K12 Digest - Balkan Countries Special

BALKAN COUNTRIES SPECIAL

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

www.k12digest.com

FEATURING INSIDE

Admira Konicanin, Serbia Aleksandra Stankovic, Serbia Atifa Saljic, Serbia Borko Petrovic, Serbia Deja Klacic, Slovenia Dejan Nemcic, Croatia Dragana Gjoreska, Macedonia Ivancica Tajsl Dragicevic, Croatia Katarina Carapic, Serbia Mînzicu Simona Valentina, Romania

FEATURING INSIDE

Mirsada Sabotic, Montenegro Nade Molerovich, Macedonia Nurten Akkus, Turkey Olivera Arizanovic, Serbia Olivera Nedic, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sandra Grujevska, Macedonia Sava Kovacevic, Montenegro Smilja Mrdja, Bosnia and Herzegovina Suada Karic, Bosnia and Herzegovina Vojka Milovanovic, Serbia

Željana Radojičić Lukić L e t U s B e Th at Ti ny Li ttle Gr a i n i n Ch a ngi ng th e Pa r a di gm of E du cati on

JULY-AUGUST 2020

2

K12 Digest July-August 2020

K12 Digest July-August 2020

3

July-August 2020

Vol - 1 Issue - 3

Balkan Countries Special Editor in Chief

Dr. Manoj Varghese

Managing Editor Rose Mary

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Andrew Scott Joseph Alex

Naomi Wilson Stanly Lui Emma James

Enquiry: admin@k12digest.com

Art and Design Charlie Jameson

Sales & Marketing

Jennifer Anderson Rachel Roy

Monica Davis Annie Smith

Enquiry: adim@k12digest.com

Subscription

www.k12digest.com

International Representation

GET THE MOBILE ISSUE

London Connecta Education Ltd. 27, Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX, United Kingdom Dubai Focus Innovation Technologies FZE P.O. Box 48299, Dubai Silicon Oasis Dubai, UAE Bangalore Connecta Innovation Pvt. Ltd. Carlton Towers, Old Airport Road, Bangalore - 560008 India K12 Digest is a digital magazine published by Connecta Innovation Private Limited. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in the content are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Connecta Innovation Private Limited or any of its members. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the advertisements and all representation of warranties made in such advisements are those of the advertisers and not of the publisher.

4

K12 Higher Digest Education Digest May-June March 2019 2020

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

School Education Reforms in the Balkan

T

he Balkans is a portion of Europe, comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey—with all or part of each of those countries located within the Balkan Peninsula.

Not to be confused with Baltic states that lie in the northeastern region of Europe containing the countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, the Balkan is Turkish for the mountain.

The peninsula thus gets its name for being dominated by this type of landform, especially in the west. The Balkan Mountains stretch east-west across Bulgaria, the Rhodope Mountains lie along the Greek-Bulgarian border and the Dinaric range runs down the Adriatic coast to Albania.

Despite disputes, the diverse culture and languages, the Balkan countries have always set aside their differences to come together to further their educational progress. The Balkans are, and have been, developing their collaborations through international conventions and goals on education, putting aside their differences.

Through this issue, we have tried to put a spotlight on the educational reforms making headway in this beautiful

region. While going through the names that have created an impact in the Balkan region, one name stood out the most. Željana Radojičić Lukić, hailing from Serbia, has come a long way from her teacher role to Serbia’s assistant education minister and later return to her students’ world again. A recipient of many national and international awards and prizes, Željana joined hands with a fellow Global Teacher Prize finalist from Macedonia and founded an ‘Association of the Best Teachers of the Former Yugoslavia’, a network of Balkan teachers for networking, sharing resources and ideas. Her project ‘The Magical Village’ is a concept of learning under the open sky. Based on innovative teaching resources close to the children’s interest and their culture of learning, the children learn under the open sky in creative workshops taught by teachers dressed as fairies from Slavic mythology.

But we do not want to give out any spoilers here. In the next couple of pages, you will meet a lot of inspiring educators who have strived their best to provide the best possible avenues to their students to pursue world-class education.

Cheers!

Rose Mary

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Chris Wright

Maarit Rossi

Former International School Principal, Former Group Project Director at a World Class Learning Group, Education Consultant - Wright Solutions, United Kingdom

Founder & CEO - Paths to Math Ltd, Former Mathematics Teacher and Principal, Global Teacher Prize Finalist, Finland

Dr. Stuart Grant Colesky Principal, Rundle College, South Africa

Zeljana Radojicic Lukic Exceptional Educator from Serbia, Founder of Association of the Best Teachers of the Former Yugoslavia, Founder of Magical Intercultural Friendship Network, Founder of Creative Magic - Children’s International Festival, Founder of Magic Village, Serbia

Asst. Prof. Dr. Poonsri Vate-U-Lan Assistant Professor in Education, Ph.D. Supervisor and Researcher, Thailand

Stephen Cox

Elena Shramkova

Chief Education Officer, New Nordic School, Finland

English and Literature teacher, Owner of “The Smart Teens Studio of English” in Belgorod, Russia

Liljana Luani Senior Teacher ‘Pashko Vasa’ school Shkodra, Exceptional Volunteer, Albania

Ralph Valenzisi Chief of Digital Learning and Development, Norwalk Public Schools, Connecticut, United States

Servatius (Servee) Palmans Former Director School Administration & Business Operations (Large Education Group), Chief Operating Officer - BBD Education, Dr. Lilian Bacich Netherlands & UAE Senior Educationist, Author, Keynote Speaker, Co-founder Tríade Educacional, Brazil

Hidekazu Shoto

Dr. Venus M. Alboruto Angus Duthie

Master Teacher, Researcher, Innovator, Trainer, Philippines

Former Vice President Security (Large Education Group), Former British Army Officer (Airborne Forces), Senior Advisor – Resilience and Crisis Management (Emerald Solutions Group), United Kingdom & UAE

Innovative English and ICT Teacher, Author, Japan

Ian Deakin Deputy Head and Dean of Faculty, Dalton Academy, Beijing, China

Shady Elkassas

Rania Lampou Global Teacher Prize Finalist 2019, 15 International Awards on STEM, STEM Instructor, Educator, Neuroscience Researcher, Trainer & Author, Greece

Assistant Principal, Sharjah American International School, United Arab Emirates

Fethy Letaief Distinguished Senior EFL Teacher, ISA Coordinator with the British Council, Motivational Speaker, Tunisia

Herwin Hamid EdTech Specialist, Speaker and Teacher Trainer, Innovative ICT Educator, ICT learning multimedia developer, Indonesia

Ha Nga Revolutionary English Educator, Globally Connected English Studio - Hanoi, Vietnam

Dr. Leonilo Basas Capulso Master Teacher, Speaker and Researcher, Philippines

Kihyun Park Innovative Educator of Online Classroom, Pungsaeng Middle School, South Korea

Dr. Manoj Varghese Senior Director of Strategy & Partnerships – Connecta Education Ltd., Former Global Director - Technology & Risk Management - GEMS Education, Former Regional Committee Member – Varkey Foundation, UK, UAE & India.

Mr. Ngô Thành Nam Technology Academy Manager, Microsoft Learning Consultant, Global Trainer, Vietnam

FROM YOUR FINGERTIPS TO THE HIGHEST MOUNTAINS, ACONCAGUA IS THE PLACE ‘WHERE CONDORS BEND THEIR WINGS’

Admira Koničanin, Assistant professor of Sports and Physical Education, State University of Serbia NETWORKING THROUGH MUSIC

Alexandra Stankovic, Music teacher, Belgrade, Serbia

SERBIAN TEACHERS EDUCATE MIGRANT CHILDREN FROM ASIA AND AFRICA

Atifa Saljic, Educator, Elementary school “Rifat Burdžović Tršo” Tutin CARING FOR SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS WITHIN CLASSROOMS

Borko Petrović, Educator, Gymnasium Paracin

20

20

30

26

30

26 36

36

CHALLENGES WITH TEACHING MATHEMATICS ONLINE

Deja Kačič, 40 Educator, Arts Grammar School, Ljubljana RAISING HUMANITARIANS THROUGH VOLUNTEERISM

Dejan Nemcic, 46 Educator, Primary school Ivo Andric, Zagreb

46

40

FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING TO EXPRESS CREATIVITY, RESULTING IN REAL LIFE-TIME OPPORTUNITIES

50

50

54 COVER STORY

Dragana Gjoreska, Educator, SEPUGS ‘Vasil Antevski- Dren’

54

12

JAN I SAMAH - CHANGES I HAVE ACCEPTED

Ivančica Tajsl, Educator, Primary school Trnjanska, Zagreb

QUALITY EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Katarina Čarapić, Educator, Mionica High School

58

58

ONLINE TEACHING

Mînzicu Simona Valentina, Primary Education Teacher, “Șerban Vodă” Theoretical High School Slănic, Prahova A TEACHER’S FIGHT FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Mirsada Šabotić, Educator, Gymnasium 30th of September CLASSROOM DYNAMICS FROM A TEACHER’S POINT OF VIEW

Nade Molerović, Professor, Director and Motivational Speaker for Children and Young People

70

64

64

70

74

TURNING CANNOT INTO WHY NOT

Nurten Akkuş, Educator, Preschool Samsun Salıpazarı

74

80

FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE LITTLE PRINCE

Olivera Arizanović, Educator, School of Economics, Nis

84 84

80

90

90 100

PUBLIC POLICIES IN THE EDUCATION OF THE BALKAN COUNTRIES

Olivera Nedic, Educator, Primary school Sveti Sava, Doboj

94

THE TEACHER WHO TURNED ENTREPRENEUR TO FULFIL HER DREAMS- STEP BY STEP!

Sandra Grujevska, Educator, North Macedonia

100

TV LESSONS AND ONLINE LEARNING IN MONTENEGRO FROM A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE

Sava Kovacevic, Educator, Elementary school “Oktoih” Skopje

94 106

ONLINE TEACHING IN 3 ACTS

106

110

110 114 114

Smilja Mrdja, Educator, Primary School “Osman Nuri Hadzic”- Sarajevo

EDUCATION IN THE FUNCTION OF HEALTHY LIFESTYLES

Suada Karić, Educator, Secondary School of Agriculture, Sarajevo

CREATIVE IN FRENCH WITH A SMARTPHONE

Vojka Milovanović, Educator, Elementary school ‘Dositej Obradovic’ Pozarevac

Željana Radojičić Lukić Le t Us Be Th at Ti n y L i t t l e G ra in in C ha n g i n g t h e Pa r a d ig m o f E d u c at i o n

COVER STORY

12

K12 Digest July-August 2020

K12 Digest July-August 2020

13

Željana Radojičić Lukić, Educator, Founder of Association of the Best Teachers of the Former Yugoslavia, Founder of Magical Intercultural Friendship Network, Founder of Creative Magic – Children’s International Festival, and Founder of Magic Village, Serbia Željana Radojičić Lukić is a multi-award-winning teacher from Serbia, who went a long way from a teacher to an assistant minister of her country, before finally returning to her students.

She is a leader in education in the Balkans who strives to inspire and motivate teachers in the Balkans with her work, ideas and projects. Thanks to the creation of the “Magic Village” project, which was funded by UNICEF during 2012, she was named one of the best teachers in the world, not once, but two world awards, the Global Teacher Prize and the Global Teachers Award. The Magic Village project, which brought her the biggest national awards, is based on a holistic approach to learning in the open air. Aware of the great advantages of this model of learning, it strives to promote a comprehensive approach to learning through various projects, to create conditions for it to be recognized by decision makers in the entire Balkans and to become an integral part of most national curricula of Balkan countries.

14

K12 Digest July-August 2020

I

learned as a child, and I teach this to my students, that failure does not exist and that every attempt is actually a success worthy of attention, and every effort brings victory; it is nice to be first in something, but we should not forget that it is worthy of respect to be the last. My friends know that my career is a set of successes and great deeds, but only I know how many attempts I have made to build everything that is now visible.

My students are my biggest inspiration and motivation and I have always tried to involve them in various projects I have worked on. Several generations of my students grew up with the educational festival “Creative Magic”, which arose from the need to bring the world to our small place.

We have been realizing this recognizable regional event together for 15 years, where they and their families host children from all over Europe. In addition to being given the opportunity to strengthen their competencies in children’s creativity, they have the opportunity to learn tolerance early, to break down prejudices and stereotypes about other nations and to grow into citizens of the world.

The turning point in my career was certainly marked by the creation of the concept of holistic learning called the Magic Village, and after that the doors of both national and international educational circles opened on their own. I did not keep that door only for myself, but all this time I open it to other good teachers in the region.

The Magic Village is a concept of learning immersed in a fairy tale, based on a holistic approach to learning in the open air. It incorporates all the experiences, both mine and my team’s, over decades of teaching practice. This experience is special, great and significant, because we have managed to gather different teams of experts around it over the years and to produce many new projects together. In fact, everything we have created together over the years has grown or is based on experience from the Magic Village. I can freely say that our latest project called EduBalkan also grew out of the idea of integrity established in the concept of learning in the Magic Village.

Education erases boundaries, but really!

Education has a great capacity to erase boundaries, to build bridges of love and tolerance, and to be the balance of establishing lasting peace in any seismic area like the Balkan region. The fact that we were

K12 Digest July-August 2020

15

given a chance and an incredible opportunity to form a “Balkan Teachers’ Network” through networking is just another in a series of actions that we are focused on.

Projects, such as the Association of the Best Teachers of the Former Yugoslavia, the Magic Intercultural Friendship Network, the Balkan Teacher’s Café Office and now the Balkan Teachers’ Network, are contained in a single project called EduBalkan, which already has a strong influence in this part of the world. I am sure that this network has the capacity to pave a safe path to better education, which would facilitate, motivate, direct all actors in the educational process to better cooperate, understand each other, exchange knowledge and ideas, network. The experience from 6 countries, which have a common history, similar educational systems, cultures, traditions, with their richness in diversity, proves to be a good recipe for achieving the mission of the EduBalkan education platform community.

The history of this part of the world is very complex. At the beginning of the nineties, a civil war took place here. It lasted for many years and left a big

16

K12 Digest July-August 2020

We advocate that schools become laboratories for research and experimentation through a comprehensive approach to learning.

mark in our lives. Many of us have lost our homes. We changed our place of residence. We became refugees. We are now connecting broken links through the EduBalkan community. We try to overcome the differences, to find common ground and to make opportunities out of it. Our point of connection is a positive experience from the period of our personal education. Most of us were educated in the same educational system of a common state called Yugoslavia. This perspective gives us the opportunity to compare the former educational system in which we were students and the current ones in which we work. We all agree that the former common education system was good, but that one was modified in 6 new worse versions.

We, the members of the EduBalkan community, now face the challenge of improving our education systems by restoring the confirmed strengths of our old education system, and on the other hand, successfully responding to the challenge of the present time when teaching has completely jumped out of the established framework.

Given that it is not yet known whether teaching will continue to take place only in the online environment or whether it will be a hybrid model, we certainly suggest that line ministries realize that they have outdated education, start examining and monitoring the needs of the modern child and start to find solutions to reset the system.

EduBalkan, the education platform community, proposes resetting education in Balkan countries Education before and after the pandemic will not be the same. Changes are inevitable. Those who are not ready to change, they will disappear, we can witness that from the history. The countries of the Balkan countries have national curricula that are several decades old, in which only the details have changed, the essence has remained the same. Networked teachers in the Balkans are aware of the seriousness of the situation and the fact that change will

We want to affirm a holistic approach to learning as the need of the Z-generation is to acquire functional knowledge through experiential learning, problem solving, life skills development, entrepreneurship, project creation

K12 Digest July-August 2020

17

What we are proposing is to reduce the number of classes through system integration based on correlation.

happen very slowly. However, our regional network of teachers needs to point out some shortcomings of our systems.

Although the developed world has long rejected the teacher in the role of instructor and gave way to the teacher-coach, someone who accompanies and guides the student from the side, who empowers him how to learn independently and find knowledge, Balkan schools are full of teacher lecturers. By our standards, there are up to 30 students in Balkan classrooms, and in some even more than that number. In such classes, it is impossible to organize group work, and teachers can only dream of individual work. In our schools, the school lesson lasts 45 minutes, and there are about 7 of them on a daily basis, the mother tongue, mathematics, chemistry, physics, history, geography, English language. It is hard to imagine that it is possible for one child during the day to focus on seven different scientific disciplines and to follow each discipline with equal attention and store it separately in one drawer.

What we are proposing is to reduce the number of classes through system integration based on correlation. We believe that the list should include mother tongue, English, mathematics, integrated social sciences, integrated natural sciences, art and life skills. This is a framework of subjects sufficient for the age of children from 12 to 15 years, i.e. from 5-8 grades of primary school.

In the younger elementary school age, i.e. the age of 1-4th grade, it would be enough to study five subjects. We advocate that schools become laboratories for research and experimentation through a comprehensive approach to learning, i.e. the complete integration of teaching content, because the school, which directs content into children’s heads, is outdated. The teacher, who does not critically assess whether all student heads are capable of accepting all the planned program contents, must leave our classrooms and give

18

K12 Digest July-August 2020

way to a teacher capable of educating children with functional knowledge and critical thinking.

