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[Podcast] Teach la fața locului – episodul 7

un podcast Teach for Romania, prezentat de Unicredit Bank

Podcast disponibil pe Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts și Deezer

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Povești din Academia de Leadership și Pedagogie

Ca în fiecare an, la Teach for Romania, vara e întotdeauna sezonul Academiei de Leadership și Pedagogie, adică momentul în care oamenii care cred că România se schimbă doar prin educație de calitate pentru toții copiii și învață să fie profesori. Anul acesta, pentru prima dată, Academia a avut loc în format hibrid: online pentru partea teoretică și față în față în două comunități Teach, adică la Școala Gimnazială nr. 5 Săcele, județul Brașov, și la Școala Gimnazială D. Sturdza Popești, structura Hărpășești, județul Iași.

Academia – locul de probat „papucii de profesor”

„Începi academia cu foarte multe întrebări și îndoieli: Sunt potrivit pentru asta? Reușesc să mă conectez cu copiii. Pe parcursul Academiei capeți încredere că e ceva ce poți să faci și îți aduce bucurie. Apoi descoperi că te simți bine în papuci de profesori și că asta e menirea ta.” e de părere Gabriela Dima, director regional Teach for Romania pentru Moldova.

Înainte de a ajunge la catedră, Teach for Romania se asigură că profesorii au competențe de leadership și de învățare strategică. Dincolo de noțiunile de a pregăti și prezenta o lecție, ei învață auto-cunoașterea, reflecția, reziliența, gândirea strategică, construirea culturii reușitei în sala de clasă și în cancelarie. Ei sunt pregătiți să acționeze strategic, la nivelul întregului eco-sistem al copilului.

 

Povești din comunitățile Academiei

În cele două comunități s-au spus tot felul de povești, am cunoscut colegi noi care și-au povestit experiența și tranformarea lor în academie, dar și elevi care au descoperit în Academia Copiilor că școala nu e doar despre manual și note. Călătoria unui om care vrea să fie profesor Teach for Romania începe undeva în toamnă. Chiar dacă are sau nu experiență anterioară de predare, el aplică și se înscrie într-un proces riguros de selecție și training, iar Academia este ultimul pas în devenirea lor ca dascăli.  Apoi, încep să lucreze într-o școală din medii vulnerabile, timp de 2 ani.

După 20 de ani în sistemul bancar, Dana Iacob a vrut să facă o schimbare radicală, să facă ceva cu sens. A parcurs procesul, iar în academie am văzut-o plină de entuziasm, cu idei fresh și foarte aproape de copii. „De când eram copil, mi-am dorit să fiu învățătoare. Ai mei, fiind profesori, m-au direcționat către un liceu real și viața m-a adus să fiu broker, să lucrez în piața financiară. Foarte fain a fost, doar că am simțit că trebuie să fac ceva pentru sufletul meu”, spune Dana. Ea se gândea că n-are nicio șansă la Teach, dar etapele au parcurs firesc, mail după mail de confirmare. Procesul i-a dat aripi, iar în Academie, feedback-ul specialiștilor au ajutat-o să învețe să devină profesor. „M-am gândit că e mai mult pe ce transmiți copilului pe conținut, dar acum știu că totul pleacă de la emoții și de la starea ta de bine. M-am descoperit pe mine și mi-a plăcut mult.”

Profesorii cu ani de experiență vin la Teach

Mulți profesori susținuți de Teach for Romania au experiențe îndelungate de predare, dar Academia de Leadership și Pedagogie le aduce mereu lucruri noi. Așa a simțit și Elena Radu, profesor de limba si literatura romani cu 20 de ani de experiență la Școala Gimnazială nr. 136 din cartierul Ferentari din București. După ani de zile la catedră, în Ministerul Educației și chiar la Consiliul Europei, Academia i-a oferit o nouă perspectivă. „Dacă era cineva să se plângă ca Academia e grea, eu eram aia! În ciuda faptului că am multă experiență, sunt educată pe vremea comunismului. Niciodată nimeni nu m-a întrebat cum mă simt. Ce am învățat aici mi-a oferit o schimbare radicală.” Din această toamnă, Elena s-a întors la catedră cu planuri mari și cu un stil total diferit de predare. „Iau clasa a V-a. Vreau să începem să creștem împreună, cu metoda Teach!”.

