December 15 and 16, 2022                                    

Leaving is a Process; Not an Event

Leaving Maranyundo Girls School is always a process for me. And this trip is no different. In some ways I had a “dry run” because Joni was preparing to leave for Kenya and her early morning flight on Thursday. A driver drove us along with Sister and I remembered the security check, the efficient markings that led us to the ramp that leads to the next security check and the passenger gates. It was wonderful to have Joni join me in this trip. She is already looking forward to the next trip…the sisters are also!

Returning to campus, I prepared for the tasks I wanted accomplish before my own ride to the airport on Friday. Sister Laetitia asked me to review her ideas for college counseling. I planned a meeting with the Dean. I planned to visit the Maker Space a few times to see the progress girls were making in the next competition they were entering. I planned a meeting with Sister Juvenal.

But planning is always only one aspect of leaving MGS. There are the unexpected and delightful spur of the moment stuff that heightens the pleasure of being there and setting determination that I will return soon.

As I was finishing my comments of Sister’s ideas for a new college counselor and focus on campus, she came into the residence where I was working and we had a chance to have a conversation about how she views the importance of college counseling. Each time I had the opportunity talk with Sister, I came away impressed with how strong her commitment is to knowing each girl at the school and helping each student and her family plan for life beyond MGS. We both realize that the graduates of MGS are an exceptional resource to add their stories of their experiences after MGS and how telling these stories can benefit the current students. Like Leslie, the former Prefect of the Maker Space, the dedication and affection the graduates have for MGS seems t me t be the most powerful asset available to inspire students to continue their education in places are truly a good fit for their talents and dreams.

Likewise, my meeting with the Dean was a time of terrific “teacher talk;” I reminded him that the last time I was at MGS in 2019, he had just joined the faculty. We then had a thoughtful conversation about how he has come to respect the students, the good study habits and fine friendships. We also talked about E. O. Wilson’s article that I had given the Reading Club. He agreed with me that stories are a critical way teachers can interest students in STEM.  He also told me he has come to really appreciate the Maker Space. He was having challenges figuring out how to teach a lesson on electric circuits and Clementine helped him find resources for the lesson in the Maker Space. He is fan!

After visiting the girls in the Maker Space who were building a robot for the next phase of the energy competition, I was sending some emails in the STEM building. Teacher Agnes was marking exams and when she saw me, she hurried over to greet me. I always look forward to seeing Agnes. She is one of the teachers who began with the school and she is always so positive and thoughtful about her craft. She talked with me about how over the years she has seen many changes and progress at the school. But for her, the changes are terrific, but what she appreciates is the central belief that each girl is capable of wonderful achievements. That Respect, Responsibility and Leadership are possible for each girl.

These are just some of the connections I made in the process of leaving MGS that convince me to return very soon. But a highlight of my final hours in Rwanda is my conversation with Sister Juvenal. In many ways, she brought my trip this time a full circle. For all the new and “pilot” projects represented by the PEBL work, teacher trainings, visit to a School of Excellence site in Kigali, speaking with Sister Juvenal reminds me of the foundational tenets that Sister Ann and Aloisia Ayumba declared at the founding of the school. Those tenets are expressed by the school motto. For Sister Juvenal that motto reflects a way of being that is grounded in the respect and love the Benebikira Order show each student in their schools. They allow each student to grow as effective community members. They know that the greatest joy in receiving an education is to be able to share the knowledge and skills we gain with one another. In community.

 As I was writing this post sitting in Amsterdam Airport waiting for Delta Flight 259 to leave for Boston, I reread the posts I had written on my last trip to Rwanda in March 2019, before the pandemic interrupted my travel. After visiting several classrooms, I reflected on how much my observations of MGS reminded me of Debbi Meier’s piece called Community and the real lessons we learn from our schooling. I wrote:

It is one of the aspects of schooling that I believe we always must remember. Schools and the classrooms in which we encounter not only ideas and lessons about the stuff of the world, but also about who we are and how our ideas and questions are valued. Bringing girls together from many different districts of Rwanda and many different backgrounds is a special opportunity for the girls to learn about themselves and one another. Their teachers are very aware of the fact that these girls will play a role in the future of Rwanda.

