16 French teachers and school principals gave deep appreciation to Nancy Janney, Pete’s cousin, for the writing workshop she gave them July 17-19. Nancy came to Congo for weeks the end of July as leader the Ames Evangelical Free Church’s team. While the team came to work at the CECU (local Free Church denomination) Tandala hospital and speak at the CECU conference for pastors and spouses, per an earlier invitation and arrangement Nancy gave a teacher workshop for a limited number of CEUM teachers and principals. In the US she teaches writing to home school students using materials from The Institute for Excellence in Writing. In order to offer this workshop here she first received permission to translate the materials into French. Then not only did she translate them, she also adapted them to local context removing US focused examples.
The workshop was very, very well received. Nancy commented to us afterwards that “while many of the participants had studied French in university, they were not taught anything about how to teach French.” In her Facebook post after the workshop she commented: “I finished my teacher workshop today with great pomp & ceremony, following the required protocol here in Congo. It was a GREAT couple of days with very receptive participants.”
Each of the participants was invited in order to limit the numbers. Some came from as far as 300 miles away. Each one will share what they learned with colleagues in their respective areas.
Nancy teaching
In Congo one part of the test for high school graduation is a dissertation. Students have to write a couple short composition. The objective of the workshop was to help their French teachers learn better writing skills themselves and then learn how to teach them. We’re thankful for her willingness to come offer this workshop.