Limba română, ca spectacol cu păpuși

„A fost fain! Am lucrat în echipă și am făcut teatru de păpuși”, e de părere unul dintre zecile de copii participanți în Academia Copiilor. Aici, profesorii au avut șansa să predea, pentru prima dată după metoda Teach, o lecție, într-o clasă dintr-o comunitate vulnerabilă. Ana Maria Bardan a renunțat acum mai bine 10 ani la jobul de profesor și după o carieră în corporație, a decis să se reîntoarcă. În Academie a predat la clasa a 3-a ora de limba română sub formă de teatru de improvizație cu copiii. „Am auzit de la o fată din Gârcini că a fost o dată în Brașov și a fost localitatea cea mai îndepărtată pe care a vizitat-o”. Atunci a decis să ofere copiilor o călătorie în jurul lumii pentru a învăța noțiuni de limba română. Au avut personaje și o mică scenă de teatru de păpuși, lucruri care i-au ajutat pe cei mici să treacă peste bariere și să fie autentici.

Sunt atât de multe povești de spus în academie, dar cu siguranță ne vom face timp să vi le spunem pe toate. Școala deja a început, anul acesta mai bogată cu 80 noi profesori susținuți de Teach for Romania. Timp de 2 ani, acești oameni minunați, care pentru unii viața s-a schimbat 180 de grade, vor munci zi de zi în cele mai provocatoare comunități din România pentru ca fiecare copil să aibă șansa la un viitor mai bun.

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Din păcate, anul acesta nu vom putea fi prezenți în aceste județe. Dacă îți dorești în continuare să te înscrii în programul nostru, e important de știut că este necesară mutarea într-unul dintre județele vizate sau naveta către cel mai apropiat județ în care ești eligibil pentru înscriere, în funcție de pregătirea ta și opțiunile dorite.

Exclusiv pentru candidați titulari

Candidații titulari sunt cei care au dat examenul național de titularizare și au obținut în urma acestuia un post permanent, de titular/ă, cu contract de muncă pe perioadă nedeterminată.
Dacă ești titular/ă într-o școală care NU corespunde profilului programului Teach for Romania (grad de defavorizare IRSE >=3), te informăm că este nevoie să îți asumi pașii necesari detașării într-o astfel de școală pe parcursul celor doi ani de program. Odată selectat/ă, te vom susține în acest proces.

Exclusiv pentru candidați calificați

Pentru ciclul preșcolar, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit un liceu pedagogic cu profil educator sau învățător-educator SAU au absolvit studii de licență cu specializarea Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (PIPP).
Pentru ciclul primar, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit un liceu pedagogic cu profil învățător sau învățător-educator SAU au absolvit studii de licență cu specializarea Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (PIPP).
Pentru ciclul gimnazial*, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit studii de licență a căror specializare să corespundă cu profilul materiei pe care o vor preda ȘI modulul de formare psihopedagogică de nivel I.

 

Exemplul 1 – dacă ai absolvit Facultatea de Matematică și Informatică, specializarea matematică, plus modulul psihopedagogic, ești candidat/ă calificat/ă pentru a preda matematică la ciclul gimnazial.
Exemplul 2 – dacă ai absolvit Facultatea de Matematică și Informatică, specializarea informatică, plus modulul psihopedagogic, nu ești candidat/ă calificat/ă pentru a preda matematică la ciclul gimnazial.

 

*Nu acceptăm în program candidați care vor să predea ca profesori de gimnaziu necalificați, pentru că șansele pentru a găsi posturi în această situație sunt foarte mici în toate județele.

Candidați calificați & educatori/învățători necalificați

Acestea sunt singurele județe în care sunt șanse să găsim posturi pentru educatori necalificați.

