"Our science teacher, Guen Vinnedge traveled to Haiti last week with three other individuals from Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church.  Our school, Saint Mark's Episcopal School in Upland, has adopted Saint Andres as our sister school and has raised money for a water system, a building and for school uniforms. More importantly, our children have forged a relationship with the students of Saint Andres through the creation of friendship bracelets, seed packets, photographs, banners, and now fingerprints!


Guen Vinnedge transported the 250 loupes and index cards with loupe look finger prints from our students to share with the students of Saint Andres.  Both were a big hit and Ms. Vinnedge returned with fingerprints from the students of Saint Andres.  Our students are amazed that learning happens in such crowded classrooms with so few materials.  We are all impressed with the joy and enthusiasm that is clearly expressed in the photos I have attached.


These are students with so very little in the way of material goods, most eat their one and only meal that day in school and share single room homes with extended families.  The loupes will bring an enrichment to their educational program and a means of exploring their natural world in new and fresh ways.

Thank you for partnering with us to make this happen in Haiti."

Sincerely,
Denise Gideon
Director of Curriculum
Saint Mark's Episcopal School, Upland



_______________________________________________________________________


"Sharing The Private Eye at the Anis Zunuzi School"
JUDY RECTOR
Teacher (30 year classroom veteran), Leavenworth, WA
Recipient of Mona Foundation and www.hopeislife.org Grant Awards


We had great experiences in Haiti, sharing a new way to look at the world. All of the teachers and students we shared with at the Anis Zunuzi School in Lilavois, Haiti, had never used a magnifying glass of any kind before. They found working with a tool that enlarged things fascinating! One little boy came into the room as I was setting up for a teacher's training. I gave him a loupe and showed him how to focus on his hand. He jumped back and shook his hand and said, "GWO!" which in Creole means "BIG"! Then he wanted to see other things close up.

There were 18 teachers trained in the use of the loupes for grades K-12. The whole idea of using a tool like this to investigate (science), write about what they see (language) and draw what is seen (art), thus integrating their lessons, making connections in the world around them. Integration is a new concept to Haitian teachers. Education there is very compartmentalized and rarely overlaps, so this idea was fresh to them. None of the teachers at this school had ever held a paintbrush or used any other art medium except markers and crayons so painting their loupe drawings was a truly unique experience. The results were amazing! I feel Haitians are a naturally artistic people and they loved this activity.

When I asked them to list what their fingerprints reminded them of, they did a great job making a long list, but then when I asked them to draw their fingerprint, many of them drew pictures of what it reminded them of, not their original print! So something was definitely 'lost in translation!' I learned this with the first group I worked with and made it very clear after that what was expected in their first drawings. I worked with two schools and a group of students in an orphanage and all were very receptive to learning in this fun way.