This is a lesson I always re-learn and remember when I am at Maranyundo. The classrooms in which we educate our youth are powerful places in the lives of both teachers and their students. AS Debbie Meir reminds us, “School is where we learn how public life is lived.” And we all have a stake in how schools and classrooms shape our nations, our futures, our globe.

It's time to report to the Gate. It is time once again to reflect on all I have learned from this lovely school in Nyamata, Rwanda. And, hopefully, to plan for a return trip very soon.

Amahoro.                                            

Linda V Beardsley

 

December 14, 2022

 

Wednesday

 

The Power of Reading and Story at Maranyundo

 

Wednesday morning was beautiful. The sunshine presented all the campus…landscaping, buildings, tiled walkways…in all the vibrant colors and textures that make this campus such a beautiful context in which to teach and learn. Even in the throes of the exam period, there is a comfortable feel to the place as the girls walk together in comfortable groups heading to their exam rooms or sit along the wall of the STEM building reflecting on their exam preparation and checking off the exams that are done. The very essence of the place seems to be breathing deeply.

 

Today Sister Laetitia arranged for Joni and me to meet with the students in the Reading Club  who did not have an afternoon exam. Sister said several girls have been reading Becoming by Michelle Obama. I had given them an article by E. O. Wilson called The Power of Story. It is a short piece that I give my students to read in the Role of Story class I teach at Tufts University. Wilson recounts his lifelong fascination with ants that inspired his career as a biologist and his teaching at Harvard University for over 4 decades. He believes in the power of story to teach us all to understand science, mathematics, the study of life. Story can bridge what he sees as the false gap that has been created between the sciences and the humanities. If the STEM subjects were taught using more stories, more narratives, we could all remember facts and begin to see our own lives reflected in the work of scientists.

 

Since developing the Role of Story course (based on the original course taught by my former colleague Dr. Martha Tucker) I have been using material from the text Shaped by Stories, by the late Marshall Gregory. Gregory believed our natural penchant to seek out and create narrative to make meaning of the world is how we develop our ethical sense of the world. It is at the heart of how we learn and what we learn. “We live in stories and stories live in us,” he wrote. Joni and I took that sentence as the theme of our meeting with the MGS Reading Club.

 

After introducing themselves, we began by showing them a copy of the Becoming text I had borrowed from the MGS library. It was well worn! How many students had been choosing that book. Immersing themselves in Micelle Obama’s story: of her childhood, of her early education, of her time at Princeton, of her work as a lawyer. And then the story of meeting her future husband and a relationship of love and respect that brought them to live in the White House as first family of the United States. We asked the girls what story of Michelle Obama’s life now lives in them as they pursue their own personal story of Becoming here at Maranyundo School? The girls were pleased to share their ideas.

As they recalled the passages of the book that were meaningful for them…her humble beginnings, her experiences in school, her choice to attend Princeton, her commitment to her family even as a busy lawyer and later as first lady…it was clear that these students are becoming skilled, insightful readers. We talked about how each of us are always becoming…and how the becoming that is central to Obama’s life reflects the motto of MGS: Respect, Responsibility and Leadership. The central tenets the students are learning here are the same qualities that Michelle Obama has learned and keeps learning that give her hope, joy, and a commitment for a better future for all of us.

 Nadine in the Administration building helped me set up a slide to project. It was a slide of the portrait of E. O. Wilson that I saw in the National Portrait Gallery in 2018. For me he projects the idea of a kind, wise mentor. The branch that he is holding so carefully reveals a number of ants crawling along its length. Joni and I each read our favorite paragraphs from the article. The girls could follow along with their own copies as we read. We read passages like:

We all live by narrative, every day and every minute of our lives. Narrative is the human way of working through a chaotic and unforgiving world.

And this:

Because science, told as a story, can intrigue and inform the non-scientiflc minds among us, it has the potential to bridge the two cultures into which civilization is split--the sciences and the humanities. For educators, stories are an ex- citing way to draw young minds into the scientific culture.