Therefore, we want to affirm a holistic approach to learning as the need of the Z-generation is to acquire functional knowledge through experiential learning, problem solving, life skills development, entrepreneurship, project creation. Our proposals for reform steps are aimed at abolishing the class-hour system, reducing the number of students in classes to 20, abolishing the numerical method of assessment up to 13 years. We are committed to changing the paradigm of education as we know it. We cannot educate the adult generation with smartphones and tablets in the same way as the adult generations were educated with black and white TVs! This is simply not sustainable and that is why it is necessary for the education

systems to be reset in the Balkans. It is not easy at all, but if we realize the fact that classical education is dead, then we must react quickly to establish new education systems relieved of traces of rotten systems, which create frustrations, dissatisfaction and the need for new generations to use various applications, which they use in their free time. Our obligation is to create a school in which children will come with joy, who will feel happy in it and who will come out of it. If that does not happen, the classical state school, as we know it in the Balkans, will disappear forever. This will create space for the emergence of private classical and online schools that will offer programs tailored to the needs of the Z-generation and that will be adapted to the student, not the student to the school, as is currently the case.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

19

From Your Fingertips to The Highest Mountains, Aconcagua is the Place ‘Where Condors Bend their Wings’ Admira Koničanin, Assistant professor of Sports and Physical Education, State University of Serbia

Admira Koničanin is an assistant professor of Sports and Physical Education at the State University of Serbia, in the study program for Biomedical Studies, Department of Sports and Physical Education. She works as a professor of physical education at the Gymnasium and Technical School in Tutin, in the Republic of Serbia.

In the field of sports and physical education, she has written 80 scientific and professional papers that have been published in international and world journals.

President of the Mountaineering and Skiing Association ‘Beleg’ from Tutin, where a large number of children are included in the mountaineering association. Member of the reviewer and editorial board for the magazine ‘Special Education, Rehabilitation and Inclusive School’ Association of Defectologists of Montenegro-2020. Member of the Association of the Best Teachers of the Former Yugoslavia. Within the EduBalkan education platform, she actively participates in the networking of teachers in the Balkans, because she believes that networking empowers teachers in breaking stereotypes and prejudices about other peoples, which is not a rare occurrence in this area.

20

K12 Digest July-August 2020

M

odern life, due to the accelerated pace and excessive amount of stress, is slowly taking its credit on human health. Staying indoors for long, sitting and eating unhealthy food, endangered the health and life of modern man. It is known that a little atmosphere of peace in the forest makes a person think about the meaning and purpose of life. It all started with easy walks in nature.

When I look at our children in primary and secondary schools, those children hardly know how to walk properly.

Deformity of the spine and cervical spine occurs because every child between the ages of 11 and 15 spends at least some five to six hours with technology. As an educator and physical education teacher, I can say that I encounter these deformities of the spine and neck every day, and precisely for these reasons that I have stated.

Look around you, the streets, public transport, behind the counter rows, the dining tables. In restaurants and parks. In school desks. And even in the most intimate places, such as the toilet or bed. What do you see? That is right: the screen of your android, tablet, or laptop.

And now turn off the screen, find your reflection in it and try to go back to your childhood, when you made friends in parks and schools, or at least as a regular family activity in raising children. Remember the indescribable sadness when the voices of our mothers, as soon as the first lights on the street came on, called us to go home. Hey, how long those nights were! Who would wait for the next day, when we would gather again in the green yard in the basement of our building? Indians, cowboys, rubber band jumping competition, conversations.

Friendship and friendly quarrels. We were children, we did not have smartphones and Facebook profiles, and we were happy.

In the years that followed, the whirlwind of the modern age sucked up everything that had hitherto been considered a normal and desirable phenomenon in society, an elastic band, a ball out of the children’s hands, shoved androids into their hands and convinced them that they would ‘play’ even better there. Games have turned into digital violence and irresponsible behaviour. Children are often selfish, spoiled, and they choose their friends according to what clothes they wear and which phone model they own. And society and socializing have lost their original value and meaning. Among the hundreds and thousands of ‘friends’ online, we have never been lonelier.

But it is still not too late for our children. Turn them to nature and mountains.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

21

Hiking has become my lifestyle in recent years. Being in nature is priceless, walking through a dense forest, listening to the chirping of birds, enjoying the greenery, trees, grass and flowers, walking on the ground, stone, overcoming obstacles on the way, climbing until the sea view bursts. Every moment in the mountain is etched in the memory, fills the soul with pleasure, and does well to your condition. In any case, it strengthens health! I do not know when I felt that mountain call. I think it has always been in me.

But let us go back to the beginning, to the place where it all started. Childhood.

My childhood was happy and carefree, imbued with frequent stays in nature. My first steps towards the mountain were on skies. As a five-year-old, I started skiing and competing. That adrenaline, the fight against time

always challenged me. Two years ago, I joined the Mountaineering Ski Association ‘Beleg’ from Tutin, of which I am now also the president. Tutin, my hometown, is an excellent starting point I cannot say that I picked up all for discovering the beauties of Serbia and the Balkans and the knowledge and wisdom. my further mountaineering On the contrary, I am still a training. From experienced, older members, I absorbed student, but I started to notice the advice, learned, and soon hiking became my way of life. mountain as a teacher and to In addition to looking powerful adopt the advice it broadcasts and dominant and providing incredible natural beauties that are in their embraces, the mountains, in cooperation with Mother Nature, selflessly give essential life lessons. The sooner we realize that not all classrooms have four walls and that our education and life experience relate to only one small segment of comprehensive, planetary knowledge, the sooner we will become open to new lessons and absorb knowledge more efficiently from a mentor we didn’t even recognize until yesterday. Not everyone’s goal

22

K12 Digest July-August 2020

is to climb to the top. The goal is movement. Keep in mind how important exercise is to stay healthy. The goal is to take care of yourself. Keep in mind the wisdom of life: Be yourself first! A traveller who set out on a journey without taking an important item with him has no choice but to procure it on the journey itself. That is how my roads lined up, conquered peaks, thousands and thousands of meters in height. However, as is always the case, nothing is achieved all at once. Everything was step by step, patient and brave.

I teach that to my students too.

through the mountain, they share food, water, go through the same effort and together reach the goal—the top of the mountain.

Aconcagua place ‘where condors bend their wings’ My childhood dream is slowly coming true. Listening to the song El Codor Pasa performed by Paul Simon, I had no idea that one day I would have the opportunity to see the condor, to watch the condor’s flight, to enjoy the beauty of Aconcagua. Aconcagua is the place ‘where condors bend their wings’. I have conquered the highest peak in the world if we do not count the Himalayas. This mountain asks you to push the limits of your abilities. ‘It is exhausting physically and mentally for hikers and simply pulls you with all its weaknesses and limitations.’

When we find ourselves in nature, in this case on the mountain that has the last word, only then do we realize how small we are. When a man returns to nature, he shakes hands with himself. A sense of spiritual satisfaction that transcends the need for the material will change your children radically. Down in the city, I saw ‘important’ people in armchairs, whose egos are bigger than the mountains themselves. But the ego does not seem to survive at altitudes above 500 meters above sea level. A director in an armchair or a worker at a kiosk—we are all the same in the mountains and the joy of meeting again in these wonderful places is mutual and sincere. And that is a big lesson I am talking about to my students.

I cannot say that I picked up all the knowledge and wisdom. On the contrary, I am still a student, but I started to notice the mountain as a teacher and to adopt the advice it broadcasts. Positive thoughts give us strength and push us forward, and anticipation brings only impatience and disappointment.

Violence in schools will decrease Maybe a ‘brave’ statement, but I believe it is true. Hiking is an activity that to some extent eliminates the need to be more powerful in relation to another and to overcome it. If the goal of hiking can be determined at all—it is not even

In the mountains, everyone is equal.

There is no place for status symbols. Already by who extended his hand when it was necessary to cross the rock, and by how many smiles and the same feeling of happiness he caused the same reason—say, the view from the top.

Friendly ties will become unbreakable And now double that feeling in children, when, on the way

Students will become more responsible Hiking requires discipline, both body and mind. Instead of sleeping until noon on the weekends, and then moving from lying down to a sitting position behind a computer or console, they will learn to get up early, and first, pack their hiking backpack on their own and go to bed on time.

necessary to reach the top of the mountain but to enjoy the landscapes that surround us, by overcoming natural obstacles along the way, but also our own weaknesses.

Students will learn to make the right decisions at the right time The mountain has the last word, and its laws must be obeyed. Sometimes bad weather will deter a team of small mountaineers from reaching the top, and they will learn that it is not a defeat, but on the contrary—the ability to make the right decision that will not endanger their health, and when they grow up for some ‘more serious’ climbs in life.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

23

24

K12 Digest July-August 2020

MAKING VR & AR A REALITY IN YOUR CLASSROOM EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO IMPLEMENT AR & VR IN YOUR CLASSROOM

Classroom Headset Management

Standalone VR Headsets

Secure Storage & Charging

Curriculum Aligned Content

Installation & Training

CONTACT US TODAY FOR A FREE DEMO: SALES@CLASSVR.COM

THE MOST AWARDED VR SYSTEM FOR SCHOOLS

8

www.classvr.com

@ClassVR

@ClassVR K12 Digest July-August 2020

25

Networking Through Music Alexandra Stankovic, Music teacher, Belgrade, Serbia

Alexandra has been working at the same school for 32 years. She teaches music at school; she leads singing sections and she is the conductor of two choirs (children aged 7-11 and children aged 11-15). She is the awardee of the title the Best Teacher of the former Yugoslavia. She is a member of the main team of the EduBalkan community, which networks teachers from six Balkan countries. Alexandra is a fighter for the return of children’s choirs to elementary schools in Serbia because she believes that children who play music in any way develop self-confidence, socialization, tolerance, prevention of peer violence and many other benefits. There are numerous scientific studies and researches on how much music affects the health of every individual from the youngest age.

Because of all that, she founded the Association of Music Teachers of Serbia in 2017.

26

K12 Digest July-August 2020

M

usic is powerful. It is a universal language, just like love, because it is understood by all nations on the globe. It is certainly one of the most beautiful arts that are experienced with the whole body and mind, which unites people, breaks down prejudices and builds bridges. Invisible waves that we recognize as sound, pass through the air touching every nerve in the body, and depending on whether we like such an invisible wave or not, our reaction depends. Music can stimulate, make us happy and motivated for positive reactions, but it can also arouse negative emotions. Music never leaves you indifferent.

It especially affects children at the earliest age, improves their concentration, teaches us to be more tolerant, to develop self-confidence, develop the speech apparatus and exercise memory.

The teaching curriculum of the Republic of Serbia, for the past 30 years, has successively reduced the number of music lessons in primary and secondary schools, and it is even less represented in preschool education. Students in Serbia, according to the state curriculum, have 1 hour of music per week, and we teachers teach music with that minimum, trying to correlate with other arts and sciences, because no science or art can be observed for

itself, but only integrated so that the study affects. Music teachers in Serbia lead school choirs as conductors, where they gather talented children with whom they perform various compositions. The topics on which they play music, mostly in children develop empathy towards other nations, love for their country, its culture, tradition, but also various educational contents on the topic of traffic safety, ecology, recycling, nature conservation, friendship.

Although we lead choirs enthusiastically, without any financial compensation from the state, we would never give up these activities, because they inspire us and allow us to express our artistic potential.

Serbia is known for many manifestations, of which the least is children’s, but we hope that that this will change as well. An international children’s event proves that integrative teaching gives great results for students.

It has existed for more than 50 years and has the most beautiful name, Joy of Europe. It is realized during Children’s Week, and then the Serbian capital becomes the capital of children. This is a project that brings together children from many countries, in which not only the children of Europe participate but the whole world. Through peer cooperation, children, together with their little hosts, in whose families they are accommodated, prepare activities to represent their country through songs and games of their peoples. The joy of Europe is one of the

K12 Digest July-August 2020

27

It is necessary now, when we are scared, when we are locked in our homes for a very long time, to make people aware that music is healing and that listening, as well as making music, can reduce stress and calm the fear of disease, both in adults and in children

most important events in the calendar of the organizers, but also of all those who respect and love interculturality. That Serbia, and the Serbian people, really highly value interculturalism, is proof that this largest children’s event in Serbia has been going on for half a century with the same will and desire of the participating children to socialize and network through their cultures and respect for diversity. Participating children become and remain friends for life, visiting and socializing for the rest of their lives. Is there anything more beautiful than this?

28

K12 Digest July-August 2020

As the winner of the title of the Best Teacher of the former Yugoslavia, which obliges me to constant work and improvement throughout my life, I tried to contribute to the manifestation activities of my country. I conceived the project together with the famous Serbian composer and artist Leontina Vukomanovic.

Our project has similar goals as Joy of Europe - but it is national and is based on an event that is of the greatest national importance in Serbia. When creating the project, the goal was to network the children of Serbia who, by

integrating music, fine arts, history, geography, mother tongue and religious instruction, will experience and revive the character and work of the founders of Serbian education and the founders of Serbian medieval literature.

Last year, Serbia marked an important jubilee related to the holiest person in the history of Serbia, Saint Sava.

We marked the 800th anniversary of the birth of a person who is remembered in Serbian literature as the greatest Serbian educator. He built schools and hospitals, was a writer, and since 1840, the birthday of this educator, in all schools in Serbia, is celebrated as a school holiday.

Exactly that day, which is celebrated in all schools in Serbia, on January 27, was the reason for our project to be recognized as nationally important and to be financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia.

Having provided funding, we have symbolically networked 800 children from all over Serbia to mark the 800th anniversary of the birth of the greatest Serbian educator. The goals that guided us through this project are to, through the symbiosis of a large number of different scientific fields, affirm young people and their talents. We intended to nurture the values of our cultural heritage, to develop a responsible attitude towards culture, to enrich our vocabulary and mother tongue. By networking as many as 800 children, we have encouraged them, both to exchange and cooperate and to keep the memory of the founder of education in our country.

After networking and dedicated work of all choir groups throughout Serbia, we organized their first live meeting on one of the largest Serbian stages in the Serbian capital. For some of these 800 talented students,

this was their first meeting with the capital, and for most their first performance on one of the largest stages in Serbia. The most beautiful scene, a feast for the eyes and ears, happened during the agreement of 800 votes during a joint concert that took place under television spotlights.

National and local media reported a picture of a river of children constantly flowing into the capital.

Eight hundred radiant children, who had never seen each other before, accompanied by their teachers, conductors, bravely stood in front of the largest state officials, such as the complete Government of Serbia, state and church leaders, the most prominent people from the world of education. That applause, which resonated indefinitely for each of the eight hundred, was symbolic applause for the work of the Serbian educator, which the Serbian people have been looking at with respect and admiration for the entire 800 years. Eight centuries of the Enlightenment were symbolically rewarded with 800 fused children’s voices who sang the anthem to the Enlightenment of Serbia.

Being a part of something so big, makes a person realize that being a teacher is a privilege and that no money could replace that feeling I experienced as a teacher-conductor in front of a choir of 800 children.

Although the time of the Covid19 virus pandemic slowed down the activities on this project a bit, on the other hand, it triggered some other ideas that are now feasible in a different environment, online environment.

Now we understand that technology allows us to network children quickly and easily, not only from Serbia but from all over the world. The boundaries have thinned, now is the time for creativity! Technology and new normality are on our side, they allow us to network quickly and easily. I am sure that the EduBalkan community, in some future period, can start networking musically talented children from all over the world. Why don’t we network 2020 children from all over the world and join forces to compose a song dedicated to the new normal and in that way mark a year that changes us, even though we did not want to?

It is necessary now, when we are scared, when we are locked in our homes for a very long time, to make people aware that music is healing and that listening, as well as making music, can reduce stress and calm the fear of disease, both in adults and in children. It is necessary for teachers to become aware of the need and to find ways to integrate music into their subjects. These will be great ways to add value to the hybrid classes that await our next school year, on one hand, and to relax and brighten up online classes on the other. Let us network with music and love!

K12 Digest July-August 2020

29

Serbian Teachers Educate Migrant Children from Asia And Africa Atifa Saljic, Educator, Elementary school “Rifat Burdžović Tršo” Tutin

Atifa Saljic is a teacher of mother tongue and literature from the Republic of Serbia.

She is an active member of the EduBalkan education platform and the Association of the Best Teachers of the former Yugoslavia.

She is extremely sensitive to the plight of refugees and migrants. That is why she works with migrant children, where through educational workshops and creative contents she tries to bring the language and culture of the new environment closer to those who have found short-term peace and shelter in her city.

30

K12 Digest July-August 2020

T

he Republic of Serbia is located on the most frequent route - the so-called Asian transfer station and serves as a special bridge between East and West.

Thousands of distraught and frightened people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iran who went to the countries of Western Europe are passing through Serbia. As the process of integration of more than 300,000 refugees and internally displaced persons from the territory of the former Yugoslavia is still ongoing in Serbia, so is the high level of empathy and solidarity of the local population towards migrants who use Serbia as transit to developed European countries.

It is in Serbia, since 2014, that a large number of migrants from Africa and Asia have written a part of their story in search of security and a better life. Among them are a large number of young people, but also school-age children whose education was interrupted the moment they left their home country, and whose paths last even for years.

