On Friday, December 13th we celebrated the end of 2024’s project cycle in the auditorium of the Gerencia Regional de Educacion- Cusco with all the participating teachers and administrators involved in this year’s projects. While I used to consider these events as more time consuming than useful, I’ve come to see the importance in reviewing and celebrating our achievements with the very people who put all the work in. It lets us review our impact over the year and recognize those teachers and administrators, as well as Alma staff, who helped bring our projects to life and truly impact the quality and depth of learning in some of Peru’s most isolated public schools.
To help us entice the teachers to share their stories of how Alma’s teaching methodology made a positive impact in their students’ lives and classrooms, we created a small contest for individual teachers and schoolwide implementation of our teaching strategies that promote critical/creative thinking, socio-emotional wellbeing, local indigenous culture, and the goals of the National Curriculum.
By far my favorite part of the event was listening to the teachers explain how they used the strategies learned in our training programs to open brand new possibilities inside the classroom with their students and outside of the classroom with parents and community members. Hearing their stories: how parents who were once distant are now sharing traditional knowledge; seeing the adaptations they made to the strategies to fit the students’ needs and cultural realities; how one teacher finally broke through what seemed to be a barrier for her students’ reading comprehension; etc. all give me even more assurance that the teachers who certify our programs will continue to implement and innovate our strategies with their students for years to come.
Thank you to all the teachers, students, parents, and administrators for trusting us to be your allies and partners on this journey to deepen and reconnect public school education with thoughtful, meaningful, and traditional learning!
