Category: School life

Legea le permite elevilor vaccinați să vină la școală și să aibă acces la învățarea față în față,  chiar și atunci când în clasa lor un coleg a fost diagnosticat cu COVID-19. Ce se întâmplă însă cu colegii nevaccinați care trebuie să rămână acasă 14 zile? Sunt profesorii pregătiți pentru predarea în sistem hibrid? 

Dr. Daniela Vasile, Director of Learning la Avenor College, împărtășește sfaturile ei pentru propria echipă de profesori, în contextul în care unii dintre elevi continuă învățarea la școală, iar alții sunt temporar online. 

Bonus, Daniela a inclus și un model de planificare a unei lecții online sau hibrid, împreună cu linkuri către platforme și resurse utile în planificare. 

 

În plin sezon al învățării hibride și în anumite situații al învățării online, în timp ce autoritățile schimbă regulile jocului din mers, profesorii trebuie să nu uite că elevii lor se bazează pe ei. Indiferent că sunt acasă sau învață încă la școală, responsabilitatea noastră este aceeași. 

Și în școala noastră avem atât lecții față în față, cât și lecții hibrid și online pentru anumite grupuri de elevi, iar cheia pentru jonglarea între ele este planificarea foarte bună.  

Planificarea unei ore online este diferită de planificarea unei ore în persoană, iar planificarea pentru hibrid conține elemente din ambele tipuri. Acesta din urmă este cel mai dificil mediu de predare, dar, după cum vedem, nu putem scăpa de el. 

Pentru ca o oră online să aibă succes, este nevoie de o planificare mai atentă decât pentru o oră cu toți elevii în clasă. Online, planificarea învățării este mai detaliată și mai anticipativă. 

Iată 10 indicii despre cum putem planifica o oră de succes online: 

1. Pregătiți un starter pentru lecție, care este proiectat pe ecran în timp ce elevii intră pe rând în Zoom.
2. Observați toți elevii pe măsură ce intră la oră. Acordați atenție fiecăruia dintre ei. Cereți specific să aibă camera deschisă în timpul lecției.
3. Nu vorbiți mai mult de 6-10 minute (în funcție de vârsta copiilor; 10 min în cazul liceenilor de exemplu). Altfel le pierdem atenția și nu putem controla ce fac dincolo de ecran.
4. Faceți un videoclip înregistrând conținutul pe care vreți să-l predați. Cereți-le elevilor să îl urmărească înainte de lecție, ca temă, și apoi verificați în clasă ce au înțeles. Aceasta este învățarea inversă (flipped learning) o tehnică care funcționează foarte bine în ore online.
5. Folosiți Google Docs și încărcați-le în Google Classroom. Creați copii pentru fiecare elev în parte. Astfel puteți vedea în timp real cum și ce lucrează, iar ei pot contribui cu texte și insera ilustrații.
6. Oferiți feedback înregistrat prin intermediul Google Classroom. Există o extensie care înregistrează vocea, iar mesajul vocal poate fi transcris în timp real în Google Classroom
7. Folosiți breakout rooms și treceți prin fiecare pentru a vedea cum se descurcă elevii. Instrucțiunile trebuie să fie foarte clare, postate în Google Classroom și înțelese de elevi înainte de a se despărți pe grupuri.
8. Faceți o listă de elevi în ordine alfabetică și adresați-le pe rând o întrebare. În acest fel toată lumea vorbește, iar rândul elevilor vine atât de des, încât trebuie să rămână atenți și să se concentreze.
9. Planificarea pentru o oră hibridă necesită atât părți pe care le-am aplica față în față cu elevii, cât și activități specifice orelor online. E important să nu neglijăm nici elevii din clasă, nici pe cei de acasă.
10. În fiecare grup de lucru (breakout room) puneți atât elevi care sunt în clasă cât și elevi care învață online. În acest fel, elevii din clasă devin legătura dintre profesor și elevii de acasă.

Vă ofer aici și un posibil model pentru desfășurarea unei ore hibride  (este în limba engleză, deoarece noi avem o echipă mixtă de profesori, români și britanici, și folosim resurse în engleză).  