Migrant/refugee children have mostly faced war, persecution and difficult challenges in their country of origin. Some travelled from Syria for a year and a half through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria to Serbia. They experienced a series of troubles on the way to Serbia. The loss of home, loved ones,

leaving one’s way of life caused great sorrow and fear.

Working with migrants, I met many exhausted children, in dirty and torn clothes, some of them barefoot, and all with traces of great fatigue and physical exhaustion. They confided in me that they often tried to cross the border with Croatia, walking for 12 hours to reach some of the countries of the European Union. With the help and support of the NGO Impuls, in the year of 2017/2018, I conducted a survey related to the attitudes of migrant children about school attendance. The knowledge I gained was a guide for further steps that helped schools, teachers and parents of migrants. Many of them did not attend school for months and years, and some children were never included in any formal school system.

Most migrant children said they were willing to learn the language of the country in which they reside.

Some of the children’s responses were, “I want to go to school because I like to have friends”, “I want to go to school, be a good student and finish for a doctor to treat and help people”. I like my kids to be well, they go to school, learn the language and know something. Initially in Serbia, these migrant children could only receive an informal form of education. Until then, the activities included learning the language of the country they came from, English and the inclusion of migrants in various social workshops. Although migrant

K12 Digest July-August 2020

31

children have the right to education, guaranteed by the Convention on the Children’s Rights, the system was expected to launch an initiative to include children in the education system.

I did not wait for a systemic solution and instructions for the inclusion of refugee children in schools, but I volunteered to work with children in the presence of parents at the ‘Asylum Center’ in Tutin. The interest of the migrants and the motives for returning to normal life were an additional motivation for me. The child’s reaction to coming to a completely new environment, culture, way of life, together with the traumatic experiences of crossing a large number of countries, caused sleep disorders, alienation and fear of strangers.

Ignorance of the English and Serbian languages of the refugee children made normal communication difficult. Having in mind all the difficulties that I came across through the conducted research, I clearly remember my first activities in the migrant settlement. I invited the children and parents in front of the camp and presented them with my idea. They were already aware that a teacher would come to them. The smile on his face said it all, they were overjoyed.

I invited them to stand in a circle. Pointing to herself, she introduced herself and asked everyone to come out to the centre of the circle and say in Serbian: “My name is…”

They repeated their first word in the Serbian language, and now I remember all those names uncharacteristic of this climate: Kiana, Kimia, Muhammad, Mahajo, Ali Riza, Taha, Sami, Aslan, Mahti, Parsa, Taha, Paja and Jaz Dan. I suggested they repeat it two more times. After that, I told them that I was from Serbia and asked them to say the name of their country. We heard: “I come from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria” all in Serbian. One boy spoke harder and while singing with him, they spoke several times, signalling everyone to support him. It quickly became clear that they loved learning through play, just like any other child in the world.

I noticed that children are ready to attend classes with their authority and commitment, I made sure that all children go to school and get the opportunity to establish routines that their peers have and to acquire new knowledge, which they have been deprived of for years. My statement: “Whether we call them refugees or migrants, they are first and foremost children and deserve care and support” echoed the region.

32

K12 Digest July-August 2020

The whole system of diagnosis and support for migrant children requires modern evaluation, to make their inclusion in the educational process more individualized, flexible and responsible

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia also reacted soon, where laws and bylaws were passed according to the accelerated procedure to enable the inclusion of migrant children in the educational system of Serbia. In all cities where migrants were accommodated, the year of 2017/2018, teachers were trained to work with these children. The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia paid special attention to the individual assessment of educational and other needs of students.

All available capacities in educational institutions have been mapped. The starting idea was social inclusion, i.e. to return migrant children to their deprived childhoods.

The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia also reacted soon, where laws and bylaws were passed according to the accelerated procedure to enable the inclusion of migrant children in the educational system of Serbia. In all cities where migrants were accommodated, the year of 2017/2018, teachers were trained to work with these children. The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia paid special attention to the individual assessment of educational and other needs of students.

All available capacities in educational institutions have been mapped. The starting idea was social inclusion, i.e. to return migrant children to their deprived childhoods.

Teachers received the necessary training on how to work with children who do not speak English. Teachers who are sensitized to work with traumatized children, who do not know the language of the state and who are highly motivated to work with migrant children, played a major role in these training. Their experience was valuable. At these teacher training, I talked about how to adapt and overcome fear, engage in extracurricular activities with peer and parental support.

The key challenges that the school faced in including migrant students

in the education system, such as the language barrier, which is the most obvious obstacle, were overcome by children through peer learning. Serbian children showed solidarity by learning about culture and tradition from migrant children, and migrant children learned about Serbian culture. I am most pleasantly surprised by the empathy of children from Serbia who showed the greatest and most beautiful welcome to migrant children. Thanks to the good organization of the state of Serbia and the enthusiasm of teachers, migrant children quickly fit into the education system.

There is no doubt that education plays a crucial role in guiding migrant children, but also their families, in adapting to the new country and culture, and in establishing new relationships within the local communities in which they have found a temporary home. It is necessary to expand educational initiatives aimed at students of migrant origin. Very few countries have implemented structural reforms at the level of systems, schools and classrooms to create the conditions for migrant children to feel comfortable in the new environment.

No doubt empowering teachers and students to recognize and accept differences is much more than involving children with a migrant background in their education. The whole system of diagnosis and support for migrant children requires modern evaluation, to make their inclusion in the educational process more individualized, flexible and responsible. Therefore, it is necessary that in all countries that have migrants there is strong and constant systemic support, assessment of the previous schooling, assessment of mental health, all to create conditions for the unhindered education of each individual. We must always keep in mind that at some point, each of us can be a migrant in a country in the world and treat migrants who are in our countries that way.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

33

34

K12 Digest July-August 2020

K12 Digest July-August 2020

35

Caring for Special Needs Students Within Classrooms Borko Petrović, Educator, Gymnasium Paracin

Borko Petrović graduated from the Faculty of Philology in Niš in 2004. For the past 16 years, he has been teaching English to primary, secondary and high school students. One of the many things he is famous for in the Balkans is his ‘teaching philosophy of 5 elements’ or cornerstones upon which every educational system should rest, but his greatest contribution is his role as a forerunner in the application of ICT in education – he successfully coordinated the most important project in the country and opened the first digital classroom in Serbia in 2014. For his extraordinary and visionary work, he has been awarded numerous times on a local, national and international level as some of his titles are: The Best Teacher in the municipality of Paraćin, The Best Teacher of Serbia, The Best Teacher of former Yugoslavia, The National Teacher Prize Winner and Serbian candidate for Global Teacher Prize 2020. He is married, father of three.

36

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Why teaching?

Going through the whole educational system, from childhood I faced all its advantages and disadvantages and I got well acquainted with all its weaknesses, having felt the consequences myself. I was a victim of peer violence many times, changed schools, was separated and singled out by teachers, ill-treated, offended and neglected. Now, from this point of view, I think that my subconsciousness and wish to change something have played a key role in my career choice. My hard way through our education certainly predestined me for this occupation because, if someone understood well the need for changes, it was I. For this reason, I am grateful to the good people who helped me on this path and to others who made that path harder for me – I learnt from their mistakes the most.

Did you felt the need to give something back?

As a teacher enthusiast determined to start profound changes with this first symbolic step, I try to give back, first and foremost, in my municipality and then in the whole country. The journey was not easy at all. Since the first day, I encountered the resistance toward novelties which I had planned to introduce, and these were modern skills and competences which would give my students the advantage on the labour market and make them citizens of the world. At the end of my first school year, an opportunity arose for the students from my municipality to represent Serbia at an international UNESCO camp in Greece.

I chose 12 best students in the municipality with pleasure, prepared them for two months, found the means for the trip and took them to that camp where we worthily represented Serbia and opened up new possibilities for the cooperation with other nations and cultures.

Having realized the importance of this intercultural story and owing to the contacts made at that camp, I succeeded in cooperation with an organization from the US and with schools and faculties not only in my town, but also across Serbia, provided an opportunity for the autumn professional development of my colleagues through seminars and the summer professional orientation of students through workshops and camps for children, and all of that every year starting from 2006 up to now, completely free of charge. After the success in Serbia, we took similar actions in all ex-Yu countries and Bulgaria and we have already held three summer camps with student delegations from all ex-Yu states in Negotino, North Macedonia. Concurrently with these activities, we held training for workers and guardians in social welfare centres and workshops for children with special needs and without parents in orphanages in the Balkans where we donated necessary equipment.

What are some of your greatest achievements?

I could say that my greatest achievement is the digitalization of teaching in the first digital classroom in Serbia and the change of direction in the philosophy of education

K12 Digest July-August 2020

37

of the whole staff by which the school additionally approached its future autonomy. Namely, in 2014, I was the coordinator of the project by which my school received the first digital classroom in Serbia and I was given a great honour and responsibility for managing its work and raising the teaching to a higher level, training my colleagues for the work in the digital classroom and modern teaching of students.

In all our activities the key training was mental blueprint – to change the approach to teaching and learning, strengthen the participants in the teaching process, ‘flip’ the classroom and turn to the projects which would bring new competencies and 21st-century skills to everyone. Such an approach placed my school among the best schools in Serbia and brought me the acknowledgements ‘The Best Educator of Serbia’ and ‘The Best Teacher of Former Yugoslavia’, as well as the participation at AFS Global Conference in Budapest and the symposium named ‘The Spectrum of Education’ in Istanbul where I was the representative of Serbia twice and talked in panel discussions about my way of working, intercultural and global competences which I, not only in the classroom, started to improve through the programs of the mobility of colleagues and students, so we had students from Russia, Turkey, Italy, Using the observations of Thailand and Mexico in the classroom on the exchange last year. renowned linguists, I succeeded

in creating an authentic environment for acquiring the basics of the English language through music memory games and associations

38

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Have you have always stressed the importance of contributing to the local community?

The crown of my work and contribution to the local community is my project ‘Knowledge

without Borders’ where I gathered 14 of the best teachers in Serbia and one foreign lecturer, aiming at visiting all schools in the municipality within one month and showing what high-quality education is through demonstration classes, workshops, presentations and platforms for students, parents and colleagues. The project is still on and I have welcomed more than 30 exceptional educators both from Serbia and abroad.

What are some of the challenges of working with children who have special needs?

My philosophy is that every child that enrols at our school is a child with special needs; it is only important to discover on time what their special needs are. As a class teacher, I could see that only a third of the students had a stable family, peace, time and place for studying. At that time, I used a method ‘Parental involvement’ where I first held training for parents about optimal conditions and methods of learning, time management and strategic planning. With the help of online applications, all parents were in contact with me 24/7 and we could correct students’ mistakes on time and form their online portfolio with the set outcomes for the first and second semester. Our school is one of the few schools which still has special classes in a separate building for children with special needs and I have been the class teacher of a combined class of Years 5 and 6.

We are talking about children with various developmental disorders and needs but it’s been a pleasure teaching them, within free activities called ‘English through music’, and be happy about their every success.

We are talking about a completely new approach which I have designed to bring the English language closer to students through play and song. Namely, as a graduate student, I explored the connection of music and language

and their universality, in other words, what is the limit of the use of music as a universal language because music also has its grammar and meaning – semantics. Since I was into music (I was the First Voice of Serbia while I was in high school), I wrote a research paper on that topic under the title of: ‘The grammar of music in cognitive science’.

Using the observations of renowned linguists, I succeeded in creating an authentic environment for acquiring the basics of the English language through music memory games and associations.

Finally, can you tell us your secret combination to successful teaching?

Every responsible and experienced teaching specialist will tell you that there is no method—universal, successful, easy—which you will use in approaching each class or child. If I had to choose my favourite ones and those which have proven the best over the past years, they would be ‘flipped classroom’, ‘blended learning’ and ‘project-based learning’ which give brilliant results with the use of new technologies and seem motivating for students and teachers as they save time and make space for new possibilities and activities in my classes because traditional teaching is being moved out of the classroom.

I have noticed that my students are more motivated, creative, more venturous, they do not learn by rote but they contemplate and think critically, combining knowledge from other school subjects through thematic and project-based teaching, so their overall success at school is better. However, this does not prevent me from singing, acting and using the most incredible methods if they will give results. The most important thing is that I have command of them all and know how to get the winning combination.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

39

Challenges With Teaching Mathematics Online Deja Kačič, Educator, Arts Grammar School, Ljubljana

Deja Kačič finished her mathematical studies at Faculty for mathematics and physics in Ljubljana, Slovenia and now teaches Mathematics and Mathematics for kindergarten in Secondary Preschool Education, Grammar school and Performing Arts Grammar School Ljubljana, Slovenia.

In the past years, she held presentations on the assessment of student’s knowledge online and taught seminars on Kindergarten mathematics education for kindergarten teachers. For the past 3 years, she is also a Scientix ambassador for Slovenia and took part in European Space Agency workshop learning about Space in education.

40

K12 Digest July-August 2020

I

n the beginning of March, I had two choices.

First one was the easy way out – list the pages in the textbook and instruct the students: read, learn and exercise! Almost no work for me, a whole lot of trouble for the students. That would not be ethical or professional of me. The obtained student’s knowledge would probably not meet the curriculum criteria, or the students would just give up on trying to understand anything – I know I would teach mathematics in secondary school to teenagers. Imagine seeing a trigonometry proof for the first time, without a face to face explanation. Scary thought!

The second choice was time consuming for me, way too much work and a scary journey into the unknown of interactive technology available out there in the cyber universe. Of course, stubborn as I am, I chose the latter.

That choice was better for the students. With videos and interactive explanations they would hopefully gain a deeper understanding of the subject, learn it on their own merit with my explanation and guidance and the knowledge would be long lasting.

With mathematics, I see three main challenges of online teaching: how to explain and present mathematics without face to face interaction, how to keep a record of student’s homework and assignments in real-time and how to assess their knowledge in the end.

For assessment I could use different internet platforms and applications – it was just a matter of trying them out and finding the one that suits my students and it is easy to use for mathematics.

Online classroom provided me with the tools to keep progress with student’s homework and assignments fairly easy. They sent in photos or scans, I gave them feedback in an email or directly in the video chat we had scheduled each week.

Video chats I also used for monitoring their progress and an additional one on one explanations of specific problems if needed, after they have been given the lesson already. I connected my tablet and shared my screen in real-time while solving the problems.

When it comes to explaining new mathematical principles online (like trigonometry, polynomial functions, rational inequalities), I struggled a while. It had to be clear, engaging, technically correct and it would be best if students could see/read/hear it more than once – or to go back to the parts which they did not understand.

First, I tried just writing down my usual classroom talk. It worked for the definitions and explanations of the terms but writing down equations made me think further. When a student of mine would read through it, would he or she be able to see the process of solving the equation or would they just see a whole bunch of numbers, operators and x, y

K12 Digest July-August 2020

41

and z, all jumbled together? In my opinion mathematical equation (or graph, or function) is a process that has to evolve in front of your eyes. One must see the steps of the equation as they are being written down to be able to understand it and use it again on a similar equation. When you look at it, solved already you must have a deeper understanding of it to be able to decipher the steps by yourself. So, this meant that my first solution would not work for most of my students.

The natural second choice was to go online and search for other people’s pre-recorded public lessons. There are plenty, mostly in English. The problem is that my students and I are not native English speakers, so to link lessons in English would be a double challenge for them. Knowing their English proficiency mathematical and language barrier would be too much for most.

There were only a few lessons in Slovenian. I bingewatched a lot of them, looking for clarity of explanation, appropriate tasks, too much or not enough data for our curriculum, visualization of the problems. Some I found could work for my online classes, most of them, knowing my students, their learning habits and level of understanding, I had a feeling they would still struggle with or need an extra explanation.

The third choice was to record my video explanations.

Mind you, I did not know about video recording, video editing or YouTube. The only

real equipment I had was my old smartphone and a laptop.

On top of all that I would have to record 21 school hours of material for each week. That seemed a lot.

In the end, I decided on a mixture of all the choices taking into consideration that it must be interactive, engaging and easy for students to do it on their own.

My own recorded lessons would be best, but no student’s span of attention online is equal to one in the classroom where you as a teacher constantly monitor their engagement, working, writing, understanding. When you see somebody’s attention drifting away, you can always change the lesson quickly and bring them back with a joke, different approach, a call by their name. A 45 min recorded video lesson is too long. An explanation of the basic facts plus a proof in about 10 to 15 minutes seemed like the way to go.

I constructed my own recording —a vertical phone stand from old stationary stands and cable ties. Under it, an old A3 paper folder was the green screenwriting station.

I prepared in advance what I wanted to say in the video and wrote »cheat sheet formulas to use while explaining. I tried to make each video at least a little funny and interactive with not-so-math drawings or jokes and placing different cheat sheets with things to remember on the original page while filming. I believe that a formula or definition is easier to remember when you give it a visual or auditory anchor.

I wanted to show my students that making mistakes is human and okay. So if I noticed a mistake in my calculations after recording the 10-minute video in one take, I purposely did not edit it out or rerecord the whole thing

42

K12 Digest July-August 2020

I recorded my hands writing, explaining the given subject, with loads of colour pens. I used the same introduction and the same two rulers—a pink girl and brown meerkat in each video to connect all the videos together. In my opinion, mathematics must be vivid in colour and explanation – it has to be visual and online lessons even more so because you are not there to make it fun and playful.