We urged the girls to continue their interest in stories and reading all literature even as they learned the STEM subjects, to seek the stories of scientists and mathematicians who have made so many important contributions to our understanding of the way the world works. We showed them that there are copies of E. O. Wilson’s writings in the MGS Library!

Finally, we asked the girls to tell us what themes or topics they would like to continue exploring in their reading group. They immediately offered a variety of topics: women’s empowerment, mental health issues among young people, climate change, artistic expression of story, recipes, writing stories and different forms of public speaking. It is clear from the breadth of their interests and the enthusiasm with which they read and “live in stories” of others, even as they live to make their own story of becoming educated young women here at MGS, a strong Reading Culture is a vital part of the experience of Maranyundo Girls School.

Happy Reading Everyone!                                                                

Linda V. Beardsley

 

 

 

December 13, 2022 

Tuesday                                               

 

Maker Space Materials Have Arrived!

 

Today was a day for examining and sorting the material that the PEBL participants will receive to start to develop their Maker Spaces in their own school sites. Djamila, Joni and I literally rolled up our sleeves and began the process of recording the materials that had arrived and what is yet to be delivered.

 

The materials have been delivered to MGS for storage and sorting. Materials will be divided equally among the schools that have sent participants to the PEBL Trainings. After the new term begins in January, Sister Laetitia, Djamila and Robert will visit each school site, deliver the materials, and acknowledge the terrific work the teachers have already done by participating in the trainings. They will express how pleased they are that they have begun to plan for a Maker Space in their school. It will be a chance to see how far they have been able to go with the planning steps they developed at the end of their work in December 10. The encouragement of the PEBL Trainers and Sister Laetitia as a Head of School will be a reminder that there is going to be support throughout the term as they follow their planning scheme and develop their engineering spaces and Maker Space ideas.

 

At the close of the April PEBL Training, Djamila asked the teachers to make lists of the materials they felt would be needed to use Novel Engineering and making as part of their curriculum. Djamila honored their lists, and refined some of the list while she was at Tufts in October visiting Maker Spaces with which the CEEO has been working.. She ordered the materials when she returned to Rwanda and they are beginning to arrive. It’s exciting for her to see the shipments. It was good for me to see what the teachers will be receiving that they can continue teaching and learning in Novel Engineering and Arduino.

 

 As I  was unwrapping boxes, sorting stuff and reporting each category to Djamila for her inventory, I was reminded of the terrific examples of student work in the Maker Space that we saw Monday in Kigali. Djamila is certain that the ambitious, creative teachers who have been working with the PEBL philosophy will do “great things in each of their schools. I will end this blog post with some photos of the first Primary School Maker Space tat teachers from the April PEBL training have developed. It is evidence that all that stuff we sorted and counted and recounted and recorded on a spreadsheet will be put to good use when they arrive in school in the New Year to enhance student learning!

Linda  V. Beardsley

 

December 12, 2022                                                        

 

A Full Day...Full of Many Things...

 

When Joni and I were planning for this Rwanda trip, we knew that we would be working with the teachers from the PEBL Project on December 9 and 10. Joni asked me, “What will be doing the other days? What should I prepare for?” I answered with what I have learned over the years about coming to Rwanda and the Maranyundo Girls School. “Well, I am not really sure, but each day will be full; the sisters will make sure we have meaningful experiences that will teach us a great deal about the history of the country, rebuilding an education system to educate young people, and the promise of a strong future emerging from a dark colonial past.”

 

December 12 was a day to experience all of those elements. Sister Laetitia and Sister Juvenal were our guides.

 

Visiting Notre Dame de Auges Nursery and Primary School:

 

We drove from MGS to Kigali in the Nyamata-to-Kigali rush hour traffic, which has increased substantially in the past few years. People are moving to Nyamata to live in lovely new homes that are commuting distance from Kigali. Suburbs are growing. We met Sister Juvenal at her residence in Kigali, next door to one of the Benebikira Nursery and Primary schools, Notre Dame de Auges. Notre Dame is an impressive set of buildings that serves 800 students. We began our visit with the Director who has been Head of School for 1 year. We first talked with her about what we would be seeing: 3 early childhood classrooms; the primary school students on break (it is exam time); the Maker Space that 2 teachers who attended the PEBL teacher training have begun.