Vă doresc curaj să explorați platformele digitale care pot să vă ușureze munca și viața. Fiți deschiși și continuați să învățați zi de zi, pentru că după cum bine putem vedea, nicio zi în educație nu seamănă cu cealaltă și trebuie să fim pregătiți pentru toate scenariile de învățare. 

 

Dr. Daniela Vasile 

Director of Learning, Avenor College 

Some people go through A level Results Day only once: their own day when their results come out.  Parents may go through their own and that of their children and possibly the results day for their grandchildren. For us teachers it is an annual occurrence and we never get used to it.  It is often an exhausting day filled with many emotions and pleasant surprises.

A level Results Day is the day when students find out if they have got into the UK universities of their choice. If they have not applied to UK universities, it is the day when they can tell their chosen university that they have met the criteria needed to start their chosen course.  It is the day when the next stage of their lives suddenly becomes a lot clearer. In many ways it is the day when adulthood starts. School is over, all that growing and nurturing has produced its fruits, the ‘harvest’ is in.

How did we get here this year?

The Class of 2021 have been through a unique set of circumstances that have affected everyone on the planet.  Yet despite all the drama, they have had to focus on their studies under very difficult circumstances.  Some enjoyed the lockdown and found it easier to work from home, others found the whole experience traumatic. It is our job as teachers to accommodate and encourage all students.  Below, I will give some examples of how our incredible students arrived at Results Day.

One student is a budding entrepreneur and unexpectedly found his business taking off right when he should have been concentrating on his studies.  He had to learn quickly how to manage his time.  His success was down to his ability to communicate and plan and keep his teachers in the loop.  This is a remarkable achievement.

Several students were incredibly well motivated, knew what they wanted and where they wanted to study and what they had to do to achieve their goals.  Some of them had an occasional wobble which is only to be expected.  Well-motivated students are like rock climbers, they are totally focussed on what they want to achieve… unfortunately sometimes they look down and feel dizzy and can’t quite believe what they have achieved so far and how much more they still have to do. But they got there in the end and the joy was there for all to see.

Some students have personalities that are more relaxed and need to be given a bit more of a sense of urgency.  Some students needed a lot of pastoral support, others none at all.  Some students had dreams and ambitions that had been with them since childhood, others only really found out what they would like to study a few months before applying to university.

The application process for the universities in each country is completely different and some are far more complex than others.  It is important that the students take ownership of the process so that they feel the responsibility of what they are doing and become goal-oriented to achieve.  All our students showed remarkable maturity and creativity in choosing courses and completing the sometimes tedious entry requirements. For many it is the first time in their lives when they have had to put their achievements, strengths and weaknesses onto a form to show complete strangers.  Taking such an objective look at oneself is always daunting.

The application forms are completed, the examinations taken, the summer holiday starts. Then in mid-August, Results Day arrives. 

Quite a few tanned, relaxed and enthusiastic students came into school. It was lovely to see them and to see their excitement about their futures.  It is one of the most rewarding parts of being a teacher.  Some years, and this was no exception, there can be issues with the universities and it is good to have teachers on hand to phone and send emails to clarify the confusion. 

The great thing is that now, all students have places at institutions where they want to study.  It is so very satisfying and a credit to their maturity and hard work.

As for us teachers and support staff…. we are already preparing ourselves to go through it all again next year.

Gillian Carroll

Physics Teacher and Careers Counsellor

 

 

 

Dr. Daniela Vasile, Director of Learning at Avenor College, is a professional in education with over 20 years of international experience, both as a math teacher and in management positions. We invite you to learn more about her passion for excellence in education and use of technology, how the cultural differences she encountered changed her perspective, both professionally and personally, her decision to return home and her love for the sea.

Daniela talked to Ioana, a 12th grade student at Avenor International High School, the initiator of the series of interviews dedicated to the passions and talents of the members of the Avenor community.

Ioana: Tell us a couple of words about Daniela Vasile. How would you introduce yourself?

Daniela Vasile: I love what I do. I really enjoy teaching; I take pride in the relationship that I develop over the years with students. I like meeting them after they’ve graduated and notice that they have become happy and fulfilled people, contributing to their community and beyond, to society. That’s what matters most in life, belonging that leads to fulfillment that, in turn, leads to happiness.

