Blog

By Esli Meija and Molly Lou Freeman
Benefiting from our rich tropical desert / oasis environment as our ecology classroom, Sierra School student-gardener -ecologists enjoyed an extraordinary visit to Liam McDermott's permaculture garden in Pescadero, BCS on 8th April 2016. We went to learn more about permaculture and complement our visit to Virginia Moonstone Mazetti's permaculture garden last autumn. Liam happily showed us lots of plants and techniques, discussing how he started his garden on a empty and dry desert lot 8 years ago; now it's filled with plants. Liam is passionate about permaculture as a means of sustainable living in harmony with our environment and taking care of our planet. Liam's garden includes composting, mulching, air and dirt layering, grafting, edible hedges, a cob bench, cultivation of perennial and annual plants, and more. A trained permaculture teacher - specialist, Liam's particular interest is in perennial polyculture food and medicine gardens. He seeks to create essential oils from his plants and trees. He is an activist for the earth!

Liam grows palms, roses, cashew, cocoa, kava, neem, baobab, hibiscus, guava, pomegranate, cinnamon, bananas, and surinam cherries, to name of few of the over one hundred species that thrive in his garden.

Liam discussed his particular interest in studying soil and creating natural root networks between his plants in order to sustain damp areas that naturally retain water between plants and enable them to grow.

After out visit, the teachers, students and Liam's family sat down for a refreshing "agua de jamaica" in the garden. Later, it was a pleasure, to look over the garden from the roof terrace of Liam's family's house. Liam gave me, Esli, a Kava plant, with instructions on how to take care of it; and I have already planted it and and am tending to it. We had a great time on our visit! Students and teachers celebrated a fabulous, highly interesting and educational morning, with a group photograph on the upper terrace with Liam's mother, Margarita and life-partner, Béatrice. Thank you, Liam! 

In English-Literature-Creative Writing class, we continue our study of the essay as a form of argument. We listened to, carefully read aloud, examined and discussed the famous, "I Have A Dream Speech" by Martin Luther King, Jr. This speech is a powerful, unforgettable and well-organized essay, full of metaphors and vivid images. King communicates a strong message to humanity that all people are equal. Students each wrote their own "I Have A Dream" essay as a message to humanity.

Gustavo Heras Aguilar, 6th grade with the help of Zephyr Flores, parent-volunteer
I have a dream that there will be work for everyone. I dream that all people will have opportunities to find work. I dream that for all jobs there would be training courses open to all who want to work. I dream that salaries would be higher in proportion to the cost of living. All jobs where people work long hours would have adequate break times. Work would be make as comfortable and healthy as possible. Work should be adequately paid and satisfying. 

Sofia Victoria Cota-Perez with the help of Molly Lou Freeman, English-Writing teacher
I have an amazing and important dream. I dream that all children will have an education. I dream that all children can live their right to an education. Education means going to school, learning to read and to write, learning to communicate, learning about our country, learning about history, sport, art and mathematics. Education also means making friends at school. I enjoy learning another language. I understand more and more English. I am learning to read and write in English. I wrote my first essay in English.  Education, for me, means learning English. English can help me communicate and make friends with more people. English can also help me when I travel. Education can help open doors and help prepare for more education and opportunities in life. 

I also believe and think everyone needs a home, shelter and food. I think this is important because people need to be healthy and to feel safe. This is a basic human right. It is important to have a place to eat, to sleep, to take a bath and to rest and relax.

Aliya Acacia Flores, 6th grade
I have a dream that everyone will explore their environment and do outdoor activities. In this way, everyone will be connected to what really matters: our environment. I dream that everyone will smell the flowers and climb the rocky, magical mountains. Being in nature and doing outdoor activities truly helps us notice the importance and the beauty of the wild outdoors. I dream of people walking on sandy beaches, watching colorful sunsets, hiking the magical Sierra de la Laguna, cooking organic food, planting helpful plants, keeping green gardens, swimming in the crystalline ocean, camping in beautiful landscapes, and making bouquets of flowers. My dream is that each and every person will cherish and protect the world of wonderful nature around us. For nature is truly what keeps us alive!

Diego Milan Aguilar, 6th grade
I have a dream that no one will be judged by their religion or their beliefs. It doesn't matter if people are Jewish, Christian or other religions. We are all equal. We are all humans and we are all brothers. I have a dream that people who believe in God will not be criticized by people who are of a different religion. I have a dream! I have a dream that people will not be judged by their cultural origin or their ethnicity. We are all the same human beings. Just because someone is German does not mean he or she is a Nazi. Just because some is Arab doesn't mean he or she is a terrorist. I have a dream that people from places all around the world will not be called robbers, racists or Nazis or any other name just because of the color of their skin. I have  a dream that children of different nations and cultures will all be friends.

qAs part of our recent study of the essay form in English-Creative Writing, students have enjoyed writing personal essays. 

