By Adama Kone, Teacher Project Manager

We recently hosted an English Teacher Peer Meeting gathering teachers from six of our partner schools. Mali Rising’s Teacher Peer Meetings allow teachers to gather and help each other build their skills. In Mali, teachers rarely come together and have discussions on how improve their own teaching skills, all the six teachers who attended this recent meeting were very excited to join together.

Mr. Sio Coulibaly was one of the participating teachers. He was particularly helpful to his peers, peppering them with questions and or providing helpful answers. Mr.  Coulibaly is an English teacher from Nieta Kalanso Middle School. He is 35 years old and married with two children. He said that he loves his wife so much  that he is afraid of leaving the village without her. Mr. Coulibaly is proud of his wife., saying “My wife is a midwife who shows a good example to girls in Nieta Kalanso Middle School to inspire them study hard.”

I talked with Mr. Coulibaly and asked what he thought of the Peer Meeting. He was very impressed by the way it was run, and felt it was very helpful to him. Since then he improved his teaching skills so much.  Mr. Coulibaly attended Mali Rising Foundation English teacher peer meetings four times over the last few years, and he thought that they have been so helpful to him improving his teaching skills. When asked how things had specifically improved, he said, “In the way my ask students questions more often, the way I congratulate students on their answers, and other improvements that have made classes more active and engaged.”

Mr. Coulibaly told me always he likes to get feedbacks or help from his peers. He said, “I think that teachers will never improve themselves unless they are receptive to their peers and open to feedback from them.” Mr. Coulibaly specifically liked the teachers’ discussions on the active teaching techniques at our recent meeting. He mentioned that he was looking forward to trying out his peers’ ideas on how to ask students hard questions in different ways and how to make students less shy so they participate in the classroom. 

Mr. Coulibaly io also mentioned that he really appreciated the fact that his peers helped him with different ways of make students feel comfortable with teachers by telling them short funny stories or giving the students floor more often so they can express their feelings.

Mr. Coulibaly from Nieta Kalanso Middle School only wishes he could join more Teacher Peer Meetings given that they are so important when it comes to improving his teaching techniques and skills. He is grateful to Mali Rising Foundation’s supporters for their generosity in offering kids in Mali better ways to learn.

You can support teachers like Mr. Coulibaly and Teacher Peer Meetings through your donation.