The story of how Raycho Raychev met a class of curious students online and inspired them to learn more about space

Distance learning and all measures taken to limit the spread of coronavirus at school changed the normal dynamics of our classrooms. A lot of what teachers had planned had to be revisited and redesigned. Even the youngest students, who still go to school for in-person training, had to change their everyday habits. 

However, every problem presents an opportunity. On the plus side, distance learning allows teachers to invite external guests in their classes much faster and easier, while having just as big of an impact on their students as in pre-pandemic times.

Radina Mindeva, “A New Way to Teaching” alumna and English teacher at Private Elementary School “Progressive Education”, is living proof of that. At the beginning of November she helped all class teachers at her school to provoke their students even more and to expand their knowledge of space – a topic that they had recently studied. They decided to do that by inviting space entrepreneur Raycho Raychev to visit their school.  

The visit was no coincidence. Radina turned to Teach For Bulgaria for help. She asked us to recommend someone who was somehow involved in this topic of interest and who would be inspirational for the students. Raycho was perfect for that. He is a space explorer and has been one of our true supporters for years. He was one of the stars of the Inspirational Leaders Charity Auction in 2019. He is also the founder of the educational program Space Challenges and is very interested in figuring out how to get more children to love space.

“I believe that our greatest responsibility is to create a good foundation for future generations. I am convinced that their dreams and ideas will be much bigger than ours,” said Raycho about his decision to meet Radina’s students. 

Radina prepped Raycho for his virtual visit by telling him more about what her students had learned about space at school and what they found interesting about this topic: new research on some basic phenomena in space, space technology, its impact on our lives, and space tourism. 

Raycho had a zoom meeting with the students on November 5. Thirty-five students from both branches of the progressive school in Sofia joined the conference call. The children learned more about space technology and the important aspects of outer space systems. They learned more about the study of a comet during the Rosetta mission and were very impressed by the fact that there was going to be a new mission to the Moon. Raycho even told them that in 15 years some of them would already have been to the Moon and back. The children were very interested in the nano satellites which Raycho’s company, EnduroSat, creates and sends in space.

For the students, however, this meeting wasn’t just a hypothetical trip to the Moon. From the perspective of his experience, Raycho took advantage of the opportunity to send a more universal message to the children. He encouraged them to be responsible, hard working and to rely on each other, if they want to be successful.

Everyone was excited for many days after the meeting and could not stop talking about Raycho’s virtual visit. 

Raycho, on the other hand, shared “I received more than I gave today.”

If you want to organize a similar experience for your students or to be an inspirational guest in someone’s classroom, reach out to development@zaednovchas.bg.

Expect more information about our special matching platform for guest-speakers and teachers pretty soon. We are working on it in collaboration with Vratsa Software and Emilian Kadyiski from the first class of “A New Way to Teaching”. 

It will make it easier for teachers, professionals, and corporations to meet and support every student’s success. The platform will be free for all users and available to all teachers in Bulgaria.

You can find more stories like this one here.