Deaf Education Trip to Guatamala – March 2023

Our March 2023 trip to Guatemala was with a much larger team than usual so we were able to achieve
more in the various school program we visited. We were able to provide education sessions to 100
teachers in the San Cristobel area and also to the 12 CREI Resource Consultants on various topics.
On this trip we partnered with Dalhousie University SuperNOVA program to deliver STEM (science,
technology, engineering and math) lessons to the Deaf students at different schools. The students had
the opportunity to fly a drone and learn about mapping of a community. They made paper airplane and
helicopters to learn about motion and lift. Two other team members worked with the older students
teaching them how to use laptop computers with Microsoft Office and also iPads with the Scratch
program.

One team member who was a nurse taught the class at EDECRI how to use a microscope and
discussed differences between animal and plant cells. Other team members focused on literacy (Spanish and LSG) using different stories and activities. We worked directly with the teachers in the class to show how to incorporate these activities and the accompanying sign language to the curriculum.
Following visits to 2 middle school level programs, we were able to enroll 3 Deaf students whom we worked with for several years into the Cross Commission Zona tutoring program. Each week, the Deaf students will receive one on one tutoring sessions with a mentor from Zona to help with their school lessons and homework. One of the Resource Teacher Consultants, Gerty Barrios, will assist the mentors with the sign language and act as a liaison with the student’s schools.

We did a day long visit to a remote village where we assisted in the medical clinic and school. We had
the opportunity to meet with the school personnel there and discuss identification of hearing loss and
needs of Deaf students.