 

The Nursery Classrooms were delightful. The students are clearly enjoying being together in colorful, cozy rooms. Children showed us their paper structures, their keyboard and microphone for music,(the child who held the microphone the song leader!). Other students were working with stickers, having a porridge and milk break, marching to a version of If You’re Happy and You Know It,  keeping the beat with a lovely drum. When we were summoned to leave the first classroom to visit the next, the children wanted to write their names in a lovely note book that Joni carries. She left the book for them to write their names. When we completed our tour, Sister Juvenal stopped back to the classroom to retrieve Joni’s book. Joni opened the book and the page she discovered is a wonderful gift. Each child had written their name, carefully guided by the lined page, leaving a signature to remind Joni and each of us of the energy and joy we witnessed in their being together. “I am here” each signature seemed to declare. “Remember that you were here, too.” Indeed we will!

The Maker Space at Notre Dame was a delight. The teachers and the Headmistress are proud to have started an engineering Club and  sharing ideas and strategies of Novel engineering with their students. 

After a leisurely Ladies Luncheon at Chez Lando (so many memories!) we were on our way to the Genocide Memorial. That experience begins with a delightful surprise. In 1994, in the days immediately following the cessation of killing, a three year old boy wandered to the place where Sister Juvenal and other sisters were gathering lost children. The sisters established their place as an orphanage while they tried to find homes for the children. This three year old boy, along with others, was not able to be placed. So an orphanage was established so the Sisters could care for these children. That tiny boy is now a leader among the docents at the Genocide Memorial. Jean St Croix hailed us as our driver drove into the crowded parking area, signaling that a special parking place had been reserved  for us. Being from Boston, I appreciated having a connection to find preferred parking!

 

It was so sweet to see how Jean called Sister Juvenal “Mum.” The affection he showed towards her and Sister Laetitia was lovely. The affection and pride Sister Juvenal felt was very special. Jean ushered us into the Memorial and accompanied us through the English guided tour.

 

At this point, I cannot find the words to express what the experience of the Memorial means to visitors to the Memorial. Each of us responds in our own way. But those ways are not the same as the way Rwandans respond to this site. As Jean explained to us, “Many people see this place as a museum. For us it is a Memorial. For us it is a place where our people are buried. Many come to visit their families here.”

 

Personally, this was my 4^th visit to the Memorial; each time I see something different, I feel something deeply. To visit the Memorial with Joni, who is Jewish, the comparisons to the Holocaust were particularly troubling, considering the mantra of “Never Again” and the work of Raphael Lemkin. The room which acknowledges the genocides that have transpired across the globe force us to reckon with the cruelty humans are capable of perpetrating with power to destroy. We all lingered over the photos and explanations in the Children’s Room of the awful deaths suffered by the youngest victims. I tried to hold on tightly to the image of those joyful children in the Nursery School we had visited just hours ago. But the contrast seemed like a deep cavern I could not escape.

 

At the end of the tour, Jean brought us to the café and we sat together with cool drinks, each quietly processing their own experience of what we had just seen and heard. It was a remarkable intimacy made even more profound by knowing Jean’s history with Sister Juvenal and her congregation. Jean introduced us to 2 of is “bosses” (proudly introducing his “Mum” to them. They each told Mum what a special young man she had brought them!) One of his “bosses,” Jeff, is Director of Education Programs at the Memorial. He spoke to us of how the outreach to other countries, schools and NGOs is so critical for the mission of the museum. “We must never tolerate violence, become immune to injustice anywhere. These are the first steps to genocide.” I thought how gun violence is becoming so familiar in our reports of mass shootings in the US. The commitment to educate the world to decry such acts is clear in the Memorial’s work.