 

Pentru ciclurile preșcolar și primar, candidații necalificați sunt cei care:

 

  • au absolvit studii de licență cu o altă specializare decât Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (indiferent dacă au absolvit sau nu modulul psihopedagogic);
  • au absolvit studiile de licență în altă țară.

Nu acceptăm în program candidați care vor să predea ca profesori de gimnaziu necalificați, pentru că șansele pentru a găsi posturi în această situație sunt foarte mici în toate județele.

 

Cum știu dacă sunt calificat?

 

Pentru ciclul preșcolar, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit un liceu pedagogic cu profil educator sau învățător-educator SAU au absolvit studii de licență cu specializarea Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (PIPP).
Pentru ciclul primar, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit un liceu pedagogic cu profil învățător sau învățător-educator SAU au absolvit studii de licență cu specializarea Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (PIPP).
Pentru ciclul gimnazial, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit studii de licență a căror specializare să corespundă cu profilul materiei pe care o vor preda ȘI modulul de formare psihopedagogică de nivel I.

 

Exemplul 1 – dacă ai absolvit Facultatea de Matematică și Informatică, specializarea matematică, plus modulul psihopedagogic, ești candidat/ă calificat/ă pentru a preda matematică la ciclul gimnazial.
Exemplul 2 – dacă ai absolvit Facultatea de Matematică și Informatică, specializarea informatică, plus modulul psihopedagogic, nu ești candidat/ă calificat/ă pentru a preda matematică la ciclul gimnazial.

Candidați calificați & învățători necalificați

Pentru ciclurile preșcolar și primar, candidații necalificați sunt cei care:

 

  • au absolvit studii de licență cu o altă specializare decât Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (indiferent dacă au absolvit sau nu modulul psihopedagogic);
  • au absolvit studiile de licență în altă țară.

Nu acceptăm în program candidați care vor să predea ca profesori de gimnaziu necalificați, pentru că șansele pentru a găsi posturi în această situație sunt foarte mici în toate județele.

 

Cum știu dacă sunt calificat?

 

Pentru ciclul preșcolar, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit un liceu pedagogic cu profil educator sau învățător-educator SAU au absolvit studii de licență cu specializarea Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (PIPP).
Pentru ciclul primar, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit un liceu pedagogic cu profil învățător sau învățător-educator SAU au absolvit studii de licență cu specializarea Pedagogia învăţământului primar şi preşcolar (PIPP).
Pentru ciclul gimnazial, candidații calificați sunt cei care au absolvit studii de licență a căror specializare să corespundă cu profilul materiei pe care o vor preda ȘI modulul de formare psihopedagogică de nivel I.

 

Exemplul 1 – dacă ai absolvit Facultatea de Matematică și Informatică, specializarea matematică, plus modulul psihopedagogic, ești candidat/ă calificat/ă pentru a preda matematică la ciclul gimnazial.
Exemplul 2 – dacă ai absolvit Facultatea de Matematică și Informatică, specializarea informatică, plus modulul psihopedagogic, nu ești candidat/ă calificat/ă pentru a preda matematică la ciclul gimnazial.

*Bogdan is 18 years old, and in September he started 8th grade.

He repeated several years of school, but he has never given up on his education. Half a year ago, Bogdan had trouble recognizing all the letters of the alphabet, he couldn’t write or read fluently.

There were no special learning requirements, neither dysgraphia nor dyslexia, he simply missed the moment when he should have learned to write and read. The rest is the same sad story of many children in Romania. Bogdan didn’t miss school, but school failed him in the many years he was just another number in a classroom, feeling invisible. Finally, last year things started to change.

 

In the first semester, while many countries including Romania switched to online school, Bogdan did not attend classes due to the lack of internet connection and equipment. In the second semester, when the school reopened, he started coming to classes again. His biology teacher, Andrei, now a Teach for Romania alumnus, soon realized that Bogdan could not read. He offered tutoring after classes for which Bogdan was very grateful, even though this wasn’t the easiest to say yes to as he was also working to support his family. Andrei had been trained by his colleagues at Teach for Romania and our friends from the Noi Orizonturi Foundation on what to do in such situations: he assessed Bogdan, they built an action plan together, they met regularly and practised reading and writing. In July, Andrei also organized a summer school to further support Bogdan and his classmates, where Bogdan was always the first to arrive on most days. When they started working together, Bogdan had the literacy level of a preschool student. Nowadays, he is reading fluently and has just passed his driving test. This is the type of dream we want to help come true.  

