#borisdînga

[lehmanrl]

I am lucky to enjoy a beautiful walk into school each day thanks to our school's garden. Under supervision of teachers, students tend to the garden and create this great environment for us to appreciate flowers. #BorisDînga

[lehmanrl]

Students in all our #HealthEducation classes have studied #EmotionalIntelligence. I picked the best information written by students in grades 6 & 7 about when they experience unpleasant emotions and healthy ways to express them for this display in the hallway of #BorisDînga. (at Liceul Teoretic " Boris Dânga " Criuleni)

[rcpc]

Day 76: Continually Cleaned Floors

My school regularly has over 500 pairs of feet tromping around it. We track in all kinds of things on our shoes, but the floors are almost always glistening like in the photo above.

How does this happen? A hard-working staff of around six women continually sweep and mop the floor throughout the day. Nearly any time I’d be in a hallway during classtime, I’d see them out working away.

At the end of each school day, several students from each class stay to sweep and mop each classroom (the individuals change each day, so all students have to complete this regularly over time). Plus the hallways are given a final cleaning for the day.

That just describes the school, but there are staff in all kinds of buildings & institutions who have this work, regularly cleaning & mopping floors throughout the day.

It makes more jobs available locally. It helps instill pride in the buildings’ beauty. At schoo, the overall process involves students in keeping their own spaces clean. There are many things I appreciate about this practice!

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To see all of the 100 Things We Love About Moldova that have been posted so far, click here.

[rcpc]

Day 68: Balul Bobocelor! Duckling Ball!

The Duckling Ball is a concert or competition held annually in many schools, including my own, that promotes teamwork among newly formed classes. It can involve talent performances, demonstrations, thought exercises, and more.

It’s a school tradition that I enjoy and appreciate. I encourage you to read two much more thoughtful and detailed descriptions I’ve made about it HERE and HERE.

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To see all of the 100 Things We Love About Moldova that have been posted so far, click here.

[lehmanrl]

With these last few purchases and a final set of uploads to the online portal, the formal process of our #microscopes project is over! These slides and slide covers will be used in practical activities in biology class at #BorisDinga. These markers will be used on the new white board purchased by the Parents & Teachers Association for the biology classroom as part of the project (and buying them used up the last two dollars of grant funds). I'm so grateful to Mrs. Olga for creating this project and involving me in making it happen. Life for her as a science teacher and life for #BorisDînga students as science learners has changed for the better thanks to all her hard work and creativity! #HealthEducation

[lehmanrl]

Mrs. Olga and I are nearly done with the formal grant process for her amazing #microscopes project. Final paperwork should be done this week. :) This is my favorite picture of the two of us. It was taken on a very exciting day: The day the microscopes, prepared slides, dissection kits, storage cabinet, and whiteboard were delivered. Our friend here's name is Mr. Vasile, by the way (name selected by students). #GirlsInSTEM #HealthEducation #BorisDînga

[rcpc]

Day 56: Dirigenta / Homeroom Teacher

The two people in the forefront of this picture have a special relationship, one that I have grown to really value and appreciate over my two years at Boris Dînga Middle & High School. Mrs. Mînzat, the person on the left, was this young man’s homeroom teacher, or dirigenta.

For a more cultural context about class unity and the role I understand homeroom teachers playing in that, please read this post I made for a blog I kept for another project. Here’s an excerpt that explains the dirigenta system:

“When students arrive in first grade, they are put into as many class sections as the school needs. A small school might have only only section; a larger school might have two, three, or four sections. I've seen records of classes as small as six students; the government states they shouldn't be larger than 28-30 students (though occassionally you can find larger classes than that). If there are multiple sections, they are called Class 1-A, 1-B and so on (written here with Roman numerals, so class 4-A is Clasa a IV-a „A” and class 7-B is Clasa a VII-a „B”). This class section then remains together with the same students and the same teacher until 4th grade. This means that primary school teachers are trained to teach grades 1, 2, 3, & 4 and cycle through them over four years with their students. In fifth grade, when students start middle school, or gimnaziu, they may stay in the same class or the classes may be re-formed. While they will now start moving between teachers based on the subiect they are studying, they do continue to have a teacher who remains with them until they finish at that school (which could be 9th grade or 12th grade, depending whether their school offers grades 10-12). This teacher, their Homeroom teacher or dirigenta, meets with them regularly both in a special weekly homeroom classtime and teaches them their specialty. For example, my primary partner teacher Mrs. Dima is a Chemistry and Physics teacher. She is homeroom teacher to class 7-A, so she has a homeroom class with them on Tuesdays and is their teacher for Chemistry, Physics, and Health Education. She has been their homeroom teacher since the start of 5th grade (Fall 2014) will stay with this class through graduation in 12th grade (Spring 2022). Given the frequency of meeting and the structured length of the relationship, the connection between homeroom teachers and their students (and the reverse) is often described as special and strong. Homeroom teachers must know details about each student's home life. They record and report at the start of the year  contact information for the students' caregivers as well as whether the parents are together, where the parents live and work, information on the siblings, whether there is alleged or confirmed violence in the home, whether their caregivers have chronic conditions and/or mental health issues, and more. Homeroom teachers are an important source of information about the social-emotional environments students are living in as well as considered responsible for building a sense of unity and collaboration among the class.”

[lehmanrl]

We're ready for a fun & interesting class tomorrow with students and with guests from #PeaceCorpsMoldova! #BorisDînga #HealthEducation #Microscopes #GirlsInSTEM (at Criuleni)