Doing mathematics means doing mistakes. When you exercise, do tasks or examples an eraser is an essential tool. You learn from the mistakes. I always teach my students not to try and find the mistake in an equation that

did not produce the correct solution but instead try to solve it again on another paper. Your brain will try to look for the patterns and when in the process of solving the equation you write down something different—a sum, a minus, a product, an x. You will know where you made a mistake in the first place – then you take an eraser and correct the mistake, learning from it. How to translate that into the video?

I wanted to show my students that making mistakes is human and ok—so if I noticed a mistake in my calculations after recording the 10-minute video in one take, I purposely did not edit it out or rerecord the whole

K12 Digest July-August 2020

43

thing. It took me quite a lot of my free time, but I learned to use video editing software. I edited notes on the video. The note would say: ‘Now, that was wrong!!!’ or ‘Uff, let’s not do that!’ and then I would add another note with the correct answer or equation process.

Converting the video after the recording and editing took a lot of time on my laptop, meanwhile, I constructed the lesson plan for the students in the online classroom— this is where my choice one and two from above came in handy—writing down explanation and public internet resources.

For each lesson, I first wrote down where one can find it in the textbook, the key curriculum goals, and the summary. I found a funny story, a puzzle, crossword, or meme to start the lesson. Sometimes I linked a video with the real-life application of a given subject. After that, I wrote down a short explanation and attached a link to my video. I also attached a handout for the students to solve while watching the video or I wrote down what they should be writing in their notebooks and what they should

44

K12 Digest July-August 2020

be extra careful not to miss. In the end, I usually linked a couple of other public videos from other teachers—if somebody needed a different approach to an explanation and some extra practice. I firmly believe that each student can understand mathematics if explained suitable for them.

One online lesson took almost twice the time to prepare than the face-to-face one in the classroom. I must admit for some lessons I took the easier way out—and linked public videos, or just solved the tasks with notes on them and scanned them. I mostly used the video recording for a new unknown subject and easy way to practice lessons.

The equation for good online mathematics is not universal—by my students feedback I believe I did find one that was suitable for them and gave them a chance to study mathematics at home with my guidance and with good lasting results. Some of them thrived, some not—but most of them said that they finally know how to approach mathematics without the built-in anxiety.

That should be the goal—make it fun and friendly, online or face to face.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

45

Raising Humanitarians Through Volunteerism Dejan Nemcic, Educator, Primary school Ivo Andric, Zagreb

Dejan Nemcic is a young Geography teacher who has been awarded the academic title of Master of Geography Education in 2012. He is a licensed tourist guide for Croatia and Europe. Dejan is recognized as the founder of the famous project ‘Live from all continents’ reporting live lecturers via Skype technology to students during the lesson. The project ‘Africa we can together’ included 50 Croatian schools who helped to equip many African schools with their donations of school supplies. Dejan has been awarded for his work in Africa as the following ‘Bolja Hrvatska’ for the project ‘Uživo sa svih kontinenata-Live from all continents’, as well as his most notable award by the president of his country ‘Ponos Hrvatske- Pride of Croatia’.

46

K12 Digest July-August 2020

D

uring my faculty days as a geography student, I was constantly thinking about the teaching profession, and how I would one day educate and raise generations of children. In my head, I worked out ways to convey knowledge of geography as interestingly as possible to students, and how to make children love the subject and understand its importance for everyday life. With all these ideas, one, in particular, was spinning in my head and took an important place in all the priorities, and that is to develop in students humanity and a sense of helping, in simple terms - to be raised as people with a big heart.

The first days of my teaching career were focused on listening to that part, I talked to the students and came to the answer whether the school can make them better people, with real-life values. The more I researched and talked to them, the more I became more and more surprised and disappointed. They simply have no feeling or no knowledge of how people live on other continents, how people live in the poorest countries in the world, or how their peers live and how people die of hunger.

We have always asked ourselves the question: are the problems of poverty in the world also our problems, are we also obliged to solve them and

help as much as we can??? The main goal was to raise children who will not put problems under the rug, but willingly and boldly deal with them and solve them one by one. This question runs through each of our projects, and the way we act in education. The understanding of education in children’s minds is that grades are the main goal of the school system, but we have slightly changed the awareness that school can also be a driver of big changes for the better both locally and globally.

To show that the school is much more than just grades, together with the students we launched one big humanitarian project that changed and ennobled the lives of all of us. We called the project “Africa, we can do it together� and we decided to help the poorest continent on the planet, and connect my students and students of African schools. The project itself, which focused on the poorest countries in Africa (Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Benin, Zanzibar), had several goals: to collect school supplies to equip African schools, to collect donations for one of the deadliest diseases on the continent. Malaria, virtual teaching via Skype to students in African schools, and my trip to that continent where I will do it all in the field and besides teach geography and volunteer.

After starting the project, I followed the lives of my students and realized that great things were happening.

They came to school with a smile and special

K12 Digest July-August 2020

47

indescribable happiness. The school has become a place of great happiness and good energy where plans are made for a better world. It gets the full meaning of its existence!! There were more and more school supplies collected every day, students drew thousands of maps to help students in Africa learn geography and finish school more easily, numerous Malaria drugs were procured and packaged for transportation, and after all these months came the end of the school year and my departure to that continent where I had to do everything we imagined in the field.

Before leaving, many students confirmed for themselves what I always wanted to hear from them: that humanitarian action is not only when we give money financially, but when we sincerely give ourselves for another, when our work, effort and sacrifice help others to be better.

With that thought, I flew to the African continent with all the donations and things we had been collecting for months. Coming to African soil, for me was a new beginning, some new life, everything after that was no longer the same. Travelling the world, I met many cultures, customs and peoples, but Africa is something completely different, something special. I had great awe for Africa which I would keep it for the rest of my life.

The first days were spent in a careful exploration of what awaited me in the coming months. The biggest fear for me as a teacher was whether I would be accepted by students in African schools since I am belonging to the white race, different in their eyes in all respects. Coming to the first school, and the excitement when they saw me marked the beginning of the most beautiful adventure of my life. Since then, to this day, I have visited Africa three more times, and the students and I have left an eternal mark on that continent, allowing thousands of young

48

K12 Digest July-August 2020

children to live and jump on African dust and still have the opportunity for education and advancement.

Through all these years, students from outside my home school have been involved in the project, the whole of Croatia has joined because humanity has passed on to them so that today in the project we count about 100 Croatian schools that donated about a few tons of school supplies for African schools. Many of today’s African schools are equipped with the school supplies they desperately need, numerous geographical maps of Croatian school students hang in African schools and, what is even more valuable, many new friendships have been made between them. Our main motive in this whole project has been and remains— fear must never be an obstacle to doing great things and humane things. That motive has guided us all these years and gives us the strength to become better people by working on it every day.

All these years, humanitarianism has remained a part of our geography and education classes. With each return from Africa, our health was getting better as we healed from the kindness we do and the gratitude we receive from these people and children. The children remained real little heroes, determined to build a better world around them. The smiles on the faces of African children to whom we have given new life is the greatest reward for us, we understand the essence and meaning of our lives. The struggle for the material world is transient, the struggle for every man and child is eternal. The school got its full meaning, that it is an educational, but also and behavioural institution.

Having successfully connected children on two continents, our next goal is to connect children from all Balkan countries. Now is the right time for all of us to build a better and more successful future, and our young people will succeed because they have teachers who believe in their potential.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

49

Foreign Language Learning to Express Creativity, Resulting in Real Life-Time Opportunities Dragana Gjoreska, Educator, SEPUGS ‘Vasil Antevski- Dren’

Dragana Gjoreska MA, an English language teacher at a public secondary vocational economy and law school SEPUGS ‘Vasil AntevskiDren’ Skopje, Macedonia, teaching English language, ESP (Business English and English for Law) for the past 14 years. She received a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature and a Master of Arts in the field of English Linguistics from the Faculty of Philology ‘Blazhe Koneski’- Skopje. In 2020 she became a Fulbright alumnus at the Fulbright Teaching Excellence & Achievement – Media Literacy Program at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Her students range in age from 15-18 years old. Dragana has been a Headmistress of many classes and as such she has played a role in promoting effective parental involvement in student education.

She has also started an ongoing cooperation with many international institutions by continuously participating in the events and activities organized by them for the purpose of active students’ enrollment in all the circles of society. She is one of the administrators for the English language of the greatest teachers network ‘Balkanska Mrezha Tokom Pandemije’ and an active member and a project manager in the EduBalkan network. Dragana’s hobbies include music, dance, drama, reading and sharing, sports and learning foreign languages.

50

K12 Digest July-August 2020

W

ith his famous saying, Edward De Waal has given us a lot to consider in terms of our capabilities and opportunities. He says ‘With languages, you can move from one social situation to another. With languages, you are at home anywhere.’

These amazing words mean nothing if we leave them just to ring in our heads and remain silent on paper. As a teacher of ESL and ESP, I have been thinking always of finding suitable, creative and interesting ways of bringing the English language closer to my students. With the understanding, support and cooperation of my some of my fellow colleagues I have succeeded for 3 years in a row to organize the event ‘European Day of languages’ in my working environment.

This was first celebrated in 2001 during the European Year of Languages. Every year, millions of people and organizations, prepare or take part in activities to promote linguistic diversity and the ability to speak other languages. The general aim is to highlight Europe’s rich linguistic and cultural diversity, which has to be encouraged and maintained, but also to point out the languages that people learn throughout

their lives to develop their plurilingual skills and reinforce intercultural understanding. This presents an opportunity to cherish all of Europe’s languages, both more and less widely spoken and the languages of migrants.

At the same time, learning languages aids in the process of developing tolerance and understanding between people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and helps people learn a lot in terms of other people’s customs, traditions and beliefs. This is a lifelong learning process and experience and as such it requires a lot of willingness and openness, especially when it comes to developing plurilingualism (the ability to use different languages, to whatever standard).

Taking all this into consideration, this amazing story of creativity and learning started on the 26th of September 2017 and has been lasting ever since then, certainly with the support of several of my colleagues and the creative and motivated students. Here from, I have had the honour of setting it and being an organizer of the event ‘European Day of languages’ in my school. This event started as such by embracing cooperation between many students and their mentor- teachers preparing and taking part in many educational activities using

K12 Digest July-August 2020

51

Through trial and error, the teachers are also distributing videos of their classes and conducting remote classes

the foreign languages taught in our school: English, German, French & certainly our mother tongue Macedonian.

We have prepared plenty of activities in collaboration and support of local, national and international institutions. The teachers and students have worked together and achieved in preparing stands for each country. There have been 4 stands: English, German, French & Macedonian. On the stands, the students presented the landmarks and customs and traditions of the country and different languages. There have been books, brochures, souvenirs available to all the participants and visitors of this event. The students have always been very innovative and tried to present the country’s typical outfits, traditional costumes and to prepare some national food of the chosen regions.

They have been working together, helping each other, exchanging ideas and experiences, and thus always through terrific teamwork and a lot of fun they have managed to create enjoyable performances.

The program itself has embraced many beautiful songs performed by the school band and solo singers sang in the various languages mentioned above.

52

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Hidekazu Shoto

In addition to this, the talented actors from our school formed a drama section and performed interesting already existent plays and some newly adapted ones, parts of judicial processes and many others.

Some of the students have prepared tongue twister, quizzes, presentations & oratory speeches in English, Macedonian, German and French. While others have been reading poetry, acting it out at the same time. It has been an enjoyment for all the senses.

Afterwards, the students who have already filmed the performances make a video of the event and share it on the school Facebook page.

After all of this, even more than ever, we have proved that creativity along with languages draws the most delightful picture. I truly believe in the power, energy, ideas and capabilities of the motivated students and I will keep on supporting them on their path to success.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

53

Jan i Samah - Changes I have accepted Ivančica Tajsl, Educator, Primary school Trnjanska, Zagreb

Ivančica Tajsl, is a primary teacher from Croatia. She was born in Zagreb, in a family of educators. Today she works in Zagreb at the Trnjanska Elementary School. Ivancic is a counsellor, as well. Coincidentally, she is recognized as someone who can respond to the needs of children who have developmental difficulties or special needs.

Because of this, she has had children with disabilities in her class for the last 5 generations. She wrote the book “Be as good as Jan is”.

The book is written as a diary of a teacher who has a student with Down syndrome in the classroom. She believes that every student is special in something and valuable for the community in which they are educated. Her motto is that everyone is best at something: someone draws beautifully, someone writes beautifully, someone sings beautifully, someone runs faster, so the approach to them as individuals must be different.

Inclusion is her field of activity and it is the area she feels safe and professional.

54

K12 Digest July-August 2020

M

y school is in Zagreb, capital of Croatia. A particular set of circumstances has led to me having several pupils with special needs in my classroom. Due to this, I was recognized as someone good at piloting inclusion.

Inclusion was introduced in Croatian’s schools a few decades ago. Support is extremely important for us teachers because we do not have enough knowledge or experience to work with children with special needs.

After years of implementing inclusion in my classroom, I can say that I am able to help anyone who is struggling with inclusion in his/her school.

I have found myself in this ‘trouble’ when Jan enrolled in regular school. To be honest, I did not want that. He was my first pupil who has had Down syndrome. Jan has had a teacher assistant who was with him every day in the classroom and he also got an individualized school program.

I was teaching Jan, accepting inclusion and integration, but also, I was learning besides him. Jan graduated from primary school. Our goal was that Jan learns how to write and read during the eight years in

primary school. He has done that in two years. I have to highlight the fact that this success was a result of mutual work among Jan’s assistants, his parents, me, but mostly Jan himself. When Jan started high school, I have gotten my third pupil with Down syndrome.

My guiding thought was – “Every child is different, someone can paint well, someone can read nicely, someone is a gifted singer, and someone is great at math”. I have known then, and I now even better now, that no two children are the same. Children with Down syndrome are even more different one from another. With every one of them (I have had four different pupils with Down syndrome), I had to start from the beginning. I had to learn how to work with them, how to teach them and how to live in a world full of differences. Besides them, I have improved myself, I have learnt a lot about tolerance and dissimilarities, and I have learnt about inclusion and its benefits. Their successes are also my successes. Because of them, I am growing every day and becoming happier, more satisfied and better, both as a teacher and as a person.

I have written a book called ‘Budi dobar kao Jan’ (Be kind, just like Jan is). It is a teacher’s diary written during the four years of coexistence

K12 Digest July-August 2020

55

of myself, my pupils and Jan in the same classroom. In this book, I was writing about accidents, adventures and mishaps that happened in my classroom with Jan. Also, I was writing about problems we have encountered and searches for the teaching assistants at the begging of every school year. In this book you can also find some nice and meaningful moments between the teacher and her pupils who have a child with special needs among them. The whole class was doing everything in their power to make Jan feel that he is accepted and cherished. After graduating from primary school, Jan also graduated from high school and today he is an assistant chef and is currently looking for a job.

Set of circumstances has led me into the world of inclusion and I have become a “living textbook� for teachers in this part of Europe who find themselves in similar situations and do not know where to find help. Due to lack of literature, my experience has become the primary source of information for overcoming challenges in inclusive classrooms.

There is a traditional view on education in Croatia and this part of Europe, with a lot of memorizing and learning by heart involved

56

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Again, a set of circumstances has led to enrolling a girl from Jordan in my classroom. Her name is Samah, she does not speak Croatian or English, and she has become part of my classroom during the Covid-19 pandemic. That was a great challenge for both me and my pupils. We were communicating very creatively. We were using pictures, photos, pantomime, movements, dance and songs.

Samah has quickly learnt a few Croatian words but pretty soon schools were closed due to pandemic. Samah was sad, but I was feeling even really sorry because I could not reach her anymore. I was communicating with my pupils through emails, phone calls and classroom’s webpage, but Samah has not been joining us. She does not know the language and this form of communication was not good for her. One month before school ended, we were back in our classroom. Samah and I picked up where we left off in February. She did not prosper at home, but I firmly believe that we will compensate in the next school year. Whatever next school year brings to the table; I will have to find the best way to communicate with Samah.

There is no specific pedagogy for teaching children with special needs in classic schooling, and certainly, there is no specific pedagogy for teaching them in online schooling. Teachers in inclusive classrooms have been using child-oriented pedagogy to answer the needs of every pupil. In my experience, other teachers in “classic classrooms” have been using teacher-oriented pedagogy.

In my opinion, online schooling is a chance to discard the classic division between child-oriented pedagogy and teacher-oriented pedagogy.

There is a traditional view on education in Croatia and this part of Europe, with a lot of memorizing and learning by heart involved. Parts of child-oriented pedagogy can be used in both classic and online classrooms. I am always trying to emphasize that if we want to develop inclusive pedagogical practice, we have to change our behaviour in classrooms. Changes are hard for everybody, so online schooling is a great chance to start from the begging. I am using this time to prepare for new challenges and for the difficulties that this new “hybrid” school year will bring.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

57

Quality Education Is The Key To Success Katarina Čarapić, Educator, Mionica High School

Katarina Čarapić is a Serbian language and literature teacher with 24 years of experience in education.

