I Have a Girl at this School

 

(Joni and I were reflecting on our experiences at Family Visiting Day and Joni reported on meeting a gentleman. He approached her in front of the STEM building as they were watching the Maker Space team demonstrating their robotics display. He introduced himself.  Then he said, “I have a girl at this school” and he smiled with great pride. I replied, “Joni, I think that will be the title of my book when I write down all that I have learned from the Maranyundo Girls School in Nyamata Rwanda; I Have a Girl at this School.)

 

Even though jet lag is still very much with us, we were able to accomplish a great deal on this busy Monday. This morning the 3 of us had a very productive meeting with Sister Laetitia who helped us plan a schedule for the week.  It will be a busy time fitting in the schedule for the writers into their pre-school exam week. But Sister is eager that the S-6 students who are writing the graduation magazine and the S-5 students who will be writing next year’s graduation magazine have opportunities to practice writing and sharing experiences that shape their learning and preparing to be leaders of the 21t century.

 

Tufts University was well represented on the campus this morning. Jean Pascal Cyusa Shyaka and Noella Akuzwe are 2 rising sophomores majoring in Engineering at Tufts. They are both Rwandans who have been working at the CEEO this year supporting Djamila in her role as Coordinator of the LEGO PEBL grant in Rwanda. They were able to travel home for part of the summer and have an internship to assist the teachers we trained in December to continue to develop their Maker Spaces. They will also help to prepare for the demonstration of all the schools that will be held here on the MGS campus on June 24. They have been such a terrific addition to the project. They are helping the teachers become confident using Arduino. They are advising students on their ideas for their projects. They are developing activities that club members can try. Best of all, however, they are each having such fun working with Djamila, seeing how creative and productive students can be with the Maker Space as a learning space for trying out new ideas and problem solving. They are enjoying discovering all the ways they can support the Rwandan teachers who are trying to use making as a pedagogy with their students. In turn, Noella and Pascal are enjoying all the learning they are doing as mentors to these teachers. A wonderful match!

 

The part of this busy day which I enjoyed most was welcoming students to the Writing Project! Joni, Kaelen and I met our students in the STEM building and began a project to encourage the girls to see themselves as authors of their own stories. Building on the themes we introduced to the Reading Club last December, we began describing the theme of the work with Michelle Obama’s idea of story.

“Even when it is not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real that you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.”

We also re-visited E. O. Wilson’s essay, The Power of Story, in which he describes story as a way to teach science and its power in our world.

“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.”

That sentiment seemed especially fitting for the girls as they prepared for their end of year exams! We gave half the students Wilson’s essay to read together; the other half read Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors by Rudine Sims Bishop. Both essays can be read  as a way to enter the task of an author.

 

Joni and I always enjoy teaching together. But for this kick-off of our writing project, it was Kaelen’s sharing her essay on what she learned from her service work at Malden Catholic that really inspired the MGS students. Kaelen shared an essay she had written to fulfill an assignment for her Theology class. She described how her knee injury and subsequent surgery meant she could not participate in sports this year. But she did have the opportunity to work with 6 and 8 year old boys in an introduction to lacrosse program. Her essay describes all she learned from that experience, as well as how it brought certain passage from the Gospels to life for her. Joni and I had asked Kaelen to share her essay as a way to introduce the MGS girls to an awareness of how the experiences we have every day shape the stories of who we are becoming and how once we write those experiences down we can share them with others…to learn from, to reflect upon.

 

Now I know I am Kaelen’s grandmother…so of course I was incredibly proud of her sharing her essay with a group of students she was meeting for the first time. But not only did she share her writing with poise and pride, but at the end of the session the girls wanted copies of her essay! Wow. As I have reflected on Kaelen’s teaching moment, I realize it as a terrific example of what both Bishop and Wilson want us to consider about story. (And Michelle, of course!)  The MGS girls identifies with Kaelen’s experience; it mirrored some of their own emotions about service, about an unexpected set back with something they care about (sports), about meeting a school assignment. She offered them a window into her own learning and school life. They wanted to know more and join the journey of that narrative. Kaelen’s year of reclaiming her knee and mentoring novice lacrosse payers is a story of resilience and “becoming” that captured so much of what we wanted the girls to realize about the “Power of Story.” Way to go Kaelen!

 

So our project has begun. The conversations the students had connecting the essays we read and the ideas they had about writing were terrific. As I contemplated the story of this day, I kept coming back to Noella, Pascal, and Kaelen. What is it about this school, about this place that encourages us to try new things, to grow, to find new ways each of us can contribute to one another? To learn from one another.  It’s  time for bed, so I may be getting a bit sappy but this place is like a garden where the seeds scattered really can flourish. Joni remarked how thoughtful, respectful, engaged all the students were in our first session. The MGS motto comes to life once again in the classroom. The students will begin to write their own stories now and we cannot wait to see what we can all learn from them. 

 

And now I also feel, "I have a  girl at this school."

 

Linda V Beardsley