 

After finishing our drinks and conversation, Jean gave each of us a rose to take to the gardens where 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsies are buried. ( about one forth of the total victims.) The Sisters sang prayers, blessings for the dead; thanksgiving for their lives. We each laid our rose on a sarcophagus. Then we strolled through the beautiful gardens that surround the innocent victims of this unspeakable tragedy.

 

 

Going Home

 

The ride back to Maranyundo was quiet. The day was so busy, so full of joy at seeing the children and accomplishments of the Notre Dame school. The day was so full of sadness, confronting the unspeakable cruelty that people are capable of perpetrating on one another. By the time we arrived back at the school, I felt that my own being was full of hope as demonstrated by the work of the Sister Laetitia and her staff and faculty at this beautiful school. The school motto, the promise of what students will learn here… Respect Responsibility and Leadership… brings hope to this nation in its on-going process of healing. And as I thought about the day as I turned out my light, I thought again of those words I wrote when I first came to MGS.

 

The more I take in this place, this school, the more I am learning why it is that the people in Rwanda are hoping that education will allow their nation to heal and develop a new voice in the world community. I am not naïve to the fact that politics and the wretched history of Colonialism and suffering that is part of the legacy the West has left this nation will shape some of the tone and cadence of this voice. But here at the Maranyundo School, among the girls eager to learn, among the teachers eager to teach, among the sisters dedicated to serve, one can feel a strong possibility that the voice will be a woman’s voice, resonating with song and delight, but very strong, complex, ageless and deep.

 

 

Linda V. Beardsley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 11, 2022

                                        Thoughts on Sunday as a Day of Rest                                                                                

Acknowledging the need for rest!  

After our busy day yesterday with the last day of the PEBL Teacher Training, the Sisters insisted that Joni and I have a day to rest and savor Sunday on the MGS campus. Sister Laetitia asked three S6 students to take us to the prayer meetings that the student leaders organize every Sunday when there is not a priest to hold Mass in the chapel. The meetings are a joyful combination of girls giving thanks for good things in their lives and wonderful singing.

Coffee on the porch…

It was a beautiful, radiant morning so I took my first cup of terrific Rwandan coffee to drink on the porch. I will never tire of looking out across the quad. It is a beautiful campus. I think of how having a place in which to learn that is well cared for and safe is such an important way to let students know that they are important to the future of a community.

Guests come to visit...

While I was catching up on some work at the dining table, 2 guests came to the door. Sister Jacinta, who was the first bursar at MGS is now teaching at a Benebikira school in Uganda. I was very happy to see her. We were able to reminisce about the early days of the school. We also talked about the many changes that she noticed as she walked about the campus.

The other guest gave Sister Jacinta an update on being a student at MGS now. Leslie is a 2021 graduate of MGS.  Leslie had been the Maker Space Prefect on campus. She told a wonderful story of watching the first days of the Maker Space and wondering if it was a space for her. She said, “I was not doing well in my classes then. But once I began working in the Maker Space and I began to understand the elements of making robotics, my grades improved dramatically. I suddenly saw why I had to learn math, what scientific principles were important. Making robots made my learning make sense.”

 Leslie is currently working with a group called Rwandan Water Access. Run by a woman, the business provides water at reasonable rates to needy families. She is applying to college for engineering.  She wants to continue to work with students in the Maker Space. She even went to the robotics competition on Saturday to cheer on the team that won first place…her current MGS, S5 and S6 colleagues

 

Unhurried Conversation...

After Victoire, Davida and Sandra walked us back to the residence after the Prayer Meeting, we talked with them about their current interests, their exam experiences and their future plans. They are eager to pursue their interests in computer science, physics and chemistry after graduation. But they still have so many questions about how to choose a college and what details they should be focusing on. The conversation reminded me so much of the work Ellie, Louise and Kellia did last summer, interviewing MGS alums about what they needed as they transitioned from MGS to the next step in their learning. Meeting Leslie (and also Alice and Larissa, 2 other recent graduates who like to visit campus), I thought about how the graduates represent a terrific resource for the girls who have so many questions about the complex process of choosing a college.

