I am expecting to gain a new perspective as a teacher after my trip abroad. Currently, I feel like I have high expectations for myself as a teacher. I am just finding myself overwhelmed with the concept of classroom management. I have had experiences recently observing classrooms where there is little to no classroom management implemented, so I am having a difficult time navigating this. I have heard very positive things about student behavior in African schools so I am excited to learn ideas from those teachers.

As a teacher I have made it my goal to create a safe, welcoming environment for my students. I feel like relationships and environment are just as impactful to students (if not more) than the content itself. I am looking forward to seeing the relationships in Rwanda and students’ feelings on going to school. I want my students to want to come to school and feel welcomed. If the students in Rwanda feel this way about going to school, I want to learn from the teachers and how they have created this environment for students.

I am sure the educational system will be different in many ways from the U.S. and I want to find the positives in both systems and use that to make the best changes for my future classroom. I have noticed in my time in the classrooms in Missouri that students don’t feel motivated to do school and this is something I want to change for my students. I want my students to value and be passionate about their education.

In one of the classrooms I was in last year, the teacher liked to tell the students “knowledge is power” and allowing students to keep this in mind helps motivate them. In other classes, the students have been motivated by things such as electronics and candy or toys. I am assuming this is going to be a difference in the school systems. I am not sure what the students in Rwanda will be motivated by but I know that electronics are not a big part of their lives, especially in school, so I am eager to see the differences.

I am expecting to walk away from this experience with new tools, ideas and perspective. Whether the schools are a positive or negative experience, there is always something to learn. I want to see what ideas I have not seen or thought of that I can use after learning from Rwandan teachers.

After reading about Rwanda I am interested to see how its history affects the culture and even school environment. I also read that Rwanda is big on unity. I think unity is a great concept that should be practiced by all humans but specifically for me, I want to learn about their sense of unity and how to use it in my classroom. How can I as the teacher make my class feel united? Resilience along with unity will be two of Rwanda’s large concepts in their culture that I hope to bring back not only to Missouri or the College of Education but also to my future classroom.