Teacher with a Passion

Janet Lybarger - A Teacher with a Passion!!!! Since I am not an educator I knew Vincent needed a mentor right from the start. Someone with a passion for teaching and love and respect for children. Someone who would work with Vincent to ensure his training focused on best practices in teaching and administration, make sure it was culturally relevant and after the training set priorities and strategies for implementing all he learned when he returned to Rwanda.

That person was Janet who taught preschool for 12 years, kindergarten for 1 and 1st and 2nd grade for 18 years. Her masters is in education to teach reading. Having spent so many years "in" the classroom I knew she would be the mentor he needed.

His welcome to Janet's house was a warm greeting in the midst of a snow storm. Then it was just a matter of getting down to business. A key resource used was NAEYC, The National Association for the Education of Young Children. The focus was on children including curriculum, classroom management, assessment of each child's progress and health. They also talked about qualifying teachers and their ongoing training and assessment, working with the community and families and most important of all was administration of the school by building on Vincent's leadership and management skills in education.

After several hours he left with his own homework. That's a teacher for you. He had resources to read through before he met with Janet at the completion of his school trainings.

A Rwandan basket that represents sharing, saving and solidarity, was given to Janet to thank her for her love and respect for teaching.

His training begins!!!!!