A Mason teacher shared her education techniques and passion for teaching with educators in the poverty-stricken island nation of Haiti last month.
Tammy DiPenti, a third grade teacher at Mason Heights, spent a week in Haiti in late July sharing effective teaching strategies during Children’s International Lifeline’s third annual teaching conference.
DiPenti, the keynote speaker at the conference, created lesson plans and modeled effective teaching strategies with village children as about 50 to 60 local Haitian teachers watched.
“Mason City Schools does an outstanding job training their teachers to be effective educators in the classroom. I wanted to take the training that I received and share it with the teachers in Haiti,” said DiPenti.
DiPenti, who traveled to Haiti with her husband, Anthony, also visited and distributed food and personal hygiene items to widows, orphanages and tent cities. She also provided teachers with school supplies — materials DiPenti says are scarce in Haiti — she had collected in her classroom over the past year.
“It was a very humbling experience to see the needs,” she said. “We take so many things for granted in the US; a warm shower, three meals a day, good 
education, medical care and even a cup of clean water.”
The DiPentis plan to return to Haiti this fall and again next summer for the fourth annual teacher’s conference.
“I just cant wait to go back,” Tammy DiPenti said. “I can’t wait to see the people and the children.”
For more information, visit www.childrenslifeline.com.
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