Partnership Meetings in Haiti from Oct. 9-18: Building Educational and Leadership Capacity

Plans for my October trip to Haiti are now in place:

Oct. 9-12 Meetings in Cap-Haitien including:
-with Justin Metelus, director of the Ministry of Education for the north, as we discuss developing on-line learning for principals and teachers
-with Thelus Wilson, who helped coordinate the May 2013 Laurier service-learning trip, as we discuss the next group of teachers to be involved in service-learning opportunities in Cap
-with a new partnering organization Projects for Haiti (click here to find out more) and its directors who are flying from Florida to discuss how we can support each other
-with Dr. Fenol Metellus, the rector of the Public University of the North at Cap-Haitien, as we discuss developing on-line learning for students and an English Language Institute
-a number of other deans and presidents of universities who have expressed interest in establishing partnerships with Laurier

On Saturday, October 12, we will be providing a day of training on using smartphones to access educational resources for Haitian principals and lead teachers. This is being facilitated by Rob McBride, an executive from BlackBerry, and Jhonel Morvan, an agent of the Ontario Ministry of Education. Three different workshops will be provided to those who have been participating in the Digital Mentoring Project or who have been identified as key leaders in the north.

From Oct. 13-18, I will be involved in teaching a Master of Education course near Port au Prince for Laurel University, North Carolina. Jhonel and I will co-teach this course which has a focus on supervision for school leaders. Rob will join us for two days as he gives presentations on the use of smartphones and tablets for educational purposes.

During this second part of the trip, I will also be meeting with a variety of school principals and university officials from Port au Prince as we discuss future working relationships.

I am quite hopeful that the partnership meetings we have been engaged in over the past two years in the north will bear some fruit on this trip as we are able to demonstrate what on-line learning can look like for educators and educational institutions in the north of Haiti. The key in this process is developing a sustainable, professional model with local buy-in.

I keep holding on to the Haitian proverb, piti piti ti pay pay, zwazo fe niche - little by little, straw by straw, the bird builds its nest. It seems that the nest is being built.