EDUCAR meetings
The initiative for the EDUCAR meetings arose in Panama City after a meeting of Augustinian Recollects from the Vicariate of Mexico and Costa Rica with whom they worked at the Colegio San Agustín de Panamá. The objective was the exchange of experiences, and also to form a network of OAR schools. The word that summons us and continues to bring us together is EDUCATE. It has a significant burden for all of us who have experienced these encounters.
E SPERANZA In our educational centers we have to offer hope, light, creativity. Thus began the reflection of the College on Pastoral. We left the Pastoral of the College, and we are integrating the message of Christ, from our Augustinian Recollect charism in all areas of the College. It is an arduous, difficult task. We detect that we must prevent each religious who arrives at the Pastoral department from offering his plan, and sharing it as the only and best thing, without respecting what had previously been done. In the first meeting we propose to carry out a plan that has some common elements, and that integrates all members of the community. A plan that moves the College into Pastoral.
D ISCERNMENT In these meetings we have carried out this exercise to give priority to what the needs of the Agustino Recollect Schools really are. Pastoral, training and selection of teachers. Have an Augustinian spiritual retreat, create a management and quality program for an Augustinian Recollect educational center; All of this has been the fruit of a discernment carried out with people who are involved in the College. In April 2015, we celebrated the second meeting, leaving aside the theoretical process, and putting God and the heart at our side. Building ideas more from experience than from theory. We live in the Casa de la Recolección some Augustinian values, and a family experience interested in Augustinian Recollect education.
U NION The Augustinian pedagogy unifies the training for our teachers. In these meetings of OAR Schools the concern arises to give an online diploma on Augustinian pedagogy. The program is already done, it needs follow-up to make it concrete, and give it a form. At times we have been overwhelmed by how much we can do together, but the multitude of occupations soak up the time we have to give to this community work. We have managed to get many teachers in our educational centers to participate in a competence development diploma. An achievement that we have to continue adding to many others that will come later.
C OMMUNITY Our work is done on behalf of the community. These initiatives have persevered, thanks to the community. Networking at the College enriches us. We are not alone, the same concerns are experienced in other schools of the Order. Religious and lay people working side by side, despite distances and times, has been overcome thanks to technology, which is an ally and companion on the road. We are a community that believes in the formation of young people with their own identity: Augustinian Recollects. And to measure this identity there is a group of people who have been meeting and exchanging data to offer a management and quality program in an Augustinian Recollect center. Achieving this OAR quality seal will only be complying with certain levels of identity, training and selection of teachers, and having a pastoral plan appropriate to the educational center.
A LEGRÍA The number of students, the comings and goings of the staff, the beginning and end of the course are moments that are experienced in the School with tension. Let's not lose our joy. It is the characteristic of the religious, and this is what we have to spread in our schools. The Gospel comes to life from personal experience. Our young people today come to the classroom with situations of loneliness, misunderstanding, and lack of affection. The educational community has to respond creatively to these challenges of today's youth. Knowing how to accompany, and listen to those we accompany, an essential task that over time will be more recognized than other matters that we believe are very important in the classroom.
A RECOGNITION The Order recently celebrated the year of education. There are many religious and lay people who have worked in our schools. And this year is the time to recognize their work. Do it from the grateful memory. The religious who without knowing much, and with much passion, put themselves on the frontier of teaching with love for the students. In these meetings they are present, knowing that their love for the school is summed up in teaching by loving.
We invite them, and each one of those who remain passionate about education, to continue being close to the children and young people of our schools. That is why we meet at EDUCAR to share the dreams and illusions that we are making every day at school, from the classroom or from the listening room.
I EDUCAR meeting
Con el objetivo de compartir experiencias y profundizar en la reflexión que se venía dando en las instituciones educativas, se programó el I Encuentro Interprovincial de Educación, denominado I EDUCAR; con la participación de 11 Directivos y Docentes de las instituciones educativas de Guatemala, Panamá, República Dominicana, México y Costa Rica.
Después de conocer la riqueza y contexto en que se desarrolla cada una de las instituciones, se realizó un FODA del apostolado de educación de la OAR, concluyendo con la identificación de varios desafíos para las instituciones educativas Agustino Recoletas.
