For Loredana Biliboc, books were her salvation. He constantly talks about their importance to the little ones: he created a reading corner in the classroom, but also a club dedicated to reading, opened right in the stable at home, where the children of the village read books and organized debates.
Loredana and her students PHOTO personal archive
Loredana Biliboc (34 years old), a teacher at the secondary school in Pustiana, Pîrjol commune, Bacău county, won this year the trophy at the Rural Teacher of the Year Gala, in the “Literacy Development” category.
The teacher entered education 12 years ago and has been teaching at the school where she was a student for three years. The inclination towards pedagogy came somehow naturally, because she grew up in the country, and when she was little she took care of her cousins and the neighbors' children.
“I had to keep them busy and so I did all kinds of activities with them. We also celebrated so that on Sundays, after Mass, our parents could see us”, Loredana told “Weekend Adevărul” how it all started.
She would have wanted to attend the pedagogical high school, but her parents could not afford to keep her in school, so she attended a theological high school in Harghita county. It was not easy for him, because he learned in Hungarian, but even so, after two years of school, his classmates came and asked him for help in lessons.
This convinced her that she had a natural inclination towards the art of teaching and decided to enter education. It is part of the Căngăi community in the area, and in its village a combination of this Hungarian and Romanian dialect is spoken.
“We don't speak literary Hungarian. That's precisely why I studied under the duvet or in the bathroom in the first years at the high school boarding school, so as not to disturb anyone”, the teacher remembers.
He followed his dream and graduated from the Faculty of Primary and Preschool Education in Bacău, and one of the first things he did was to create a reading corner in the classroom based on his own life experience.
“Books saved me from postnatal depression and beyond. I knew how important they were and I wanted to pass that on to the students as well,” explained Loredana.
She thought about how to do this and came up with the idea of posting an ad on Facebook, where she mentioned that she was selling her own books to make her project a reality. Impressed by her gesture, many Romanians mobilized, sent her books and helped her buy special furniture for children.
Reading is in power
He eventually received so many books that he thought of starting a reading club, which he initially opened in a renovated stable belonging to his family in Pustiana.
“Children from the village would come and read, and then we would organize debates. We kept the club there for a few months, because then the cold came and we couldn't stay any longer”, says the teacher, who now plans to reopen the reading club at school.
It was also there that mothers from the village who felt overwhelmed by everyday problems came, where they discussed books and the challenges they have in raising children and in family life. Wherever she heard that someone was donating books, Loredana was the first to contact those concerned to receive them.
The teacher puts a lot of emphasis on outdoor reading, so that the students get a taste for it and, finally, it becomes an integral part of their lives.
“I had children who read more difficult or not at all, but I saw a great ambition in them. In my class, everyone reads. The results are not seen overnight, maybe not even from one year to another, but after several years. No miracles happen, but all students are more willing to devote time to reading, especially because they have seen that it can be done. I see the sparkle in their eyes when they succeed in doing something and they enjoy it,” says Loredana with emotion.
Loredana opened a reading club in her family's stable in Pustiana PHOTO personal archive
One of the secrets to his success in the classroom is that he gives students assignments that are neither too easy nor too hard, but motivating enough to challenge them to always push their limits.
For example, they constantly involve them in outdoor role-playing, and then each student draws their favorite characters. They even organized a carnival with their favorite characters. He now has a suggestively titled project underway
“Read after the seven years at home”, through which every month the students read interesting things. For example, they devoted one month to Dadaism, and then focused on family stories.
Student emotions dictate teaching
The students in the classes where he teaches help their colleagues who are not doing well in their studies and there are no shortage of emotional moments that connect them spiritually to each other.
“We always say the poems in front of the class. One child didn't manage to say it, he got emotional and started to cry and several colleagues went to him and hugged him, without me saying anything to them”, the teacher tells about the lesson of empathy, which she told them some time ago, but the results of which are currently visible.
He always adapts his teaching according to the emotions his students have every school day: “If it's a more overwhelming day, when I don't manage to do with them what I set out to do, I immediately find something else, depending on the mood and energy of the children”, explained Loredana.
And with reading he does the same: if a student is interested in something, he brings him a text about that thing to challenge him to read.
From year to year, the family situation of some of his students becomes more difficult. For example, a student was abandoned by his mother, and his father is away at work elsewhere.
Some parents have fallen into the passion of drinking, and from here to violence is only a step away. The teacher's solution is to make each of her students feel special.
“Even if some of them are not very good at Romanian or mathematics, they have a talent for visual arts or music and we work on these areas. They feel so valued,” points the teaching staff.
The lonely old men of the village, “adopted” by the children
Loredana involves her students in many projects with an impact on their socio-emotional development, but also in the community. One of these is called suggestive “Adopt a Grandparent” and assumed the identification of 10 lonely old people from the village of Pustiana, to whom they gave small Christmas gifts and sang carols.
“It was an extremely emotional experience. The children also felt how nice it is to give and help”, the teacher tells.
The teacher always challenges her students to read PHOTO Teach for Romania
The teacher always rewards them for paying attention in class. For example, he ordered pizza when he taught them fractions, and then did a hands-on activity with them to understand the lesson even better.
In order for each child to have a schoolbag and supplies for school, he did not hesitate to ask for the help of good-hearted people in the country, and they bought what he needed, including shoes and clothes, through a group he opened on a social network , which he suggestively named “Make Heaven from what you have”.
Over time, he became a point of connection, an interface between students without material possibilities and Romanians who want to do good and don't know who to turn to, and his desire is for the little ones to feel that he really cares about them and to find your way in life.