*Student’s name has been changed.

"Over here no one takes their children to kindergarten. Why should I?”

We often run into difficult situations with unschooled parents who find it hard to advocate for their children’s education.

From the outside, it’s easy to label it as a lack of interest, laziness, and ignorance, however, it is just a vicious cycle of a faulty public school system deeply rooted in our culture. Therefore, we struggle with many families where children might or might not be encouraged and supported to attend school and to study. Most of the time, unfortunately, in geographically or socially isolated areas, children are not even enrolled in preschool classes. 

In Romanian public school system, students are declared to have dropped out of school and removed from the school records when they hit three years after giving up classes, a period in which the student has time to resume and continue his studies. If he/she wants. Or if he/she has the necessary motivation. But most of the time, the decision is not in the hands of the student.

Magdalena Costache is a preschool teacher. In this stage of transitioning from preschool to school, it is important for the child to have the basic skills acquired in kindergarten, as well as a socio-emotional foundation. But in the classroom, things are different.

“A third of the children in my class did not attend kindergarten for various reasons,” says Magda. Moreover, two students from those enrolled in my class stopped coming after the first week. Magda’s efforts to bring the two to school did not yield results: in all her attempts, she was always met by the families’ lack of understanding and interest when she approached the school subject. In certain cultures, there’s a fixed answer to a girl’s future – she’s going to get married and she doesn’t need school. In some communities there is a norm for girls to marry at a very young age, this fact often being associated with school dropouts.

“I prioritize autonomy. I even encourage parents to allow their children to do things on their own, otherwise, always helped, their self-esteem decreases and then, the need to get involved in activities or the motivation to learn continuously decreases. I find a learning opportunity in everything and I try not to leave any student behind”.

Most of the time, the lack of a routine of coming to school, especially at preschool age, anticipates a percentage of dropouts from the primary grades. Both family and community norms can be reasons that prevent the student from having continuity in learning.

Magda is confident that she has done her best to get her children into school, but sometimes the decision to provide a better future for children is set apart by ethnic, family or community culture.

Sometimes it’s not just about the children, but also about their families and the community in which they grow up. Magda continues to provide education and believes in the potential of every child, parent and every community that chooses to educate.

When you’ve had enough,
remember your ‘why’

There is a silent, overwhelming tension between teachers and parents.

There’s no violence, quarrels or insults, yet it raises frustration, it disconnects and it discourages everyone involved, especially teachers. We rarely see it as an opportunity to understand better and to produce long-term change.

Knowing the truth, but accepting the lie is not an act of courage, but of complacency. Ana Maria Petruș heard many assumptions about the reasons why her students weren’t coming to school. She blocked them all and instead went walking in the community, to their homes to talk to the parents who weren’t yet able to get involved in their children’s education. 

It wasn’t the first time she tried connecting to parents over the importance of bringing her students to school. The children are young and still need accompanying to school. She realized that parents were facing a lot of pressure and shame as they stopped answering the phone. This was the last drop and what pushed her to not give up and to go to their house, as her last resort to communicate with them.

From door to door, Ana Maria went through the village to call her students to school, to get familiar with their universe, to meet their parents and reassure them of her good intentions. They couldn’t say no, especially since until then, no teacher had ever visited, so determined to educate the children of the village.

It’s difficult speaking about education and the importance of going to school with someone that the public school system easily gave up on. There were many times when Ana found it incredibly hard to accept the “normal” in her students’ community, their parents’ lack of trust, children wandering around the village on a school day, and looking after their siblings while their parents were away. Even so, Ana recalls her purpose and the reason she came on this journey, so step by step, she gets back to work. Every morning, she picks up her students who are struggling and takes them to school. Some mornings, she gets to be happy that 3 children supported by a different charity are coming to school again, after many months of missing out.

