By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Coordinator

I believe, and I hope you do too, that great teachers equal great school results! Mali Rising believes in the importance of our teachers too. As a result, this year we honored three of our most outstanding teachers with special awards to acknowledge their dedication. The teachers were nominated by their principals and a special independent panel of teachers from other schools served as judges.  Mali Rising’s Teacher Awards have three categories:  the most creative teacher, the most helpful teacher, and, last but not the least, the most improved teacher. Today, I wanted to share the story of one of the winning teachers, who won in the Most Creative Teacher category.

Mr. Touré of Judge Memorial Middle School in Sankama was granted the most creative teacher award. Mr. Touré teaches math, chemistry, and physics in all three grades of the school. He says he enjoys using his brain in a creative way to help students improve. Mr Touré has been teaching in Sankama for more than three years…since the school opened. Mr. Touré likes teaching in this small village because he says he feels useful to the people of Sankama. Mr. Touré is 31 years old and married, and does not yet have children. He runs for fun to do sports sometimes even though he still thinks he is not good at it.

Mr. Touré feels proud to get the Most Creative Teacher’s award and says the award inspires  him to work harder and be more creative for students. Mali Rising gifted Mr. Touré with a ciwara, a polo shirt, a dictionary, and a certificate. (The ciwara is a wooden carving and in translation from Bambara it represents a hard worker.) He says, “I am very excited to be honored with the Most Creative Teacher award, and will keep these gifts as great reminders.”

Mr. Touré’s hope is to teach students who will go on to have any better lives than he does in the future.  That is why he so creative and dedicated. To demonstrate his lessons, he implements creative lessons with students like creating a kind of simple electrical circuit made out of local materials such as wood, screws, wires, plastics and so on to make students understand easily and visualize the lesson. In addition to his great demonstrations and ideas, Mr Touré provides extra work to  students to keep them connected to their notebooks and to encourage them to review their notes. He does night study sessions with students who are willing to work outside of school. He thinks that his only mission is change lives for better, and his students are incredibly grateful to him for his generosity.

On top of all his existing work, Mr. Touré Ibrahim volunteered to help the Mali Rising Health Club of the Judge Memorial Middle School in order to promote good health in school. With his help, the students of the Health Club focus on improving health through cleaning school latrines, the yard, and the classrooms regularly and helping students wash their hands every morning and afternoon before and after classes. He likes his co-workers and all the students and enjoys working them in Sankama.

Mr. Touré is very grateful to Mali Rising for the award and is eager to carry on good work in Judge Memorial Middle School of Sankama.