A Mali Teacher's Take on COVID & Learning
By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Coordinator
Mr. Abdoulaye presents his French lesson to his fellow teachers at our December Teacher Peer Meeting. In these meetings, teachers help each other improve their skills by critiquing real lessons presented by their peers. It also helps build a great community among our educators!
During a Mali Rising Teacher Peer Meeting in December, I had the chance to talk with one of the attending teachers — Mr. Sagara Abdoulaye — about his teaching, the meeting, and COVID-19. Here are some of his thoughts.
Teachers in Mali have a saying: “To teach even a little bit, you must know many things.” This saying refers to the tricky part of a teaching job in Mali’s schools. Knowing the many things a teacher needs to teach requires hard work including research, reading, travelling, taking part in conferences, discussions, planning, and more.
Mr. Sagara Abdoulaye proved this truism was real during Mali Rising Foundation’s recent Teacher Peer Meeting in December. Mr. Abdoulaye is a French teacher at Little Heroes Academy II in the village of Tanima. He has taught in the village for several years and is a married father of 3 children. He works hard to help students, enjoys hanging out with his colleagues, and discussing with them.
Mr. Abdoulaye participated in the Mali Rising Teacher Peer Meeting, where he was able present a French lesson to his peers for critique and support. Mr. Abdoulaye performed a great French lesson presentation that was very helpful to his peers. During his presentation, he told his colleagues that he truly loves peer meetings because they allow him to understand his colleagues’ problems and they can also understand his problems. Even better, the group can all try to overcome those problems together through discussions. Mr. Abdoulaye said teachers must be helpful to themselves first so others can help. He feels that the peer meetings are one of those opportunities to help each other.
Mr. Abdoulaye thinks the Covid-19 is a serious worldwide issue but we should strengthen our love for each other and help each other with pieces of advice and instructions so we stay safe and keep others safe. He said that COVID-19 must not prevent us from helping people like students with homework and helping be sure they comply with COVID-19 safety measures. He added that Mali Rising was showing that love to all of the teachers and villages by keeping the great partnership with them through peer meetings, school maintenance, and more — despite the pandemic.
Although school has been closed and given the fact that students are currently on vacation and COVID-19 pandemic has hit the whole world, Mr. Abdoulaye has been helping his students as much as he can over the break. Now, with school is about to reopen, he thinks this is the best moment ever to help the students. Why? The last school year was hard for the students due to COVID-19, and Mr. Abdoulaye assumes the students will have much need to learn and get ready for next year. He loves students who study at home over the vacation, and hopes that many students have been doing so!
Mr. Abdoulaye likes all his students and colleagues and he misses them so much. However, he is glad the teacher peer meetings allow him to meet some teachers sometimes. He is grateful to Mali Rising for having the great partnership with teachers of the CAP of Baguineda adding that Little Heroes Academy II has been a blessing to the people of Tanima and neighboring villages.