{"id":48672,"date":"2022-06-27T17:11:14","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T14:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zaednovchas.bg\/?p=48672"},"modified":"2022-07-19T17:12:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T14:12:28","slug":"the-miracles-beyond-formal-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zaednovchas.bg\/en\/the-miracles-beyond-formal-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miracles Beyond Formal Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The story of the mathematics teacher Georgi Stoev and his student Aleksandra Hadzieva from Secondary School \u201cLyuben Karavelov\u201d<\/a> in Plovdiv<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Georgi Stoev graduated from university with a degree in architecture, but decided to change careers and become a teacher. This was possible with Teach For Bulgaria\u2019s program A New Way to Teaching. Mr. Stoev started working as a mathematics teacher in Secondary School \u201cLyuben Karavelov\u201d in Plovdiv in 2017 and remained there even after the two-year program was completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Georgi was preparing for his first year as a teacher with a series of training sessions and a university qualification program, Aleksandra was preparing for the tough transition between primary and middle school. The two of them met at the beginning of the 2017\/2018 school year in one of the classrooms at Secondary School \u201cLyuben Karavelov\u201d – a new beginning and a new school both for the teacher and for the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Impressions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what they shared about their first impressions from one another after nearly five years of working together:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the first time I met a teacher whose thoughts were as chaotic as mine. I perceived the things he said more easily, there was always something happening in front of the white board, so my focus was always on him. I was not very active in class and the fact that he always urged me to speak up and participate definitely helped.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlex was one of the students who were driving the whole class forward. I could tell that she had studied very hard in primary school. I tried to teach my students to collaborate and work in groups in 5th and 6th grade. I was not very successful at first, but Alex was trying to motivate her classmates to work together. She is one of those students who care about the world around them, who are not afraid of the differences between people and have empathy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Beyond Formal Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Georgi strived to provide his students with a variety of opportunities for personal development – extracurricular activities, access to different competitions, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Part of the architecture club taking measurements at Chalakova House<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

He started an architecture club and Alex decided to join. She was very interested in architecture at the time and found the club fascinating. The young architects and their teacher spent a lot of time in the old town of Plovdiv where they took some measurements from Chalakova House and other architectural monuments and created blueprints.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first bigger extracurricular project for Alex was her participation in a leadership program organized by Teach For Bulgaria alumni called The Adventure: It\u2019s Up to Me<\/a>. Alex participated in the program as part of a team led by Mr. Stoev. Her team chose to work on a mission focused on education. The whole experience – choosing a mission, setting goals, working as a team, tracking progress, creating a final product and presenting it at a national student conference – was very inspirational for Alex. She shared that this was the catalyst which helped her decide what she wanted to do and guided her in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alex participated in Voice It 2020 and was part of the advertising campaign for the event. The motto of the 2020 conference was \u201cDiscrimination Doesn\u2019t Suit You\u201d.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The right direction led Alex to her next challenge. She joined the National Network for Children\u2019s platform for child participation – Megaphone<\/a>. Megaphone is a two-year program which gives students the opportunity to participate in various initiatives and projects by the National Network for Children. Alex is about to finish the program this year, but she will continue to be very active in the Megaphone community. Her next project is to organize the September meeting for the new participants and she already has a lot of ideas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A snapshot from an event organized by the National Youth Forum<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of Megaphone\u2019s biggest events is the annual conference Voice It which has a different topic every year. The conference gathers many guest speakers – professionals and experts in the respective field – and the idea is for young people to have an opportunity to voice their perspectives. Alex was the host of last year\u2019s conference in November of 2021 when the event focused on how to use the internet safely.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bulgarian Ambassador in Eurochild Children\u2019s Council<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This year Alex was chosen to become the Bulgarian ambassador in Eurochild Children\u2019s Council<\/a> with a two-year mandate until 2024. When asked how she accomplished this, she commented:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone writes to you and tells you that you have what it takes, so why not apply. I filled out the application form with no expectations at all and when I found out that I was approved, I was in shock. I tried and I did it. Perhaps as a result of all the other projects that I had done before that. The application form focused on argumentative essays and this is where I can excel because I have plenty of opinions which I don\u2019t intend to keep to myself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The \u201csomeone\u201d who reached out to Alex with this opportunity was Georgi Stoev. He is also going to be her mentor during her mandate as an ambassador.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlex already had a very impressive resume and I knew that she had the potential to do this. So I insisted that she should try. Sometimes you know something that the student hasn\u2019t completely realized yet, but you just have to believe in their abilities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At the end of April, Georgi and Alex traveled to Belgium for the founding assembly of the council in Brussels where they met with the other selected ambassadors from other EU member states as well as the UK, Ukraine, and Serbia. Georgi and Alex were accompanied by the former Bulgarian ambassador, Milena, and her mentor – Emanuil Georgiev from the Bulgarian Safer Internet Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n