Despite all hardship, Ana continues to believe that there’s an urgency in bringing the community closer to school, in turning that big classroom overcrowded by clunky desks into a welcoming learning haven not only for the children but also for their parents. All of this is part of her mission and she’s convinced that one day all children will come to school without being called, wearing clean, dry shoes, and no responsibility of looking after their siblings, holding their parents’ hands who will be more trusting and more present in building their children’s future.

Ana Maria is enrolled in the National Program for reducing school dropouts (PNRAS), a program through which she hopes to find and apply a solution that can offer children from the villages a brighter, better future. Until then, she’s proven to herself that when she’s had enough, she still finds energy to walk a little further on this journey. 

No child left behind! Mrs Diana and her student Nicolas

Mrs Diana hasn’t allowed any of her students to walk away from their path. She respects each child’s own pace and is always there for them, encouraging them every step of the way. The students understand that they have a bigger goal to reach, and school will help them get there.

Nicolas is almost 10 years old and in 3rd grade. He has 10 other siblings and is the first in his family to learn to read and write. He is the pride of the whole family, an ambitious and conscientious child who loves school. He also has the support of his family, who understand how important it is to give their child a future. He is also very lucky to have Mrs Diana, a Teach for Romania fellow, who has been by his side since grade 1. He may not read as well as the best in his class, but he is progressing very quickly and, most importantly, he understands what he reads.

Nicolas is now on his summer school break but has already finished one book that his teacher gave him and has one more to go. He also reads to his younger brothers, whom he has taught letters. He’s a real role model for them, and now they’re all happy to be going to school or kindergarten in autumn. He even helps his parents with writing and reading. 

Until this year, his mother was unable to fill in any paperwork when Nicolas couldn’t get to school. Now, Nicolas helps her read and deal with all sorts of papers and documents.

We often talk about illiteracy in 15 year olds as resulted from the PISA tests, but we need to understand what is happening in the early years of education in order to have a successful intervention, especially where the challenges are very high, namely in disadvantaged backgrounds in Romania.

In reality, a good number of the children who suffer from functional illiteracy do not actually have basic literacy skills.

At the beginning of the last school year, Teach for Romania fellows teaching grades II-VIII had, on average, 4 pupils in class who could not read and write and 6 pupils with difficulties in reading comprehension. That’s why, regardless of the grade level or subject they teach, our fellows are trained to work with each child to develop their reading and writing skills.

Bogdan, the student who learned to read at 18 and got a driving license

Bogdan is 18 years old and will start 8th grade in September. He has repeated a few years of school, but he has never given up easily. Half a year ago, Bogdan had difficulty recognising all the letters of the alphabet and couldn’t write or read fluently. Bogdan has no special learning needs, no dysgraphia or dyslexia, he simply missed the time when he should have learned to read and write. The rest is just inertia. And years of him sitting at a desk, but being invisible. Until last year. In the first semester, when schools went online, Bogdan didn’t attend any classes. He had problems with his internet connection, he didn’t have a tablet and it was difficult for him to log into class anyway.

In the second semester, when school reopened, he started coming to class again. His biology teacher, Andrei now a Teach for Romania alumnus, realised that Bogdan couldn’t read. He asked him if he wouldn’t mind staying after school to work together, and the answer was yes, even though sometimes staying after school wasn’t so easy, as Bogdan had already been working on a building site for a while.

Andrei had been coached and supported by his colleagues at Teach for Romania and our friends at the New Horizons Foundation on what to do in such situations: they assessed Bogdan, built an action plan together, they met regularly and practiced reading and writing. In July, Andrei also organised a summer school where Bogdan was the first to arrive on most days. When they started working together, Bogdan had the literacy level of a preschool student. Now he reads and has just taken his driving test. It was a dream come true.

