By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Manager

As we wrapped up one school year this June, I was already shifting gears to plan for next school year! As part of that planning, I think a lot about how to make the largest difference for our teachers and, through them, our students. One of my favorite campaigns I work on is our Intensive Teacher Training Campaign.

Each year, through this campaign we bring together a group of teachers from our schools for several day-long trainings and peer meetings. We select eight or ten schools to work with in this intense way, so that we can keep the group sizes small enough to allow the teachers to really learn. We divide those schools into 3 groups that spend the year together learning and sharing.

In order to select schools to participate for the 24/25 school year, I not only have to think about the need for the training in the schools, but also about the partnership with the principals, who are incredibly helpful to us when it comes to implementing any project.

So in setting my plans for next year I recently had a great call with Mr. Drissa Coulibaly about bringing his school into the campaign next school year. Mr. Coulibaly has been principal at the Harman Family Middle School for about three years. We already love working with Mr. Coulibaly, who has been a great adopter of services from Mali Rising such as borrowing the Little Library for his students and hosting the French Language Intervention Project to help his seventh graders improve their French skills.

Upon being invited to join the Teacher Training Intensive next year, Mr. Coulibaly was astonished and grateful. He kept laughing on the phone and said he was at a loss for words because of the great news!

In Mali, the opportunity for teachers to participate in trainings is quite rare and highly desired. Mr. Coulibaly said :

“I think I just heard the best news of the year from Mali Rising Foundation ! I can’t believe it because I always dreamed of having my teachers trained on the skills they are weak in. My dream just came true thanks to Mali Rising Foundation. I am very sure this will improve my school results in the future, which is our goal. So I am exceptionally grateful for everything from this organization. I will be looking forward to working with you throughout the 24-25 school year. I hope not to disappoint you by being helpful to your project and improving our school results…You made my day!”

I too look forward to working with Mr. Coulibaly and all of our teachers in the new school year. Here’s to a fresh start in 24/25!