Happy Friday, everyone!
We’d like to use this update to inform you on the many new projects that have been developing this fall. Since writing the past couple updates on becoming a sustainable institution, exciting new projects have been put into play.
First, our overall daily structure has changed. Until September we were holding classes from 10:30am-3:30pm. As you may or may not know, the Dominican education system is changing, and they are slowly moving towards 8-hour days instead of 4 for all public schools. Because we work around the children’s school schedule, this has posed a challenge for us, and we’ve had to schedule and reschedule kids based on their changing school schedules. We’ve finally been able to find a schedule that we believe will work, and we are now giving classes from 11am-6pm in order to accommodate kids who arrive after 3pm.
Our Literacy Curriculum developer, Angelic, is well on her way to becoming friends with our girls!
Secondly, we’ve finally taken the energy to address one of our weaker programs: literacy. We have one Dominican teacher who does the literacy courses, and although she has taught several kids to read, the program has been largely based on the Dominican Republic’s national curriculum, which is weak to say the least. We needed someone to thoroughly research better teaching methods and objectives, retrain our teacher, and then implement the new program. We got very lucky and found a qualified American woman to come down right away. Angelic arrived in mid-October and has since been experiencing steady progress. It is slow progress, but the classes are already improving nonetheless. Based on research that Angelic did, we have tested all of our children in order to put them into appropriately leveled classes. The new curriculum will be highly interactive and encourage children to decode language, learn formalities, and improve comprehension, instead of simply memorizing and regurgitating. Although the redesigning of the program has just begun, we are ecstatic and relieved to know that these previously poorly executed classes will be much more effective.
In exciting news, we’ve also been able to organize and start a boys group! Much like the girls group, the boys group serves to teach young men about important values that will apply all throughout their lives. The group meets Mon-Thurs from 1-2pm at the foundation. JP, an American and long-term employee along with Jovanny, a Dominican-American intern, are leading the group by using sports to reach the boys. They strongly believe that through sports and by being “coaches” to the boys they will help to instill the values of hard work, teamwork, perseverance, and responsibility, among others. Since the group has started, Jovanny and JP have focused on our boys aged 10+ by doing drills, having discussions, and playing basketball and soccer games. Coaches and students alike are enjoying this new time together (even though we hear the boys grunting and saying things like, “I’m dying!”). Attached to this email is a photo of the boys working hard. We would also like to recognize JP, who interned with us from 2012-2013, and has committed another 2 years to helping the Joan Rose. We’re thankful for his hard work, competence, and loyalty
Lula, fighting through the pain, during a boys’ practice
Our last major undertaking this fall involves focusing on getting our children’s parents and families to be a larger part of their child’s experience at the foundation. We have recently begun to organize parent meetings and plan on having them monthly. We’ll meet with them about our values and how we can work together to improve their child’s opportunities in life. We’re hoping that through this parental involvement we can get a clearer message across about what we’re trying to achieve. Involving the parents will also help us to move towards sustainability. Ways in which we’ll be involving parents more are holding parent-teacher meetings, open houses, invitations to events, and more. Next Friday and Saturday we’ll be inviting all families to a “picture day.” Having a nice family photo in the home is rare, so we’d like to say “Merry Christmas” by printing and framing the photos for each family.
We hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. Thank you for your continued support of our work.
