Haitian Educator Exchange Day 2

Yesterday was great and today was even better because the teachers were fully engaged from the beginning through to the end.  As someone who has never been a part of something like this, it has given me a new perspective about things in Haiti- like education in this instance.  I came into this expecting to "equip" the teachers to be more effective with their students.  That is my ignorance showing through.  What I am now witnessing is a group of very passionate, dedicated teachers who are seeking to improve but the benefit of something like this event is bringing the teachers together to share experiences and ideas and begin to create a true collaborating effort between 3 Gonaives-area schools.

Dennis started the conversations this morning by inquiring with the teachers on classroom management and the difference between dealing with the difficult students and creating a positive atmosphere in the classroom to give students the best chance at success.  They discussed strategies and things they could do to create a positive classroom.

I then had the opportunity to share about active storytelling with the teachers.  Asking how can we make learning the Bible memorable for the students.  I then demonstrated telling the story of Jesus healing the 10 lepers in a fun, active way that all the students (teachers) would have an active role in telling the story.  After the story we used time to ask questions to help cement the message of the passage so that kids could make the connection between what the Bible says and what it means for each of us in our lives.  We had a hilarious time as 10 volunteers placed sticker dots on each other only to find out that they were going to be the "lepers" in our story.  We made them feel like lepers- left out of everything and cast out.  In the story, the lepers wanted a chance to see Jesus but were made to stay far away because of their leprosy.  Jesus healed the lepers when He told them to show themselves to the priests but only one came back to give thanks to Jesus.  The moment wasn't lost on the teachers as one of the lepers came running to the front of the room to give me a hug and say thank you as if I were Jesus in the story.  The point of my exercise was to get teachers thinking about creative ways to bring Scripture to life for their students.

The rest of the day teachers really engaged with the exercises and worked together to create strategies.  Their passion became even heated at times and we ended up with some really great teaching moments with the teachers as they were challenged to actively listen to one another and use encouraging words with each other as they shared ideas with the whole group.  We couldn't have scripted that better.  The Lord was at work with our time today.

Tomorrow is day 3 of 4 and we have another full agenda.  I am looking forward to the conversations that will come out of this experience as we seek discernment and direction for our church and these exchanges in the future.