On a personal note, I have a family that I am very proud of. My husband and I have been happily married for 33 years. We have two children. My daughter studied psychology at The University of Oxford.She also got her Master’s degree, and now she works in the UK. My son is studying Economics and Mathematics at The New York University in Abu Dhabi. He leads the university debating and Model United Nations teams. The most important thing is not where they attended college, but that they are driven by healthy values and principles.

Ioana: Where does the passion for the subjects you teach come from (Statistics and Maths)? ?

Daniela Vasile: I think it highly depends on the teacher, perhaps even more so in Mathematics than in other subjects, because Mathematics is a subject where you need a strong foundation to build upon. The passion seems to have originated from my primary teacher, who taught us how to think logically and who was a great educator. During summer holidays, I remember spending time at her house. She had these small chairs which she arranged in her backyard as we studied mathematics and observed the plants grow in her garden. In the summer, she was always surrounded by children.

After that, I was lucky to have very good teachers, both in middle school and high school, and thus this passion grew, because they revealed to me the beauty of mathematics. Just as important is the fact that my mother is a teacher, an exceptional teacher. She was my Romanian language teacher for 4 years, in middle school. She is a role model, both as a teacher and as a human being.

Ioana: I know you’ve also taught in foreign countries. What cultural challenges did you encounter in each of these?

Daniela Vasile: The main difference is in mentality. I have taught in European countries, and the mentality didn’t differ. However, when I went to Asia, it truly was a cultural shock! I was walking down the street and I couldn’t comprehend what drove their actions! Perhaps the biggest shock was to understand that, there, a rule is followed by everyone. That’s certainly a difference! The Asian societies are less individualistic than ours. Back in 2009, when I moved to Hong Kong, I saw occasionally people on the street or few students in the school wearing masks (yes, the same as we wear now). It took me a while to understand that they don’t wear masks to protect themselves from others, but they wear them when they get a cold, to protect others from them.

However, when I am thinking at the school level, students are the same here and there, all are exceptional people. We all live in a more than ever connected world, where borders between cultures fade. While maintaining our roots, we become at the same time more international. And this is what schools like Avenor and all schools where I worked before are similar.

I don’t necessarily think of my travels in terms of challenges I’ve encountered, but rather in terms of opportunities of learning new things and that’s very interesting.

Ioana: Please tell us about a memorable experience whilst teaching abroad, and one from Romania.

Daniela Vasile: I recall this impactful event from the Anglo American School of Moscowwhich actually happened in my very first month there. When I gave back the marked tests to 11th grade students,

As I handed them their work, I did exactly what my teachers in Romania did: I read the results out loud. I then proceeded to give to this one girl her test back. She scored 78%. When the lesson ended, the Korean girl approached me, extremely upset, and said, “Do you realize that you have ruined my social status?” I asked her what she meant by that. She explained to me how, in Korea, anything below 90% is considered a total failure. I then thought how normal calling results out loud was in the Romanian system! I reflected on that instance and I never do this anymore. Coming back home, at Avenor, when I gave back my first set of tests, I noticed that students share between them the scores. I like that here, at Avenor, there is no such fear of being judged by others. Instead, students are open to learn from each other and to learn together. It is a culture of respect and collaboration.

Ioana: Why did you choose Avenor College and how does your experience here compare to that in foreign countries?

Daniela Vasile: When I first decided to return home, because I had taught abroad for 20 years and I grew home-sick, I started scrolling through different schools’ websites. I liked the Avenor spirit, that I could feel just by looking through the website. I saw a school with well-defined values, giving students a broad experience – school is not about subjects only! I then looked in the media and on Facebook, and I reached the conclusion that Avenor was different from any other school in Romania – a school that matches perfectly my view on outstanding education. I wished to be part of this Avenor Adventure, of the Avenor Spirit and to contribute to the Avenor community. It was definitely a thoroughly researched decision, I didn’t just settle on the first school I came across. Finally, after seeing the spirit from the media, I had the pleasant surprise to come here and see that the spirit is alive. I really like the Avenor College community!

