Blog — Mali Rising Foundation

Teacher Project

One Teacher Dives In On Peer Meetings

Earlier this month, Mali Rising hosted one of our Teacher Peer Meetings – gatherings of 7 or 8 teachers from different schools who learn from each other for the day. Teachers volunteer to present a sample lesson and their peers critique their work – providing both positive and constructively negative feedback. After this most recent Peer Meeting, I talked with one of the participating teachers, and recorded his thoughts on the peer meeting and his work…

One Teacher Amazes His Peers

Lamine Mariko is an incredible science teacher at Christiana Norris Middle School. But don’t take my word for it – his teacher peers made that clear when they gave him a big round of applause at our most recent Teacher Peer Meeting!Lamine Mariko is an incredible science teacher at Christiana Norris Middle School. But don’t take my word for it – his teacher peers made that clear when they gave him a big round of applause at our most recent Teacher Peer Meeting!

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.

Focusing Our Teacher Project Work

We are just a few short days away from opening day of school in Mali! Teachers are busy preparing first classes, weeding schoolyards, buying supplies, and generally getting prepared. As Mali Rising’s Teacher Project Coordinator, I too have been hard at work getting ready for the new school year. One big change is coming in how we target our teacher support work.

New Intensive Teacher Trainings a Hit

Boulaye Diawara is a French teacher at Mali Rising’s Jade and Gabe Mellor Middle School. Mr. Diawara recently attended one of our new Intensive Teacher Trainings and provided us with great feedback about the experience. Spoiler alert: he thought is was great.

Teachers Can Teach Teachers Best!

This school year, we will host 18 Teacher Peer Meetings, where we bring together teachers to help each improve their skills. With so much work going into organizing these meetings, I always want to check in the teachers to make sure they are useful for their work. At a recent peer meeting, I had a great conversation with one teacher who was brand new to the idea of Peer Meetings – Abdoulaye Doumbia.

One Teacher Learns, to Help Him Better Teach

We recently hosted an English Teacher Peer Meting gathering teachers from six of our partner schools. Mali Rising’s Teacher Peer Meetings allow teachers to gather and help each other build their skills. In Mali, teachers rarely come together and have discussions on how improve their own teaching skills, all the six teachers who attended this recent meeting were very excited to join together. Mr. Sio Coulibaly was one of the participating teachers. He was particularly helpful to his peers, peppering them with questions and or providing helpful answers.

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.

An Inspired Principal Calls on His Peers

No one likes to struggle alone! That’s why connecting our principals to each other is so important — they can share ideas and solutions…or just commiserate. Read how a recent Peer Meeting inspired one principal to do even more to connect to his peers.