New School Year

This was the Second First Day of School in Rwanda. I felt a little more prepared and a little less frantic this time around but still had some butterflies in my stomach.

I started this school year with 7 old TAs, 6 new TAs and of course Bella. 

Patrick, Kudra, Amos, Brian, Allen, Tony

Solomon, Keza, Diana, Vicky, Anah, Cassandra

Antoinette, Bella, and Me

After some training, games, talks and singing...They were definitely ready to start. 

Today went great and now it is for sure, they will make a great team. 

Can't you tell :) 

Professional Development

All of the administration at Green Hills left the busy city of Kigali. We drove about 3 hour up into the mountains.

It was beautiful! 

We drove up into the mountains to learn more about teaching and education. We have speakers from Canada come talk to us. 

To us teachers this was a great opportunity. 

Refugee Camp

Because of the unrest in Congo many people are fleeing.

Some are coming to a refugee camp on the boarder of Congo and Rwanda.

The little white roofs are only one wing of the camp.

There are over 20,000 refugees living here.

Men, women and children fleeing for their lives, unsure of what is in store for them next. Please pray they have hope and for a better future.  

Spring Cleaning

As a special education teacher you use a lot of materials to teach, especially when you teach all levels. 

It might not be spring but my office really needed to be cleaned! 

Anah and Cassandra came to help and now look at the office...

The materials are ready for the school year...Now I have to get ready. 

To Rwanda

Time well spent in the US:

- Family

- Friends

- Sleep

- Chicago

- Zoo

- Horseback Riding

- Batman

It is always hard to leave Chicago but it will be nice to go back to a regular routine and seeing everyone in Rwanda.

Until next time Chicago....See you on Skype

Siblings

I love my brother and sister! 

Mallory and Me

Mason and Me

We had lots of fun.

Lexi

My family from Alaska came to visit. 

This is Lexi. She is 2.

She is getting really good at the Maddy face :D

Babysitter

While I am in that States, Isabella is watching Bella. 

They are getting a long great! 

Training

Elim is a school who serve people with special needs. They have allowed me to come to their school and learn from the teachers, staff and students. 

I have learned different ways to 

 adapt books 

make schedules

allow independence

It has been a great experience. I am very thankful to Elim for allowing me this opportunity. 

Back to Chicago

I flew home to Chicago this week.

After a year of non-stop going. It is nice to sit back and watch the beautiful city walk by. 

I will be home for one month. 

Teacher Assistants

To celebrate the end of the year my TAs and I had a little party. 

Jackson 

Brian, Allen, Solomon, George

Nancy, Teta, Anah, Rina

Cassandra, Keza, Diana, Me, Doreen

Missing: Tracy and Bella 

With some going to college and some getting other jobs, next year is going to look a little different but these TA have paved the way! I will miss this team but excited to see what will be in store next year. 

Apology Accepted

One of my students got very upset and I could not figure out why. After about a half hour of talking loudly and some tears, I was finally able to understand.

When I talking she heard me say she would go first, when I really said she was not going to go first. She could not tell me why she was upset or what she heard but after talking for a while, it all came together.

Once I figured it out, I was able to apologized for saying and doing the wrong thing.

She accepted my apology and we continued to class.

With the territory of being a special education teacher you must be willing to apologize.

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....