The design champions from Zlatarica and their truly motivated teacher
This post is part of our “Star Teachers” series, where we share the stories of our educators. You will learn a bit more about their world, the daily difficulties they tirelessly overcome, the way they nurture motivated and confident children and how they use our our “Design Champions” program to fulfill the hardest of missions: being a good teacher.
Hi there! My name is Bella Dimitrova and I was born in Razgrad, Bulgaria. I have a BSc, two Masters degrees and a post-graduate specialisation. I’ve been involved in the education system for over a decade, and in the last three years, I’ve been working as a pedagogical advisor.
In the past 4 years, I’ve been working in “St. st. Cyril and Metodius” middle school in Zlataritsa, Bulgaria. My children are a bit different — a huge portion of them come from marginalised groups and live in economically disadvantaged families, raised in a single parent household or by a guardian. Their environment is harsh and they often become demotivated, desperate and bitter. The school is the only place where they can find support, food, a smile or a couple of kind words.
I also work with children coming from healthy and well-educated family environments. Sadly, they are few — and they are also the hardest to work with, contrary to common expectations. They require constant everyday efforts to help them understand that they are better than what the environment gives them, that they should never stop fighting and moving forward — and thus not to allow them to drop at the level of other children.
What motivates me? I’m a realist — I know I can’t change parents’ mindsets, nor can I change every single child’s life. However, at the beginning of each year, I tell myself — “If I can help two children, that’s a great achievement”. This is my greatest motivation.
I have a little girl, who is five years old. Her name is Teadara — I’m teaching her how to speak, to communicate and share her thoughts, to solve problems . Yet, I must admit, while I’m hurrying and thinking about my work with other children, my own child often ends up on the back burner… I teach Tea how to be a good person and how to follow a good example. Every night before bedtime we read a fairytale and discuss the events of the day that we might have missed. I listen to her, support her and encourage her to keep trying, to keep searching, to keep making mistakes. Her dad and I never miss a day to tell her how proud we are and how much we love her.
I’m a fighter. A psycohologist in my work and life, I’m full of ideas when it comes to working with children. At the moment, I’m conducting several projects: in 1st and 2nd grade I lead “Storytherapy” sessions on various topics, aiming at reducing aggression, negative emotions and feelings and developing values. With the other classes, I work on preventing abuse, aggression and drug use. I work on health education and many other issues.
I started working with the Red Paper Plane program this academic year, although I wanted to begin last year. I thought a programme like “Design Champions” would give my students the confidence they need. The topics are interesting, we only work in teams and the children need to be helping each other. Each project has a great dynamic, and the students’ engagement is very high. These are the exact results I got — after we complete a day, they say “Miss, I never knew I could do this?!” You should see the glow in their eyes, there’s really no way to describe it. I just answer, smiling: “See, you can! You did a great job!”. And on Friday, having freshly completed the project, my little designers are already asking impatiently: “What’s the next mission, miss, what is it? You know but you’re not telling us, right?”
I see the results I am able to achieve, I see kids coming and asking me “When are we going to see you again?”. The missions are interesting , they learn new things and they discover themselves. This makes me confident that we’re on the right track.
Thank you, Red Paper Plane, for the emotions you gift us with each new mission!
“There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.” — Robert Frost
Red Paper Plane is creating innovative learning programs with design thinking for kids
age 4–10 — ”Design Explorers” for the home and “Design Champions” for educational environments
