Jacmel Teachers Return to Matènwa's Institute of Learning

Bonjour,

This is about the last CCH trip to Matènwa and what happened when the team got back to their schools in Jacmel.

We sent a principal with the teachers and our new CCH Education Liaison, Dave Pierre. Dave started to work for CCH in February. He has been one of our translators for several years, so he is familiar with what we are trying to accomplish in the schools. He is communicating between the schools and the US education team. We now have monthly Skype calls with the principals and Dave, and he lets us know what is going on at each school. It is wonderful to have a Haitian at the schools for encouragement and to let us know how the schools are implementing the new methods. Dave was a much needed hire for us to be able to continue the progress and facilitate our work.

Mariline, the principal from Lavanneau, has wanted to have her students author books since the last time she was there. After going a second time she is "fired up" and has the confidence to start the process. I will be there in August to help her plan. We have money budgeted to make it a real book!

Mackenguy, a principal from EMEVO, was afraid to go to Matenwa because of a near death experience in a boat as a child. However, because of what his teachers have learned from the last two trips, he wants to go on the next trip. We are thrilled about this!

Dave has scheduled and is scheduling times to work with each staff on implementing the methods and strategies they are learning in Matenwa and from the seminars and lessons we are providing. They are meeting several times this summer.

The schools had asked us to work last year on learning to ask deeper questions across the curriculum. We did that using Bloom's taxonomy. We are finding the teachers are asking deeper and more thoughtful questions now. They also asked us to do a seminar on discipline. We did that in May. (Of course, we have been talking about discipline throughout our time in Jacmel, but this was a focused program that we developed.) Then they went to Matenwa and had it reinforced. Now this summer we have several people coming with us who are well versed in conflict resolution and restorative justice. It is wonderful for the teachers to hear it different ways from different sources. Another big difference is that they now report an improvement of the reading skills, and especially comprehension, of their students. And that they now love to read!

Our summer professional development is going to be delivered in a science/soccer camp for rising 5th and 6th graders from three of the rural schools where we partner. We will be providing instruction on things the schools have asked for: science, discipline, student leadership. The students and teachers will be involved in hands on science, and we will again model how writing and reading is essential across the curriculum. The students and teachers will also have opportunities to develop ways to use student as well as teacher leadership in conflict resolution and restorative justice.

Thank you again for helping us with the schools in Jacmel. Dave was so excited about what he learned with our teachers while at Matenwa. He believes in what we are doing and what you have been doing for years in Matenwa. We will be sending him back to Matenwa with others soon.

With gratitude,

Emmy/Emelie Parker