Bogdan’s story is not unique. At the beginning of the last school year, Teach for Romania fellows teaching grades II-VIII had, on average, 4 students in the classroom who could not read and write and 6 students with difficulties in reading comprehension. The literacy problem in Romania is far from being solved. For children who are now in school, whatever grade they are in, there is a need for patient, well-trained teachers, who understand that there’s no use in blaming past teachers or the social status of the family and who want and know how to help children who need to learn to read and write better. Children who have been robbed of years of schooling for simply not being taught at the right time. We have what it takes to make this happen and we must do better. What we desperately need instead are trained teachers who are able and willing to be more involved in making learning relevant for students, by adapting lessons to their needs, regardless of what the curriculum requires of them. These children are real, they are waiting at a desk in a remote school for their teacher to show up for them, teachers who will see them, who will listen to them and who will do everything in their power to support their growth. 

This is our big challenge and where we most invest in. We continue to work with future generations of Teach for Romania fellows, with teachers in the public school system who want to do more for their students, and with our friends in the NGO sector who want to invest in each child. 

I'm here to teach: two students guided by Miss Bianca, first in their families, to read and write.

Bianca Nichitean is teaching in a community in Brasov county. In September 2020, she started the school year with 28 children registered in her class, however only a few of them came to school at the beginning.

 

She decided she had to do something about it, so she got in touch with one of her students’ grandmothers who took her to the community where, door to door, she found out that two children registered on her list were abroad with their families, and two little girls had never been to school or kindergarten.

Bianca kept going to their homes, and even collected funds from friends and former colleagues for school supplies and clothes, and soon, Maria and Patricia began to trust their new teacher.

Both Maria and Patricia come from large families of 5-7, parents who didn’t know how to read and siblings who used their notebooks to start a fire. 

Bianca visited them weekly, waiting for them patiently at the gate and they would do lessons in the car, because the tablets were broken by the younger siblings. She slowly started teaching them letters, being in first grade.

The teacher had set out in the first term to teach the children letters, but realised that the approach was not exactly the right one for children who had never been to kindergarten or school before.

Both girls struggled to hold a pencil, and that’s when Bianca realized it was important to teach them to draw simple lines and strokes. 

In the second semester, she bought them clothes, shoes and packed a few extra lunches every day so that all the children could come to school.

Since then, Maria and Patricia came to school constantly, and when one of them couldn’t come to class, Bianca was announced by their parents what the reason was, which was also new. 

Learning the alphabet, the teacher realised that there needed to be a story or an experience that would bring the alphabet into the children’s universe, so “one day I brought kiwis to school, trying to make learning visible and relevant. It was a great achievement when the children started to follow the lines, to leave space and write letters and numbers up to 10 ascending and descending.”

Maria and Patricia are the first children in their families to learn to read and write.

The process is far from being where it should be, but the first steps have been taken. Without them, the girls may have dropped out of school altogether, or come to school but be left behind.

Unfortunately, this scenario is very familiar.

At the beginning of the last school year, Teach for Romania fellows teaching grades II-VIII had, on average, 4 students in the classroom who could not read and write and 6 students with difficulties in reading comprehension.

The drama of illiteracy in Romania starts in the early years of school, long before standardized tests like PISA measure what 15-year-olds know.

In vulnerable environments, Teach for Romania teachers often encounter such challenges: absenteeism, children who have never been to school, poverty that contributes significantly to school drop-out, children whose parents cannot read and write, and more.

The future of children from such backgrounds can be changed with the help of teachers who go beyond the classroom, talk to parents, build a relationship based on trust and turn school into a safe place for learning, built around the needs of students.

*Children’s names have been changed.

 

The biggest impact: she was the first and only one to teach us that making mistakes is normal and important in our learning

We avoid being wrong and we hide anything that doesn’t fit in a certain box. 

The education we received at home, at school, in our environment, in the community told us we are not allowed to be wrong. Then as adults, we involuntarily pass on the mistake of avoiding mistakes. 

It seems like a play on words that influences a child’s perception of relationships and the world around them. 

A quick game of imagination shows us that any mistake is immediately noticed and punished. In schools, punished in grades. Or in teasing. Or in bullying.

Simona Costea discovered this late in high school. Every mistake seemed to be graded or marked harshly with inappropriate jokes during class.

She grew up in Fundeni, Călărași, where “children are not so interested in school”, as she remarks.

