{"id":32970,"date":"2020-11-18T17:33:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T14:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zaednovchas.bg\/?p=32970"},"modified":"2020-11-26T17:34:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T14:34:15","slug":"the-world-we-live-in-and-the-lessons-we-teach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zaednovchas.bg\/en\/the-world-we-live-in-and-the-lessons-we-teach\/","title":{"rendered":"The World We Live in and the Lessons We Teach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Or how to teach through real-life situations<\/em><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How often have you heard \u201cTeacher, why do we have to learn this?\u201d and how have you reacted? We are certain that sometimes teachers also ask this question and can\u2019t always find satisfactory answers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dynamic times we live in make it very easy for content to get old fast or to be irrelevant to the interests and daily challenges of our students or the important messages that we want to relate to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why we decided to explore how real-life situations can help us make students look at the big picture and relate the most important messages which will help them not only throughout the school year but also in life.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have compiled some examples provided by alumni and participants in Teach For Bulgaria\u2019s program \u201cA New Way to Teaching\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial literacy and budgeting<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Financial literacy<\/a> (link in Bulgarian) is exceptionally useful not only for the students but also for many of their parents. From the youngest age students deal with money, but are rarely exposed to the best examples of practical family budgeting. Bilyana Asenovska<\/a> who teaches primary school students at Primary School \u201cHristo Botev\u201d in the village of Brestnitsa is aware of this. She decided to organize a workshop and have her students teach their parents how to create a monthly family budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bilyana with some of her students at the Gramotko initiative<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was teaching a mixed-age group of students, some of them were first graders. They taught their parents that income is determined by the hours that you work and that you have to take into account the number of children you have, the amount of social benefits you get, whether you live with your parents and whether they receive pensions,\u201d Bilyana shared. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Her students also explained to their parents that expenses have to be prioritized. This prioritization is crucial because Bilyana says that the mindset of the community has to shift when it comes to expenses as people in the village tend to go into debt. The financial literacy workshop helped develop the financial literacy of the entire community, but Bilyana\u2019s initiative also created an opportunity for the school community to have more touchpoints with their students\u2019 parents, to engage them in the learning process and to build relationships based on trust and mutual support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she was a teacher Radostina Boycheva provided her students with the opportunity to compare the credit terms and conditions of different banks. Her students had to find relevant information on the websites of the banks, analyze the terms and conditions, and choose the best loan options for their specific needs. The students presented their findings at a special training which they organized called \u201cHow to Identify the Best Loan Option\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business communication, management, and career orientation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Marin Marinov, who is currently a Teacher Support Coordinator at Teach For Bulgaria and who taught at \u201cHristo Botev\u201d School in the village of Dalgo pole for two years prior to that, shared that his students had to start their own business<\/a> for how business communication classes and to hold general assemblies and fulfill orders during class. They also created their own company badges, a stamp, logo, filled out paperwork, and received mail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a consultancy business and created products for our clients. Some of them were handbooks on how to start a business, how to fill out paperwork or posters on how to write a CV and how to communicate professionally on the phone,\u201d Marin explained.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Marin\u2019s goal was to help his students build teamwork skills and agency. The fact that his students were engaged in actual business endeavors also made them more motivated to learn more about the subject matter which would have otherwise been too abstract for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a look at some photos of Marin and his students working on their business in class:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n