On August 5, there finished the summer pedagogical networking titled The Young Teacher in the Modern Educational Environment. For four days, teachers of Saratov and Engels, as well as Saratov Region and Labytnanga learned about the peculiarities of the profession at master classes, lectures, workshops, and case studies. The forum participants gained the experience of leading experts in education and created their own concepts of the “school of the future”. The teams of young teachers made PechaKucha presentations on the If I Were A Principal topic.
The final projects were presented in SSU Bldg., Room No. 208. The moderator was the Senior Lecturer of the Corporate Department of Russian Philology and Media Education Marina Kabanova.
The participants’ results were evaluated by the members of the commission. The presentations of eight teams of young teachers were limited in time and form – in seven minutes, the participants showed 20 slides. Each group was asked three questions from the commission and the audience.
The first group considered the “dream school” in the Gamification in Education and Upbringing aspect. According to their concept of the educational process, schoolchildren accumulate points for academic performance, creativity, sports achievements, and behaviour. In their free time, they will be able to spend their earned points on computer, group, sports, and other games. Schoolchildren will receive bonuses for completing levels and completing missions. During the breaks, they will perform team-building tasks generated by the “task ATM”. In addition, young teachers suggested introducing interactive games into teaching and using multimedia in the classroom.
The second team chose the Schoolchildren and Teachers in the Digital World direction. The group developed the idea of a Second Home school platform, which would combine schedules, teachers' blogs, an electronic library, video chat with students from other institutions, school press and television, a psychological help section, and an internal messenger for teachers, students, parents, and management. They highlighted the importance of teaching schoolchildren media literacy and digital etiquette.
The project of the third group was also dedicated to new technologies. Conducting a dialogue between young teachers and teachers of the older generation, the team identified the pros and cons of digitalisation and talked about the need to combine innovative and traditional teaching methods. According to the young teachers, the educational process should be accompanied by visits to theatres and exhibitions, classes in extracurricular clubs, participation in hiking trips, visual study of natural subjects, and volunteering.
The fourth team offered ideas on the How to Build Relationships in the Teaching Staff topic. According to the group, the school team is a creative workshop, where professional discussions may appear. The young teachers analysed the causes of conflict situations and behavioural strategies. They considered cooperation to be the most constructive method of resolving disagreements, which involves working in creative groups, participating in pedagogical games, discussions, panel discussions, trainings, and team building. In addition to the presentation, the team prepared brochures in which they highlighted the rules of communication in the team.
The fifth group shared the Developing Schools and Self-Developing Schools concept. The participants of the networking prepared an intelligence map on which they noted the ways of developing the educational environment, developing the potential of teachers, interacting with parents, and establishing a comfortable educational environment. In the new school, each teacher under the guidance of the management would have an individual path of professional development. The team proposed to transform the school environment by creating a multimedia platform, virtual reality classrooms, a reading room, as well as bookcrossing zones and exhibitions. Fundraising would be the innovation of the “school of the future”.
The sixth group said how to improve on the academic methodological associations at school. Due to the new model, teachers would better and easier prepare for the lessons, schoolchildren’s knowledge would improve, and schoolchildren would become more intelligent, in general. The academic methodological associations would help develop imaginative thinking and leadership qualities in children, as well as lead to the team-building of the teaching staff.
The seventh team made the presentation on the How to Build Relationships in the Teaching Staff topic. The participants informally approached the presentation of the project and illustrated conflict situations with episodes from the life of teachers. They examined the problems within the team (violation of personal boundaries, lack of trust, professional burnout of the experienced and excessive enthusiasm of the young) and ways to solve them using interaction – new traditions, meetings, brainstorming, team building, mutual recreation, and leisure.
The eighth group shared their vision of the developing and self-developing school. According to the teachers, the self-developing school introduces advanced technologies, actively uses online resources, involves families in the learning process, and interacts with its graduates. At the developing school, schoolchildren would be able to implement their ideas, get support for volunteer initiatives, and the boundaries of the school community will be broadened. The team developed concepts for creating a comfortable active environment for teachers, supporting the individual progress of schoolchildren, and the subject-spatial environment of the school, and also separately focused on the role of the director as the leader of the school.
Deputy Chair of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education Saratov Regional Organization Galina Popova highlighted the presentations of the fifth, sixth, and seventh groups and awarded the teachers with memorable gifts from the trade union. ‘In four days, you have learned how to cooperate, and this is perhaps the greatest experience,’ she noted.
The Head of SSU Priority Projects and Programmes, the curator of networking, Professor Elena Yelina, marked the advantages of each team and invited two of them – the fifth and seventh – to speak at the Week of Pedagogical Education research-to-education festival. She reminded the forum participants about the work of the Support Centre for Young Teachers at Saratov University and Gymnasium No. 7 and about the Virtual Pedagogical Course for 10-11 graders, and also invited young specialists to enroll in the SSU master's degrees courses.
‘Can the older generation learn from the young? For me, the answer is unquestionable. I have learned a lot today. Everything that happened here is called “networking”, and our main task is to work productively so that we can exchange impressions, opinions, give each other advice, and learn to interact,’ Elena Yelina emphasised.
The Rector of Saratov University, Professor Aleksei Chumachenko, presented the re-training certificates to the participants of the networking. ‘I hope you were able to plunge into the university atmosphere once again and learn something new for yourself. Thanks to our wonderful teachers who not only pass on their knowledge but also share with you new methods and techniques. It is always difficult to work with children, so a teacher is a very high title. We hope that thanks to you we will be able to promote new pedagogical ideas,’ the rector addressed to the young teachers.
Nikita Boiko, a master's degree student of the Faculty of Pedagogical and Special Needs Education, SSU, a geography teacher at school No. 3 in Labytnanga, spoke about his participation in the forum. ‘I have got acquainted with the Saratov community of young teachers and learned a lot of interesting things. Since our city is small, there is an opportunity to promote the ideas that were suggested here.’
To remind, The Young Teacher in the Modern Educational Environment summer pedagogical networking is part of the University as a Centre for Continuing Education of Teachers Using Social Practices of the 21st century (The Teacher in the Educational Paradigm) strategic project, which is included into the Priority 2030 programme of state support and development of universities.
During the networking, in the SSU official accounts in VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Yandex.Zen, Telegram, and RUTUBE, there was published a video diary with comments from the organisers and teachers of the school: SSU Rector Aleksei Chumachenko, the Head of SSU Priority Projects and Programmes of Elena Yelina, the Deputy Minister of Education of Saratov Region Irina Chinayeva, the Principal of Medical and Biological Lyceum Tatyana Syromolotova, the Junior Researcher of the Laboratory of Individualisation and Lifelong Education, MCU, Dmitrii Loginov, the Deputy Head of the Office of Social Work, SSU, Marina Kabanova, Chair of the Department of Education Methodology Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Associate Professor of the Department of General Literary Studies Roman Pavlenko. The experts commented on the typical features of a modern young teacher, what a teacher should be like, how to interact with parents, and talked about the goals, advantages, and prospects of the networking.
The photo and video reports, as well as impressions of young teachers from the lessons and project work can be found in the digest.
