and Creativity
Date: July 11, 2022
Led by: Rodrigo Flores López
Participants: 11 teachers from Elena Zapata preschool.
Format: in-person
This workshop on educational methodology inspired by Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences was given by Rodrigo Flores. At the end, the teachers developed a proposal of a didactic activity that drew on said theory. This activity was held in the framework of The Earth Nook, an educational program aimed at children, coordinated by Casa Gallina in cooperation with numerous specialists, teachers and families.
Workshop: Dance In My Environment
Date: June 2022
Led by: Erándeni Itsaí Gallardo Vázquez
Participants: 13 girls and boys from Santa María la Ribera
Format: in-person
A workshop focussed on early childhood to help them recognize their body as a medium to empathize with the sensorial stimuli in their community, as well as to liberate their corporal impulses and link them to the spaces they inhabit daily.
SIlvestre sonora (Feral Sounds)
Date: June 2022
Artistic intervention by Circe Irasema in middle school No. 4, Moisés Sáenz
Ally: Middle School No. 4, Moisés Sáenz
Participants: 894 members of the school community (teachers, students and administrative staff)
Format: in-person
The installation of the piece Feral Sounds was completed. It was developed by artist Circe Irasema in conjunction with a group of students from public middle school No. 4, Moisés Sáenz. The piece will remain permanently installed in one of the school's interior gardens, to be used and enjoyed by the entire school community. The piece is about the fauna that lives in the Valley of Mexico and their onomatopoeic sounds; it aims to encourage the youngsters to listen to the sounds made by local fauna in the building’s gardens.
Workshop: Literary Shoots
Date: May–June 2022
Led by: Martha Garay, Sandra Jiménez and Gabriela Munguía
Participants: 31 students from middle school No,. 4 Moisés Sáenz
Ally: Middle School No. 4, Moisés Sáenz z and Santo Remedio. Children Literature
Format: in-person
A workshop consisting of six sessions where participants worked on possible linkages between children's literature and direct contact with nature. To do so they resorted to a collection of specialized literature and worked directly with plants and the sculpture Feral Sounds by Circe Irasema which had already been installed in the school gardens.
La Santamasimbiosis at El pensador mexicano Primary School
Date: May 2022
Led by: Ushuaia Camarena
Participants: 400 students at El pensador mexicano
Ally: El pensador mexicano Primary School
Format: in-person
The animated short film La Santamasimbiosis –created by girls and boys from Santa María la Ribera– was presented to El pensador mexicano’s community over several days, coordinated by Ushuaia Camarena, a teacher who used games, dancing and conversational dynamics to reinforce the short’s message, focused on regreening the city.
Tracking Biodiversity in the School Yard
Date: April–June 2022
Led by: Jessarela Miranda and Moisés Ledesma
Participants: 32 students from middle school No. 4, Moisés Sáenz
Ally: Middle School No. 4, Moisés Sáenz
Format: in-person
This workshop was developed over 8 weeks and motivated students to observe, identify and register the biodiversity they cohabit with at school.
At the end, the process was shared with the entire community, and will culminate in the installation of a permanent board within the school which will gather observations by all the students.
Nature is Knowledge, I Build Myself With It
Date: March–July 2022
Led by: Sofía Echeverri and Gabriela Almeida
Participants: 15 female students from Ana María Berlanga Middle School
Ally: Ana María Berlanga Middle School
Format: in-person
A process of dialogue between students and artist Sofía Echeverri where, through knowledge of the flora and fauna that inhabit the Valley of Mexico, each student created a character named according to its attributes. Following this exchange process, the students shared the work they had done with the rest of the school community in a display where they socialized their creative development and the characters’ traits.
This process is the first phase to create a piece that will be mounted permanently in the school’s grounds.
Workshop Masks and Barter
Date: February–March 2022
Coordinated by: Rodrigo Flores Lopez
Participants: 20 inhabitants of Santa María la Ribera
Format: in-person
For this workshop led by Rodrigo Flores, each participant worked on producing a mask and assigning its value, in such a way that whoever wished to acquire it could do so through barter. An exhibition was held at the end, when these masks were available to neighbors attending, in exchange for jokes, grimaces or objects that a child could offer for the mask of their choice.
Earth Nook in República de Cuba primary school
Date: January–July 2022
Coordinated by: Casa Gallina and Ari Monroy
Participants: 28 girls and boys who live in Santa María la Ribera
Ally: República de Cuba School
Format: in-person
Teacher Ariadna Monroy, who gives 3rd grade in the República de Cuba primary school, has hosted the Earth Nook in her classroom since January 2022. In other months she has incorporated contents from this fun moving library to reinforce her lessons, particularly in reading comprehension and mathematical skills. Furthermore, she has hosted and led activities programmed by Casa Gallina, such as workshops, presentations of animations and guided tours of the Casa.
Earth Nook
Date: June-August 2021
Coordinator: Moisés Ledezma
Participants: 34 neighbors
Format: in-person
Activities began in Earth Nook, a space dedicated to girls and boys, coordinated by the teacher Moisés Ledezma, which offers a wide array of didactic tools related to environmental topics, ranging from childrens’ books and didactic material to manuals for the implementation of learning dynamics. Currently, Earth Nook invites neighborhood girls and boys to turn their school assignments into a game and discover fantastic books. Furthermore, we are now working with teachers in neighborhood public schools, for them to incorporate the numerous resources at Earth Nook into their work in the coming months.
