PV:This year, the ceremony to honor outstanding teachers was held in a very special atmosphere, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Vietnamese Teachers' Day. How do you feel about attending this meaningful event?
Teacher Thai Thi Mai Huong:This is almost an honor because no teacher in our school has ever received this title and in the GDTX system, there are few people who have been honored. I was also very surprised because up until now, when I started working, I only thought simply that I had to do my job well. Being honored by my colleagues, the Department and the Ministry of Education and Training is a huge reward and I have to try harder, try harder and be more responsible for the job I have chosen.
PV:She is working at the Education Center. vocational education– Teacher regular exercise Do Luong district. The work here must have its own characteristics and difficulties?
Teacher Thai Thi Mai Huong:The characteristics of the continuing education sector are quite difficult because the students' input is weaker than other schools and there are many limitations. Even the children's families, when their children fail public high schools, the parents lose hope and many families do not care about their children. Many cases have to ask teachers for guidance. In 15 years of working, I have been assigned to be the homeroom teacher of grade 12 and this is even more difficult because in addition to teaching knowledge, teachers also have to know how to orient their careers, helping students confidently step out into society. Many students after graduating have confided in me that when they first came here, they were very self-conscious and did not dare to say that they were continuing education students. But then, when they graduated, they were proud because even though they had a low starting point, when they took the high school graduation exam, they took the same exam as many other public high school students and still did well. Like this year, our school ranked 20th in the province in the high school graduation exam, 43 places higher than last year and above many high schools in the province. That is truly a miracle.
PV:So, in your teaching career, you must have many unforgettable memories of your students?
Teacher Thai Thi Mai Huong:Not only do teachers change students, but on the contrary, there are students who have made me change my way of thinking in teaching. I remember a student born in 1993, at that time, in the eyes of family and friends, he was a rebellious student, often fought and had a challenging attitude. I was his homeroom teacher for 3 years, instead of looking at the negative aspects, I saw that he also had advantages, for example, he was a poor student but he was not stupid, he even had the potential to be intelligent. Moreover, he was very compassionate, always helped his friends. If he was reminded by the teacher, he did not object but recognized his mistakes. The reason he gave up was because he was neglected, not cared for, which made him always want to rebel, wanted to show himself, and attract the attention of others. I convinced him by paying attention to his daily life, even when he went out in the evening, I went there and waited for him outside. Perhaps because she saw her homeroom teacher like that, she was afraid of bothering me, so she stopped going out at night and stayed home to study. Step by step, she became more diligent, passed her graduation exam and was recruited for police service. I still remember the time she had to have her background checked, she called me for help because she was afraid that I would tell her all her shortcomings when she was still in school. However, I told her that I would verify her as she really was so that the unit could see how she had improved day by day. Now she has become a professional, has been admitted to the Party, has a stable job in Hanoi, and has a happy family...
This student's case may be very normal in other environments, but for our school, it is a very commendable progress. From him, I also changed my thinking about the teaching profession, about how to train my students. That is, instead of being rigid, only knowing how to punish and consider students as special, we should pay attention, be generous and find positive aspects to encourage and motivate them.
PV:“Learn manners first, then knowledge” is a slogan in many schools. Is this true in the environment where you are teaching?
Teacher Thai Thi Mai Huong:Not only in continuing education centers but also in all other schools, teaching ethics is always important. Students must have the right awareness of ethics in order to study well. On the contrary, if students do not see the value of ethics, they do not respect their teachers, they will not respect themselves and will not have the motivation to strive.
We ourselves, when receiving a new class of students, know that not all students have these simple perceptions. Therefore, we have to train them to change their attitudes, to know how to think, to know how to strive, and from there they will have a good sense of learning.
PV:Is it also from this concept that despite having a difficult starting point, you can still reap many sweet fruits from your students and from excellent student competitions?