El I EDUCAR se realizó en octubre del 2014 en el Colegio Fray Luis de León y con ocasión de la visita del Prior General al Noviciado san Pío X, se abrió un espacio en el programa para recibir a fray Miguel Miró y su Secretario General, quienes manifestaron su complacencia por la iniciativa de reflexión conjunta y motivaron a los participantes a la atención del PEI en sus instituciones.
Data I EDUCATE
October 2014
Meeting of Directors of Educational Centers
Participation of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica and
Dominican Republic
Place: Fray Luis de León School, Querétaro, Mexico
RESULT: DEFINITION OF PRIORITY AXES OF ACTION
1. AUGUSTINIAN RECOLETA AND PASTORAL IDENTITY
Establish a common plan of pastoral and Augustinian spirituality for our educational institutions, which becomes a cross-cutting axis in all the activities of the Centers, led by a team of laity together with the advisor friar.
2. FORMATION AND TRAINING IN AUGUSTINIAN SPIRITUALITY AND PEDAGOGY
Establish a training plan focused on human and Augustinian values for the staff of the Educational Centers, so that said plan guarantees the emergence, strengthening and continuity of the Augustinian identity, and the determined orientation towards the search, concretion and implementation of Augustinian pedagogy and spirituality.
3. QUALITY OF AGUSTINO RECOLETA EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Determine the concept of quality of management linked to the Augustinian pedagogy, so that the centers can know what they should aspire to, maintain periodic evaluations and attend to their areas of improvement.
II EDUCAR meeting
On the occasion of the YEAR OF EDUCATION (2015), the work team on Training of school personnel, organized the Augustinian Recollect Spirituality Day for directors and teachers from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Twenty-one people participated in the event, among whom were Fray Javier Acero and Fray Jesús María Ramos, Directors of the Fray Luis de León School in Mexico and the San Agustín Technical School of the Ciudad de los Niños in Costa Rica, respectively, and Fray Ismael Xuruc as coordinator of the Pastoral at the Colegio San Agustín in Panama.
An experience, directed by Fray Carlos González and Fray René Lozano was valued as excellent by the participants, who highlighted the contribution they received to strengthen both their personal spirituality and the learning about Augustinian pedagogy, the foundation of the management and experience of the communities. educational.
The Pastoral team took advantage of the opportunity of the Conference to present the progress of the diagnosis carried out for the definition of the Pastoral Plan and the quality and management team presented a base of the quality criteria for the management of the Augustinian Recollect Charism, which they will serve as a guide for the institutional self-evaluation processes. The teams renewed their commitment to work around the lines of action defined in the I EDUCAR
Data II EDUCATE
October 2015
Augustinian Recollect Spirituality Workshop for OAR school leaders
Participation of Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama
Spirituality Center, Cuernavaca, Mexico
Objective:
"Live the experience of personal encounter with Jesus Christ from the Augustinian Recollect charism to be able to share it pedagogically and procedurally in each College"
RESULTS:
Formation and experience of the pillars and values of the Augustinian Recollect charism
Interior experiences in the style of San Agustín
III EDUCAR meeting
The III EDUCAR was visualized as a meeting focused on strengthening the Augustinian Recollect charism and the collaborative culture. Schools from Argentina and Guatemala joined this meeting. Two themes occupied the attention of the organizers: young people need to give meaning to their lives and the search for a definition of School in Pastoral
Experiences about youth accompaniment strategies were shared and Pastoral Plan 2016-2020 was presented. Pastoral Conversion Itinerary. Teacher training was proposed as the turning point if the new platform for evangelization is to be successful: The School in Pastoral. In this regard, several options for formal processes for teacher training were visualized. The progress in the formulation of a model that guides the self-evaluation on the Management of the Augustinian Charism in Educational Centers was also highly valued.
The task was left in the hands of three commissions: Pastoral, Formation and Quality.
Data III EDUCAR - 2016
Educational meeting YEAR OF EDUCATION 2015 - 2016
Participation of Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Argentina and Costa Rica
Seminario San Ezequiel Moreno and City of Children, Costa Rica
“The Prior General with his Council declare a Year of the Augustinian Recollect Educational Apostolate on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the opening of our first colleges, to intensify the Order's commitment to this complex, vast and urgent task, and to encourage and support religious and lay people who work with hope in the integral formation of the human person ”. 54th General Chapter of the Order of Augustinian Recollects
goals
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Strengthen the AR charism and the collaborative culture among the OAR Educational Centers.