She is one of the founders of the association for creative education in 2010 “Kreativa”, with the main goal to contribute to the reform and improvement of the formal education system in Serbia. In these efforts, she advocates the introduction of an integrative teaching model into the teaching process. She has published several professional papers on this topic and she is an accredited trainer for professional training in the field of integrative teaching. For the last eight years, Katarina has been the headteacher of a secondary vocational school in central Serbia, which educates future tourism and hospitality workers, and is one of the initiators for this school to be internationally recognized through eTwinning and Erasmus projects. At the same time, she is an expert consultant to the EduBalkan teaching community and all her activities, energy and knowledge are aimed at raising the quality of the education system, both in Serbia and in the Western Balkans region.

58

K12 Digest July-August 2020

A

t the beginning of 2020, the whole world was faced with a completely new life situation caused by the appearance of the COVID 19 virus. “Mionica� Secondary School, named after the town in which it is located, stopped its regular teaching processes in mid-March 2020. Direct contacts between teachers and students were interrupted, and all communication was transferred to the virtual space.

It was necessary to quickly respond to the need to create an adequate online environment in which both students and teachers will quickly and easily cope and feel comfortable.

Before the Ministry of Education even offered some of its online platforms, the IT specialists of our school offered their colleagues and students a Moodle learning platform that was easy to use and acceptable to everyone. Thus, the teaching process was quickly and efficiently moved from real school and classroom to the virtual space, and all problems were solved on the fly.

However, at that time, the school had already implemented an eTwinning project that was taking place in an online environment. The project called eTwinning Hotel. May I help you? was realized in cooperation with six tourism and hospitality schools (from Italy, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Turkey) to provide students with the opportunity to get to know or

deepen their knowledge about the hotel system of partner countries.

Realizing that this project is a great opportunity for teachers and students to improve their digital skills and use of web tools, which is key to successful online teaching, we focused on detailed project elaboration and intensive communication with the partners. Through the realization of tasks such as presenting the history of hotel development in partner countries through presentations in applications Canva, Genially, Prezi, Storyjumper, etc., creating a virtual hotel website of each country using Webly tool; presenting and solving problems in a hotel created in Google.sheet; creating an e-book in the ePubEditor application with dialogues about hotel problems and their solutions; until the last task, which was to record the dialogue from the e-book using roleplaying technique via Instagram and YouTube, we started using new web tools with which we enriched the teaching process outside the project.

Apart from the use of various web tools that were used for the realization of interactive tasks, this project achieved other goals and results, such as intercultural dialogue, improvement of language competencies, and one of the most important products of the project is achieving harmonious cooperation and exchange of opinions between teachers and students from six European countries.

Students were allowed to go beyond the strictly provided curriculum, to include creative and divergent thinking and to solve

K12 Digest July-August 2020

59

problems set within the tasks. This contributed to the improvement of their communication, organizational, technical and informational skills, which helped them to present their ideas and thoughts, as well as to expand their knowledge about the hotel industry of the partner countries. Also, they realized how important knowledge of English is for their future job. In this way, our school has started an integrative teaching process located in an international environment, and that is the path that has been paved for the next school year, whether the teaching takes place in virtual or real-time.

A new development path of a secondary vocational school in Serbia Based on my own experience, during the previous eight years of school management, as someone for whom the improvement and the quality

60

K12 Digest July-August 2020

The next school year will be a new field of testing the ability and speed of adaptation for all those involved in the education system, both in Serbia and in the world

of educational process come first and someone who on the school level works intensively on connecting and exchanging experiences internationally, but who also works on good cooperation between school communities, I can rightfully state that the leadership role of the headteacher is very important for the development of the entire educational institution. Vision, sincere desire and enthusiasm, striving for changes which will bring benefit to an educational institution, is always recognized, positively accepted and it is motivating for everyone involved in school life. This is a type of leadership that is a prerequisite for healthy interpersonal relations in a school team, from where new development paths can be upgraded.

The times that come require all participants in the teaching process to adapt and take a new creative approach. In accordance with the education development

K12 Digest July-August 2020

61

principles of the teacher community EduBalkan, to which I belong, I advocate that the development of secondary vocational education is based on an integrated approach through a mixed type of teaching.

As a vocational secondary school that educates future chefs, waiters and tourism workers, it is very important that students master basic techniques of cooking and waitressing, as well as to feel real contact with tourists. This is a part of the practical teaching process that must be realized in a real environment, ie. in catering facilities and hotels, which has been the case in the earlier period. However, all other subjects, which involve theoretical work, should be realized through an integrated learning concept.

This means the need for teachers, who teach tourism subjects that are related, to work in teams and instead of previous ways of teaching subjects and lessons separately, apply project learning in a virtual environment with the use of social networks for marketing purposes.

This is an approach that requires students to work longer-term on specific tasks within a project while placing solutions to those tasks

62

K12 Digest July-August 2020

to a wide audience via social networks. It is no longer enough to learn how to make a product, such as making and serving English breakfast, for example, but it is necessary to know how to place that product in public, advertise and promote it through modern web tools because this is the moment when students have the opportunity to learn and apply marketing skills, reflection and action, unfettered by the time frame of 45 minutes and the need to memorise theoretical facts in regular classes. In this way, students can start creating brands and start their businesses. This approach also requires a new grading system.

Reproduction of memorised facts would no longer be evaluated, but practical and digital skills, creativity, ability to navigate in virtual space, communication and literacy would be assessed.

The next school year will be a new field of testing the ability and speed of adaptation for all those involved in the education system, both in Serbia and in the world. We believe that through teamwork, focus shift and a new methodological approach, we will be able to respond to the challenges of today.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

63

Online Teaching Mînzicu Simona Valentina, Primary Education Teacher, “Șerban Vodă” Theoretical High School Slănic, Prahova

Mînzicu Simona Valentina is a teacher for primary education at the Theoretical High School ‘Șerban Vodă’ Slănic, Romania. She has over 23 years of experience in education, first degree and a master’s degree in educational counselling.

She chose this job because of her love for children.

She is concerned with promoting quality education and is open to new challenges.

64

K12 Digest July-August 2020

T

his school year we had to face several challenges. We met the requirements of the first semester, which was quite short, and we thought that during the second semester, we will be relaxed, and everything will return to normal. But it was not like that! Against the background of the coronavirus pandemic, which pushed many states to close schools for a period that lasted until the end of the school year, teachers in Romania were challenged to adapt quickly and send an important message to students: lifelong learning beyond school and with online tools accessible to all and a lot of determination, we can make progress together and, more than ever, we can encourage students to learn and work independently.

And so, followed a period of improvement, of adaptation to online teaching, both for students and especially for us. That is why these courses are very good to help us cope with the current situation. After taking the courses, we managed to share techniques and success stories to facilitate the transition to online

during this period. We managed to do what we could, how we could, to ensure the education of the children and to be together.

My children were somewhat accustomed to certain online applications and tools that I used in the eTwinning projects we are enrolled in. What was hard for them to understand was the fact that in these projects we were working at school, we were together! We did not need to see each other through a screen! At first, it was very difficult for them to accept this!

They are first grade children, eager to socialize, eager to show the lady how they wrote the three letters beautifully, which allowed them to continue writing, eager to play, eager to go to the blackboard ... Over time they understood that this way work is very important for our health and easy, easy things have come in handy! For me, it is important that during virtual lessons, they talk and hear them - I feel that this provokes, in a good way, the more emotional students.

They are always eager to see us in the room, to share our fears, achievements, to actively

K12 Digest July-August 2020

65

participate in learning. Moving online courses encourages students to have more autonomy in learning, making the most of their creativity. At the same time, the temporary relocation of the online learning process can support the pace of learning and can increase students’ confidence in their abilities and resources.

Communication in these pandemic months was through several channels of communication. Initially, the materials were submitted by creating a questionnaire theme in Google Classroom. The students studied the transmitted materials, especially since in the first grade, handwriting is learned, in the loading materials there was always a writing model, accompanied by explanations and a recording in which I executed the model letter. In Mathematics and Environmental Exploration, too, each new lesson was punctuated by explanations.

After studying the materials, we met in ZOOM, where we deepened the materials sent after which the requirements for individual work and sending solutions were made on WhatsApp. To verify what was taught, we applied a questionnaire in Google Classroom, or this verification was done through a Kahoot, LearningApps, Wisc-online, Mind Master, Scratch, Word Wall, I am a puzzle, Voki and Story Jumper But as far as we know, no matter how empathetic we are, in a ZOOM or Google Meet, the child gets bored very quickly! That is why I tried to capture their attention every time with something that determines them to enter the activity, to develop the subject, to express their opinion.

Below I present a sequence from a Personal Development lesson, which had as its theme:

66

K12 Digest July-August 2020

“How responsible are we in this period of a pandemic?”. The lesson followed with responsibility and how they can organize themselves during this period, how hard they are, how they can improve the way they learn, how they participate in the family in various activities. I chose as a starting point the work of Eugen Jianu: “The Legend of the Snowdrop”.

The lesson took place in a ZOOM. After the presentation of the text, discussions took place intending to form a responsible attitude. They brainstormed starting from the word responsibility, they made analogies finding a correspondent in the real world, they gave examples of good, bad, responsible characters. The lesson ended with a work task that aimed at describing one’s person, a description that would include soul elements that would also highlight responsibility.

I present to you the work of Eugen Jianu: “The Legend of the Snowdrop”, which I presented through the Jump Story & Mind Master application.

The introduction of the Internet and modern technologies in the school leads to important changes in the educational process. Thus, the act of learning is no longer considered to be the effect of the teacher’s efforts and work, but the fruit of the students’ interaction with the computer and of the collaboration with the teacher.

This change in the education system has pursued some well-structured objectives, namely: 1.Increasing the efficiency of learning activities 2.Development of communication skills and individual study Like any other learning method, this computer-assisted training has advantages and disadvantages.

As advantages we can mention: stimulating the capacity for innovative learning, adaptable to conditions of rapid social change; increasing the efficiency of coherent acquisition of knowledge through appreciation immediate response of students; strengthening students’ motivation in the learning process; installation of the climate of selfovercoming, competitiveness; development of visual culture; awareness of the fact that the notions learned will later find their utility; facilities for fast data processing, performing calculations, displaying results, making graphs, tables; introducing a cognitive style, efficient,

K12 Digest July-August 2020

67

a style of independent work; ensures the choice and use of appropriate strategies for solving various applications; ensuring a permanent feedback, the teacher having the possibility to redesign the activity according to the previous sequence; develops thinking so that starting from a general way of solving a problem the student finds his own answer for a concrete problem; stimulating logical thinking and imagination; various pedagogical methods; the relational perspective is improved by establishing a human and social relationship between the educated and the educator.

However, we also have disadvantages: excessive use of the computer can lead to loss of practical skills, calculation and investigation of reality; excessive individualization of learning leads to the denial of teacher-student dialogue; random use of the computer without a precise purpose during classes can cause

68

K12 Digest July-August 2020

boredom, monotony; the high costs of the latest technology which is an impediment for a large part of the Romanian population and is accessible to people with a good financial situation. We were able to present some ideas, but we all know that the internet is very useful in learning, both for children and adults. For the little ones, the technology is attractive, and for the big ones, there must be a strong motivation to use it effectively.

I concluded that technology can not only help to learn, but it is essential!

Online training is a growing challenge at the traditional boundaries between education and training.

Our training should result in maintaining children’s joy of learning in any context that does not feel abandoned by the adults around them. For my students, adapting to the online environment has gone on I can say very well!

Wi-Fi powered digital learning.

Build an ultramodern classroom that boosts student and teacher success.

LEARN MORE: www.arubanetworks.com

K12 Digest July-August 2020

69

A Teacher’s Fight for Women’s Rights Mirsada Šabotić, Educator, Gymnasium 30th of September

Mirsada Šabotić is a professor of Montenegrin, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian language and literature. She is a teacher in a local high school ‘Gimnazija 30. September’, based in Rozaje, Montenegro.

She has been in education since 1991. From the very beginning, she started interactive teaching through organizing debates, panel discussions, classes outside the classroom and collaboration with the local community. To this day, Mirsada has remained consistent with her goal to create a school without borders and through teaching points to teach students values that will make them global citizens of the 21st century. She is the leader of several long-term projects in the school she works as a teacher in: ‘Poetry Against Ageism’, ‘Everybody! To the kindergarten’, ‘Women’s literature against sex-based abortion’, ‘To the little ones with love’, ‘With Theatre against Vice’.

70

K12 Digest July-August 2020

I

n 1992, Mirsada began working as a professor in the city where she lives in now. She started noticing that both young girls and female teachers were discriminated against and headed on a path that that will hopefully help her change that. She began organizing events with her students and subtly ‘provoking’ the local community, pointing to the discriminatory treatment of women – not including them in theatre, music festivals, etc. Her work was disparaged, and very much ignored. She was terminated from her job for some time due to the teaching reform, but she managed to continue her work at the school in 1995, although the resistance still existed.

In addition to being discriminated against, another problem arose in her country. There were more and more women aborting female children at the behest of the family tradition. Male children were still a priority.

In 2012, she started a project called ‘Women’s Letter Against Selective Abortion’. The goal was to bring young women and girls together with the same feelings – discouraged and unconfident simply for being a girl. The goal was to encourage them to show their strength through creativity. Approximately, 500 women have gone through this project. All together 300 events, including poetry nights, field trips and creative writing workshops were organized. By 2019, she had succeeded in her activities, investing her professional skills, and often her own money. As a result, 14 books written by women were published, and her students received more than 60 awards. She has succeeded in her goal to bring awareness to her community about equality, especially to the younger generations. She says she has succeeded because more and more women are employed in management and better job positions.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

71

The performance ‘The Unwanted One’ was the most important part of her work because it brought together 3,000 citizens who sent a ‘Stop Selective Abortion’ message using banners and a theatre performance.

This teacher from Montenegro is fully aware that her struggle will continue for a long time, and that young people are needed to continue working on the same goals, and that the struggle with tradition and patriarchy is long and difficult, regardless of the current results in her environment. She believes that it is necessary to talk more about fighting against selective abortion in the media, in order to raise awareness. This altruistic woman has done a lot through her teaching work and made a contribution to society by nurturing altruism and empathy among her students, so she rightly expects her students to follow her goals and be promoters of gender equality of unborn children in Montenegro.

72

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Want to find Investor for your Startup?

K12 Digest July-August 2020

73

Classroom Dynamics from a Teacher’s Point of View Nade Molerović, Professor, Director and Motivational Speaker for Children and Young People

Nade is a history professor from Skopje. She is currently the principal of Primary School “Goce Dečev”. She is a motivational speaker, leader, lecturer, advisor and trainer for the promotion of leadership skills, and an expert from EUROCLIO. She was trained by European experts of the Council of Europe at international conferences, seminars and workshops for the application of the most modern methods, techniques, historical sources in history teaching. She is the author of the program for the development and learning of the content of emotional intelligence and social skills in students, and as a product of that work, the Children’s Club “Leaders” was established. She is a columnist on Macedonian internet portals and media with the aim of acting on the public general awareness of the importance of the process of lifelong learning, personal and professional development.

74

K12 Digest July-August 2020

S

cientists, professional educational experts or international experts are consulted for all educational reforms in our country, the Republic of Northern Macedonia. However, the opinions, answers and expectations of the students from the state education were never important to any of the creators of the educational policies.

How do they feel every day in the classroom? What would they change in the process of learning, socializing, growing up and staying in school? Have we asked them what they expect from us adults and teachers? Do we listen to them at all? Have we asked them the real, essential questions whose answers can reveal a lot about them, about us, about the education system, about society and about a world that is changing with incredible speed.

As a primary school principal, we regularly held talks, workshops and debates with the pedagogue with students who are members of the student body. Our goal was to awaken their awareness of personal value, uniqueness and uniqueness.

We pointed out the unlimited possibilities they have as talents, gifts and interests.

These are the essential questions about their expectations:

Does the teacher know about my affinities, interests and talents?

Are the contents, learning and activities in line with my interests, passion and life goals?

Do I have the opportunity to research, guess and discover? What if I make a mistake?

Will they encourage me?

Do I have to study by heart?

What if I do not understand, will the teacher want to explain to me?

Do I, when I do not understand something, be under pressure to learn something new immediately?

Can I choose when, what, and how to learn?

Am I motivated enough?

Will I be understood if I progress slowly and with difficulty?

Will my progress be realistically assessed and valued?

First, students expect to learn and understand something new and useful from each lesson. They do not expect that teachers should know everything, but that they should offer them knowledge and skills relevant to their daily lives. Students expect the teacher to tell them what it is that they will acquire as knowledge and skill after each completed teaching content. What is important, less important and the most important? Clear and precise! Why do they-students learn what they learn? Students are looking for an answer to that question.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

75

Students expect teachers who will develop positive values such as curiosity, perseverance, discipline.

76

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Second, they want and expect teachers to draw and emphasize the best in each of them, to be able to express it out loud in words that instil self-confidence and respect for their personality. They want to awaken in them the desire to complete the set task and to inform them how much they have achieved from the set goal. The teacher should recognize their abilities and motivate them to give their best in the learning process.

