Olena Halvitska

Location: Lviv

School: Secondary school №24 of grades I-III named by M. Konopnytska

Subject: Primary school teacher

What is your teaching superpower?

They are ahead of time and trends in education, because they know how to put themselves in the place of a child. Back in Soviet times, she moved two desks and prepared tasks for each group of children for the whole day. Olena’s students are not afraid to spoil the clean sheet, because painting and gluing in it is part of the educational process.

21st Century Teacher: Who are they in a nutshell?

Responsible, armed with an arsenal of educational methods and techniques to encourage children to learn not under duress, but independently. Olena’s tasks encourage children to think, discuss and do research. In the lessons, students write fairy tales and imagine themselves as representatives of various professions.

What skills do Alpha generation students need? 

Developed emotional intelligence and contextual thinking, motivation for successful lifelong learning and the ability to solve complex problems; research attitude to life; ability to master information from various sources and critically evaluate it; ability to work in a team, to be responsible for one’s actions, for oneself and other people, to quickly adapt to changes, to realize oneself as a citizen of Ukraine and an inhabitant of the Earth.

Professional dream: “I think that everything in life should be done well. Great to teach, great to relax. Catch cool pikes, sew cool dolls. I consider my greatest teacher’s merit to be the fact that I was always one step ahead and intuitively did everything that was later launched in pedagogy. And that’s why New Ukrainian School started for me not last year, but about ten years ago.”

Source of inspiration: Education reform, bringing the modern school closer to the needs and interests of the child. Thus, Olena feels that time is catching up with her at least a little bit.