Cross Cultural Training

3 of my Teacher Assistants are going to America for college.

I put on a workshop about American culture.

America:
- fast pace
- things are readily available
- nod head to indicate 'yes'
- time is money

We went over American values, greetings, surroundings, sayings, and more. The US is very different form Rwanda but I think they will do great.

Rina

Rina is going to Haverford, Pennsylvania 

Jackson

 Jackson is going to New London, Connecticut

Nancy

Nancy is going to Abilene, Texas 

If you live close to any of those places and you are interested in mentoring, helping, befriending or taking out one of my TA's to lunch please let me know. 

School is Out

I just had my last parent teacher meeting! I am still standing, I am very tired but still alive.

I just finished my first year of teaching, and creating a special education program, in Rwanda.

I remember the first day of school sitting at my desk saying to myself, 'What am I supposed to be doing, how do I do it and how did I get here...?'

Now I am sitting here saying to myself, 'What just happened, how did this all happen and is this all real...?'

It is pretty powerful what a little step of faith can turn into. As hard as it is, sometimes you just need to hold your breath and jump.

Improvement??

This is Ibrahim. He is in grade 3. 

I asked his teachers to fill out a progress report for him on how he has improved this term. 

The reply I got back was, "He has not improved...He has changed!" 

The teachers are learning how to see the students for what they CAN do. 

Noah

The student's name is Noah and the teacher assistant is George. 

They are working on math here. 

We just finished our second round of standardized testing. 

Last test Noah answered one question on the whole test. 

This time around he scored above average!

There is improvement!

A Blessing

This past week was CRAZY, one day alone I had 14 meetings. When the kids went home on Friday, I just had to go home and sleep. I came back to work on Saturday and was only able to get one student's lesson planning done.

5am Sunday morning, I woke up with not much confidence that I would even make a dent in the work I had to do before Monday.

6am I get a text. It is from Cassandra and it reads, 'I really want to help you. If I got to church now, my heart will not be there because I've set my mind on coming. I feel like God is totally okay with it. This is my act of worship and I'm happy.' I had to hold back tears, I was so grateful! She said that she just had to leave at noon.

7am Cassandra was in the office. She jumped right in! We listened to worship music and lesson planned for 5 hours. And at 12:00 exactly we tok a step back and we were totally finished lesson planning for the week!

There was no way I could have done it without her. Cassandra you truly are a gift form God. 

Whenever I feel like I cannot do it, God always makes a way to make sure it happens. I know I am in the middle of his perfect plan. 

Cassandra

I do not know where I would be without Cassandra. Every time I am not sure how I am going to make it, Cassandra is always there! 

Shortly after I started at Green Hills a Canadian girl started volunteering with me. She was great but then she went back to Canada and as she left, I got 3 new students. 

One afternoon I was sitting in my office contemplating how I was ever going to be able to get all of this paper work done and still help students; I really had no idea. 

Just then a very energetic, young girl walked into my office and said, 'I am going to help you.' 

She jumped right in with paper work, students, and anything she could get her hands on, and she did this all without any direction at all. 

Cassandra is taking a gap year between her Junior and Senior year of high school. I asked her when she started working with me what she wanted to do when she grew up and she said, 'maybe an engineer'. 

2 weeks after working with me, I asked her again what she wanted to do when she grew up and she looked at me very excitedly and said, 'I want to be a special education teacher.' 

She is going to make an amazing special education teacher! Cassandra is the back bone of our program here. She makes all the worksheets, makes sure everyone is where they are supposed to me (especially me), and know what is going on everywhere.  

I am blessed to work with Cassandra. 

Always Working

There is always something that needs to be done...

Even if the students leave early the TA's still have something to do. 

Rina (on the right) is making sign flash cards for her student to learn sign language. Cassandra (on the left) is taping picture sentences into a book so the students can read by themselves. 

It is a lot of work being a special education teacher but I am glad I have a good team of Teacher Assistants who love to help.

English?

I flagged down a moto, then told him where I wanted to go.

He nodded indicated he knew where it was. Then I asked 'N'angahe? (how much?)

The moto driver replied in English! I paused and stared, and had to have him repeat it two times because I could not believe my ears.

My ears were not ready for English. He then had to say it in Kinyarwanda for my to understand.

Life in another culture....

Internship!

I have a student in secondary that wants to own a store when he grows up.