Third, they expect respect and understanding for their difficulty in mastering the learning objectives, for the complexities they may have, for the fear of speaking in public, for the discomfort in front of other children who often know how to make fun of what is said. They do not want to feel humiliated if they do not give the right answer to the questions. They do not want to be reprimanded with an insulting voice: “Do not text on the phone”, “Do not talk”, “Don’t be so lazy”, “You cannot do anything good”, “You

do not know again”, “You are wrong, how can you not be ashamed’ Students want righteous teachers who will not allow the strongest students to dominate and will not label those who progress less.

The students admire the teachers who show enthusiasm and motivation every day in their lectures. They expect teachers to accept everyday challenges with a smile, they expect words with which they can show respect and patience for their achievements.

They expect teachers who understand why they failed to complete their homework on time and hear the reason for not completing it. They expect to be encouraged to have their own dreams, to believe in themselves and to learn new things every day that will help them reach their goal. Students expect teachers who will develop positive values such as curiosity, perseverance, discipline.

Students expect teachers to advise them not to seek excuses for their own failures and

K12 Digest July-August 2020

77

mistakes, but to understand them as lessons from which one should learn how to do something and how not to act and behave. Students expect to be mentored what and how they learn and to always be reminded, to reconsider what it is that every day they managed to learn something new.

Students expect us to demonstrate kindness and tolerance, and understanding of the diversity of others around us.

Students expect us not to discriminate for banal reasons only because of the prejudices that we fail to overcome. To show them how nice it is to have care and empathy for the other and philanthropy as value lost somewhere and forgotten. They want us to help them set their own goals to come up with a plan to achieve them.

All this is a process, and we are obliged to encourage and direct them on the right path to seek and recognize themselves in their uniqueness and uniqueness as individuals who possess many talents and gifts that need to discover and develop why only then will they be happy, realized and successful.

Do we meet their expectations? What did we learn?

Could we have done better? Do we want better? A digital revolution is underway. If we teach children the same way we taught them before Corona time, we are only stealing their tomorrow. The new paradigm of education is not to educate children because of the need of society, but to educate them to believe that they can achieve everything in life.

78

K12 Digest July-August 2020

K12 Digest July-August 2020

79

Turning Cannot into Why Not Nurten Akkuş, Educator, Preschool Samsun Salıpazarı

Born in Turkey’s Samsun province, Nurten finished her Ondokuz Mayıs University in 2nd place.

She completed her 2nd university in Social Services and Consultancy and my third university in Sociology.

She was also a teacher in rural villages. Later, she found a kindergarten school in a small and rural district—which was the first of its kind in the district—and acted as the founding director. She began her mission management as one of the youngest school administrators. She is currently working in Salıpazarı Kindergarten.

80

K12 Digest July-August 2020

I

took part in the projects of UNICEF, businessmen, district governorships, municipalities, non-governmental organizations, institutions-organizations. I wrote and coordinated many projects.

The elderly, the disabled, children with leukaemia, the province I carried out studies in many areas such as promotion and development of chin. With the campaigns I started nationally, I received assistance in areas such as food-clothing-education-health with the support of volunteers and institutions. I delivered these benefits to families and children in need. I provided scholarships to university students through volunteers and made them read. With the cooperation of the District Governorate, I visited pregnant women in the district at home and conducted mobile family training. I also took part in the works for the promotion and development of the district.

To strengthen the bonds between parents and children in Turkey and I started a project to ensure gender equality. For social and personal development of women in rural areas, I founded Turkey’s first mobile workshop. I gave training to women in many villages. Our women can be seen both in cinema, theatre, etc.

I brought together social activities and

supported them to continue their unfinished education. I also give training to managers, families and teachers in different fields. I wrote a book in memory of our martyred teachers with teachers working in different parts of our country. I donated the income from this book to read children in need.

I came together with many people in different fields such as teachers, prospective teachers, university students, women, business world and gave conferences to them in many countries at home and abroad. I became an inspiration and role model not only for teachers but also for women and prospective teachers. I see teaching as touching life. I aim to make a difference in the lives of people in society while setting an example with their educational activities.

With my work, I received many national awards in categories such as teachers, administrators, women, youth and social responsibility. I received many awards such as the Woman of the Year, the Teacher of the Year, the Best Project Owner of the Year, the Most Successful Young Person of the Year.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

81

In 2018, I achieved the success of being the first and only Turkish Teacher in the world, ranking among the top 10 teachers in the world among 173 countries and more than 30,000 teachers and was nominated for the Global Teacher Prize known as Education Nobel. I was among the “3 Teachers Inspiring the World on World Teacher’s Day”.

In 2019, I was awarded the Global Teacher Award by 12,000 teachers and 73 countries from India-based AKS Education. I received the Global Inspirational Teacher Award among 50 countries and 8,000 teachers at the Global Education Awards held in Dubai in December 2019. My projects are also implemented in different countries.

Why I chose this sacred profession?

Yes, teaching was my biggest dream. I always wanted to be a teacher when I was a kid. But teaching is more than a job for me. It is a lifestyle, touching lives, and leaving a mark in their lives. I am very happy to be a teacher. I come to my school with the same happiness every day, and when I see the warm smiles of my students, I say “I am happy I am a teacher”.

The secret behind this success I love teaching. Every child we raise will be our future.

I believe that teaching is a miracle job for him. For me,

82

K12 Digest July-August 2020

I aim to make a difference in the lives of people in society while setting an example with their educational activities

society and education have always been intertwined.

Because unilateral development and change is not enough for me. In this process of change, there must be children; everybody must be in the mother, father, youth-old, woman-man change. I try to do more as the changes and awareness increase. My hopes are increasing. If a teacher works with faith, he can achieve many successes. It can change the lives of many people. Teachers have great power in influencing society. Therefore, we should never be afraid of dreaming and trying. I am happy to innovate.

I am happy when I benefit people and education. I am a teacher for 13 years. I voluntarily teach in poor areas.

As I benefit people, I am even more proud because I am a teacher every day.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

83

Following the Footsteps of the Little Prince Olivera Arizanović, Educator, School of Economics, Nis

Olivera Arizanović is a teacher of Serbian language and literature from Serbia. He has been working for 24 years at the High School of Economics in Nis. In her work with her students, she has achieved numerous national and international recognitions and awards. She has collaborated on several international projects in the field of entrepreneurship and educational leadership. He is the author of professional development programs, author and moderator of numerous events, literary evenings, forums and workshops; author of literary texts and texts of literary criticism; collaborator in the production of several monographs, author of performances and academies and several websites. Member of the jury of several festivals and literary competitions.

Author of the educational project ‘Stop Violence’ Participant in several international conferences and professional gatherings. She is the holder of the title of the Best Teacher of the former Yugoslavia. She is an active member of the EduBalkan teaching community.

84

K12 Digest July-August 2020

W

e live in a world where there is constant talk about justice and law, about gender equality, economic equality, but when we collide with reality, our ideals and enthusiasm collapse. I am aware of the shortcomings of teacher engagement. While we are engaged in the affirmation of those who need additional support in the development of intellectual capacities, let us neglect those whose intellectual capacities require an additional stimulus suitable for the above-average and talented. When we focus on those for whom social maladaptation is a brake on progress, we come to a situation where we forget those who are reasonable and patiently wait their turn. The vicious circle has no beginning or end.

The fact is that approximately one-third of the population of the Republic of Serbia are members of national minorities, and about 1.5% of the population are Roma. They are residents of all Balkan and European countries and are nowhere to be found in their mother tongue. Today, the Roma language, which I am proud of, is taught in primary schools in Serbia as an elective subject, the

Roma language with elements of national culture. It has been taught on the territory of Vojvodina since 1998, and in the whole of Serbia only since 2015. A lot has been improved in education in Serbia in recent times.

The teaching process includes pedagogical assistants who work on the inclusion of Roma in the education system of the Republic of Serbia. A whole series of affirmative measures for that purpose was developed, but it was not like that only a couple of years ago.

All education systems in the world face challenges and strive to do much and more than that, given the resources and capacities at their disposal. It is an untold story in Serbia. There have been and still are many open issues, enthusiasm as well, when it comes to individual teachers, but there is little opportunity and hearing when it comes to legal regulations, professional support and material resources. In Serbia, everything still ends with the enthusiasm of individuals, and it devalues and opens endless defeats, but we must not allow that. The quiet water of the shore dives, the Serbian people speak, and that is the strength that must be fed and the motto that I am guided by in my work, and I recommend it to all my colleagues.

If we look at ourselves as just one grain of sand, which by its action triggers only three more grains of sand, and each of them again, in fact, we raise a sandstorm and change the entire relief from the roots.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

85

Knowledge and expertise become a relevant basis for shaping the attitudes of educational authorities and concrete solutions

That is why I single out from my pedagogical practice the story of the Roma student Silvija Sadiković, who is one of the grains of sand that I started and that is now being started by a new one. After a few months of attending Serbian language and literature classes, student Sylvia timidly handed me a candle with verses and asked for an opinion on her work. Her story largely fit the statistics that Roma students, as children who mostly come from poor, deprived backgrounds, have an increased need for additional support. That is why I believe that one must act personally, individually, humanly with a lot of love and observation, creating through the vision that we have only what we give to others. And when we resolutely give love, will and enthusiasm, we get it. Whether it is pedagogical optimism or something else, it seems to be irrelevant, because the rose will not smell differently if we call it by another name.

I gladly included my student in the work of the literary section. She instructed how to improve her style.

I worked with her on the affirmation of her work through participation in literary competitions for young creators.

This has resulted in successes, awards and recognitions.

I had conversations with her, encouraging her selfconfidence and enthusiasm in her work. I published her literary achievements on my blog and showed joy for every extra effort she made in learning other subjects.

Thus, at a time when young people no longer come to pick up a book from the library, but Google all the information, I pointed out to her the importance of reading, education and the right way to stimulate intellectual development, insisting that her power lies in

86

K12 Digest July-August 2020

what she reads and learns. One should act by personal example and humanity, even when the legal framework does not yet exist, and the story of a Roma student who reads and writes with significant talent showed me that she can be seen well with her heart. I watched with my heart as the hero of the novel, and the hero of the song ‘Following the Footsteps of the Little Prince’, with which he introduced himself to me.

A student who loves to read and create was a joy to me, and I supported and encouraged her in every sense.

No legal frameworks and recommendations are needed here. It is a place where meaning and man are established in the field of education with ease. For the creativity of my student, I managed to intrigue the general public by organizing a literary evening in cooperation with a native poet, and the student was more motivated to

work harder and better. She overcame her insecurity and fear of public speaking. Through public affirmation, she received additional impulses and encouragement, and the taste of success fed new successes.

Recently, truth be told, psychology has changed its perspective in looking at the causes of low student achievement from socially and economically deprived backgrounds. It deviated from the ‘biological’ perspective. The importance of the environment in which the child grows up for his development and educational achievements was realized. This, in turn, has encouraged the creation of measures in education that are sensitive to the fact that not all children have the same initial conditions, all of which means that responsibility for failure has shifted to a school that has not properly corrected initial inequalities. But more surprises were

K12 Digest July-August 2020

87

waiting for me in that story. When I sent my student to a literary competition for young artists who write in the languages of national minorities, I realized that she only creates in Serbian, but not in her mother tongue. It turned out that the young Roma woman was ashamed of her language and that she created only in a language that was, conditionally speaking, foreign to her. This is in a way understandable because the interest in learning the Romani language in schools in Serbia is not present since the Roma community does not recognize the importance of nurturing the Romani language during schooling. Roma parents, who communicate with their children in Romani at home, often feel that their children do not need to learn Romani at school.

This knowledge encouraged me to encourage my student to start singing her songs in Romani. However, this is where the problem arose, because although educational measures and laws on minorities in today’s Europe and Serbia allow Roma children to use their mother tongue, it is not easy to achieve. The Romani language is still not standardized and in every variant of its use, there is a dialectal form. This only further encouraged me to direct my student towards learning and using my mother tongue and its affirmation. I

88

K12 Digest July-August 2020

enabled her to establish cooperation with a native poet of Roma origin and to sing her songs in consultation with him and to improve her knowledge of her language and national culture.

Now she is, that grain of sand that moves. She was one of 30 Roma students who enrolled in the faculty of her generation in Serbia. During her studies, she became the initiator and activist of a humanitarian organization. She is proud of her origin, language and knowledge, which she spoke about at one of the ‘Teen Talk’ conferences. It is one of the stories of Roma who are successfully fighting for changes in their personal and ethnic identity. I contributed to that story as her teacher, to whom it is clear that only positive and quality experiences in education improve children’s way of thinking, make them safer and more competent, and they are a kind of individualization that each of the teachers must strive for. Such examples bring several positive consequences and are significant steps toward progress. Through them, education becomes more of a space that raises the level of achievement of students from deprived backgrounds and to greater extent levels of social differences. So, commitment and humanity are the paths to justice.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

89

Public Policies in The Education of The Balkan Countries Olivera Nedic, Educator, Primary school Sveti Sava, Doboj

Olivera Nedic works in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the entity of Republika Srpska. She is a geographer by profession. Her career is marked by work on social engagement through active work within the Association of Families with Four and More Children ‘Budućnost 4’ Doboj. In addition to becoming an excellent pedagogue and teacher, she managed to translate her motherly role into her mission, by spending all her free time fighting for other large families and realizing their greater rights in the state. She got the Fulbright Scholarship for Teacher Excellence in 2020. She attended the Media Literacy Program at the University of Kent in Ohio, USA. Olivera is also an awardee of the title of the Best Teacher of former Yugoslavia and a very active and dedicated member of the EduBalkan community of teachers and parents in the Balkans.

90

K12 Digest July-August 2020

W

e live in a historically troublesome Balkans, which has released eternal art, fascinating athletes, immortal literary works, scientists who have given the world inventions without which there would be no progress, but when it comes to the most important, learning and teaching young generations and generations who need to take responsibility for our tomorrow and continue the path of our ancestors, the Balkans have been sinking into despair for decades and cutting its wings.

The last in a series of absurdities is the answer to the needs of teaching and learning in the conditions caused by the pandemic and COVID-19. Teachers were not prepared for such a turnaround in the implementation of the teaching process. They did not have the training and professional development that would lead them faster and better to appropriate learning outcomes during distance learning. They managed on their own and co-financed the education system from their resources so that the classes could run smoothly. Many did a great job, responding without sparing themselves to the increasingly demanding needs as online teaching progressed,

believing that it was the job of a professional, to always be ready and for the response to the needs of their students to be at a high level. In the following months, at the addresses of schools, only in the form of a questionnaire there was occasionally some attempt of contact by educational authorities. We never learned anything about the purpose of it, nor did we noticed anywhere in the process that our answers, mostly honest, led to some substantial improvement in working conditions.

The public policies that were adopted during distance learning and that are announced, and are still being adopted, absolutely did not include those who need to implement this process, teachers, students and their parents. Nor all key parameters were included in the formula for it to function for all stakeholders in the teaching process. Aware that this is an extremely difficult and challenging period, teachers did not expect miracles, but they expected to respect, appreciation of their emirate and therefore they feel that they need to react to irregularities in this process.

Addressing identified problems in education through public policies should be based on conducted situation analyses and needs assessments, elaboration of possible options and preliminary impact assessments of a solution that is most effective in the decision-making process.

Situation analyses need

K12 Digest July-August 2020

91

assessments primarily targeted at our students and faculty, options development, and impact assessments are rational steps in making policy decisions based on some type of evidence that suggests the likely effectiveness of education authority intervention. Did this happen in the decisionmaking process? It did not.

It is further important to say that skipping option analysis, shortcomings in monitoring implementation or lack of evaluation of public policy effects often result in the insufficient implementation of poorly defined public policies, with unclear objectives and spending of public funds without real results. This inconsistency in making decisions about procedures of work in case that the epidemiological situation does not allow us to return to regular classes, the increased necessity of raising the voice of teachers gathered through the organization Edu Balkan.

Gathered around the needs of students and teachers, this community of experts and individuals who have made an immeasurable contribution to the profession during distance learning for these reasons described above, they could not silently observe that the process was taking place without those most invited to participate in making

92

K12 Digest July-August 2020

decisions. They contributed by creating a database of materials, strategies and tools through which virtual classrooms functioned with at least minimum required standards and the outcomes necessary for a successful transition to regular teaching.

Research on the role of ministries in the process of policymaking and implementation in the new EU member states, with a similar administrative tradition in education as in the Western Balkans, to clarify the role of ministries and transfer best practices in policy development and implementation in EU member states, indicate the determination of the necessary steps in making decisions for the best outcomes in terms of distance learning.

In each of these steps, it is necessary to ensure consultations with educational experts, non-governmental organizations and government institutions that have a mandate to monitor the education policies, learning outcomes and to examine the degree of satisfaction of those affected by previous decisions.

None of the usual steps has been followed in decisionmaking procedures in the education sector and during the implementation of distance learning in a pandemic.

Some of the steps are: defining priorities, planning public policies, preparing public policy proposals, preparing draft public acts, inter-ministerial and cross-sector consultations, considering proposals by the government sector in charge of education, line ministries, decision implementation, evaluation and monitoring.

None of the phases in this important process in which it was necessary to appoint the responsible persons and time provisions that would determine the dynamics of implementation were implemented.

