By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Manager

In the remote areas where Mali Rising’s schools are located, teachers often get together to chat and gather to drink tea. Teaching requires a deeply dedicated person, so it makes sense that teachers always try to improve themselves through reading textbooks, traveling, and discussing techniques with their peers. 

Building on this cultural idea, Mali Rising regularly hosts Teacher Peer Meetings where we gather 5 to 6 teachers from different Mali Rising schools. The goals are to help our teachers improve their teaching skills and to connect them with peers who can help support them throughout the tough school year.

Mr. Amadou Tolo is is one of our French teachers from the Mindful Bunch Middle School of Kafara. He is thirty years old and is married with two kids, a girl and a boy. Mr. Tolo became a French teacher in 2019 and was sent to his first school — the Mindful Bunch Middle School. He likes working at the school because he gets along pretty well his co-workers and the people in the village of Kafara. Teaching is Mr. Tolo’s dream job because he gets to help Malian kids and contribute to the development of his nation.

Mr. Tolo took part in his first French Mali Rising Teacher Peer Meeting this month. There, he got to discuss teaching techniques, provide feedback, receive pieces of advice from other teachers, and more. He said, “I liked the peer meeting very much because I got to meet new fellows and share skills with them.” Even though Mr. Tolo is a pretty new teacher, he bravely volunteered to present a textbook reading lesson to his peers and enjoyed receiving their feedback on his teaching techniques.

Mr. Tolo said that he really liked the enthusiasm and the expertise that he noticed during the peer meeting.  He added that his fellows were very respectfully active. He did not expect this because he says teachers discuss education but when they do the discussions are very tense and no one wants to accept the other’s opinions! Generally, when teachers come together, each of them thinks they are the best and their opinions are to be respected. Mr. Tolo said that his first peer meeting was surprisingly useful and he learned a lot from the other teachers. He said, “With Mali Rising Foundation teacher peer meetings, I would obviously improve myself and better serve students in my school.”

Mr. Tolo used to play sports very often. but now he can only occasionally play. He loves soccer. He also loves to travel as a sightseer because he who travels more knows more and discovers new things all the time. His favorite food is SAGASAGA, which is a type of sauce made out of leaves with some meat. According to Mr. Tolo, after he eats SAGAAGA, he becomes more excited to work hard with his students and the students all know that something good happened because he is more willing to help and more joyful while talking to students!