By Onz Chery
New York City Department of Education will host a Google Classroom workshop for Haitian families in Creole on Oct. 21 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The virtual event, to be held over Zoom, will teach participants the basics of navigating the application that the city’s public schools use for remote learning.
“A lot of families are still trying to navigate some of the learning tools that students have to use to do their work,” said Cathleen Joseph of the department’s Division of Multilingual Learners. “This is one of the topics that we thought was immediately useful and valuable.”
The city’s schools shifted to virtual learning due to the novel coronavirus this academic year. With Haitian Creole being the seventh language most widely spoken in New York City, providing information in Haitian Creole is part of the city’s standard communication procedures.
For the upcoming Google Classroom workshop, the city partnered with Pierre’s Perspective, an education enterprise, to facilitate it. After the first session, Department of Education officials will decide how often to conduct the workshop.
“We want to make sure that we provide resources for Haitian Creole speaking family,” she said. “We fully expect this to be something we’re going to continue on with.”
Pierre’s Perspective’s founder Shenequa Pierre will teach the course. In the past, NYC Dept. of Education has hosted virtual workshops in Creole to teach Haitian immigrants about their rights as newcomers.
To register for Thursday’s workshop, follow these steps:
- Sign up for a free Zoom account with a working email address.
- Confirm your account.
- Register using this link (https://bit.ly/33Y8fF7) for the Google Classroom workshop.
Email dml@schools.nyc.gov for more information.