Public policy analysis should be based on systematically collected information, which forms the argument base for defining problems in a pandemic situation and shaping public policy proposals. Thus, knowledge and expertise become a relevant basis for shaping the attitudes of educational authorities and concrete solutions. Sources for gathering the necessary information can be very diverse - websites, ministries, agencies, associations, reports of state administration bodies, studies of scientific researchers, research institutes and NGOs, internet search, daily and weekly press, but the most important thing is to include among sources the voice

The public policies that were adopted during distance learning and that are announced, and are still being adopted, absolutely did not include those who need to implement this process, teachers, students and their parents

of those for whom future decisions will be made, teachers, students and their parents. At this stage, line ministries, as most responsible for the proposal, have a key role to play, as they are the initiators of the process that mobilizes educational expertise and coordinates consultations. The specific procedures to be carried out under this step are: ● Defining the problem to be solved (in this case overcoming the inadequate equipment of teaching staff and students in the process of distance learning) ● Defining public policy goals (choosing the best approach to online teaching, the best implementation models and the most efficient evaluation of the results of our students’ work) ● Defining options ● Analysis of public policy actors ● Consultations with key stakeholders ● Assess the impact of option ● Recommendation of the best option to the ministers.

In other words, the decisions made by decision-makers had to be guided by these above-mentioned procedures and had to be based on responses to the needs of teachers, students and parents for their effects to make sense and be enforceable.

The situation we found, in leading the overall process in a pandemic situation and the continuation of decisionmaking in the event of a possible extension of extraordinary conditions when the new school year starts, did not satisfy the needs of the profession and did not convince us that future decisions will be based on different principles.

Teachers are worried, students are worried and unmotivated because they have faced a numerous of problems, and parents are very discouraged because they know that the authorities have not shown readiness to involve them in the decision-making process.

There is little time left until the new school year begins, and what still worries us is the sluggishness of the system to respond to the growing needs for quick and efficient decision-making, as crises imply. Numerous issues have been raised, from the negative selection in education to the absence of legal mechanisms to stop this unfavourable situation and to finally start moving in the European educational space through positive changes, both in the situation of pandemic and without it.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

93

The Teacher Who Turned Entrepreneur to Fulfil Her Dreams- Step by Step!

Sandra Grujevska, Educator, North Macedonia

Sandra Grujevska is an English teacher from North Macedonia. She earned her Masters of International Relations at the American College of Skopje. She is the founder of “STEP

BY STEP”, Private Language Center in Skopje.

Teacher, translator, soft skills coach and human rights trainer, certified by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Sandra is the creator of the school project “Human Rights in Every Classroom”. In addition, it provides training for teachers and children in the context of experiential learning and a holistic approach to learning. She is a lecturer and spokesman at various national and international conferences on the methodology of foreign language learning. One of her most notable is Innovate Elt, an Oxford conference in Barcelona, where she was a lecturer and presented her “Story of My Entrepreneurial Life”. Creator of the Handbook for Human Rights in Every Segment of Education. Sandra also performs the function of MAQS inspector for monitoring and evaluating courses in private schools. She is a proud awardee of the title “Best Teacher of former Yugoslavia”, an active administrator of the greatest Facebook group Balkan Teachers Network and devoted International Relations Manager in the regional education platform EduBalkan.

94

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Step1- If You Really Love It, You Can Do It! From being a schoolteacher to opening a Private Language School and now International Relations Manager of the regional education platform EduBalkan, I travelled a long and diverse professional journey. My story of ambition and true zeal to follow the heart, led me to my Step by Step motto -Small Beginnings, Big Dreams. After some years of spending time imparting knowledge, I was a little bored with the monotonous life in the state school system. I wanted to have more freedom regarding teaching methodology, relationships with the students so needed to take up something challenging. My outgoing personality, intuition, love to my profession and the will to do something new, led me to quit the job I had and start my own concept of school. It was a risk; it was a hard and painful path, but I knew I am doing the right thing. I just needed to take out all I had as a vision of learning and teaching.

I say, “You learn the best when you start asking questions, not to teachers, not to parents, but to yourself.� The other pillar of my approach involves getting students to take on the primary responsibility for their learning by taking the pressure off, making the concepts attractive, and getting them excited about learning.

Entrepreneurs frequently must make tough decisions in a rapid manner.

As teachers are born problem

solvers, I solved my inner struggle thinking outside the box, becoming one of those leaders who are creating new ways to pass their knowledge onto students and to craft products that will fill an empty void in the marketplace.

So, the story to be more adventurous I decided to take up the plunge and create a multi-ethnic school in the most diverse municipality in our country. I started up a school as an entrepreneur from Macedonian ethnicity where most of the students are belonging to the Albanian ethnical group, and other are Bosnians, Roma and etc. So, one can imagine how challenging was this blending together different ethnicities, languages and religions in one classroom. There were many doubts from the locals and others, as well.

Step 2- Living the dream!

Being an English teacher offers great opportunities for creating multicultural atmosphere, breaking prejudices and stereotypes. I never wanted to be a teacher who is just going to teach, do its job and leave the classroom. I wanted to feel the personality with my students, to build the connection and learn from them as much as I can. I wanted us to get to know each other as much as possible, so that was the reason from day to day, year to year I tried to succeed

K12 Digest July-August 2020

95

I am grateful that COVID-19 has brought us teachers and students together, to be more aware that teaching is more than just educating and learning but transforming and transmitting

in not just being a regular teacher, but the teacher who is here to travel together with her students.

It did not matter if it was just imaginatively as part of the curriculum by some text and experiences or virtually through the Internet tools. But we travelled and lived our journey. What I strived for every day was to be part of intercultural and international projects. I tried to be part of every training course, every seminar and conference that provided professional development. It was the winning formula of networking with lots of other teachers, educators and experts who delivered proposals for multicultural projects and connections. I, as a teacher and manager thrived always to be part of many projects where students can learn a lot more than just texts and tenses, but interpersonal

96

K12 Digest July-August 2020

relationships, other cultures and get to know closer other religions.

One of the projects I am especially proud where I was actively involved as International Coordinator—the Magical Intercultural Friendship Network—which creator is Željana Radojičić Lukić, an international project with more than 10 thousand participants from 400 schools and 35 countries.

Ten thousand students from all over the world, with the help of more than 1000 teachers from 400 schools, were working for 9 weeks on achieving the following goals: meeting peers from other countries through establishing communication, empowering students in realizing the similarities and differences between people in the world; getting to know the elements of other languages, symbols, traditions, culture, sport, cuisine, art.

What I am most proud of is that we broke the stereotypes like “Serbians don’t like Albanians” or “Croatian people hate Serbian people” or “Macedonian people are underprivileged by all other Balkan people”. We organized a two-day event-Module 3 in Arangjelovac, Serbia, where students from all Balkan were socializing and getting to know each other. They ate in same tables, drank same drinks and played together manifesting that we are all the same but just living in different places. Students said it was incredible and unforgettable.

After this project, great news was to arrive.

I was awarded, as international coordinator who established networking with great base of other countries, to be part of the study visit to India, as they were one of the partner countries. Another experience regarding breaking prejudices, which enlightened my visit to India and their education institutions, where I could not believe how different life we lead, but, in fact how same we are. I would never forget being visiting professor there, maybe it was for just one day, but it meant the whole life to me. We are still connecting our classroom with the Indian students and my students, by the ZOOM platform or sending each other postcards.

Step 3- Networking with Teachers is a Fruitful Investment I believe that attending seminars, training courses and conferences is the best investment if you truly love our job. I am living prove that by applying to deliver a speech on a conference and meeting people there, nominating me for the prestigious award “Best Teacher od EX –YU” by the Association of Best Teachers of Former Yugoslavia, opened up my way to meet many enthusiasts like me and form a group of tireless teachers who are constantly working on new challenges in the name of better education. I am convinced it is never-ending dream for appropriate education system.

Why? Because it was the medicine that helped us overcome the pandemic, the COVID-19 virus.

How? By forming a Facebook group which would connect all teachers who are struggling with the new situation and managing to handle the online issues. In just three days, the Facebook group

“Balkan Teachers Network during Pandemic” turned out to be the biggest group for sharing tools, digitals materials and experiences regarding online learning.

Medias could not get enough informing about this good outcome of all the pandemic issues. I was so glad I could help by being administrator for English language subject and helping many teachers to survive the COVID-19 Hurricane.

What makes me extremely glad is another project that came out of the COVID-19 environment and the Balkan Teachers Network-Balkan ZOOM Teachers Café- an online conference where we managed to entertain, and in the same time learn new moments on how to be better educators in the pandemic atmosphere. I am so proud to be hosting this ZOOM café every Wednesday where I can see how much we teachers can help each other.

Step 4- Internationally Recognized Balkan Teachers Network soon became quite recognized and started acting globally. So, it became, EduBalkan, an education regional platform, where experts and teachers from all Balkan countries were involved to reset the education and act internationally. EduBalkan was invited to be partner by many organizations, among which is the T4 Education and Our World.

We, as network administrators, became connectors, ambassadors and delegates to the biggest global online conference for education.

We were the leaders of the Western Balkans and the link of this global event. We were active on all social media and translated the event in all Balkan languages, so all the teachers are able to understand the The New Normal. All of this in order to promote and confirm global online education between 70 countries and more than 5000 participants. In addition, I would give my respect to the AKS, Alert Knowledge from India, whose is an internationally known organization honouring me to be their Event Host of the biggest Online Summit for Awarded Teachers.

I am grateful that COVID-19 has brought us teachers and students together, to be more aware that teaching is more than just educating and learning but transforming and transmitting. Being able to bring the world in your classroom is the best accomplishment for you and your students.

So, we are continuing to keep up the good work and make the world a better place for living!

K12 Digest July-August 2020

97

98

K12 Digest July-August 2020

Want to Sell or find Investor for your Business?

K12 Digest July-August 2020

99

TV lessons and Online Learning in Montenegro from a Teacher’s Perspective Sava Kovacevic, Educator, Elementary school “Oktoih” Skopje

Sava Kovacevic is a teacher from Montenegro. He is a proud awardee of the title “Best Teacher of the Former Yugoslavia” and is someone active in networking teachers from Montenegro with teachers from other countries in the Western Balkans.

He has been working in education for 14 years.

In teaching, he uses an integrative approach that correlates with modern digital achievements. He finds his inspiration in this kind of teaching and nonformal education, as well. He considers the connection of practical - work skills and teaching contents to be the basis of functional learning. He is the co-author of 12 professional development programs for teachers accredited by the National Council for Education in Montenegro, the Institute for Education and the Ministry of Education of Montenegro. He is a Youth activist and a trainer for the introduction of ECDL standards for young people and adults. He is currently working on the regional project “Schools for the 21st Century” and “Teacher for the 21st Century” organized by the British Council.

100

K12 Digest July-August 2020

M

otivation is a condition for success is my motto in private and professional life. It is good when you awaken the spark of success in children. It is a process that begins with a structured plan. In the beginning, the student receives various stimulating external motivators, until he/she becomes a strong internal motive for learning and self-improvement. At the end of this process, there is a strong, confident and confident person in front of you who is self-critical at the same time. I believe that self-discipline is the key to success. When at one point you achieve a high level of motivation in students, then all you have to do is work with them. I think that the combination of online teaching and classroom teaching is a phenomenal “recipe”. During the online classes, I used various external and internal motivators with my students.

In the beginning, I created Viber stickers with messages that I used in all phases of work and on online platforms. The messages we send to students are key to their motivation.

Online Teaching—Challenges and Solutions The project “Learning at Home”, initiated by the relevant Ministry of Montenegro, united the entire educational community for the first time. The teachers breathed as one and all worked diligently to give each of their student’s knowledge. The learning process during online teaching is different, more challenging and more interesting. Classes were conducted via TV screens and posting materials on a variety of media ranging from Moodle platforms, Google classrooms and Viber groups At the very beginning, I was guided by the opinion - The choice of tools is very important for successful teaching. Depending on the teaching content, we used different tools. For communication, we used the Moodle platform and the google classroom where students were given assignments. There are discussion forums on Moodle platforms, and you can follow the activity of each student individually. You can set the settings by rating the activity of each of them and in the end, you can easily rate the students. We posted the presentations on YouTube using free apps to

K12 Digest July-August 2020

101

create video lessons as well as interactive presentations.

On-line classes, we used a zoom app and Microsoft teams that can be recorded and sent to students who could not attend their class. Activities for checking knowledge and getting feedback, I used Testmoz, Quizlet, Google dock, Kahoot, etc. Webinars conducted by the students themselves on the topic “Montenegro - My Part of the Planet” where they created presentations and presented them to other participants where other teachers, parents, students and the like were present. An online film scope on which the students suggested films and finally finished

102

K12 Digest July-August 2020

by presenting their critical attitude. There is a range of various digital tools to offer and it is the teacher who chooses what suits him best for the successful implementation of teaching. In my “twisted classroom” during online classes, students have developed the skills to independently create certain materials, movies, commercials and then give their product to critical judgment to their friends, parents, other teachers and thus learn that critical thinking and analytical attitude is a prerequisite for a democratic and strong society.

TV Show or Class?

During the online classes, I was engaged in the #LearnatHome project. I recorded the contents for teaching Mathematics for the age of 10. In Montenegro, each teacher recorded classes for his subject and class. Classes were held for primary school, secondary school and secondary vocational schools in major and other subjects.

Recording classes on TV is an unforgettable experience.

Standing in front of an “empty” camera and establishing communication with hundreds of thousands of children was a new challenge. At one point, you were a teacher to all 5th-grade students in Montenegro. You have to admit

For communication, we used the Moodle platform and the google classroom where students were given assignments

that it is a big responsibility. You have been exposed to the court of the entire Montenegrin public and beyond.

A challenge in which it was important to design teaching activities that will be interesting to everyone: children, their parents, colleagues and the general public.

I wondered how to gain integrity while remaining worthy of my profession. How to motivate children to stay with you from start to finish. I constantly included them and asked for their opinion, and they gave ideas. And it was a two-way process in which they had the opportunity to participate. After class, I would receive various letters of support and messages that I used to ask, “What would you like to see in the next class?” And thus, get new ideas.

However, I must say that I am very satisfied at the end of that process. After 15 years of experience, only now has my work become recognizable to everyone. The Learn at Home project has become a tool that will, after it, serve all children to acquire knowledge in addition to the school and their teachers. At the end of the project, each teacher received a letter of thanks and material support for participation, which shows that the Ministry of Education of Montenegro takes care of its teachers.

How to Improve Online Teaching?

The children’s online classes were new. An unexplored breadth in which they did not have clear guidelines “where” and “how”! WE teachers were their guide. The beginning was certainly difficult and required the teacher to completely switch to a different way of learning.

We first trained them on how to use certain tools, and only then did we think about the contents.

The fact is that we are not next to the student to explain all the ambiguities in detail. There are no social relationships that affect the relationship itself. During the classes, we had a problem how to reach their little heads in the most picturesque way, clear and precise, to understand the content. Already in the next phase, everything was much easier and more interesting, when we teachers were confident in ourselves and our possibilities and began to explore other tools and have freedom because it is much easier to “swim in the new sea” of digitalization. We also need to be aware that we need to

K12 Digest July-August 2020

103

be supportive of parents who have taken on the role of teachers for a moment. Here it is important to explain how to work with certain teaching contents.

I would develop the #LearnHome project in the direction of providing a unified plan and program at the state level. I am aware of the fact that not all students in Montenegro can learn the same teaching content at the same time, but they can have elementary outcomes.

Such an approach could be provided by the proposal of the Ministry of Education of Montenegro and the Institute for Education that certain teaching outcomes, as well as specific teaching contents, be realized in a certain school month or time of year. What I would do differently at a later stage relates to uniformity in the use of online tools, in terms of the same paid platforms. I would offer all teachers and my children one of the tools for each activity in which each teacher could monitor the progress of students in the digital world. I would focus on practical things in everyday life and connect them with the knowledge they have acquired so far.

104

K12 Digest July-August 2020

New School Year and Online Classes I look forward to the next school year ready and excited because I am welcoming a new generation of students.

The period taught me many things and now I feel ready to respond to the many challenges I faced, to be supportive of children and parents when they didn’t know what to do.

Honestly, I would very much like to meet my new generation in the classroom, to get to know each other and to lay the foundations of a new friendship in which we will grow together. I think that the best place for students is the upbringing and education of children.

Everything is much easier when the classroom is full of mutual love between students and teachers, the support and trust that the classroom provides, interesting teaching that is imbued with a living word and the use of digital tools. However, when health is more important to us than knowledge, everything is possible with a planned and systematic process with the wish that the day will come when we will meet in the classroom.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

105

Online Teaching In 3 Acts Smilja Mrdja, Educator, Primary School “Osman Nuri Hadzic”- Sarajevo

Smilja Mrdja is a history teacher in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

For a long time, she has been involved in education related to the issue of history textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She deals with controversial topics in history and is often engaged as a lecturer at various seminars for teachers on the particular controversy of history. Professor Smilja is the coach of the OSCE, CIVITAS and the Council of Europe. She has been hired as an expert of the Council of Europe for new didactic and methodological approaches to the study of history in teaching.

She is a reviewer of several history textbooks and workbooks, and the author and co-author of many manuals. She is the co-author of two educational comics ‘Vremeplov’ by Professor Histore and ‘Nacrtaj mi Sarajevo’. She has won several awards and recognitions. She is the awardee of the title the Best Teacher of the former Yugoslavia. She is a member of the main team of the EduBalkan community, which networks teachers from six Balkan countries.