“At the beginning of high school, it was hard for me because I carried in my mind the thought that I am from the countryside and don’t have as many opportunities as my peers from the city. Sure, it wasn’t a healthy thought, but that’s how the first year went. I left my environment and it was hard. I could see, however, more humanity in my village than where I ended up in high school.

In 4 years of high school, I saw a lot of bullying in rural communities. My classmates weren’t better than me, I shouldn’t have compared myself to them! The only difference between kids in class is about how hard you work. It doesn’t matter how many advantages people around you have over you. What changed was my mindset and that happened because of what I learned in secondary school from my teachers.”

Sînziana Spistyak, Marius Maria, Emilia Dinică and Anca Popa were teachers in Fundeni, Călărași county, and Simona’s teachers who recalls her middle school experience with great joy: “the classes with the Teach for Romania teachers were all about learning in a relaxed, calm environment. Nobody was under any pressure to make mistakes. We didn’t feel that one of us was at an advantage over the other. We were equals. We trusted ourselves to make mistakes in order to learn, and the classes were as they should be.

Maybe what helped the most was that they helped us build our confidence and created the feeling that it was normal to be wrong. The feeling of familiarity. Something that, in high school, I never encountered because I didn’t have my favourite teachers anymore. Here, all the teachers were used to the classical method of teaching. I was afraid of them. I felt like I had gone from everything to nothing. It was unsettling.”

“Wherever you go, build friendships, do your best and be considerate of people’s feelings” – these are the words that Marius Maria, the physics teacher, gifted his students at the end of the school year in Fundeni.

Simona Costea finished high school with the highest average in the Baccalaureate exam.

Throughout high school, she commuted from Călărași to Bucharest, depending on a bus and a train, which she always missed because of traffic in the city.

However, nothing tamed her ambitious mind – soon after she passed her medical exam and was admitted to medical university. 

Simona is that person who lives by “Wherever you go, build friendships, do your best and be considerate of people’s feelings “.

Inspired by her teachers, she wants to contribute back, through tutoring those students who are preparing to take the Baccalaureate exam, biology exams, Romanian language and literature or even admission to medicine.

She feels she has received a lot in school and wants to give back what she has learned from her teachers.

With dedication, empathy and gratitude

Mihaela Bucșă: How do you talk about a better future in a community where no one remembers the last student who went to high school?

I have been teaching physics for almost two years in Crizbav, that place where there is no more hope.

I’m also teaching in Sânpetru where hope is easier to find. On my first day of school, my colleagues told me that nothing can be done with these students, that they come from challenging, dysfunctional homes and that there is no chance for them… Even in the classroom, my students used to often say “Miss, in our village children ‘is’ bad.”

It’s true, there are all kinds of problems – from behavioral issues, negative stereotypes and social intolerances to everything or an apparent lack of empathy for children who can’t write in 8th grade. I tried to educate myself and understand what was happening and soon realized that students were very demotivated. Most children don’t even dare to dream that they could continue school after finishing 8th grade. They grow up with the idea that they will work every day for the rest of their lives and that school is of no use to them. Some have even told me that they don’t know anyone who succeeded in life using what they learned in school.
I often visited the communities, especially Cutuș – or as the locals call it “where the gypsies live” – to talk with the parents of the children who missed or dropped out of school. There’s a whole different world out there, far from the reality of the “nice” side of the village or the stories we hear in the teachers’ room.

I met parents who love their children, who want them to have a better life. They all listen when they are told that school could be a good chance for a brighter future, however they find it hard to comprehend how that can be possible. No one ever explained about the many doors schools can open. They don’t know about vocational schools or what jobs they could get. They do not trust the idea of their children attending a city school, in Brasov, all out of fear that something bad will happen on the road, or in the city. It is very hard for both parents and their children to believe that there is hope and it is possible to succeed. They have many survival mechanisms that are so rooted that they are hard to identify and deal with having only 2 classes per week. 

