An English teacher of the school № 51 Anastasia Yarovaya has been working in the education field for 5 years. But she was able to enter Top-5 best teachers of Ukraine according to Global Teacher Prize Ukraine. Such a result can wonder a lot of people but not pupils of the young teacher. They know that their teacher wins their recognition.
In the 10th form Anastasia was not thinking about the education science when the psychologist asked the question: ‘Who do you want to be?’ The schoolgirl did not know the answer. But she replied that she wants to do something good.
Since childhood, Anastasia had two options - to become a teacher or a prosecutor. In the first case, she could continue the work of her mother, who taught in elementary grades. But the school was more inclined to the second option. ‘To enter the law university was a failure. Now I understand that fortunately it happened. Then I entered the economic university. I worked in this field but that was not what I wanted. Then she returned to the desire to go to work at school,’ Anastasia Yarovaya says.
Mom immediately discouraged following her steps - to teach in elementary grades. At school, I was good at mathematics. I participated in Olympiads and won competitions. One case pushed to study a foreign language. ‘While working as an accountant, a barrier fell on me. I had a concussion. I completely stopped counting normally. But on the contrary, I started to remember languages easily, ’she says.
The future teacher prepared for the entrance exams and became a student at Mariupol State University. After getting second higher education, Anastasia Yarovaya went to work in her native school № 51. It was difficult in the beginning. According to her, before she came to the school the children were poorly prepared. They didn’t use to work in the classroom. She came with enthusiasm. At first, not everyone accepted it. Many perceived the need to learn something ‘with hostility’.
But the young teacher knew what to do. ‘I decided not to force the children to study, but to captivate them. I realized that the teacher needs to be able to put herself in pupil’s mind. I started to realize that this kind of teaching can bring the result. If not, then the child will not be interested in this,’ the teacher says.
The teacher began to conduct competitions, quests and stage theatrical performances. Children are interested. Now they want to go to a subgroup to Anastasia Yarovaya.
Guided by the principle - the main thing is that there is no uniformity - Anastasia Yarovaya has begun to come up with new forms of leading classes.
‘What is the theme of ‘Global Challenges’? They say a little, they learn words on the topic and that's it. But we are doing a research lesson. I connected geography. Pupils came with contour maps, where they checked the places with tsunamis and earthquakes where they took place. The guys created a whole map, with the safest and most insecure places to live. Then computer science was added. We did a web quest,’ Anastasia Yarovaya says enthusiastically.
At the same time, the teacher decided not to fight with the smartphones but to use them. Control tests are done in the smartphones. Children immediately see the result and there are no complaints about the grades.
According to the teacher, getting into the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine contest was a surprise. She admits that she still does not know who nominated her. When she is asked where she takes energy and strength, Anastasia thinks. ‘The fact is that for me this is not a job. It is rather a hobby. I like it. This is an integral part of my life. I enjoy communicating with children, teaching and working with them,’ she replies.
Anastasia Yarovaya considers the main quality of a modern teacher is flexibility and the ability to change. Now she dreams of creating an innovative school. In her free time, she watches a lot of online English courses, she likes to travel and read English classical literature. But most importantly, she is confident that she knows who she needs to be in order to do good— to be a teacher.
Follow our news on Twitter.
