Maranyundo School

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