Angelica Șarig is a religion teacher from Bacău County who involves the little ones in the life of the community: she plants trees, visits the lonely elderly and orphanages, but also enjoys initiatives specifically designed for them, such as summer schools.
Angelica Şarig PHOTO Teach for Romania
Angelica Șarig (53 years old), teacher of the Roman Catholic religion at the Secondary School in Cleja commune, Bacău county, is one of the three finalists of this year's Rural Teacher of the Year Gala, in the “Community Involvement” category, organized by Teach for Romania.
The teaching staff impressed by the way in which, during the 33 years at the department, they managed to create a deep connection between the local students and the members of the community they belong to.
She has wanted to become a teacher for as long as she can remember, and she remembers her teacher taking her to class after she graduated from the 5th grade to help her with the students. He attended a high school with an electromechanics profile in Letea, and he did the second level at a high school with a mechanics profile in Bacău.
Because he had taken a liking to children, he got hired in 1991 as a substitute at the school in Cleja and started by teaching music education. Later, he attended the Faculty of Didactic Theology and formed an enviable reputation from the beginning of his career. She was always out with the village children on trips or doing various activities with them.
“For me, teaching is a passion. And my boy goes with me to any activity I do for the school,” Angelica declared for “Weekend Adevărul”.
Inspiring life stories
For a year and a half, he founded a club at school, and every month he tackles a certain theme, starting from the environment and ending with health.
Angelica organized several reforestation campaigns with the volunteers from the club in the vicinity of the Cleja commune, in which her students participated. Last year they planted approximately 400 trees, and this year, 300 acacias. “We reforested an area where the trees had been cut”,
Angelica explained.
Recently, he organized a picnic in the forest, to which he invited all the children in the village. In March 2024, he initiated another interesting project with the volunteers from the vocation and career club, in which he invited doctors, entrepreneurs, students of various specializations and priests, and they presented to the students their own life story and how they arrived what they are currently, in the idea of inspiring the little ones about their own choices that they are going to make in life.
The soul of the community
The teacher constantly goes with her students to the village elders to offer them food, gifts, artistic moments and spiritual support. So that the seniors no longer feel loneliness so acutely, Angelica came up with the idea that each old lady formally adopts a student.
She regularly visits orphanages and each time she took other students with her, with the aim of seeing that no matter how hard their lives may seem to them, there are children who have no family and have it worse:
“I thought for them to see that there is a different life for other children. Some of them do not appreciate what they get, while other children would be happy for a candy or a chocolate. Some students were extremely impressed by what they saw and told me that they no longer go to such places because they feel like crying,” says the teacher.
Angelica and her students Christmas carols the lonely old people from the village PHOTO personal archive
He takes every opportunity to take them to museums or on trips to different interesting places. One of these is the Cinerite de Nutasca-Ruseni (monument of nature), a protected natural area of national interest on the territory of the commune of Cleja, which includes pyroclastic sedimentary deposits of volcanic ash.
Any nature trip begins with greening the area, another practical lesson he teaches them in the perspective of adult life.
Angelica Şarig initiated three summer schools in the last three years, each with over 250 participating children. It has already become a tradition that at the end of each summer school, they all go to the Saint Ana lake and stay there for a few days, in a tent.
And behind this recreational action there is skill training: children have to be self-possessed and come up with solutions when they run into a problem.
In 2023, Angelica carried them virtually all over Europe. For some children who mostly only saw the village where they were born and the nearby forest, it was a memorable experience.
They first watched films about various countries on the video projector, and then they were challenged to find their national anthems and perform them, but also to find the people who made a decisive contribution to the founding of those nations.
Treasure hunt
One of the most interesting challenges for students at summer schools is the treasure hunt. The teacher sends them to the town hall in Cleja, where she hides a few letters, a few more at the Police, dispensary and store, and the students have to retrieve them to solve a puzzle.
Volunteers create all kinds of games for children through Kahoot, a free learning platform based on games and educational technology. This year, the theme of the summer school is suggestively entitled “The Road to Childhood”, and the children will participate, among other things, in creative workshops.
Angelica has so far organized three summer schools in Cleja PHOTO personal archive
After graduation, many of her former students sign up as volunteers in the campaigns she initiates, and those who have gone abroad help her with advice in her projects.
“You reap the fruits of work in education after years and years. I think I'm also putting a brick in the construction of their future. If I manage to change the mentality of one or two children in a class, I am very satisfied”, is Angelica's self-assessment.
Debates in religion class
His results speak for themselves. This year, two of his students, from the 5th and 7th grades, will participate in the National Religion Olympiad, in the Roman Catholic Religion category, after previously winning the county Olympiad.
Moreover, every year, the children he trains achieve very good results at the county Olympics and inter-county competitions. The secret of these results lies in the atypical teaching method of the teaching staff. In each religion class, he adapts his teaching style according to the students' condition.
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Angelica Sarig PHOTO personal archive (3) (1) jpeg
PHOTO GALLERY ANGELICA ŞARIG
For example, in the 8th grade, in the last three years, she made the summary for all the lessons, because the students asked her not to write much. The children, instead, must date the lessons, as if they had written them, and then read the summaries and discuss them in class. For the youngest, he uses educational videos, then teaches them using examples from his personal life or from other people.
“All I want is for my students to be honest, optimistic and generous and to live each day to the fullest. I always tell them that when they leave Cleja, they should not be ashamed to say where they are from. If those to whom I tell do not know where the commune is, let them take a map and show them exactly”, it is the teacher's desire that her students never forget where they left from.
