Projects

A few projects I'm working on:

Igitenge Designs
My senior 2 math class learned about transformations and rotational and reflective symmetry a few weeks ago. Since the fabric that they all wear here is full of symmetry, I had them bring their own in and find the symmetries in them. They were so excited about it that I decided to have them design their own. So I got some old cardboard boxes from a store in Kigali and cut them up and got fabric scraps from the tailor. The students drew their own designs and recorded all of the transformations in them. Now they are cutting out the shapes from the fabric and pasting them onto the cardboard. Some of them are really well done. Next week we're going to have a "show" and display them for the other teachers and students. I'll post pictures when they're finished.

Graphing Calculators
Much thanks to all of you who have donated old graphing calculators! I have been teaching the teachers how to use them with the ones that I have and thanks to a generous donor through a WWU connection, there is a classroom set on their way so that the teachers can use them in class. I'm working on a handbook on how to use the calculators and sample exercises involving them to put in the library.

Discussions
I've been helping out a little bit with the new English club at school and we've discussed the Maya Angelou poem "Africa" (see below). Also, my colleague Emma, who works at a school in Musanze has been having discussions groups with some of her students. I've been going down for them and helping run the discussion. Some of the papers and literature that we've discussed: The Milgram Experiments, the Stanford Experiments, e e cummings poetry, and a report on the science of love. It's been fun talking with the students about something besides just math. I've definitely gotten a better idea of some of the backgrounds and worldviews of the students.

Africa (Maya Angelou)
Thus she had lain
sugar cane sweet
deserts her hair
golden her feet
mountains her breasts
two Niles her tears
Thus she has lain
Black through the years.

Over the white seas
rime white and cold
brigands ungentled
icicle bold
took her young daughters
sold her strong sons
churched her with jesus
bled her with guns.
Thus she has lain.

Now she is rising
remember her pain
remember the losses
her screams loud and vain
remember her riches
her history slain
now she is striding
although she had lain.