Day 3 of Teacher Training

While eating breakfast and conversing with other AFP volunteers about our teacher training filled weekend I realized that it would be our last day at the Urukundo Learning Center and one of our last days in Muhanga. These past couple of days of teacher training made me realize how lucky we all were to make genuine connections with all of the Rwandan teachers and see a new style of teaching manifest itself through open mindedness and dedication.


The objective of our day was not to hold another teacher training session but to now observe our teachers utilizing story based learning in their own classrooms. We ended up visiting three different primary and secondary schools that day. It was truly a joy to watch many of the teachers have fun using some of the games we taught them to gain students attention and interest as well as using kinesthetic movement to help the kids turn the lesson into something tangible that they could understand. Not only was affirming to us volunteers to see that our lessons were understood it was also incredible to see how happy the teachers and students were in their classrooms while using this new technique. With every new school we ventured to that day we were welcomed with familiar faces and hugs from students that were excited for us to be at their schools and in classrooms with them.


Once our day of observing came to an end we ended our time of teacher training right where we started at Urukundo. We shared our last dinner together in the evening where the food was handmade by fresh vegetables from their own garden which contains: cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, onions, spinach and many other leafy greens. All the AFP volunteers, Urukundo staff and children who live at the learning center bonded over a shared meal, good conversations and even magic tricks one last time.