The teacher from the village with champion students in recycling. They use STEM education to build “haunted houses” PHOTO

Led by a language teacher, the children use STEM education to build miniature houses from recyclable materials, collect tons of electrical and electronic waste, and create an English Christmas recipe book and digital fashion catalogs.

Daniela Eugenia Dinu, teacher of French and English at Rusănești Secondary School, Fârtățești commune, Vâlcea county, won second place in the “Student leadership development” category at the Rural Teacher of the Year Gala in 2023 for her many initiatives through who developed students' self-esteem, communication, team spirit, patience, perseverance, creativity and always challenged them to push their limits.

She wanted to become a teacher since the 5th grade thanks to her Romanian language and literature teacher. “It was one of my milestones in life. She was very close to us, the students, and she was the only teacher in the gymnasium who was different,” the teacher told “Weekend Adevărul”.

Her dream was initially to become a flight attendant, but now she's glad that her wish didn't come true, because she really likes children and can't see herself doing anything else. She has always had the ambition to put her students from the village on an equal footing with those from the city, even if she faced many shortages.

15 years ago, when he first came to school in Rusănești, he remembers that they didn't even have internet. “I said that I have to do something so that the students at our school can also be able to make their own decisions and develop their critical thinking,” explains Daniela.

Grading, exclusively online

He involved both students and parents in this process, and wrote several projects, with which he participated in various competitions. He thus managed to equip the school with computers and implement eTwinning projects, but also to bring the Cambridge exams in the school unit in 2022 and 2023, which help students develop their language skills and improve their English step by step.

Also following a competition that he won, two years ago, he implemented the Adservio educational platform for free in the school for one year. Through her, he created the digital catalog for the classes where he teaches, a project that proved difficult to implement at many schools in the city.

“I made accounts for both students and parents. When the student was noted in the catalog, parents received a message”, says the teacher.

Things went so well, that this year the school from Rusănești will be part of a pilot project of the Ministry of Education, in which the grading of students is done exclusively through the digital catalog.

The children also receive their homework on the Adservio platform, and each of them has electronic tablets, which they have learned to use to write on the smart board.

STEM Education for Haunted Houses

Daniela makes a lot of use of educational platforms and online games in the classroom to stimulate children's imagination and creativity. For example, in her English and French classes, she implemented so-called Halloween projects, in which students built houses “haunted”.

The children used STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in this sense, and the materials from which they made the houses are completely recyclable. “They developed a lot then. They worked in teams and had to make decisions on their own,” says the teacher.

Another remarkable thing he has done is the use of eTwinning projects so that all students can connect online to lessons during the pandemic.

“At our school, the pandemic did not hinder the educational process at all. In the first year of the pandemic, we implemented eight projects, in which we involved two colleagues from the department, who were awarded with European quality certificates”, says Daniela.

The projects concerned, among others, the environment, recycling, protecting children online and ways to verify the veracity of news.

Really impressive is the amount of waste that the teacher and students from the Rusănești school sent to the recycling centers every year.

We are talking about tons of electrical, electronic and household appliances, light bulbs and batteries, collected from the people of the village, after Daniela had previously organized several awareness campaigns in which she explained to them how dangerous it is for their health keep in their yards.

Everything took place within the framework “Recycling Patrol”a Volens Association program that helps children develop essential social and emotional skills.

Daniela and her students have so far won the county recycling competition six times, and Vâlcea county has won first place at the national level three times, with the school in Rusănești having the largest amount of waste collected.

Digital fashion catalog creators

The secret to his success in the classroom is that he constantly challenges his students to come up with their own ideas, regardless of the theme or topic of choice. “I taught them not to be afraid to speak their minds. Until they say what they would like and how they think it would be good, they have no chance to develop on the leadership side”, explained the teacher.

Communication and teamwork are basic in all the projects in which the teacher involves her students, and role-playing complements their development to overcome their fear of public speaking. The latter is one of the reasons why he brought Cambridge exams into the school.

All her courses are different. The classes are interactive and almost every time he uses the video projector and the students work on tablets. Students can't wait for French and English classes to come so they can participate in quiz games on the Kahoot app.

“It's a competition between them to answer the questions faster and more correctly. Play individually and in teams”, says Daniela.

The Wordwall application uses it for students to solve puzzles in English and French or to solve word identification exercises, and the LiveWorksheets application allows children to immediately see the mistakes they have made, as well as the grades they have they received.

PHOTO GALLERY DANIELA EUGENIA DINU

Through the StoryJumper digital book, students created their own digital fashion catalogs in English and French. They then went on to create a Christmas recipe book in English, as part of another eTwinning project, which Daniela implemented in the school.

Kids from Turkey, Portugal and other countries have created their own Christmas recipe page there. Her students have reached the stage where, through the Scratch platform, they are now also creating online games.

“The purpose of school is to prepare children for life, for the unforeseen situations they will have to face. I want them to apply what they learn in school to their everyday lives, to stick with the personal development lessons and management talks, and to believe in themselves, no matter how much those around them try to discourage them,” it is the teacher's legacy to her students.