Support Teach For Bulgaria Teachers

Teach For Bulgaria teachers are all working in schools across the country where the environment differs as well as the needs of their students. 

During their preparation before the school year as well as during their training throughout the year, the teachers focus on many aspects such as developing 21st century skills, socio-emotional development as well as different methodologies for engaging the students while putting their needs in the center of the learning process. 

A significant portion of Teach For Bulgaria teachers have students whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian and who require additional specialised language support in order to learn the language and excel in all other subjects as well. 

One of Teach For Bulgaria’s alumni who is also currently teaching, Alex, shares that since entering first grade students whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian do not have the needed vocabulary that their native bulgarian language speaking peers do. As they progress into higher grades, these deficiencies deepen even further. 

Students in such a situation are in need of very specific language support both during their regular classes at school as well as during their extracurricular activities. Therefore, in order to provide such support, teachers also need to undergo training and preparation so they can teach Bulgarian as a second language as well as integrate practices into other classes to help these students progress and learn. 

We at Teach For Bulgaria have developed a special course which is part of the teacher training that focuses on exactly this-how to teach multilingual students learn Bulgarian as a second language. 

Alex is now working with the first ever book for learning the alphabet developed for students for whom Bulgarian is a second language and are in primary school. Together with a book with instructions and materials for making tactile letters, Alex can use the teachers handbook containing specific instructions and methodologies for working with these materials and with students for whom Bulgarian is a second or a foreign language and who are in primary school. All other Teach For Bulgaria participants can benefit from these newly developed materials as well. 

Alex also shared that her students are very stimulated by the specifically developed materials as they are engaging and allow them to be actively involved in the learning process. 

Thanks to your generous support we are able to provide quality training and support to our teachers! Support that helps them work for the success of every child in their classroom so no one is left behind and can develop their full potential! 

Please consider upgrading your recurring donation or if you are a one time donor-donating again!

Every donation counts and allows us to better support more and more incoming teachers!

Thank you for your kind support, 

Teach For Bulgaria team

Dear supporters, 

Today we have the pleasure to introduce to you three of the new participants in our program “A New Way to Teaching”. Ana, Tanya and Velislav are among the teachers who are going to enter the classroom in September of 2021.

Without your support we would not be able to find and train such inspiring teachers, so first and foremost-Thank you! 

Ana was born in Scotland. Her mother is Bulgarian and her father is Scottish. She went to a foreign language high school and then majored in ergotherapy at the University of Ruse. Anna currently lives in the region of Razgrad and says that she’s always had a soft spot for working with children.

From the next two years as a teacher Anna expects to learn and invest a lot in this new occupation, she wants to study the possibilities for change within the education system for the better and to figure out where she fits in this process. She wants to help her students grow and create a meaningful and supportive environment for them. She is ready to face all the challenges ahead! 

Tanya has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from New Bulgarian University and a master’s in marketing management from Sofia’s Technical University. 

She is also an art lover and even had a small workshop where she organized arts and crafts events for children before the pandemic. She is also very passionate about photography and says that it’s more than just a hobby for her.

In her own words, here is what Tanya expects from the next two years: “To focus on the children. Working with children is rewarding and meaningful to me. We can learn a lot from them. We teach them how to follow rules and norms and they teach us sensitivity, retrospection, and mindfulness. I will strive to develop their agency. Our circumstances should not serve as excuses, it is up to us to change our environment for the better. Change equals growth. I’d also like to develop my students’ emotional intelligence, to show them how important it is for us to be united. I’ll teach them values such as empathy, faith, responsibility.”

Velislav is 23 and he has recently completed his physical education degree at Plovdiv University. Sports have always been a big part of his life, he has practiced swimming, football, and mixed martial arts. He says that each sport has taken a lot from him but has given him much more. Sports have taught him how to remain calm, how to be tolerant, responsible, and ambitious. 

He went to high school in the town of Velingrad. He knew he wanted to be a teacher even as a student mainly because he was inspired by his own teachers, but also because he wanted to change Bulgarian education for the better. He expects to gain confidence and lead by example to show his students that every dream is attainable as long as they don’t give up. 

All three of them have already started their preliminary training and are going to have a six-week intensive summer institute where they will have the opportunity to work with students before the beginning of the school year.

To read their full stories, click here. 

We hope you will continue to support us and we cannot wait for the next report in order to share more inspiring and exciting stories from our community of teachers!

With sincere gratitude,

Teach For Bulgaria team