A Week of Workshops

From 15^th – 19^th November, I was once again back on my moto in the early morning on my way to school. The children are all on holiday, but the teachers are still keen to learn and November is the month in which they are expected to attend training. There are 4 schools quite close to where I am living which had asked for help with creating ‘visual aids’ – posters and flashcards to put in the classroom to help children to learn. My housemate Cathy and I decided to plan a workshop to do with them.

We spent the weekend after we had moved house in scruffy clothes, kneeling on our living room floor, creating visual aids on rice sacks and card to use as models for the teachers and so we could discuss what helps children to learn in different subjects. We use rice sacks because they are cheap, they last well and they are more easily available than paper and card. After spending Sunday evening burning the edges of our creations (and occasionally our fingers too!) so the rice sacks wouldn’t fray, we were ready!

The four workshops were great fun to run, each one slightly different in its own way. After talking about why visual aids are important and what makes a good visual aid, the teachers were given the chance to plan and make their own visual aids. We had been told that Rwandan teachers might be nervous about drawing pictures, but we experienced no such thing! When it came to the ‘making’ part of the session, they had fantastic ideas and no worries whatsoever. (Thinking about it, they had probably realised that Miss Lamborn is no good at drawing anyway!) It was lovely to see the teachers having the chance (and having the necessary resources) to be creative and I learnt lots each day.