 

 

This day of rest and having opportunities to have unhurried conversations with current students and recent graduates of MGS was a joy. We are refreshed and inspired to have a busy, productive Monday visiting two of Sister Juvenal’s schools in Kigali.

Wishing you all rest and unhurried conversations...

Linda V. Beardsley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 10, 2022                                    

It Was Me and Now It Is You

I am sitting in the residence as the late afternoon sun dims and the brilliant colors of the campus soften. Joni and I have completed two days supporting Djamila Khamisi and SANDE Robert as they completed the second round of teacher Professional Development focused on the Playful Engineering Based Learning (PEBL). This initiative has been supported by a grant from the LEGO Foundation to Tufts CEEO. The teachers are learning the Novel Engineering approach to creative problem solving. The teachers are expected to start a Maker Space in their schools when they return. The teachers came from 10 different schools, both Benebikira schools and public schools from Bugasera.

Both Joni and I were reminded of the education philosophy demonstrated by the Reggio Emilia movement which put the  child at the center the learning. The philosophy shaped the pre-school Kindergarten movement in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The student is respected as an active participant in their learning and families are acknowledged as critical in supporting the student’s learning. The teacher must be attuned to the interests of the learner and develops learning opportunities that weave the traditional academic standards into that student focused learning. It is wonderful to see the wisdom of early childhood philosophy having an impact on all grade levels.

The professional development for the teachers that Djamila and Robert developed for the PEBL folks is seen as an approach that can be brought to a school through developing a Maker Space. Making can bring students together to create, to problem solve, to make meaning in an area of interest. The teachers went through Novel Engineering activities. They designed projects that asked them to build something, seek out feedback and revise their artifact based on that peer and student feedback. Participants always worked in small groups, collaborating and sharing their expertise with one another.

Primary and Secondary Teachers Learning Together.

The teachers represented both Early Childhood/ Primary and Secondary levels. There were times when they met together to consider theory. There were times when the groups met separately. The Primary folks built houses that were well suited to deal with the issues presented by water in Rwanda. The secondary folks asked to learn Arduino. Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. For most of the teachers, Arduino was a new program to learn. Like the Primary folks, the Secondary teachers worked in groups to install and learn the program. For those who found the process very challenging, being in a group helped them to complete the tasks. Djamila, who is so knowledgeable about technology, remained calm and reassuring. She convinced each teacher that they could meet the challenge. And each teacher did!

 On the last day, there was time for the groups to visit the work each group had done. The Secondary folks were impressed by the intricate work the Primary folks had done to address water challenges in their communities by building houses that demonstrated how a community could respond to water challenges. The Primary folks admired the coding skills that the Secondary folks had learned to create a fan, a sensor for water in the soil, a sensor light to protect a car at night. Asked to share what they learned that will impact their teaching the most, they agreed that the opportunity to share ideas, to  accept other ideas, to listen to feedback and learn that new ideas  can improve a project. “I have learned to really listen carefully to my colleagues and to not be afraid of feedback.”

The Final Session

 Coming together for final session to work on a worksheet to plan What’s Next? They were charged with starting a Maker Space in their schools over the next semester. Robert told the group the story of his 2011 trip to Boston, sponsored by Tufts and Maranyundo Initiative. He said that trip changed his thinking about teaching and learning that he thought he knew so well!. He reminded the teachers they must always be ready to learn.

When Robert came to Boston that year, the Initiative was considering building a STEM Building on the campus to accommodate the developing STEM programs at MGS. Robert was asked to speak to friends of the school to explain why that building was needed. “At that time the STEM building with Library was only an idea,” he explained to the group. He finds it difficult to put into words how he felt in 2022 to be sharing his learning with other teachers in a building that he knew as an idea. Now that STEM Building and Library serves students in labs, book stacks and the Maker Space day after day. The idea of the building was given to a Rwandan architect who incorporated the symbols of Rwandan education into its design. Robert concluded his story with these ideas: “Simple things if followed up can become great things. In our careers, each of us may be called upon to take a simple idea and make it great.  In 2011, it was me; now it is you.”

