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....

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!

A Drawing

A student drew a pictures of me today and it was clear what I am known for at school.

1. Orange

2. Bella (my guinea pig)

3. Gym Shoes

4. White skin and Red hair

5. Teacher

In that order, of course.

I think it sums me up pretty well :)

Apple Sauce

I love Africa and I love living in Rwanda but sometimes you just need a little taste of home.

Apple sauce reminds me of home and after a long day I just needed some good apple sauce :)

Things I would not normally buy in the States suddenly become very tasty. I like the food here but always love when I get a taste of home.

New Trick!

Other than being awesome with each one of my students, being a great roommate, a good friend, comforter and listener....Bella can do a trick!

She now likes to climb on top of her igloo, peek out the door of her cage and look at me. She looks with a face of 'hey, hold me please?' And I cannot help it, I have to pick her up; she is just so cute!

She might be a small, little guinea pig but she is making a big difference!

Hair

Situation: I was riding the bus with my students and the windows were open. My hair was down and as you can imagine it was blowing all over.

Student A: Look at Tr. Maddy's hair!

Student B: It is like a movie.

My thoughts: Like a 50's movies in a Cadillac :)

Student A: Yeah! It's like the lion in Lion King when he roars!

Student B: You're right.

My thoughts: Well, they are right...it is the same color...

Water in Kayonza

For their entire lives they had to walk an hour and a half down hill to a stream, fill water containers and then carry them an hour and a half up hill, two times every day. And it still was not enough water to do all the cooking, cleaning, and drinking (not even thinking about bathing, just not enough water).

Now with a well in the middle of the village people walk no more than 10 minutes to fetch water and can get enough for almost 2 days in one trip. And they have so much more time in their day!
Serge asked why this man was so happy to have water so close. His reply, 'Now maybe my wife can have children.' Because his wife had to walk so far to get the water, she kept loosing her babies but now there is a greater chance they can have a child.
Why is this child happy? Instead spending the day fetching water, he will have the chance to go to school!
Since the water is clean the people will be much healthier.

Water... we use it all the time... brush teeth, wash hands, flush toilet, shower, play games, cook, water the plants, drink, wash the floor, clean veggies, pour on you when you are hot, swim... we take it for granted...

Be thankful you have running water and that you don't need to think twice about taking a 20 minute shower or flushing the toilet every time you go to the bathroom... next time you wash your hands thank God for the water you have.

Field Trip!

I went on a field trip with my student and his homeroom class in grade 1.

We went to the farm to see animals and how crops are grown.

We saw a cow and they named her Alicia :)

We even got to harvest some of the crops!

We got a carrot, cabbage, mango, orange, pepper and suger cane

We all had a lot of fun!