Teacher Thai Thi Mai Huong:Among my students, Nguyen The Anh is a very special student, who has just graduated for 1 year. He is currently a student at Hanoi National University of Education. In the previous exam, he got 9.5 points in Math and 9 points in Chemistry... I say special because in the years of teaching at the Continuing Education Center, I rarely met proactive students. Before that, this student took the entrance exam to Do Luong 1 High School and was 0.15 points short. When he transferred to the Center for Vocational Education - Continuing Education, instead of being discouraged, he proactively met me to hope to be trained as an excellent student and finally after much effort, he did it and won the first prize in the provincial excellent student competition.
In my nearly 20 years of teaching, cases like The Anh are rare. In fact, in the environment of a Vocational Education Center - Continuing Education, nurturing excellent students is too difficult because most of them fail the entrance exam to grade 10 and when they enter school, they are completely depressed, have no motivation to strive, many of them think that this is the end. There are many cases where parents do not agree to encourage students to compete in excellent student competitions because they think that competing is ineffective and a waste of time. Because of such hardship, if in other schools, teams must start training in grade 11, but our school often focuses on the team from grade 10. During the process of reviewing for excellent student competitions, we have to persistently train, inspire, and try to make students like the subject and from there they will be passionate about pursuing it.
“Covering” students with knowledge is also an arduous journey because, as I have shared, the input of the students is very low, the average score is sometimes below 1 point, 2 points, they have many gaps in knowledge. Later, we almost have to “re-educate” all the knowledge, make them memorize the multiplication table, master addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In the teaching process, we do it step by step, then improve it. That is why the training process lasts a long time, more than 2 years…
The same goes for other students. Changing the mindset of a continuing education student from just finishing school, getting a 12th grade diploma to orienting them to university is a process. To do so, the role of the teacher is very important, from the homeroom teacher to the subject teacher. We always try to make the students see the importance of studying and inspire them to have outstanding abilities, to see that they are progressing every day. Stimulation is also a way to motivate and help them see their abilities, regain confidence in themselves and surpass themselves.
PV:Do you feel tired when every year you are the homeroom teacher of grade 12 and for the past 7 years you have directly participated in training excellent students?
Teacher Thai Thi Mai Huong:It was not until I was in school for 7 years that I was guided and given this responsibility by my senior colleagues. Nurturing excellent students is a pressure for teachers, especially for a school like ours because this is a way to affirm the quality of the school.
What I am happy about is that after 7 years of directly participating in training excellent students, 100% of the students who took the exam won prizes with 5 first prizes, 2 consolation prizes and the rest were second and third prizes.
Perhaps because I love my job, I have not felt tired up to now because I teach completely out of passion and with the desire to affirm my teaching profession. Participating in training excellent students, I think I also receive a lot because I can inspire my students, helping many students who no longer have a direction to try hard and then confidently take exams and pass the university entrance exams. Training excellent students has given me a lot of joy, especially when I receive winning results.
PV:I know that your family has a tradition of teaching and nearly 10 years ago you graduated from Mathematics Pedagogy - Vinh Pedagogical University, a quite prestigious major at that time. Have you ever thought that if you were lucky you would be able to work at another school, not just a simple Education Center? vocational education–Gteacher regular exercise?
Teacher Thai Thi Mai Huong:My father used to be a school teacher, but since I was in college, I never thought that after graduating, I would work at a continuing education center. The reason is simple, because since I was in school, I knew about my father's job and I found it to be too hard work.
When I first finished my master's degree and started working at the center, I initially thought this was just a temporary stop. A young teacher like me at that time had many ambitions and thought of many good things. But the process of working at the school and the students held me back. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time on my work. In addition to teaching all day in class, I spend almost every evening visiting each student's home, regardless of whether the student is good or average. This not only changes the students' thinking but also changes the parents' perception, so that parents can accompany their children in the learning process.
Now, after many generations of students, I am very proud of my work and my colleagues. Many colleagues also say that I am very suitable for the job of a teacher at the Center for Continuing Education. Therefore, sometimes when I have a class reunion, meet old friends, some are teaching at public schools, some are teaching at specialized schools, sometimes I feel a little disappointed. Or when my children are grown up, they ask me why I teach at a school where there are only weak students, those who failed the high school entrance exam... But after each course, each time I receive the results of the excellent student exam or receive words of thanks from students, those thoughts completely disappear.
PV:Thanks for joining the chat!
