Haiti is a country with limited resources to invest in their schools. The majority of educational materials are in French and teaching methods rely heavily on rote learning (a memorization technique based on repetition). At The Joseph School, our Education Director and Principal work together to find books and materials that help develop critical thinking and problem solving styled learning. 

Our Education Director, Katie, purchases books in Haiti and incorporates additional creative and innovative online resources (from France and the United States) to enrich the curriculum. The books and materials are updated, as needed, to be more culturally appropriate. Many of the French and English materials are also translated into Haitian Creole  — due to lack of learning materials in the student’s mother tongue. These books and resources make up The Joseph School curriculum. 

Each curriculum book is supplemented with pages that provide active learning activities, student-centered strategies, and questions in Haitian Creole, French, and English. 

Once materials are compiled, PDFs and cover templates are sent to Halo Publishing, a publishing company in Haiti, for printing. This company is operated by Haitians, who print the materials and deliver them to our school. Each year, our curriculum improves as TJS teachers provide feedback on what they need for their students to be successful. Last year, TJS produced a number of custom curriculum books, and we plan to complete additional materials for this coming Fall semester.

What’s New?

This year, our teachers will be creating and submitting active learning/student centered lesson plans as supplemental documents to use in their classrooms. As the school continues to grow we strive to provide opportunities for our Haitian staff to show their expertise and give our students the highest quality of education possible. 

Your gift to The Joseph School, helps provide the necessary funds for textbooks, academic materials, multilingual reading books, bookshelves to store them, student desks, pencils and other supplies that help these young students become scholars. We have much more to share with you so watch for our next blog on TJS happenings!