Iryna Pukas, a senior
teacher of English,
Rivne
School # 15
Iryna Pukas graduated from Rivne State Pedagogical
University, Department of Foreign
Philology
in 1997. She was the national winner of TEA/ACCELS Programme in 2001 and
studied at Montana State University
in Bozeman, the USA. She has been a member of TESOL
since 2000.
Every teacher has been trying to educate and bring up
pupils looking for the relationship balance. It makes you think all the time
where that exact point is at which students feel cared for in an appropriate
way but know that they must respect the teacher and that they are expected to
learn.
I have been working at Rivne
School 15 as a senior teacher of English for 14 years and have got an
experience teaching different age group pupils. As a teacher I always look for a
change, and have a strong commitment to continual improvement. I have found the
way to make the learning process an exciting journey stimulating students’
curiosity, permitting them to express their creativity and fostering positive
relationships with others. It’s learning from leadership.
Taking an active part in
Connecting Classrooms Project leading by the British Council, having attended
seminars on Leadership in Kyiv and Lviv within the frame of the project, having
spent time at WELL seminars and summer camps organized by PEACE CORPS
volunteers have changed my pupils and me, personally, greatly. All these
activities have made students highly motivated and stimulate them for
self-improvement. They have become real leaders! They like doing a kind of work
that enables them to demonstrate and improve their sense of themselves as
competent and successful human beings.
When Laura Lloyd Braff ,
a volunteer who works in Bila Krynytsia school, suggested me to bring my pupils
to the summer camp HEAL for young leaders in Sumy oblast, I thought it sounded great.
Moreover, staying at camp was not only for entertainment. The main goal of the camp was teaching young
people such debatable and important issues as human trafficking, healthy lifestyle,
HIV/AIDS, its biology, transmission and
prevention, stigma and discrimination. Five pupils from my English group have been
accepted for the camp as its participants having answered the questions of the
application form. It was one of the most unforgettable experiences in my
teaching career as I also felt myself a student, took part in all seminars,
workshops and discussions, team building, planned a community service project,
presented our group project and had a rest together with my pupils. I wondered
how bright and creative many of the pupils were, what bright ideas for
implementing in projects they had, how important it was to bring all those
pupils and students to teach them leadership. I felt proud and content when
inspired by PEACE CORPS volunteers, these friendly, enthusiastic and open to
communication young people, having met and talked to Andriy Chybisov, HIV/AIDS
Prevention (PEPFAR) Program Manager, having
got Laura’s agreement to help, my pupils suggested to apply for a grant for
organizing a series of the same seminars for 15-18 year olds from Rivne and
Rivne oblast schools which are going to be held by our 11th form leaders and 8 volunteers.
So we’ve started this joint
project and a lot of work has already been done. The project itself has been
planned carefully, an announcement about seminars for senior formers has been made at Rivne English teachers’
conference, the responsibilities have been shared, important people have been
contacted who have promised to support the project. The work is going on and I
am sure it will be beneficial for the participants of the seminars, pupils-
leaders and PEACE CORPS volunteers.https://picasaweb.google.com/113286174841082237795/SummerCampHEAL?authkey=Gv1sRgCI2B1JDZ0OPTkgE
Two of my pupils Oleksandr Pukas and Tetyana Potapova
have been participants of other summer camps CACTUS 11 in Ternopil and MASCOT in
Mykolayiv.
My son and my pupil Oleksandr
Pukas has been chosen for the second
time for
CACTUS'11 summer school (Community ACTion Ukrainian Style) which is an
international English language program aimed at promoting civic society
development in the next generation of youth leaders in Ukraine. It is based in the city of
Ternopil in Western Ukraine and welcomes participants from all over
the country. CACTUS takes place annually and is run by a joint team of Ukrainian and
International youth and community leaders. The skills acquired there go on
implementing students’ own projects alone or with peers in their local
communities. It’s a pleasure to realize that my son Oleksandr has created his
own project himself, got a small grant for the seminar and organized a team among his classmates for
holding a seminar. Thus, one more leadership seminar promoting a healthy way of
life, informing about the danger of HIV/AIDS and its prevention has been planned for
October,1.
There was
one more unforgettable event this summer which made my pupils think over
further self-improvement and work on social projects. Natalia Tarasevych, one
of four directors of the camp has
invited Oleksandr Pukas to take part in the sitting of the European Youth
Parliament – Ukraine.
The EYP represents a non-partisan and independent
educational project which is tailored specifically to the needs of the young
European citizen. It encourages independent thinking and socioEYP has made a vital contribution
towards uniting Europe. The EYP consists of a network of 35 European
associations and organisations in which thousands of young people are active in
a voluntary capacity. The EYP is a programme
of the Schwarzkopf Foundation.
The Mayor of
Chernihiv greeted the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine. It was presided by Mr.
Anthony Abladey Abladey (UK) . 106
participants (from all over Europe) took part
in the event. All the discussions were united under the topic Changing the
world – challenging youth’.
https://picasaweb.google.com/113286174841082237795/EYP?authkey=Gv1sRgCPj6ytuT_PGiqAE
https://picasaweb.google.com/113286174841082237795/EYP?authkey=Gv1sRgCPj6ytuT_PGiqAE
https://picasaweb.google.com/113286174841082237795/EYP?authkey=Gv1sRgCPj6ytuT_PGiqAE
I cannot but mention about the event which really
helped realize how important communication between nations is. It also showed
the importance of leadership training for the teachers and pupils of schools
participating in this project organized and led by Olena Franchuk, a
coordinator of Connecting Classrooms project at school 15, Rivne. August 22 –
26, 2011 a
group of CC cluster schools from North Cyprus visited Ukraine on the
project “Four Countries– Four Cultures” for the cultural exchange. This was a
pioneer visit to finalize the annual program of the CC project which has had a
lot of the events in 4 countries – Ukraine,
Cyprus, Malta and North Wales.
Cyprus
and Ukrainian pupils and teachers have become good friends and continue
exchanging messages via the Internet, chatting in social networks and talking
in Skype. It was a good start and everybody is looking forward to continuation
of the cultural exchange. It was nice to hear from our new Cypriot friends that
they enjoyed spending 2 days with pupils
of our school and staying at their families, and the time spent in Ukraine
was unforgettable one. They were surprised to see that we have much in
common though we are from different cultures and there are so many creative and
intelligent pupils, real leaders at our school. No wonder, our pupils are highly
motivated, active and are eager to take part in social events, international
projects, out-of-class activities, summer camps conducted by PCVs and even try
their best to make their own social projects.
Though it takes a lot of time
to plan projects, involve pupils and participate in out-of-class events and
seminars, it is very rewarding. What can be better than noticing signs of
engagement during a project, pupils’ desire to work in a team ,
a friendly, respectful and
supportive attitude towards each other, glimpses of the inspired and motivated
pupils who are definitely the future of Ukraine.
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