My Favorite Food is Pizza
by Diego Milan Aguilar, 6th grade
My theme is pizza, my favorite food. Pizza comes from Napoli, a port city in the south of Italy, the country in the form of a boot. Thank you to the people of Napoli! 
Pizza has a lot of flavors. I personally like the flavor of the melted cheese, the salami and the sweet flavor of the mushrooms. This is what makes pizza uniquely delicious to me. 
The types of pizza that I love are: Mexican, Italian and Hawaiian pizza. I like Mexican pizza because it has frijoles and chiles. Once, a Mexican pizza I ate had too much chile and I got a bad burn in my mouth. It was so spicey! I enjoy Italian pizza because good melted cheese and juicey and sweet mushrooms. Last but not least, I love Hawaiian pizza. I have to admit that I love Hawaiian pizza because it has juicy, sweet, yellow pineapple. 
A pizza that I often eat is a tortilla with melted cheese on top and ham instead of salami. I call it Diego's pizza. I love to make it on my birthday or when my family is together.
A place where I like to eat pizza is in La Paz, a city about 80 kilometers from Todos Santos. The places in La Paz where I eat pizza are Hot-n-Ready, Peter Piper's and Little Ceasar's. These three places are the best. Once, in La Paz, I ate a big, "family" size pizza, a large one, all by myself. Well, I was so full that I couldn't even move. Ha ha! I don't feel embarrassed about that. I actually feel proud of myself!

Sushi
by Aliya Flores, 6th grade
My theme is sushi. I like this healthy, nourishing, delicious, snack food because it has nutrients and vitamins from vegetables. Some of my mom's sushi ingredients include: juicy cucumbers, crunchy carrots, sticky rice, creamy cream cheese and nori seaweed paper. Eating this great snack-food makes me feel connected to the ocean environment. There is a lot of seaweed out there. So why not eat it?
Though I love many types of sushi, my mom's sushi is one of my favorite kinds because it is simple and quick to make. Also Walmart's sushi is delicious because it has fresh crab and salmon in it. 
These are the simple steps to make my mom's sushi. First, cook the rice. Secondly, spread the rice over the nori paper. Thirdly, pat cream cheese, raw carrots, cucumbers, and avocado over the rice that is already spread over the nori paper. The, roll the sushi up slowly and use some water to stick the rolled seaweed together so that the ingredients inside don't fall out.  Some soy sauce or wasabi are good for dipping. Sushi is easy, simple, fun and yummy.
The truth is that I don't usually eat sushi; but when my mom has rice and the other ingredients, she makes it. I love it! I usually eat sushi on a picnic, at my house, at school for a snack or in La Paz. I remember eating sushi at the beach in La Paz with my mother and father and sister. It was good sushi with crab and fish and seaweed. We were eating and enjoying life. We were on the ocean, eating from the ocean. How more delicious and appropriate is that? 

Lasagne
by Sofia-Victoria Cota-Perez, 6th Grade
My theme is lasagne. I really like lasagne because I like to eat it with my family, especially with my mom and Pierre, my step-father. Pierra has a friend that makes great lasagne. I would love to learn how to make lasagne and know the ingredients. What I like most about lasagne is that the pasta can be homemade. 

As we study biomes in ecology, teachers and students contributed to a shared article. 

I think of a biome as a place full of life and natural resources, full of plants and animals. My favorite biome may be the mangrove, because they are one of the most important ecosystems on earth. Mangroves purify air pollution. Mangroves desalinate water and give shelter to many endemic species such as birds, iguanas, crocodiles, snakes, turtles, and many others. A mangrove--or manglar in Spanish-- is a special biome to me because I was raised in the state of Colima, Mexico, where there are mangroves. I used to spend spring and summers in a land and seascape near rivers and mangroves. Ah, the mystery of the tropical jungle of Mexico!  Victor Manuel Gonzalez Chavez

Mi biome favorito es “mil cascadas” en Guerrero. A mi me gusta ya que es como un parque acuático, pero natural. Ahí saltábamos y jugábamos  desde lo más alto de las cascadas, y nos aventábamos desde cascadas de mas de 12 metros de altura y caímos en un rió. También bajamos una cascada de 36 metros con un instructor. Al pasar por las cascadas te encontrabas con árboles de ciruela y de durazno. Es un centro natural donde viven tucanes, muchos peces chiquitos y una cantidad de pájaros increíble.
Ana Sofía Gallardo Herreros

