Bend educators lend expertise to Rwandans | Jay Mathisen leads 11-member trip
Kathleen Yaeger, science teacher from Bend High, went to Rwanda last
spring break to help with education programs and will return this
year.
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Bend educators lend expertise to Rwandans
Jay Mathisen leads 11-member trip
By Tyler Leeds / The Bulletin
Published Mar 11, 2014 at 12:01AM / Updated Mar 11, 2014 at 06:17AM
A cadre of Bend-La Pine Schools administrators and teachers will make
what has become an annual trip to the central African nation of Rwanda
for spring break.
The self-funded teacher training mission is led by Assistant
Superintendent Jay Mathisen, who first went to Rwanda in 2010 while
still a George Fox University School of Education doctoral student. At
the time, his goal was to help some professors with a master's program
they were developing, but in the end, Mathisen said he only made it to
the school's campus once. On his first night in Rwanda, he had dinner
with another American who was training local teachers in instructional
techniques to help mentor other teachers.
"I invited myself to hang out with them for the rest of the trip, and
found myself on the back of motorbikes going to schools for a lot of
the time," Mathisen said. "I just really loved it."
The trip sparked Mathisen's dissertation, which examined the 1994
Rwandan genocide's impact on three education reform movements. Near
the end of the document, Mathisen concludes, "The impact the slaughter
had on the education systems was immense, and continues on in some
regards today." He offers recommendations, but acknowledged they "do
not include simple answers to the complex nature of those challenges."
Despite these challenges, Mathisen has stayed committed to helping
ameliorate some of the issues faced by Rwandan educators, in
particular the lack of access to research on the latest teaching
techniques. Since his first trip to Rwanda, Mathisen has become the
organizer of American assistance for the organization he helped in
2010, the International Education Exchange (IEE), a Rwandan-led group
that provides professional development to teachers. While there this
year, Mathisen's goal is to help train the roughly 40 Rwandan
instructional coaches whom IEE sends to 80 schools serving more than
80,000 students.
"Because of Jay's vision, we have been able to help hundreds, maybe
thousands of teachers," said Karen Stiner, a High Desert Middle School
teacher who went on last year's trip. "It's changed me profoundly to
have gone."
Stiner describes the trips as a chance to put "research into action."
But she also noted that even the best pedagogical techniques can't
overcome some of the disadvantages faced by Rwandan educators.
"They have class sizes into the 70s, very little to no resources, and
from third grade on, English is the only language taught, so there's a
high need for second language (instruction)," Stiner said, referencing
the great linguistic diversity in the country.
Nonetheless, Mathisen said, "You can still work with teachers to get
kids to think and talk in groups about a task even in a room with that
many kids."
"When I went in 2010, it was chalk-and-talk education," Mathisen
added. "And the lectures were in English, which plenty of kids
couldn't understand. They would copy the symbols and try to memorize
them, but they didn't grasp the content. By now the teachers who work
with IEE are thinking about how to get students to think about tasks
and engage in problems. You can tell the difference right when you
walk in between an IEE school and one without that help."
Going on this year's trip are Bend High School Principal H.D. Weddel,
Weddel's wife Patty, a kindergarten teacher, and their two children;
Highland Magnet School Principal Paul Dean and his wife Mary;
Executive Director for Curriculum and Instructional Technology Shay
Mikalson; Bend High science teacher Kathleen Yaeger; and Mathisen's
wife Shannon and the couple's two children.
-- Reporter: 541-633-2160, tleeds@bendbulletin.com
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/1871267-151/local-educators-lend-expertise-to-rwandans&q=Local+educators+lend+expertise+to+Rwandans
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