This past March, Dr. Joanna Paul (Director of Education) travelled to South Africa with EdVillage and a team of international educators to conduct some teacher training workshops and school reviews. “This has been a wonderful professional development opportunity for me,” said Dr. Paul. “Our focus on conducting school reviews, training teachers and principals and delivering school improvement workshops provided me with the opportunity to learn new skills and hone familiar skills in a new context with a new team. My learning was supplemented with school visits and stimulated by working side by side with a team of international educators who each brought different perspectives to our school improvement work. It has  been interesting to compare the work that Deep Creek Middle School is doing in The Bahamas with that of low-fee schools developing in South Africa and share different ways that the two models could inform each other.“

Dr. Paul worked in and visited several schools in the Johannesburg and Cape Town areas, including African Leadership Academy (ALA). “ALA is a sending school for The Island School and it was wonderful to see the students in class and in the field in Johannesburg.” During the visit, Jean Fernando Randriamiajason (Summer ’13) showed off the new permaculture farm that he has designed on campus. While he is busy making a profit on the organically grown vegetables for his entrepreneurship project, he is also finding time to lobby the school to install a rainwater catchment system on campus.