Ioana: How did you adapt here, after 20 years of teaching abroad?

Daniela Vasile: Naturally, there are things in the previous place that you miss when moving. After all, I think it’s best to live in the present, not the past; to think about what is good here, because there are so many things I enjoy that I could not have elsewhere.

However, I do miss the sea very much. In Hong Kong, every day when I went to school, I drove down the hill and watched the sea. I’m a person who doesn’t like winter, and it’s always summer there.

I still miss the fact that everything runs smoothly there. Of course, I also miss the friends I made there and my former students, but, on the other hand, I am now at home. I reconnected with my wider family, with my friends and I met new people at the same time. I have new, wonderful students.

Ioana: Throughout the year, I’ve noticed your affinity with technology. We’ve grown to rely increasingly more on technology, it has become a crucial part of our lives, whether we want it to be or not. How did you manage to familiarise yourself with this field?

Daniela Vasile: I’ve always liked technology, because I studied both mathematics and computer science at university. I’ve always believed that technology makes our lives easier, that’s why I began using it in the first place. After that, I discovered a lot of apps that help me teach math in a way that makes the concepts accessible, to help students visualize these procedures. And from there, step by step, I started to diversify my classes, to use technology more and more, hoping that it will have a positive impact on the students’ learning process. Then, when the pandemic began, I started using technology to connect with students.

Ioana: Ioana: At the end of January, you were invited to speak at a SuperTeach conference and one of the topics discussed during this conference began with the question: “What are similar experiences and what are the solutions adopted in various countries successfully applied in Romania?”. Can you please elaborate on this?

Daniela Vasile: It’s very important how the teacher sees himself in class. Is he someone who takes a lesson from the textbook and presents it to the students exactly in the way it is there? Or is he someone who can think and adapt the content of the textbook, improve it? For, in the end, the textbook is just how the author approaches the curriculum, his interpretation of the program. As a teacher, I would like to have my own interpretation, which might revolve around this textbook, but include new elements. After that, you can develop this idea even more: the teacher can even create an entire program without the guidance of the textbook. Thus, learning becomes more interesting, deeper and richer.

Ioana: Given the fact that you have taught at many international schools, what do you think of the Romanian curriculum? What do you like or dislike and what do you think can be improved?

Daniela Vasile: In Romania, it seems to me that exam results matter the most. The process that leads to that result is not given enough significance. However, I consider this very important because the way you get to the result determines what kind of learner we grow. I wouldn’t want my students to learn only for the exam, and then forget everything. This does not mean that I expect a student, after 10-15 years, to remember how to solve a quadratic equation. What I want them to be left with are the habits of mind that will allow them to become life-long learners.

Everyone complains that the Romanian national curriculum is old, and indeed it is old. But this does not mean that, if the curriculum changes completely, the students will be more involved and active. It would be certainly good to improve it, but at the moment we can only work with what we have. The way we approach this curriculum can make a difference in the student’s learning process and, consequently, in their engagement.

Ioana: How do you see online teaching from your point of view?

Daniela Vasile: In March, the pandemic caught us off guard and we had to start online teaching. Not everyone was prepared for this drastic change. However, the teachers at Avenor switched to online teaching very quickly, practically in just 2 days.

Of course, for any teacher, online teaching is more difficult than brick-and-mortar teaching. Mainly due to the fact that teaching in person allows you to easily identify, from the reactions of students, who needs help and guidance, something that is harder to follow online. Thus, we put in place several tools to track the progress of students, applications such as Google Classroom, WhatsApporGoogle Docs.

From a cognitive point of view, online lessons run as well as the in-person ones, but require better organisation and planning.

Hybrid learning is the most difficult for teachers, because you have to follow both the students in class and those online. At Avenor we offer it now and will continue to offer it for students who, for various reasons, can’t attend in-person classes. If you think for a moment, we have always been in a yellow scenario, as we frequently had one-two students at home. This pandemic helped us find solutions that we will use in such cases from now on.

Ioana: What other hobbies do you have besides teaching?

Daniela Vasile: For 2 years, I have been supporting another international school with their Mathematics department, as an educational consultant. I am also an international school evaluator, leading teams of 6-8 educators from all over the world to visit and help schools improve. I have just completed such a visit during the February mid-term break, in Kenya.