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Find accompaniment strategies that help young people to give meaning to their lives
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Formulate criteria that guide the actions of our Educational Centers, under the paradigm of "The pastoral school" assuming Educational Centers as evangelization platforms from the Augustinian Recollect charism.
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Present the Evaluation Model of the Management of the Augustinian Recollect Charism and enrich it with the observations of the participants
CONCLUSIONS III EDUCATE
1. The School in Pastoral
We decidedly take on the pastoral school approach. In this sense, the progress that has been made regarding the realization of the pastoral dimension in our centers is admitted. However, we recognize that current conditions require a re-signification. This change of perspective implies a great challenge. It is about migrating from a model focused on liturgical events and activities to an immersion of the center in the Pastoral. Thus, we visualize pastoral care as a transversal axis that permeates all the educational work of the center, individuals and families, according to Augustinian Recollect values.
2. A training plan for directors and teaching and administrative staff of the Augustinian Recollect educational centers
As a direct corollary of this week's work, we also recognize the obvious need for a training plan for the directors and teaching and administrative staff of our Augustinian Recollect educational centers. This formation plan should involve in-depth training in Augustinian pastoral issues and aspects, methodologies for accompaniment and Augustinian pedagogy, as well as in the provision of applicable tools in the daily work in our centers. This training plan cannot lose sight of the conditions of the context, the subjects, and above all, the Augustinian philosophy whose ultimate goal is the fullness of the person, of his human dignity, from and towards Christ, through the prism of Saint Agustin.
3. Collaborative nature and continuity of these spaces:
The need for clarity about the path to be followed in the Augustinian Recollect educational centers is recognized and highlighted. For this, it is essential to continue with this dynamic of annual meetings, in which the directors and managers of the centers, those in charge of pastoral care and the personnel that each center deems appropriate participate. We invite more centers to join this initiative as a way to enrich the debate on educational work.
The intention of the EDUCARs is to generate, strengthen and continue with collaborative and constructive spaces that unite, motivate and guide the management of educational centers.
4. Recognition and assumption of an attitude of continuous improvement of the centers based on the quality evaluation
The participants in this meeting highlight and admit that quality, as an indisputable hallmark of our centers, must respond to a common, standardized and transversal criterion for all dimensions of the school. For this reason, we assume and promote the implementation of a quality model for the management of the Augustinian Recollect charism, with its corresponding measuring instruments, in the Augustinian Recollect educational centers that are members of EDUCAR, as well as all those who want to join. This evaluation, measurement and monitoring of quality does not respond, in any case, to a vocation of competitiveness or positioning, rather to the conviction that we are all in a process of institutional growth and we are a team that works to overcome weaknesses supports weaknesses and enhances strengths.
IV EDUCAR meeting
The IV EDUCAR meeting was held in Bogotá in November 2017. It was the first time that executives from all countries in the American area where there are schools of the Augustinian Reocleta family were able to meet to evaluate and program strategic lines of action.
The conclusions of this IV EDUCAR meeting have been a great boost for Augustinian Recollect education in the coming years. You can check them here:
V EDUCAR meeting
The 5th EDUCAR meeting took place in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). It was a great boost for the network to have representatives from all the geographical regions where the educational centers of the Augustinian Recollect Family are located. As a result of the meeting, the following conclusions and commitments were reached:
1. Review the structure and name of the PEI document for a reissue, evaluating the objectives and indicators of the strategic option.
2. Organize regional or national teams that facilitate the management of educational centers and promote the educate network.
To facilitate this organization, the following regional / geographic structure is proposed by groups of countries:
• Educational centers in Brazil, Argentina and Peru.
• Educational centers in the Philippines.
• Educational centers in Colombia and Venezuela.
• Educational centers in Spain.
• Educational centers in Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
3. Program at the regional / national level the experiential training (interior retreat) and pedagogical training of leadership teams and teachers to promote a pastoral school that responds to the challenges of today's world.
4. Apply the Management and Quality Evaluation Model in an Augustinian Recollect Center (MEGCAR) to know the strengths and recognize the opportunities for improvement, presenting a report in the Regional / National EDUCAR.
5. Integrate the Corporate Identity Manual applied to educational centers with a process of gradual incorporation of the elements that compose it.
6. Form work teams at the international level that enable the objectives of the network to educate in the areas of pastoral care, communication, training and projects (former students, teacher exchanges, collaboration with ARCORES, competitions, etc.).
7. Implement the minor protection plan for educational centers, in order to create safe environments.