José María Morelos y Pavón Elementary 1st through 6th Grades
For the first time Journey North visits the whole group of schools located at the back hills-row to the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary, whose forests are so important to the monarch butterfly overwintering sites.  With the visit to the last school on this side, the message from Journey North covers all this back part of the region surrounding the core of the overwintering sites of monarchs.
José María Morelos y Pavón is an indigenous Mazahua bilingual school.  It was the only school left to visit which is located at the back hillsides of the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary.  It is an indigenous community called "Ocote Chico", (Tsi'xibajti) in Mazahua dialect, the most spoken dialect in the México State. This community as many others, in spite of its nearness to the Sanctuary, has no direct link to the activity in the Sanctuary in any sense.  This ejido is totally aside of any rights on the Sanctuary's benefits, however the preservation of their forests is highly important because they are part of the whole natural reserve near the core of the Sanctuary. 

This is the first time Estela runs into the name of a school officially written in an indigenous language in the whole region.  However, the name of the school itself belongs to one of México's Independence heroes.

As soon as Estela introduced herself with the two teachers of the school (both indigenous bilingual Mazahua-Spanish), and explained about Journey North program and the purpose of the visit, they welcomed me into a classroom where all children were addressed, including kindergarten children!  The result: An unforgettable experience!

It took quite a bit of time to go very slowly through monarch life-cycle stages, and then migration to México.  Estela tried to teach them as if taking them into a fairy tale (she does it this way when it comes to speaking to small children, since the whole marvel of monarchs could sound as a tale), and they were just immobile - opening their eyes wide and mumbling : Oooh!, Woooow! to every single thing they heard new (all was new to them!).

Once Estela concluded the "lecture" on Monarchs' life, she had children go over it, which made them all very excited; they all volunteered to come to the front to show how proud they were at having perfectly gotten the whole lecture.

The moment Estela asked teachers and children if they could include some Mazahua words in their letters, teachers came to the board and wrote some words in their Mother language. They encouraged their students to include some Mazahua words in their letters!  

The teachers encouraged the students and told them it was exemplary to work that hard on rescuing their Mother language --which is one of the purpose of this school--, one of the teachers told me.  The children immediately reacted positively. The students were born Mazahua, and with the help of their teachers will become bilingual Mazahua-Spanish.

Butterflies Received
This school received Ambassador Butterflies from the following U.S. and Canadian Schools:

Forest Lake Elementary, Wantage, NY
Forest Lake Elementary, Wantage, NY
Forest Lake Elementary, Wantage, NY
SABA Academy, San Jose, CA
Hillside Elementary, Livingston, NJ
Hillside Elementary, Livingston, NJ
Hillside Elementary, Livingston, NJ
Gale Elementary, Galesburg, IL
Gale Elementary, Galesburg, IL
Twin Lakes Academy Elementary, Jacksonville, FL
Spring Hill Elementary, McLean, VA
Spring Hill Elementary, McLean, VA
Spring Hill Elementary, McLean, VA
Spring Hill Elementary, McLean, VA
Spring Hill Elementary, McLean, VA
Seldens Lending Elementary, Leesburg, VA
Scott Middle School, Coatesville, PA
Scott Middle School, Coatesville, PA
Uwchlan Hills Elementary, Downingtown, PA
Uwchlan Hills Elementary, Downingtown, PA
Uwchlan Hills Elementary, Downingtown, PA
La Vernia Intermediate, La Vernia, TX
Staples Elementary, Joshua, TX
Staples Elementary, Joshua, TX
Staples Elementary, Joshua, TX
Charles Campagne School Library, Bethpage, NY
Hillside Elementary, Livingston, NJ
Longfellow Elementary, Pasadena, CA
Poly Prep CDS, Brooklyn, NY
Poly Prep CDS, Brooklyn, NY
Longfellow Elementary, Pasadena, CA
Longfellow Elementary, Pasadena, CA
Watchung School, Montclair, NJ
Cincinnati Country Day School, Cincinnati, OH
Onaway Elementary, Shaker Heights, OH
Strong School, New Haven, CT
North Shore Elementary, Saint Petersburg, FL
Barretts Elementary, Manchester, MO
Belpre Elementary, Belpre, OH
Roosevelt Elementary, Olympia, WA
Goodwin Elementary, Storrs, CT
Northwestern Elementary, West Salem, OH
Northwestern Elementary, West Salem, OH
Northwestern Elementary, West Salem, OH
Northwestern Elementary, West Salem, OH
Northwestern Elementary, West Salem, OH
Nantucket New School, Nantucket, MA
Twin Rivers Primary School, McKeesport, PA
Tender Treasures Montessori School, Woodbridge, ON
Ottawa Hills Elementary, Toledo, OH
Whisconier Middle School, Brookfield, CT
Somers Elementary, Somers, CT
Somers Elementary, Somers, CT
Central Headstart, Beckley, WV