By Adama Koné, Teacher Project Coordinator

Christiana Norris Middle School is a new Mali Rising school…it has only been open for a few short months. The school has four dedicated teachers who love so much their students. Children in Banco used to walk or ride miles every day to school, which have made students dropped out of school. Now the people of Banco are extremely happy with the school and have happy relationships with their school staff.

For the last several years, Mali Rising has hosted teacher peer meetings with many schools. These peer meetings have been very well received by our teachers, so we wanted to get our newest teachers involved as soon as possible. As a result, Christiana Norris Middle School recently joined their first peer meeting. All four of the new school’s teachers participated in the peer meeting, and they were joined by all the teachers from our Trujillo Family Middle School.

One of Banko’s participating teachers was Mr. Moumoune Koné. He is 29 years old and he teaches English. Mr. Koné is single and very determined to work hard with students from Banko. Mr. Koné enjoys working with his co-workers and he is very grateful to the school donor who made his coming to Banko possible.

Mr. Koné likes his job because it makes him happy to be in touch with kids. He loves children and thinks they are the future of the country. Mr. Koné also thinks that the people of Banko are very nice and determined to keep their kids in school until they graduate. That is the reason why he has been trying his best to help the children of the village – he wants to help the kids improve their skills in school and change their lives.

After participating in his first teacher peer meeting, Mr. Koné said, “It was so very useful!” Mr. Koné has never been involved in a teacher peer meeting before and had no idea of what it would be like when he was told to attend by his principal, Mahamadou Diallo. Mr. Koné thinks teacher peer meetings must be one of the greatest supports to teachers Mali Rising can provide, because it gives teachers all opportunities to learn, share and help.

During his first meeting with peers, Mr. Koné showed his motivation and determination to make it useful to himself. Mr. Koné said it was an opportunity and privilege for him to attend the meeting. He thinks that he learned from the peer meeting and he felt he can now be helpful to other teachers with some of the good things he learned.

Some of the things Mr. Koné learned from his first peer meeting included how to make students feel self-confident when it comes to answering questions asked by teacher, how to motivate students – both boys and girls, and how to encourage them when they give answers whether they are right or not. Mr. Koné is ready to help his students and other teachers with English as needed. He hopes he will participate in many other Mali Rising Foundation teacher peer meetings so they could improve his teaching skills and students’ results in school.