Teachers

What Keeps a Teacher Going

Mahamadou Doumbia is a dedicated educator with over a decade of experience teaching biology in rural Mali. Mr . Doumbia has served in various village schools, and for the past six years, he’s been a pillar at Ross and Marilou Moser Middle School. His commitment and passion for education led to his appointment as the principal in 2022, a role that has deepened his connection to the village of Nieguekoro and its families.

Charging Up Principals for a New School Year

As the new school year got underway in Mali this month, we started gathering groups of our partner schools’ principals together to share ideas and energy. The first such meeting was hosted in the Ouelessebougou area, which is home to the majority of partner villages. It was an energetic meeting and the principals really took ownership of how to help each other in the coming year.

Great Teachers Make Great Schools

Mali’s teachers face many unique challenges, such as class sizes of more than 100 students and a lack of textbooks. But one challenge they face is one that any teacher around the world would recognize – how to engage their students and encourage questions and discussion. At a recent Mali Rising Teacher Training, we tackled this exact problem and inspired one young teacher -- Benzamé Sanou – to return to his classroom with new ideas and new energy.

Learn More About the Teacher Project

Without teachers, a school is just a building. With our supporters' help, we invest in teachers to make sure schools can deliver on the promise of education. A volunteer, Lawrence, recently made us a great video highlighting our teachers and the work we do to support them and I wanted to use this chance to share more information about this important project.

Teacher Peer Meetings Help Teachers Help Each Other

The school year in Mali is now in full swing, so the work of our Mali staff is also geared up! This is particularly true for our Teacher Project Coordinator, Adama, who is hard at work helping our teachers. Last week, he hosted his first ever Teacher Peer Meeting, designed to help our teachers help each other.

Welcome to Adama, Teacher Project Coordinator!

We are excited to welcome our new Teacher Project Coordinator, Adama, to Mali Rising’s Mali-based staff. Although we are sad to see our previous Coordinator, Francois, move on, we know Adama will do a great job in the role. We asked Adama a few questions to help everyone get to know him.

When our teachers are united for the same cause.....

We saw a great example of how our hard-working teachers come together to help each other do the best job they can when teachers from four Mali Rising schools joined forces at a Mali Rising Teacher Peer Meeting in the remote Sikasso region.

Photo Update from 2018 Teacher Training

Last week, more than 40 Mali Rising teachers came together for 5 days of training and sharing ideas. This is all thanks to our generous supporters, who understand that a school is only as good as its teachers. Thanks to our donors, each Mali Rising school now has two teachers with more skills to share with their students!