Cockroaches and Computers

We arrived in Haiti yesterday after an uneventful trip from Toronto.  Port-au-Prince airport was damaged in the earthquake so a temporary building is being used for customs/immigration.  We met Chris and Johny, our driver/host, when we got out of the airport and eventually made our way up the mountain to Fermathe, just about an hour from the airport, overlooking PAP.  The first site outside of the airport were the tent cities. Chris pointed out numerous buildings which had recently been rebuilt after the earthquake.  It was Sunday, late afternoon, so the markets were still going full swing.

We enjoyed supper, a time of fellowship with old friends (and some new ones), and then made our way back to the small house where we're staying.  Emily was particularly impressed with the cockroaches we were able to kill before heading to bed!

Today was a busy day.  Steve led a number of writing workshops in the morning with 10 principals who are completing their Master of Education.  Emily videoed the workshops and helped with setting up the room.  Thanks to Laurier for supplying memory sticks, pens, post it notes, and lanyards - the principals all seemed to really enjoy these gifts.  We also brought 4 used laptops with us so that principals could use them for their writing if they didn't have access to a computer.

Lunch with the principals was rice and chicken - a real treat!  Steve spent the afternoon working one-on-one with principals.  We wrapped things up around 5:30 and enjoyed a lovely dinner.  We have a special treat this week - Billy Graham's chef, just retired, is spending some time in Haiti and is on the same compound.  He made dinner and it was a real treat.  He's also making a special dessert for Thursday night when the principals who finish their chapters will be able to invite family in for a celebration.

Steve met with Chris this evening to brainstorm on the digital mentoring project.  They discussed the various modules which need to be developed and how the iPads and Playbooks might be most effectively utilized.  Amazing how technology might make a difference here.  A great, busy day!

Connecting Buffalo and South Korea

Here's another example of how students (university in this case) are making glocal connections.  I've been thinking of ways we can incorporate some micro-credit ideas into my work in Haiti and this article speaks to this as well.  The work I have been doing around using digital technologies to develop educational leadership capacity in Haiti requires financial support from the north (the university and private donors to this point). We need to be able to make this work sustainable and that will require helping Haitian school leaders to find ways to support the training.  If you have creative ideas of ways that we could use micro-credit concepts to support Haitian educational leaders in this way, please let me know (ssider@wlu.ca)!

Click on the link below to read the article:


Buffalo and South Korea

Article in local paper

Here is an article in our local paper (Woolwich Observer) regarding the work in Haiti (click on the title below):


Making things better, a bit at a time

Technology to Teach in Bihar, India

Bihar is where I grew up.  It's considered one of the poorest parts of India.  I found this article incredible - it describes how Skype is being used to teach children in this impoverished province of India:

Skype connects New Delhi to Bihar

Houston, BC

I'm just about to leave Houston, BC (northern BC) after spending a few absolutely delightful days here.  A workshop on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) on Thursday night was well received with about 25 parents and teachers in the audience.  Burns Lake, just a short distance away, has the highest prevalence of FASD in Canada.  In many ways, FASD is a disaster within our own land, particularly amongst our First Nations brothers and sisters.

Three keynote sessions yesterday focused on glocal perspective building. I provided some of my favourite activities to stimulate dialogue on how we can engage our students in expanding their ideas and knowledge of the world:  maps of Bangladesh, perspective pictures, cross the line, etc.  There was some great dialogue and lots of positive feedback.  Three other highlights of the day were:  a panel discussion (conservative Mennonite, east India, and Carrier First Nation), an international cuisine lunch (featuring bannock and salmon, perogies, butter chicken, samosas, sausage and saurkraut sp? - all favourites of mine!), and a number of dances by gr. 4 students of the Carrier First Nation.  What a lovely day!

Presentations on Haiti this week

This week I'm doing seven presentations in Waterloo schools regarding the digital mentoring project in Haiti!  This, combined with presentations at two universities in the past month, has really increased interest in the project.  Next week, I'm talking to a group of interested adults in Toronto. 

As momentum builds, we are working on the leadership modules which will be electronically available as of May.  We've received a number of the iPads and are considering how we can most effectively use them.  I'm starting to hear from my principal colleagues in Haiti too and excitement is building there too!

Skype in the classroom

Skype has introduced a great new resource to connect teachers (and schools) globally.  Check it out: http://education.skype.com/