Robert’s message is a powerful one for all of us, as friends of Maranyundo Girls School, to consider.

An Update! The Maker Space Girls have just won a regional competition for their robotic designs for energy conservation in Kigali today. The team won 2 laptops! Congratulations team and their mentor, Clementine! There is much jubilation on campus this evening!

Linda V Beardsley

 

 

 

December 9, 2022

 

Visiting the MGS Maker Space

 

The sounds of the early morning at Maranyundo are a pleasure to wake up to. There is a rooster’s assertive call, then a variety of bird songs mocking in return. Then the girls appear in small groups walking to their study time; sometimes seemingly in quiet conversation. Sometimes giggling as they walk toward the study spaces. This morning we noticed a new energy to that strolling. The girls emerged from their study spaces and jogged around the quad several times before going to breakfast. It was fun to see. Even under a cloudy sky in what Rwandans call the “rainy season,” the light is soft and the sun tries to appear through dusty clouds. With study time, exercise and breakfast, the day has begun.

 

As much as I miss traveling here with Maranyundo Initiative friends, it has been a delight to see Joni’s reactions to this place. Joni is such a careful observer of things and she is always eager to see, to try; she always asks thoughtful questions. Sister Laetitia was eager to give Joni a tour of the campus yesterday. When we came to the Maker Space, I felt as if I were Joni, seeing it for the first time! I remember the March 2019 trip when Sara Wilner-Gweric and I brought the first stuff to MGS to start a Maker Space at the school. At that time, this is what I thought:

 

Whereas I envisioned teacher workshops to train teachers to use the 3-D printer, the robotics material, etc. Sara had a different idea. “I’ll train 10-12 interested students to become Maker Space Ambassadors. They will learn to use the Space and they will have ideas about how to make it an integral part of the school.” Although I was skeptical at first, after only a few days of working with the students to set up the space and begin training the girls, I could see that Sara’s vision was very successful.

 

Visiting the 2022 version of the Maker Space, it was clear to me that since Sara brought the first materials and  making ideas to the Library and STEM building in March 2019, Clementine and the students have transformed it into a remarkable space of design, creativity, problem solving and promise. Truly a reflection of the young women who are using this space.

 

The first thing that caught my gaze as we walked into the space was the way students are using the wall space to share their creations. The ways on which the students have used materials to capture traditional Rwandan images, art and cultural connections were remarkable. It seemed to me to be the best example of STEAM…artifacts that were artistic and creative along with craft that demonstrated symmetry, mathematics, even chemical changes in materials such as when students dipped yarn into paraffin to make it pliable yet able to maintain shape and style. My description here does not do these creations justice. Only a photo gives the true evidence of this example of how the students are making this space reflect their own cultural connections.

 

 

In a corner of the room, underneath the art display, Clementine showed us the technical challenge the students are working on for a competition among schools on the area to be held this weekend in Kigali. Again, my vocabulary fails me to describe how carefully the students are using their proficiency with LEGO robotics to solve energy challenges in their area. This is a photo of the layout the students are entering in the competition for solving energy challenges.

 

Talking with Clementine about her dreams for the next phase of the Maker Space, she wants to encourage the students to continue to design items that could be sold for household decorations. In concert with the entrepreneurship course all students are required to take, the work of the students could become a revenue stream to support the Maker Space as it continues to grow. It is amazing to consider that this space can be a space that communicates so much about the interests and talents of the students and how they will contribute to the future.

 

All the best

 

Linda V. Beardsley

 

 

 

 Arriving Again!