School visits to the Geology Museum: Maize, Biodiversity and Culture. An Approach Based on Everyday Consumption
Educational program: Cecilia Pompa and the mediators team of the Geology Museum
Dates: March – August, 2019
This exhibition presents a series of objects and information that enable reflection about the past and present socio-cultural processes and aspects of the current system of maize production. The school visits seek to use the exhibition to articulate a reflexive body that makes the issue resonate with students, their concerns and their everyday relation with maize through consumption.
The school visits to this exhibition allow new generations to delve into the complexity and cultural and gastronomical wealth of maize, as well as to recognize the importance of caring for this common good in society in general. At the same time, in collaboration with science teachers, the visits aim to help students understand the importance of ecosystemic equilibrium in human productive activities in relation to its scientific and humanistic aspects.
Agriculture Workshop for Teens
Dates: February – March, 2019
Facilitator: Lourdes Cruz Terán
Partner: Centro Cultural y de Capacitación Integral
Participants: 15 students from the CCCI
This workshop was conceived as a substitute for the subject of biology for students in the last year of a neighborhood school: Centro Cultural y de Capacitación Integral, and it was taught by neighbor Lourdes Cruz Terán, who is a biologist, and horticulturalist.
This activity enabled students and teachers to validate their concrete observations about the processes of the formation of life in a project that involved planting and caring for a garden in the winter. For this purpose, during one quarter, the school allocated the time that would have been used for this subject, for attending this activity. The workshop allowed school authorities to establish a curricular relation between education on the subject and observations in a concrete space.
School Gardens and Urban Agriculture Club
Dates: February – July, 2019
Facilitator: Dante Aguilar
Partner: Secondary School No. 46 José Vasconcelos
Participants: 30 students
A working relation has been started with the José Vasconcelos secondary school with the urban agriculture and school gardens club, taught by Dante Aguilar. The group of participants from the school has reactivated the practice of urban agriculture aroun a previously installed garden infrastructure.
This workshop works within the framework of club activities of the Secondary School and has allowed for the strengthening and maintaining of a garden that was on pause inside the school. The school lacked an educator and adequate work plans for the space and this has allowed educators specializing in agriculture to connect with students and take advantage of the infrastructure they have access to. The work program is carried out throughout the school year.
Garden Explorers, Open Visit to Casa Gallina’s Garden
Collaborators: Valeria Ramírez and Dora Olivia Reyes
The Science professor, Dora Olivia Reyes, is responsible for the garden club in the Centro Cultural de la Ciudad de México Secondary School. As a complement to the garden activities, she periodically visits Casa Gallina’s garden with her students to exchange advice, techniques, and methods with the horticulturalist Valeria Ramírez, responsible for the maintenance and open agriculture consultations at Casa Gallina.
Opening up Casa Gallina’s garden as an open space where school activities take place enables the house to be constantly linked to the different schools in the locality. Direct work in a larger scale garden also allows the student to come into contact with processes of sowing, cultivating, and harvesting that are different from those developed in a school garden.
Making Preserves and Food Sustainability Workshop for Girls and Boys
Dates: January–March 2020
Coordinated by: Ariadna Monroy, Ixchel Aguilar and Juan Carlos Hidalgo
Participants: 23 neighbors
January–March 2020
Fourth grade students from the República de Cuba Elementary School—who had previously participated in the Nutrition with Mexican Ingredients Workshop—continued their experience at Casa Gallina by learning how to prepare different types of preserves, which served to exemplify knowledge on the states of aggregation of matter, which they study in science classes. They also participated in educational activities that addressed the notion of “environmental footprint” in relation to the production, distribution and storage of the food around them, as well as raising awareness of the environmental, social and health consequences associated with food waste and the processed food industry.
The workshop was planned and implemented by Ariadna Monroy, the group’s teacher, working in conjunction with local chefs Ixchel Aguilar and Juan Carlos Hidalgo. The children produced sauces, milk caramel, snow cones and pickles to share with other students, teachers and family members at their school.
The Universe of the Urban Vegetable Garden
Dates: February–March 2020
Coordinated by: Dante Aguilar
Participants: 13 neighbors
A workshop facilitated by the horticulturist Dante Aguilar to the fifth-grade group from the Nueva Generación Institute, located in the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood, in which the students associated knowledge of biology and mathematics with the behavior of the elements that make up an community vegetable garden; they also learned the principles of permaculture in a practical way. On a second stage, this workshop aims to engage parents, teachers and other students in the creation of a school garden at the Institute.
This is the first workshop Casa Gallina implements with a private school in Santa María la Ribera, held under the agreement that, in exchange for it, the school will donate books for children that feature environmental education themes (previously selected by Casa Gallina). Said donation will contribute to the Earth Nook editorial collection, a mobile game library that will begin implementation the next school year, in a public school network within the neighborhood.
