By Neli Gacheva | Development Associate
“Go, Mitko!” an entire row of first-graders cheers. “Ste-fan, Ste-fan,” the other row of children chants as Mitko and Stefan run back and forth in a hurry to pass the baton to the next runners in the relay race. What seems to be a standard relay race typical for any P.E. class is actually much more than that. To complete the race each student has to write down a random word and the winning team has to be not only faster, but with fewer spelling mistakes. That way students can both be physically active and sharpen their reading literacy skills.
Their P.E. teacher, Iva, came up with this original idea. She has been teaching Physical Education at 136 Elementary School “Luben Karavelov” in Sofia for two years now and is a participant in Teach For Bulgaria’s professional development and leadership program. “Incorporating reading literacy in my classes has been a priority for me since my training in the Summer Academy organized by Teach For Bulgaria,” Iva says. In the process of getting to know her students, Iva finds out that a lot of them have trouble with spelling and reading comprehension, so she decides to find ways to incorporate these skills in her classes. Iva has other strategies besides the relays.
Iva has a Physical Education teaching certificate from the National Sports Academy, and a Master’s Degree in Sports Management from the same university. She has been doing sports acrobatics from an early age and has won multiple competitions. Her dream, however, has been to become a P.E. teacher because she believes that sports help children develop many skills which can be transferable to other aspects of life. Teach For Bulgaria’s mission for equal access to high quality education rings true to her and she becomes part of the program in 2016. Today Iva teaches all students at 136 Elementary School “Luben Karavelov” and is determined to keep teaching after the end of the program.
Iva teaches mainly children from families with low socioeconomic status and faces more challenges than are typical for the teaching profession. For example, assisting her seventh-graders with filling out all documents they need to apply to high school because their parents have difficulties with the paperwork. She often has conversations with the parents about how important it is for their children to graduate high school and university, and serves as a role model to children at risk of dropping out due to pregnancy or early marriage by explaining that even though she is a young mother herself, that hasn’t stopped her from completing her education and having a career.
“Students need support, dedication, and understanding, if you want them to become better people,” Iva concludes.
In her classes and extracurricular activities she focuses on emotional intelligence as well. She talks to them a lot about how important it is to be able to control your emotions when your team loses a game, for example, and about how crucial team spirit is.
We would like to thank you for your support and continuous dedication to our cause, so we can continue to train and support aspiring people like Iva to become teachers and work towards Teach For Bulgaria's long term mission of ensuring equal access to quality education for all children in Bulgaria.
You can find additional information about the program on the official website below.
Links:
By Neli Gacheva | Development Associate
By Anjela Deyanska | Development manager
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