I like reading, hiking, and being in nature – well, mainly by the sea!

Ioana: What are your future plans for Avenor?

Daniela Vasile: We are going through a very interesting and meaningful period of transformations in education and I am happy to be part of a progressive team here, at Avenor.

In May, we will participate, as a school, at an international conference, one of the biggest in the educational world: the COBIS conference, where we will present Avenor’s story as a case study. I am very proud that I am able to represent the Avenor school in conferences and workshops. We have a lot to share and to offer.

Also, at the moment, we are at the end of a process where the entire community defined the strategic plan for the next 10 years. The future is bright and interesting – it is now time to get to work, in order to make it happen!

Ioana joined Avenor College International High School in the 9th grade and the adapting from the Romanian system to the Cambridge system was intimidating at first. The new subjects and the differences between the two systems worried her, but with ambition and guidance from the Avenor teachers she managed to overcome her fears and the limits she felt she had.

“I am grateful to my teachers for their support and patience and I am glad that ever since I became an Avenor student, I’ve had many opportunities to discover new areas that I can connect my passions to,” says Ioana.

Now, in the 10th grade, Ioana has discovered her passion for Computer Science and guided by Mr. Ali Yuksel, her teacher, participated in Girls in AI – Romanian Hackathon, an international competition in which students from all over the world aim to find solutions to global problems using the technology of the future – Artificial Intelligence.

We invite you to find out more about Ioana’s experience in this video.

Interested in Avenor High School?

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Tudor G. is a 12th grade student at Avenor International High School and already has an impressive business record: several IT projects built from scratch. We invite you to discover more about Tudor’s journey in a new interview from the series created by Ioana – who is also a student in the 12th grade of Avenor High School – dedicated to the passions and talents of the members of the Avenor community.

Ioana: Spune-ne câteva cuvinte despre tine, cum te-ai prezenta?

Tudor: Pot spune că sunt o persoană liniștită, văd lucrurile obiectiv și îmi place să fac business.

Ioana: Where does your passion for Computer Science come from?

Tudor: It all started in 6th grade. I started attending Computer Science classes, I studied and I also participated in Computer Science related contests. Next, I wanted to learn and understand additional information about what was being studied in class and that’s how my love for it grew. After a year or two in which I kept on learning, I started a business with a friend, where I programmed non-stop, I made different websites and projects. Now I have other companies with other friends where I program less, but I still coordinate technically everything.

When I was younger, I wanted to become a scientist or a veterinarian, but there was nothing set in my mind. Anyway, with Computer Science, even though I was learning a lot, I didn’t think I would make a career out of it. It started as something fun to occupy my time with when I was 15. It wasn’t until about a year ago that things started to get more serious and I started to think more about my future and my career.

Ioana: I know you coordinate three big projects outside of school. Tell me about how it all started, how did you come up with the ideas and how you now manage to support yourself financially from your work?

Tudor: To be honest, until a year and a half or two ago, I didn’t consider money at all, just how cool it was that I had my own projects, where I designed a site or two. Anyway, from these websites, since we had just recently started them, we didn’t earn a lot of money. It was very interesting for me to learn how to do things by myself, how to start a business from scratch, just to try to see what comes out of it. That’s how I learned all the things I know now and because of this I am very comfortable with big projects and large sums of money. I got used to it from the beginning, to be aware of everything I do.

Ioana: How do you manage to divide your time between school and work? And especially, how do you manage to do it all at such a high level?

Tudor: That’s the hard part. I simply have a very strict schedule, meaning I have an app on my phone where I schedule my day up to the minute. I always follow this schedule, especially at school, because here the schedule is already very strict, with classes that start and end on time. If, for instance, I have a meeting and the person I was supposed to meet is very late, I’ll tell them that I’m sorry but I’m no longer available. Otherwise, I really can’t handle school, projects and homework simultaneously. Anyway, homework already takes up a lot of my time.

Ioana: How did the people around you support you and your businesses?

