At a recent Mali Rising Teacher Peer Meeting one teacher stood out from the crowd…and all because of a peanut plant!
Most Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award Winner
Each year Mali Rising honors three of our most outstanding teachers with an award. They are nominated by their principals, and a panel of teachers selects the best candidates for each award — most outstanding, most helpful, and most improved. Last month I was happy to deliver the award for Most Outstanding Teacher to a a very hard-working teacher, Mr. Chaka Diarra.
Measuring Teacher Results: Good News!
One Teacher Finds a Secret
This month, we wrapped up our Intensive Teacher Trainings for the school year. These sessions allow us to provide about half of our teachers with two, tailor-made trainings over the year, along with 3 Teacher Peer Meetings. At our last meeting, I spoke with Amadou Doro, a math teacher, about the biggest new ideas he took away from his time in our Intensive Teacher Trainings. Here’s what he had to say…
Why Chalkboard Art Matters
As we start to get closer to the end of the school year, I’ve been talking with our teachers about the Chalkboard Art Contest. This is a chance for teachers to show off how they use the primary teaching tool in a Mali classroom — the chalkboard. Our teachers create beautiful maps, diagrams, and more to help students learn. I asked one of our teachers, Mr. Mariko, to share his thoughts on the contest and the value of chalkboard art.
One Teacher Dives In On Peer Meetings
Earlier this month, Mali Rising hosted one of our Teacher Peer Meetings – gatherings of 7 or 8 teachers from different schools who learn from each other for the day. Teachers volunteer to present a sample lesson and their peers critique their work – providing both positive and constructively negative feedback. After this most recent Peer Meeting, I talked with one of the participating teachers, and recorded his thoughts on the peer meeting and his work…
One Teacher Amazes His Peers
Lamine Mariko is an incredible science teacher at Christiana Norris Middle School. But don’t take my word for it – his teacher peers made that clear when they gave him a big round of applause at our most recent Teacher Peer Meeting!Lamine Mariko is an incredible science teacher at Christiana Norris Middle School. But don’t take my word for it – his teacher peers made that clear when they gave him a big round of applause at our most recent Teacher Peer Meeting!
Charging Up Principals for a New School Year
As the new school year got underway in Mali this month, we started gathering groups of our partner schools’ principals together to share ideas and energy. The first such meeting was hosted in the Ouelessebougou area, which is home to the majority of partner villages. It was an energetic meeting and the principals really took ownership of how to help each other in the coming year.
Focusing Our Teacher Project Work
We are just a few short days away from opening day of school in Mali! Teachers are busy preparing first classes, weeding schoolyards, buying supplies, and generally getting prepared. As Mali Rising’s Teacher Project Coordinator, I too have been hard at work getting ready for the new school year. One big change is coming in how we target our teacher support work.