With some of the connections I have made here in Rwanda, I was able to find a grocery store called Ndoli's. The owner was willing to have one of my students do an internship at his store!

This is Joel. He is in grade 10.

He was so excited to be able to get some work experience for when he owns his own store. (and his parents were so happy)

Having an internship at a store is not common, but why stay with the familiar when students can be learning!

Out Loud

A friend and I wanted to go out for dinner so we walked to a restaurant.

We got inside and looked for a place to sit. On our search for an open table I looked around and could not believe my eyes! I could not hold it back, I did not mean to but it just happened....

I said, 'It is like mazungu Heaven in here.' I was in utter shock! There were so many white people in one place!

After my statement, as I was looking around in awe, half of the people in the restaurant looked up and chuckled. Just then I realized how loud I was.

Still stunned my friend and I walked out and went to the restaurant down the street...

This is called reverse culture shock... it was kind of funny :)

Happy Easter

We colored eggs for Easter

Isabella loved the stickers for the eggs

We frosted cookies for Easter too

My favorite frosted cookie was Prince's. He drew 3 crosses, remembering the reason we celebrate Easter. Jesus died on the cross for us and then came to life again, showing He is God and He loves us.

He is Risen Indeed.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Secondary Workshop

Last week my teacher assistants and I did a workshop with the secondary teachers on how to interact with students with special needs:

1) treat them as any other student

2) greet them

3) praise them

4) discipline them

5) include them

After a 2hr workshop, the teachers has really started to integrate students with special needs. They now say hello to our students and ask them how they are. It is great to see the interaction!

And it is amazing to see the ownership of the program the TAs have taken.

Science Fair

Students worked for weeks on science projects and finally the science fair had come!

They were so excited! Made posters, speeches and was ready for parents to come.

They learned about the water cycle

the Solar System

and recycling

We all learned a lot and had lots of fun.

Reading

My students are reading!

There is a program called Boardmaker. As I type pictures pop above each word. The students learn what each word is by the picture: picture to word correlation.

All students can be taught, you just have to teach them in a way they understand.

Realization...

I was walking down the street the other day, when it dawned on me....

'I am walking in the middle of Africa!'

'I am walking in the middle of Africa and it is no big deal. I know where I am going. It is like normal life.'

How crazy! I have only been talking and dreaming of Africa since I was in 6th grade and now I am living in AFRICA.

I did a little hop, skip and a jump then continued with my day (IN AFRICA).

WOW...It's really Africa.

George's Mom

I have a teacher assistant named George. He is with a student in grade 1. George just finished high school and hopes to attend college this year. He always has a story or song for everything (great with the first graders).

George's mom has been in the hospital for a week. This weekend I was informed that she passed away.

George now has to face many hard decisions as what he does next.

Please keep George in your prayers.

Cubbies!

I now have a cubby for each one of my teacher assistance.

In their cubby is all the materials they need to teach the student for the week. There are 13 teacher assistances and a possibility for 2 more by the end of the school year.

?Work?

I walked into my office this afternoon and here is how the conversation went:

Me: I did not do any work today...

Teacher Assistant: What did you do all day?

Me: (thinking....) Well, I

1. walked students to class

2. raced kids during PE

3. read the 3 little pig story

4. sang the monkey song

5. painted with the color orange

6. played football with a few students

7. made 3D shapes in the math area

8. researched about rabbits

9. read a test to a student

10. played Uno in the choice area

11. drew a picture of the water cycle

12. worked on fractions in grade 4

13. counted to 10 many times

14. matched words with long and short a sound

TA: Isn't that your job....?

Me: Hmmm, I guess you are right.

All that paperwork will be there tomorrow....

Cheese...

Here in Rwanda we have cheese. I love cheese and very glad we have it here.

The cheese companies have been on strike for almost a month now and they are not making cheese!

I have lived without cheese for a month...this is rough!

I sure how they start making cheese again really soon!

Kamari Kids

I got to spend the weekend with the Kamari kids. We played all types of games, went for a walk, took naps, made lots of crafts and watched a movie.

Prince is 14 years old and loves football (soccer). He is growing up his hair to have an afro.

Isabella is 5 years old and loves princesses. She just stared school this year.

Beni is 2 years old and loves to run. He can now go to the bathroom in the toilet!

It was a lot of fun!