Surpassing more than 1,000 initiatives, Nghe An teacher won second prize nationwide in 'Meeting first grade teachers'

The award ceremony wasVietnam Education Trade UnionHeld in Hanoi, due to the epidemic, teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung was not able to receive the award in person, but that did not reduce her joy and excitement with this special award.

Passion for the profession

Teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung was born in 1980 and has been working in the profession for nearly 20 years. During that time, she devoted her love for the profession and her youth to poor students at My Ly 2 Primary School and Na Loi Primary School in Ky Son district for more than 10 years. It was also a very difficult time because she had to leave her children in Hung Nguyen with her husband and his parents. For more than a decade in the village, she had not once attended the opening ceremony with her children, and had no conditions to take care of their meals and sleep. The distance was long, the travel was difficult, and her biggest fear during the years away from home was "missing her children to the point of exhaustion".

Teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung has spent many years living in the mountainous district of Ky Son. Photo: PV

Telling more about this, she said: I had just graduated from the Pedagogical College and volunteered to go to Ky Son to teach. At that time, I only knew that it was a mountainous district but I could not imagine the hardships and deprivation. The place I went to was also the most difficult place in Ky Son district. Every time I went from town to school by motorbike taxi, it took me a whole morning if I went by road. If I went by water, it also took almost a day. In the winter, it was cold and rainy, and when I got to school, I was shivering from being soaked...

During the difficult and deprived years, teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung never lost heart. On the contrary, her love for her students and her profession motivated her to constantly try and strive to achieve many titles such as excellent teacher of the school and district, head of the professional group, and many innovative experiences that were highly appreciated by her colleagues.

“Teaching in remote areas, what I value most is the affection of students and their parents. When we first graduated and faced many difficulties, parents were like our relatives, willing to share vegetables, food and even their houses with teachers. It is the affection of the local people that has kept many teachers in the lowlands, motivating them to overcome their circumstances to complete their tasks.”

Teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung

Due to personal circumstances, compared to other colleagues, Ms. Nhung got married late. However, despite having two young children, a husband who works as a factory worker and often has to work overtime, and a difficult family situation, teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung was nearly 40 years old when she moved from Ky Son to work at Hung Dong Primary School, Vinh City.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung and her students. Photo: PV

Changing schools and working environments at an older age was also a big pressure for her because “compared to schools in the mountains, schools in the city have a lot of students, so at first I was not really used to it. Every day after teaching, I had to take medicine to relieve my sore throat. Moreover, parents in the city also have very high demands on teachers. Therefore, if I do not try and regularly improve my expertise, I will fall behind and not be able to keep up with the requirements of the new program.”

From this thinking, even though she has been at the school for less than 5 years, what the school board and colleagues all recognize in teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung is her enthusiasm, dedication, and devotion to the profession.

Teacher Tran Thi Thu Hang - Principal of Hung Dong Primary School added: I feel very secure because the school has teachers like Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhung. She is a very responsible and eager to learn teacher. Her house is in Hung Nguyen, far from the school, but many lessons after teaching she stays at school to gain experience for the lessons until 7-8 pm before returning home.

Interesting initiative

Because of her love for the profession and her enthusiasm for the job, when the entire education sector implemented the new textbook replacement program for first graders, teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung was trusted by the school to be in charge of first graders and was one of the first teachers to participate in the textbook replacement program training.

In the first year of implementation, although the programtextbookThere have been many conflicting opinions, and the teaching process has had its shortcomings, but with initiative and responsibility, she and her colleagues have gradually adjusted to suit each group of students, bringing about effectiveness in teaching.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung and her colleagues teach first grade at the school. Photo: PV

The experiences in the implementation process were also the motivation for her to participate in the "Meeting 1st Grade Teachers" award organized by the Vietnam Education Trade Union with a rather interesting initiative, which is to apply games in organizing teaching.

“For first graders, absorbing lessons still faces many difficulties. Meanwhile, there are quite abstract lessons that are difficult for them to understand, such as the lesson “remembering position in space”. Therefore, when building this lesson, I let them play the game left, right, up, down through hand and foot activities to help them understand position in space and absorb the lesson easily”.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung shares about her initiative

To participate in this contest, teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung also received comments and support from many other colleagues in the first grade teaching group. In particular, the contest was implemented online, so the process of filming and editing clips for the lessons, the teachers encountered many difficulties and had to redo many times. In addition to sending clips to participate, teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung was also very excited because during the contest, in many parts, teachers had to directly interact with the judges in many different situations, helping teachers have the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities.

With her efforts, teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung's entry was highly appreciated by the Organizing Committee and surpassed more than 1,000 other initiatives to be awarded the second prize. The experiences during the competition are also valuable lessons for her to apply in practice later, especially in this school year, most of the time first grade students have to study in the form ofonline.

Class time of students at Hung Dong Primary School. Photo: PV

The award from the “Meeting the 1st Grade Teachers” contest is also a motivation for teacher Nguyen Thi Nhung to overcome difficulties and continue to strive to complete her tasks well. She is also a shining example of perseverance, dedication to her profession, dedication to her students, an exemplary teacher, a pioneer in teaching innovation and implementing the new textbook replacement program.

The “Meeting with Grade 1 Teachers” award aims to encourage teachers who directly teach Grade 1 to proactively approach the requirements of the new curriculum and textbooks, encourage innovation, creativity, and overcome difficulties and obstacles in implementing teaching, in managing and teaching, and caring for students. The content of the award is the solutions and initiatives of teachers and managers on teaching methods for Grade 1 subjects, which have solved and removed problems that teachers consider difficult and obstacles in the teaching process according to the new curriculum and textbooks. The product is explained by a report and a video about the implementation process of that solution and initiative.

This year, the Organizing Committee awarded 2 first prizes, 5 second prizes, 7 third prizes and 14 consolation prizes to individuals with excellent entries. In this award, Nghe An had 1 second prize and 1 consolation prize.