My favorite biome is the deep sea because it’s a mysterious, grim, dark and creepy place. Little is known about the depths of the ocean. People know more about the moon than the deep sea. I find these facts rather intriguing and interesting. The animals that live at  around 13,000 feet below sea level are pure fuel for nightmares, like sea ghouls that come from an unknown hell. An example of this is the Goblin shark, a creature that can grow to be 3 meters long. It looks like a zombie shark with its black and gray skin, but its most interesting feature is its jaws. The Goblin Shark can expand its jaws to capture  his prey. His long and skinny teeth are ready to snap and chop. There’s also the giant squid, a creature featured in scary tales for children about the dangers of the sea. Esli Mejia Ramos

A favorite landscape in the whole wide world is the northern forest, the taiga  of Alaska of my childhood for its tall trees, great mountains, dark shadows, its crows and sparrows and blueberries. I remember a trail through this forest, not far from my childhood cabin, how I ran through the green shade to an alder spring, and it was strange and magical and beautiful. The wet rotting smell of spruce needles and moss . There were twinflowers, ferns, devil's club and dewberry. I learned the names of all that grows there. It became, for me, a life standard of wilderness, beauty, and the definition of ecology. There northern forest is bright in summer hours. Black bear, porcupine, raven, rabbits, moose, coyotes and wolverine wander there. My sisters and I made forts in those woods. We built fairy houses with broken spruce twigs and called these palapas. From our little girls bakery, we heard the hermit thrush and the fox sparrow. Molly Lou Freeman

My favorite biome is where there are many mountains, rivers and trees. This place is Mazama, Washington. I have done many things there and it's where I am from. Mazama is located in north, central Washington, over the Cascade Mountains, about 3 to 6 hours north of Seattle. Mazama is a very small community, but 13 miles west is a bigger town. In Mazama you can do a reasonable amount of things, like: ski, snowmobile, sled, downhill ski, snowboard, heliski, and cross-country ski. In summer, you can hike, ride, fish and swim. Sixty miles to the west is a place called Chlean and there are waterslides. Sebastian Kar

My favorite biome is the ocean. There is a lot living and growing there because it is the largest biome. When I am in the ocean, I mostly feel safe, but sometimes I feel scared when I think about dangerous animals. I have learned if we don't harm animals, the​y won't harm us; and if we harm them, they will too. The animals I am the most scared of are jelly fish, sharks, and octopi. Fishes and turtles are the most friendly sea animals to me. Coral reefs are a biome within the ocean biome. Some animals stay near the surface of the water, some live closer to the shore, and some live in very deep places where it is hard for people to get to. There are probably some animals from the deep that humans have rarely or never seen. The ocean biome is mysterious. The ocean biome is a very important biome and it should be protected.  Aliya Flores

At The Sierra School, we write in our journals at least 4 times per week. We work on being reflective writers. We often write about open-ended questions like the definition of friendship or important things we have learned from our families.

Sebastian Kar, 7th Grader
My parents have always taught me to have friends. My parents have also told me to go out and explore and find new things, but also respect  to certain boundaries. My parents have also told me and still tell me that education is so very important. My parents have told me so many things, like it's excellent if I work as hard as I can at anything and everything. They also say that if I have questions, ask them; don't be afraid to do so. Most importantly, they have taught me to take care of other people and myself. When I was in fourth grade, we traveled to El Salvador and we brought 100 soccer balls and gave them to the kids and schools who wanted and needed them. My parents have taught me to respect myself, to be grateful and to appreciate other people. 

by Victor Manuel Gonzalez Chavez, special student
Mi experiencia en la Escuela Sierra de Todos Santos ha sido muy diferente a otras experiencias educativas a las que he asistido. Actualmente está ubicada en el barrio San Ignacio cerca de la estación de bomberos en el ‘‘otro lado del pueblo’’. La primera impresión que tuve cuando comencé mi primer día de clases, fue la  increíble e inspiradora  vista del pueblo, al igual que las hermosas plantas orgánicas que mis compañeros crecieron en el jardín de la escuela. Después de una semana de estar en mi nueva escuela, me di cuenta que mis clases también eran muy diferentes a comparación de mis otras escuelas, los maestros por tener menos estudiantes, nos pueden atender de forma personalizada  y a nuestro ritmo, las clases tienen muchas expectativas para inculcarnos la responsabilidad, el estudio afuera de la escuela, pero eso sí,  nunca en mi vida tuve tanta tarea, la mayoría de las clases están impartidas en inglés, esto ha hecho que sea más dedicado en  mis estudios. Mis clases son Literatura en Inglés, Literatura en Español, Matemáticas, Historia, Artes Escénicas, Fútbol, Jardinería, y Ecología. Mi clase favorita es ecología, una de las cosas que más me gusta sobre mi escuela; es que nos hacen desarrollar nuestro propio punto de vista sobre el mundo en el que vivimos, los impactos del ser humano, y cómo podemos tomar alternativas que beneficien al medio ambiente al igual que a nuestras propias vidas. Ha sido difícil pero no imposible acostumbrarse al estudio en esta rigurosa escuela, ahora puedo entender que la educación es algo a lo que realmente le tenemos que invertir, en mi opinión una de lo más interesante para destacar, este tipo  de multiculturalidad en la comunidad escolar es casi único en el pueblo, nuestra visión de los próximos años debería ser totalmente inclusiva, para  todas las nuevas personas que han adoptado a Todos Santos como su hogar, sin importar su origen o nacionalidad, porque todos tenemos el derecho de desarrollarnos en sociedad, pero también adquirimos un compromiso de colaborar mano a mano como una verdadera comunidad. Me siento muy agradecido por tener la  oportunidad de estudiar en la Sierra School con el apoyo del programa de becas para estudiantes locales, también me siento contento por los conocimientos que  estoy adquiriendo,   útiles para apoyar a la gente de Todos Santos,  como el reciclaje, la composta, la naturaleza regional, entre otros temas interesantes. Me gustaría felicitar a Molly Lou Freeman por su incomparable trabajo y entusiasmo en la creación de esta nueva institución. ¡Muchas Gracias Escuela Sierra de Todos Santos!  