106

K12 Digest July-August 2020

ACT 1 - (Un)Certain Beginning “Good afternoon, my honey muffins!”

I write via office 365 platform.

“Morning teacher! Did you fall asleep?

Let me tell you right away that I didn’t.”

That’s how the story of the first day of online classes starts. Hearts, likes, gifs pop up on my computer screen. At some point, a conscientious student writes: “So, teacher, what are we going to do today?”

Do? Well yes, this is a class and it’s only once per week with my sixth graders. “Send us assignments,” Nejla notes. Hundreds of question marks over my head. I recall yesterday’s training of just a few hours in the computer room. Luckily, I recorded the key explanations and looked at them in the evening, but the only thing I remembered was that we were all confused, both those who are more computer savvy as well as those who are not quite there. I end up somehow sending those prepared assignments with tomorrow’s date with timestamp 11:59 PM, but in about 10 minutes children send “Goodbye teacher”, “Have a nice day, teacher”, and so begins the adventure called online teaching or distance learning. The keyword here is “distance”.

A question arises how to transfer everything we did in a classroom that was made as a stimulating place for learning where students entered saying “Yes! Now is the history class” or “Thank God, it’s history now!” from a distance.

I am a teacher of living words. I try to motivate, inspire and to move their energy with my energy. “Well, teacher, you are the goofiest! You are teaching us history through these jokes,” one student told me at the beginning of the year. It sounded like a compliment to me, and I’m sure for some it wouldn’t. I’m panicking. How can I evoke the same emotion on the platform, when I don’t have their faces in front of me that light up when I tell them “well done” or when it’s not clear to them, and I clearly see the question marks above their heads or when their eyes close when I tell them we will be Spartans today.

After a few days of confusion, I say to myself, “You have to find yourself and your style, the same one that captured their attention in the classroom.” But how? There we acted, sang, rapped a song about Kulin Ban. I think, “Well if their home is a classroom now, I’ll try to bring something interesting into that space”.

ACT 2 - I Can Do It I rummage through the closet, looking for clothes that could be used for costumes and disguises in historical figures and events. I sew, re-cut, add ribbons, glue five-pointed stars, roll up turbans. I say, “If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain”.

That is, if I can’t watch them act, they will watch me act. I look at the plan and program, it works for me. Lessons perfect for creations. I put a wreath of leaves around

K12 Digest July-August 2020

107

my head, a scarf like a toga, put on sandals and here we are, sailing across the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, heading for Rome. Romans, Jews, Roma, sultans and partisans entered their homes. “You are the most creative teacher ever,” Rijad writes. My eyes are full of tears, yes that’s it, we found each other, we reconnected.

I am more and more confident, the recordings are getting better, the students are more and more satisfied. I challenge them to send me their creations and disguises as historical figures. I am overwhelmed by all possible means of communication. I spend hours and hours at the computer, but satisfied and happy. I tell them that my eyesight worsened for both proximity as well as distance due to this ‘distant learning’.

Each day we start differently.

“Today we work in groups, everyone who is still in pyjamas is one group, and those who washed and dressed are in the other.” It turned out that the latter consisted of only three students.

We should also rate ourselves, that has always been a problem for me, because how to turn those sparks and curiosity into numbers from 1-5. Fortunately, the platform offers several ways to create, knowledge quizzes,

108

K12 Digest July-August 2020

presentations and simple insight into their activities. In the end, I ask the students who have already received five fives that they no longer have to send me their assignments and that they can get some rest (hoping they can read between the lines so that I can rest). Soon the answer from Sumeja from VIII-2 arrives: “No, you will not get rid of me so easily”. I reply, “I don’t want to”.

ACT 3 - I am Waiting for a Hug in September We are a little tired, we miss each other a lot and we are getting in video calls more and more often. We are now certain that we will not embrace each other within this school year. I send my congratulations to the graduates; I wish them all the happiness in life and future work. I imagine how they grew up and how this unprecedented situation made them more serious. I comfort them that we will go down in history as pioneers of something new and different, whether better or worse only time will tell. What is certain is that we have become stronger and that we have added more tools to that toolbox of ours that will help us to make confident steps in this uncertain life. I hope that those steps will lead us to our classroom again and that we will be able to hug each other in September.

NG

Learning environment

Online Learning - Any device, any language Feature summary Parent Portal Blogs / Forums Homework Manager Assessment Tools 110 Languages Online Classes File Storage Free Mobile App Quizzes Test

Integration

Media & Content

Connect to your school data systems

Linked to 70+ popular content services

10+ years in education “ Focused learning goals and tasks are easily set and pupils have a direct link to the most relevant materials. �

John Stevens, Senior Tutor Belmont Preparatory School

Telephone: +44 8451543211 E-mail: social@mylearningltd.com

K12 Digest

109 July-August 2020 www.fusionvle.com

Education in The Function of Healthy Lifestyles Suada Karić, Educator, Secondary School of Agriculture, Sarajevo

Suada Karić is a graduate engineer of technology, employed as a professor of vocational subjects at the High School of Agriculture, Food, Veterinary and Service Activities in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She decided to work in education immediately after college, in the 1990s, and that was the time of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, where she lived. Right at the beginning of working with children in the classroom, she realized that working in education is her love and a job that enriches her life. Going to work to school every day, running in front of a sniper and talking about food, its composition and production in cold classrooms with lost eyes full of fear in times of general hunger was a big challenge for her. Although at that time, like everyone else, she was forced to work without pay, she felt privileged because of the opportunity to be on the other side of the chair.

110

K12 Digest July-August 2020

B

eing an educator, someone who shapes other people’s lives, someone who with his work, attitudes and creativity influences the future and development of a young man’s personality is a great responsibility. Providing them with knowledge, skills without neglecting the educational component is not possible without love, developed social awareness and constant motivation. The teacher must be ready for lifelong learning, monitor the growth and needs of society, pass it all on to his students and sometimes grow and develop together with them. To acquire quality knowledge for which they will be valued in society, I teach my students how to choose sources of information and knowledge, how to learn from the best while crossing the boundaries of their environment and their micro world. On the occasion of these postulates, I am ready to organize various study trips for my students after working hours, weekends and holidays and allow them to get acquainted with the work of congresses, conferences, to listen to lectures by eminent experts and during breaks they talk and make contacts, all to attend congresses in the future and following the development of their profession.

Together with colleagues from other countries, I organize a mutual visit of students from related secondary vocational schools.

We learn from the best, we learn from experts, on that occasion I organize a visit of experts in the field of nutrition from the countries of the region who speak on various topics, mostly what interest students. Knowledge knows no boundaries; it is sought outside its microenvironment. For each lecture, students prepare on the topic they have chosen, exploring their interests, opinions and attitudes through asking questions, talking and for them, it is a special challenge, certainly, an interesting refreshment in learning. After each lecture, they should show what they can apply immediately in their daily life and how they will apply it. We listen, think, ask and learn. We organize visits to various institutions related to the profession with a multidisciplinary approach. Through all these visits we learn openness to new experiences, observation, gathering information, reasoning and integration. As part of the course, we study proper nutrition throughout all ages and the accompanying program organizes visits to kindergartens where students discuss the eating habits of children during their meal, refer them to food that is important at their age.

We then organize visits to primary schools where we are already doing presentations on healthy eating on examples of their favourite cartoon characters. At this age, we try to influence the creation of proper eating habits that must be accompanied by physical activity, through various games, helping parents, grandparents if they have gardens or walking in

K12 Digest July-August 2020

111

The pandemic has shown us that as teachers we must be prepared to show the students how to best adapt to new ways of transferring knowledge, new tasks and challenges, and constant changes that will await students in the labour market tomorrow nature. For primary school age, we organize nutri-eco actions where we combine proper nutrition, ecology and physical activity into a healthy lifestyle. Using the WHO guidelines on healthy eating, we combine foods in the form of a healthy breakfast, a snack suggestion that will meet the nutritional needs of a particular age.

A special challenge for students is to hold counselling for their peers, through presentations and workshops they demonstrate foods that are necessary for health, normal development at that age, and special attention is paid to foods that cumulatively, negatively affect health, dysfunction and damage to certain organs, as well that have a bad effect on the mood, disturb the memory and very quickly, after such food they have a drop in energy which leads to a series of negative feelings. Bad habits are difficult to change, for this we use behavioural-cognitive methods of counselling, whereby trying to change thoughts we can influence the change in behaviour towards food.

In the school hall, we organize tea parties for our students twice a year. We choose teas for concentration, memory and mood that attract the exceptional attention of students. We want to draw their attention to the importance of replacing carbonated drinks with tea, which will make us feel much better at school and which will not hurt their success and attention in class. I try to encourage them to continue with that peach in their families as well, so it often happens that my students involve their parents in this action.

My vocational high school educates different educational profiles. One of them is also a nutritionist. In all classes that educate nutritionists, we have organized

112

K12 Digest July-August 2020

the project “fruit snack every day”, our goal is to create the habit of consuming fruit every day, which is very important in the age of fast food lurking around every corner. We organized the project by dividing the students in the class into groups of five students, each student has his day to bring the five fruits he wants, so the student brings five fruits once a week, and eats every day. The idea was accepted, and we follow the project every day. The idea was enthusiastically supported by the parents.

For the third age in school, we organize workshops offering foods that are rich in nutrients necessary for the body over 65, students present composition with an emphasis on nutrients necessary for health and make smoothies for refreshment. For these workshops we have a special slogan “Today YOU, tomorrow WE” in this way students develop empathy for the elderly and their needs. Students with special emotions prepare workshops of this type.

Free activities of students are a very important component of youth education. The school becomes a place to hang out with friends from all over the school who share the same interests. Encouraging students to explore the world around them, their interests, developing responsibilities and performing various tasks without peer assessment is a special pleasure. Through various environmental actions, we develop our responsibility and love for nature and its beauties, which becomes a lasting value of the person.

The development of a social personality is especially important.

We participate in actions of cleaning and arranging city surfaces, developing the desire to make our city more beautiful. We participate in planting seedlings on the surrounding hills and mountains around Sarajevo and beyond, identify landslides and perform afforestation.

We celebrate all environmental holidays related to water, mountains, forests, sun, biodiversity, we organize lectures for other students in our school. We visit kindergartens and do actions, together with the little ones, arranging the playground and teaching them to love their surroundings and keep it with the belief that we will pass on our aspirations.

The time of the pandemic has shown us that as teachers we must be prepared for sudden and constant change. We have to show the students how important that is, because of the pandemic, our profession had to adapt to new ways of transferring knowledge, new tasks and challenges, and constant changes that will await students in the labour market tomorrow. It is important to encourage the development of these traits, which is accompanied by work motivation and proactivity, openness to new experiences, perception of self-efficacy and innovation. We can use every situation for personal development. Our profession is special because we are always able to get the best out of ourselves, our students and the situation.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

113

Creative in French with a Smartphone Vojka Milovanović, Educator, Elementary school ‘Dositej Obradovic’ Pozarevac

Vojka Milovanović, Ph.D., works as a French language teacher at the elementary school ‘Dositej Obradović’ in Požarevac, in the Republic of Serbia. She is a licensed examiner for taking the DELF international French language exam.

114

K12 Digest July-August 2020

I

n the school where she works, she founded a theatre troupe with which she participated in the International Theater Festival in French for an elementary school in Novi Sad. She participated with her students in the international project on freedom of expression ‘Interlangues’ in cooperation with the Belgian organization ‘Le monde des possibles’. She worked on the projects ‘Caravane des dix mots’ in cooperation with the Belgian association ‘Semantis’. The poems in French and the drawings of her students within the project ‘Attentif à ce qui n’est pas dit’ were inspired by the work of the Serbian painter Milena Pavlović Barili and were published in the international magazine for intercultural ‘Semantis’. In cooperation with her students, she held numerous workshops in her school and city to promote the French language and motivate them to learn French.

On the occasion of the ‘European Day of Languages’, she held a lecture at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade on the topic ‘Use of a mobile phone in foreign language teaching’. At the invitation of the Association of French Language Teachers of Moldova, she held a seminar on ‘Technologies numériques / mobiles en classe de FLE’ as well as a workshop ‘Les activités langagières sur le téléphone portable’ at the European Congress of French Professors in Athens. She is a participant in the International

Conference ‘Languages and Cultures in Time and Space VII’, organized by the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, in whose proceedings her work was published.

She is a contributor to the French language learning portal Bonjour de France.

French teacher at Dositej Obradović elementary school in Požarevac, Serbia, Vojka Milovanovic tries to get students involved with the French language in a fun and creative way, by sharing her experience with her colleagues through collaborative lessons.

The motivation drives the learning process, from this relationship stems from the subject of her research: cell phone use in the classroom. The main hypothesis is that the cell phone can help us create and use all of the oral production and listening activities. These activities could be combined with written production and written comprehension activities. The activities presented are suitable for a basic mobile phone as well as for a smartphone because our students come from different social backgrounds. It must be said that this work does not depend on the internet, but the teacher can use these activities even if there is no internet in the classroom.

The integration of new technologies in the teaching of foreign languages has also contributed to a different approach to the teaching process. These are new means from which the teacher draws her

K12 Digest July-August 2020

115

ideas to complete her course to facilitate the acquisition of the material. The internet, computer, tablets, interactive whiteboard replaced the tape recorders that teachers used in audio-visual methods in the middle of the last century.

A new tool is entering our classes and our lives: the mobile phone or the smartphone. The question she asks here is what to do if we teach in an environment where there is no computer and no IWB. Sometimes we do not have internet connection in our classrooms, and it is difficult to

116

K12 Digest July-August 2020

complete tasks and other activities. A tool accessible to all is the mobile phone or the smartphone. She uses both terms because there are students who do not have a smartphone but a basic cell phone.

According to Isabelle, the smartphone is ‘a Swiss knife in communication’. Adolescents handle this tool well by using its multiple functions: communicating by text or voice, consulting social networks, playing, taking photos, downloading various applications, reading, writing,

browsing the Internet, etc. Barrière points out that the use of smartphones in the classroom poses certain problems: • Cyber harassment among young people.

• Official decrees in law or in the regulations of a school which prohibit the use of telephones.

• Social prohibitions because the telephone is not a learning object.

• Self-censorship where a teacher does not use it because ‘it cannot be done’ or she does not know how to use it herself (Ibid. 23).

We can add to this list prohibitions also those of parents who think that the smartphone is not good for the health of their children nor their budget. Students abuse this media for other purposes. There is not always a wi-fi network.

Students would be able to frame a photo, record, make a video, share ideas, listen to others, work together, collaborate, interact, become independent.

The use of this tool develops linguistic, phonological and cultural competence.

Considering all these facts, the smartphone becomes an educational tool whose goal is to learn with pleasure.

It is not a toy that we use in a game for entertainment but an educational tool that helps us learn a language in a fun and interactive way. It is an authentic material for learning a foreign language. So, the question that arises is what activities we can practice using the portable phone.

As with any activity, you must master both the tool and the content, and of course time the activity so that it does not become too much for the students to handle. In Serbia, a course lasts only 45min. So, we use the smartphone during a part of the course as a support for the other activities. We can use it from level A1 to the highest level. The proposed activities are vocabulary, presentation and summary, minidialogues, sketches, coded messages, guessing games.

According to the advice of her students, she chose the PIC COLLAGE and PHOTO DIRECTOR applications for editing the photos, because they are free, the students know them well, it is easy to learn how to use them. The next question is why she chose two applications that have the same purpose: image processing. The answer is very simple: • The PIC COLLAGE application has an option to make a collage in a free form that allows us to see the text.

• The PHOTO DIRECTOR app has tools that allow us to change the background and write the text in balloons.

This application also has the option to make the college but there is no free form.

The teacher Vojka Milovanovic adapted the activities that she already used during her lessons for the mobile phone or the smartphone. If there is no wi-fi in the classroom,

students should not send messages but simply swap phones. Messages can be forwarded through Bluetooth also. To be effective, you must have one telephone per group. She also suggests using the AGENDA application to write. You must apply all the rules that teachers use for group work. We can insert them in the deposit to make the deposit more precise. Her students are also his partners in the learning process, and this is a very important fact. She asks for their feedback on the activities they are doing so that she can improve the learning process.

According to her, the main source of motivation is found in a real human relationship. The teacher must create a pleasant atmosphere where all would respect the student and he would respect all. To achieve this, you have to build trust among all participants in the learning process.

To avoid the atmosphere of anarchy in the classroom, it is necessary to define the rules. Students will follow them because by playing they have learned that the rules serve to bring them to a specific objective.

It is very important to support the creativity of the students but also to encourage them even if the task has not done well. In this case, such a student must know that nothing serious will happen to him, that he will work more and that the result will be better the next time. On the other hand, students will support the creativity of their teachers.

They will gladly participate in all the activities offered by the teacher. Given these facts, it is necessary to maintain this real and true human relationship in the classroom, which is the foundation of teaching. We improve all the other elements of motivation and learning on this basis.

Let us be human everywhere and always.

K12 Digest July-August 2020

117

118

K12 Digest July-August 2020

K12 Digest July-August 2020

119

120

K12 Digest July-August 2020