Six Fantastic Days Training

Periodic table in bottle tops

Microscope Work

All my plans have come to fruition – not necessarily in the exact way I expected but certainly very close. You will remember from a previous blog, I wrote about a big training project in one of the focus sectors in the north of my district? We have now completed the third stage of the plan!! The fourth stage will begin in 4 weeks but we are already planning the fifth stage!! Ha Ha!

During the last two weeks we have spent 3 days each week training teachers. We have been staying in one of the northern sectors with the priests. (I told you about the big celebrations last week). Each morning we go out on the motorbikes to a school which is fairly central to the sector. Most of the teachers can walk there from their homes (short journeys of about 1- 1 ½  hours) There is one school in the sector where the journey is too long for the teachers so we will be going to spend a whole day in their school, doing training just for them. However, teachers from the other schools have managed to get to the various training days. The first day was training for Senior Science teachers, the next day Primary Science, then Social Studies, Maths, English and Nursery.

What is this crazy white woman doing to me?!

Oh the Hokey Cokey

All the sessions were successful because the teachers really wanted to learn and were very enthusiastic. Many of them had had hardly any teacher training at all. Each day included teaching on how children learn and the importance of active participation. It involved lots of playing games and using a variety of teaching strategies and, of course, making teaching materials. As you can imagine, teaching resources are few and far between so we use any available resource. The main items are bottle tops from Fanta bottles (or Primus – whatever you can get hold of!), also rice sacks, empty tins of dried milk powder, cardboard boxes from triangle cheeses, plastic bottles etc  etc

There is a highly developed curriculum in Rwanda but I have doubts about its relevance apart from passing exams, however VSO is working with the Ministry of Education to lobby for change. The biggest change may come from Nursery upwards. Most schools have a nursery class and one of our schools has 81 children in that class, with one teacher!!!! The Nursery teachers design and plan their own work, which is hard for them because they have not had training in child development or how children learn. So the Nursery day was filled with games and activities, songs and stories – my favourite day! I hope that, maybe, I can be of assistance in working to develop guidelines for teaching in nurseries throughout Rwanda – that would be such a wonderful opportunity.

No need for childminders
when you can bring your
baby to work on your back  

So our six days of training are over and the next stage of our plan will take place in 4 weeks time when we re- visit each of the schools to see if the teachers have been able to implement any of the strategies. My job is to persuade the headteachers to use money from their school budget to support the making of teaching aids, and to persuade headteachers of the importance of lesson observation and the quality of teaching and learning. This is not an easy task when there are so many other demands made on their time (sounds a familiar story to me!) Our plan has a fifth stage but I’m keeping that under wraps for now.

The Motos

The Comedy Duo Moto Drivers

By popular request I am including a photo of the Moto Drivers who give us such a laugh - see below. There's nothing like free wheeling downhill for twenty minutes after a hard day's work - the red dust blowing in your face and knowing that the driver can't see a thing cos he has no visor on his helmet! Seriously these drivers are amazingly skilful on these mountain tracks.

So, thanks guys for getting us to schools safely and especially for delivering the Fanta and mandazi!!!

Keep safe everyone and enjoy the long summer evenings. Let me know what you are doing.

Lots love T xxxxx