December 8, 2022

 

My colleague, Joni Block, and I arrived last evening. As the plane approached the Kigali Airport through the dark sky, I am always remembering the very first time I came to Rwanda. I remember feeling a certain reverence, a sense of wonder, entering a space that seemed so new to me. A place with such a rich and complicated history especially in its relationship to the Western world. That Western vantage point, I had to acknowledge, is my own history, which was the starting point of my exploration of the Rwandan story as my association with the Maranyundo Initiative began. As the plane glides through that darkness, I think of my first visits here and as I woke up this morning, I went to the porch overlooking the quad. I thought of my first mornings waking up on the mist-enshrouded campus. That same sort of mist was rising from the damp grass today.  I read an early entry into my 2010 journal (that journal has evolved into this blog!). This is what I was learning then, in 2010:

It is fitting to be sitting here this morning contemplating the dawn and the beginning of light. The more I take in this place, this school, the more I am learning why it is that the people in Rwanda are hoping that education will allow their nation to heal and develop a new voice in the world community. I am not naïve to the fact that politics and the wretched history of Colonialism and suffering that is part of the legacy the West has left this nation will shape some of the tone and cadence of this voice. But here at the Maranyundo School, among the girls eager to learn, among the teachers eager to teach, among the sisters dedicated to serve, one can feel a strong possibility that the voice will be a woman’s voice, resonating with song and delight, but very strong, complex, ageless and deep.                                        March, 2010

And I know that this is still the deep truth and mission of this school.  

 

The Upcoming Schedules:

After the usual anxious moments waiting for our luggage to appear on the baggage loop,(it all came unscathed!), we drove to the school with Sister Evelyn. Upon arrival on the campus, the sisters greeted us with their usual warmth; they had prepared a lovely dinner for us in their Residence. The conversation was wonderful…catching up on the latest interests at the school, how the girls were preparing for the coming exams, how the garden was faring, the books that are most popular n the library (Michelle Obama is a favorite. A student made a poster for the library that has a picture of Michelle with the caption My Boss Lady.)

Over breakfast this morning, we began planning for the day wth Sister Laetitia that includes an afternoon meeting with Djamila Khamisi to plan for the second part of the PEBL Teaacher Trainings which will begin tomorrow. We will have a tour of the school today so Sister Laetitia can introduce Joni to the spaces and evolution of the campus. My day will conclude with an opportunity to share the school with my students in ED 189: The Role of Story in Education class.

As I have been hurrying to post this blog, the deep mist has cleared from the valleys so we can see the surrounding hills, the vivid greens, the “pops” of colorful flowers and some swatches of blue sky. Day One of this current adventure at MGS has begun. I look forward to sharing its wonder, accomplishments and new ventures with all of you.(And new photos!)

All the Best

Linda V. Beardsley

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 2022: Ready to Return to MGS!

Hello Everyone:

I am pleased to say that I am ready to return to the MGS campus! This time, I will be working with Headmistress Sister Laetitia, Sister Juvenal and Djamila Khamisi to support their work training teachers in Playful Engineering Based Learning (PEBL) a grant supported by the LEGO Foundation to prepare teachers to engage students in problem solving, literacy in Novel Engineering experiences, supported by the staff and faculty in the Tufts Center for Engineering Outreach (CEEO). I suggest you take a stroll down the Memory Lane of this Blog and review the entries when Sara Willner-gweric and I traveled to the school and introduced the Maker Space concept of STEM activities. Since then, the making pedagogy has been developing throughout the world. The LEGO Foundation grant is supporting educators from across the globe (as well as the USA!) to learn more about how to engage students of all ages in hands on learning and creative problem solving through Making.

Djamila came to Tufts and worked in the CEEO and Education Department at Tufts for 3 weeks. She has become an impressive STEM resource for the schools in the Bugasera district. I am looking forward to working with her as she embarks on the second stage of the PEBL trainings. Sister Laetitia and Sister Juvenal also recently had the chance to meet with me and others in Boston to discuss how the PEBL work can form the  basis for pedagogy in their schools.

Accompanying me on this trip is my colleague and friend, Joni Block. Joni and I have worked together over the years in several initiatives. She is an expert in early childhood and primary grade instruction. She has opened early childhood centers in Kenya. Joni will be supporting Djamila in the work with the primary teachers and touring early childhood and primary schools with Sister Juvenal. 

 It is wonderful to be returning to Rwanda after so many years of Zoom connections! I hope you enjoy accompanying me as I try to record the energy, enthusiasm and commitment of the teachers and students involved in the PEBL Project!

Linda V. Beardsley