Things started to make more sense to me after I started immersing myself in the community, listening to people’s stories and paying attention to their environment. Once we connected and once the people I served started trusting my good intentions and my interest in who they are as people, how they live and the challenges they face or the joy they share, they started to be open to what I do in the classroom. And from then on, change came step by step: 200 children went on free trips to Sinaia, Bucharest, Vâlcea, Zărnesti, Brașov and started to collect beautiful memories, soon realizing that school and education are not only about sitting at a desk and writing in notebooks.

As we switched to virtual lessons, I’ve been able to invite guests to our classes, people who could show the practical side of education and how they’ve used it in their life. We invited a researcher from the European Space Agency and we talked about physics and space exploration and even an engineer who explained how math helps us make viral videos on TikTok.

Students began to be more intentional about showing up to school, they wanted to be there. Not all of them and not all the time, but this was an important start. 20 children from Crizbav managed to go to vocational schools and high schools in Brașov. This meant more than 200 hours of work for me in June and July 2019 alone. This year I’m an 8th grade teacher and I have 15 stories to write and rewrite. School should be enjoyable and it should make sense. The fact that all my students want to continue school and that we no longer have dropouts, which is unheard of in our school, gives us hope for better.

Cristina a intrat în scenă cu greutatea codului „Dv2”, care m-a anunțat: e ultima șansă să repete clasa a III-a.

O fată înaltă, timidă, care deja lipsea și pentru care nu mă simțeam pregătită. Cu inima cât un purice, am întrebat-o ce litere de tipar știe.

Ne-am blocat la o vocală, așa că am rugat-o să îmi scrie numele. Mi-a întins caietul și am citit CRAITIBSĂ.
Am luat-o de la început cu alfabetul și am profitat de mici momente să îi arăt că sunt atentă la munca ei. Pentru că i-am spus: este efortul tău.
A primit mesajul meu. A mers, când a putut, la orele de alfabetizare de la școală. Împrumuta cărți din biblioteca clasei.
A venit să îmi povestească cum repetă literele de pe o planșă acasă. A reușit. Când la ora de română a citit primul cuvânt și apoi prima propoziție, am aplaudat cu toții și cu inima. Doi dintre elevii mei de la clasa a V-a, care nu știau să scrie și să citească, repetenți din această cauză, au reușit să învețe alfabetul, să citească și să scrie după dictare. Chiar dacă aproape toți colegii mei susțineau că vor rămâne din nou repetenți, văzând progresul acestor doi băieți, au hotărât să le dea o șansă. Am lucrat individual cu aceștia, am scris litere, am citit pe silabe, am descifrat mesajele unor imagini.
Nu a fost ușor, dar am reușit.

Nicoleta Burcă, alumnă Teach for Romania

Two years ago, Răducu was also on the verge of dropping out of school.

His physics teacher Mihaela Bucșa went around the village to persuade parents to allow their children to go to high school.

That’s how she won over Răducu, now in 10th grade.

The boy took over her model when the pandemic came and the teacher couldn’t get hold of the children. He soon became the education ambassador of his village.

 “Thinking about it now, I would say that 80% of what mattered while I was teaching in Crizbav was going to the village and talking to the families and only 20% was what I was doing in the classroom. If you are aware that the biggest harm is them dropping out of school and you believe that you have the power to change something about it, then you are already winning” says Mihaela.

The teacher, assisted by Răducu, has persuaded 42 children and their parents to continue their studies at vocational schools or high schools in “scary” Brasov. “That was the biggest fear: parents believed that city life would influence their children to do silly things and that they would get into trouble,” says Răducu Drăgan, who was often out there in the community. 

He showed them videos of what he was doing in his school practice and told them about his teachers who joined them in the hallways during breaks. He persuaded the parents of 15 of his fellow students to give school another chance. Normally, no more than four children would be admitted to the city’s vocational schools.

As for high school, not a single child in the village remembered the last high school student from Cutuș. In 2020, Răducu received the award for “Best community influencer for vocational and technical education” at the Student Gala, organised by the Student Council.

 At the same time, his 8th grade physics teacher, Mihaela Bucșă, was winning first prize for Inclusion at the Civil Society Gala.

Răducu’s story was documented by Andreea Archip, from Scoala 9, and can be found in full on scoala9.ro.