Tudor: My friends generally supported me, as well as my parents, but until the point where my projects began interfering with school work. They told me I had to prioritise school above all. Now, that they have seen the magnitude of my projects, they are 100% supportive of them, but still believe that I must remain focused on school. Overall, I can’t say I wasn’t supported because everyone around me just said “Go for it!”

Ioana: How was the transition from the Romanian system to the Cambridge system? Was the Cambridge system more convenient for you?

Tudor: I personally think the Cambridge system is better for me because I have much more independence. This was very helpful because I was very independent before anyway, and now I can organise my schedule the way I want. This would have been impossible to accomplish at a school following the Romanian curriculum.

Ioana: What other passions do you have? Do you have sufficient time for other hobbies as well? Do you have sufficient time for other hobbies as well?

Tudor: I like to do research on the scientific side of things and a little bit of medicine; I enjoy doing my projects separately from the business ones, when I have time. I still play games on the computer, but very little, maximum 3-4 hours a week. Instead, I go out every night with my friends, for an hour or two, because I can’t work every day from morning till night.

Ioana: You have already begun your career, working on your passion daily, which is very rare in people our age. What about your personal goals?

Tudor: Personally, I feel that all the projects I handle help me to ground myself and most importantly to keep being modest – this has always been my strong point, I always want to stay modest. I want to be a reasonable person and I feel like I’m almost there. I still have to work on certain aspects such as the fact that in some situations I tend to get angry a bit too quickly.

Ioana: There is this question I often ask: “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”. In your case, I would like to ask: “In 5 years, do you see yourself doing the same thing as now, or do you wish to explore other opportunities?”

Tudor: Honestly, I don’t want it to be a cliché, but if you had asked me a year ago where I see myself now, I couldn’t have imagined that I would reach this point in my life now. In 5 years, all the least! If things continue to run as they did this year, a year that wasn’t very good overall, but business-wise it went very well for me, I don’t even want to know what might happen! 😊

Interested in Avenor High School?

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In February, Avenor College participated in the Mangahigh competition along with 125 schools around the world. This year, our school ranked 1st in the top of the participating schools in Romania and in Eastern Europe, and 8th in the world. We invite you to learn more about the experience of participating in this competition from our teachers and students.

Mihaela Ancuța, Professor of Mathematics and Mathematics Curriculum Leader:

Mangahigh is about challenges, competition, perseverance, ambition and suspense. It is one of the first gamification platforms for mathematics and coding and contains innovative games, adapted to the needs of students. Not only do students compete with their classmates and other students from other schools around the world, but they work at the individual level of knowledge and skills and learn new concepts while solving math problems through play. Moreover, Mangahigh improves students’ teamwork skills, and as they complete math activities, they earn points for their schools in the competition leaderboard.

Ioana, 10th grade: It was my first math competition in high school, but in the past I participated in the Olympics, Comper and others. The online experience I had participating in the Mangahigh contest made me fall in love with this kind of contest, which requires mathematical knowledge, logic and attention. Both the level of difficulty and the type of problems vary – most are grid-type, many illustrating everyday situations, or games that can help you increase your score. Correctness and work matter a lot. The ranking of the top 10 in school and of the class was visible, and it motivated me to work hard to be among the first. I appreciated the diversity of the exercises and the possibility to work in the intervals in which I can concentrate best. In addition to the fact that there was a change in the routine of working past papers (exam preparation, n.r.), I feel that I have enriched my ability to combine logic and mathematical knowledge in solving practical problems. At school I worked for a week during math classes (about 5 hours), and in my free time I spent a little more time, every night during the event about 2-3 hours, sometimes even more.

Ana, 2nd grade: I really like math and I was very happy when I heard that we will be able to participate this year as well. It was my first math competition.

During the week, at school, I worked 3 hours, and on weekends around 6 hours. Once I started solving problems, I couldn’t stop. I mostly enjoyed the ones without time limit, because I could better focus on the logic of the problem.

Mara, 5th grade: Mangahigh has all kinds of math problems, some are based on logic games, others are problems you have to solve on paper. I spent 2 hours at school and almost 4 at home.

What I liked most about this competition was that I was able to learn by playing and I was able to better understand certain concepts that I learned in math classes.