​My experience in the Sierra School of Todos Santos has been totally unique and very different from previous schools I have attended. A first impression from my first day of school was the incredible and inspiring view of the town, ocean and Sierra from the San Ignacio hilltop where the school is located. I also admired the beautiful organic garden that my classmates so carefully planted. After a week of being in my new school, I realized that my classes were also very different from my previous schools. With such a small student-teacher ratio, our teachers can really help, support and guide us. They offer individualized instruction, based upon each student’s need and pace. Our teachers teach us responsibility and a desire to learn. Most of my classes are taught in English. This has made me much more dedicated to my studies. My classes are English Literature, Creative Writing, Spanish Literature, Mathematics, History, Performing Arts, Football, Gardening, and Ecology. I have an individual math class with my other schoolmates take yoga. I have a schedule that reflects my learning needs. My favorite class is ecology/ biology. This class reflects one of the things I the most like about my school. Our teachers and learning makes us develop our own view of the world where we live, the impact of human beings on our planet, and how we can make educated choices to benefit our own lives and our environment. It has been a great challenge to get used to studying in this rigorous school. Now I understand that my education is something I really need to invest in. One of the  most interesting things to mention about the Sierra School is that it promotes multiculturalism in our community, an unique vision in our town. I hope that many people will come to our school, regardless of their origin or nationality. The Sierra School teaches us that we all have the right to develop ourselves in society, but we also must commit to work hard to better the world. I feel grateful to have the opportunity to study at the Sierra School with the support of the scholarship program for local students. I also feel excited about the knowledge I'm gaining. I appreciate learning about the values, skills and habits of recycling, composting, healthy eating habits, and interaction with our local landscape, among other interesting topics we learn. I would like to congratulate Molly Lou Freeman for her incomparable work and enthusiasm in the creation of this new institution. Thank you so much Escuela Sierra de Todos Santos School! 

by Molly Lou Freeman, Lead Teacher
Sierra School teachers and parents benefited from a dynamic, relevant, and informative workshop on teen physical, psychological, and emotional development with parent and psychologist, Cristina Franco of La Paz and Todos Santos. A skilled, brilliant, experienced psychologist, Cristina prepared a detailed and captivating presentation on the key themes of teen development and the role, responsibility and value of conscientious and involved parenting.  Cristina actively involved our parent - teacher participants, fielded questions and also highlighted her desire to promote local well-being, communication and theme-based workshops for mothers, parents and youth. Thank you, Cristina, for an amazing and inspired conversation! We look forward to working with Cristina to promote future school workshops for teens and parents.

by Molly Lou Freeman with photos by Fabrice Serrière, Lead Teachers
Sierra School students, teachers, parents and friends celebrated a successful mid-term, with a ritual hike, this time to the waterfall in Elias Calles. Roger Herrera Tapia, local ecologist, surfer, rock-climbing and outdoor leadership instructor,  led the hike and climb. Our focus was safety, cooperation and enjoyment.

Gustavo, Sebastian, Diego & Roman arrive at the waterfall with enthusiasm and curiosity.

Roger is excited and equipped! We began with intro instructions and ground rules! After ascending the first water, students participate in a blind-fold "trust" game, following Roger's drumbeat up the arroyo. Later, we enjoy incredible views, a stunning landscape and peaceful moments beside the second waterfall.

Roger sets us up for a safe ascent of the second waterfall.

Another bright and beautiful day in the wilds of Baja.

After walking for over an hour, the group shared a picnic in tranquil, arroyo shade. Thank you Roger, Tonali, Roman, Christian, Sara, Lourdes, Nelson, Zephyr and Tracy for joining us for a thrilling, relaxing adventure!