Wednesday, July 12, 2017

#rwanderful: Day 17

I am home now but I still wanted to write a few posts to finish up the trip since a lot happened. Enjoy reading them as they get released over the next few days.

Wednesday:

First thing in the morning, we led the devotion time with the Primary 5 and Primary 6 students (5th and 6th grade). Bunmi and I were able to sing with the worship team. It was such a blessing to sing with beautiful and gifted musicians. Here's a video that is incredible joy and passion for worshipping the Lord.




Testimonies

I love the dancing for Jesus.


After devotion, I went to John's Senior 5 math class (11th grade). We talked about convergence and divergence of sequences. It was fun to share my thoughts and experiences with the students. I drew pictures of sequences and gave the words convergence and divergence meaning to the students. When higher level math teachers explain things in the US and in Rwanda, sometimes it is more the true definition from the textbook or the internet and not always putting it into words that students understand. I enjoyed making that real for John and his students.



Next, in the Senior 2 class (8th grade) I really enjoyed seeing Rodgers teach. I was in Rodgers class in 2014 on my first teacher trip. Seeing how much he has grown since then was encouraging and reaffirming the work that we have been doing in Rwanda. The students were learning about solving inequalities. The last class I attended that day was still with Rodgers but it was a Senior 3 class (9th grade). The students were learning about similar figures.





After today, I really felt the need to share with all the math teachers that the students need to practice mathematics and then they need to practice some more. If they are going to internalize what they are learning, that is the best way. Two problems on solving inequalities or missing sides on similar figures isn't going to cut it. I took Rodgers into the library and showed him the other textbooks in there that can be good problems or supplemental instructional material. I love blowing the teachers minds and forcing them to think differently than they have in the past. Breaking this cycle is hard when you haven't seen very many other teachers doing things differently and you're worried about changing something and failing. American teachers are worried about the same things when asked to make changes.

It's really all so fascinating to think about how similar teaching is even though so many other things are different.

The rest are just pictures of kids which make me smile so much. Miss all of their bright shiny faces.

Notice the kid in the back left who didn't care that the muzungu chick was taking pictures with her selfie stick. HAHA

We liked all the same things. She thought we could be sisters. So sweet.

Check out that diva face. Love it. 

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