By Neli Gacheva | Development Associate
Dear TFB supporters,
Thank you for choosing to support Teach For Bulgaria's free Summer Academy, where the incoming cohort of teachers begins their practical training before entering the classrooms in September. With only a week left before we officially close the recruitment season for our 2017 cohort, we will soon welcome our new participants to the program, who will begin their training in the summer months.
Teach For Bulgaria recruits from among top graduates and motivated career changers, who are seeking to pursue the teaching profession after gaining experience in different sectors. In this report, I want to introduce you to Daniel – a professional film director, who is currently teaching English in grades 4-11 in Dermantsi, a village 116km North-East from Sofia.
Tell us what a day in your shoes looks like…
My day starts at the “teachers’ room” –it’s always quiet in there, our principal has managed to establish a wonderful team of professionals and I feel very comfortable. That’s very important to me, because then I can enter the classroom charged with a lot of positive energy that I can share with the students. Then, I start my classes– working with children gives me a really rewarding feeling. Switching between classes makes time fly by really fast and before I know it – the last bell marks the end of the day. After our lunch break, I lead extracurricular activities – I’m in charge of the theater club and the library.
Yet, I have to say that my days vary greatly and bring along miscellaneous challenges, which teach me valuable lessons and keep me motivated to keep improving.
What’s your favorite part about teaching?
Learning. Not only what the kids learn in my classroom, but what I learn about them as well. Learning is not a one-sided process, a person improves himself/herself for the duration of their lifetime and the lessons that my children teach me are priceless. Every day I learn to look and perceive the world through their eyes, through their moods and understandings, and that knowledge is invaluable because it foretells the future.
What’s the most difficult part of being a teacher?
It’s difficult to convince the students that what we are learning in the classroom has an actual real life impact and it will be useful for the future. I keep trying to translate the “subject knowledge” onto their needs and understanding of their environment. The dynamic digital world that we are currently living in entails that we constantly have to rethink the values that we learn by and develop. I try to explain to my students that regardless of the turbulent times that we currently live in, there are some practical skills and knowledge that are eternal and that whatever challenges they face in their lifetime, if they continue to learn, grow and be adaptive, they will still be successful.
Teach For Bulgaria works to provide access to quality education for every child in the country. In the 2016-2017 school year, our 165 teachers are reaching over 8000 students in 10 regions, studying in 89 partner-schools.
Your support allows us to attract more people like Daniel, who enter the lives of the underperforming children in Bulgaria and work towards expanding their horizons, giving them more opportunities to succeed and motivate them to continue to learn and grow. By supporting our Summer Academy, you not only support our incoming teachers’ training, but you also give an opportunity for children from various background to attend free summer classes.
Links:
By Neli Gacheva | Development Associate
By Anjela Deyanska | Development Manager
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