An exchange of good practices under the National Program “Innovations in Action” was launched at Petko Rachov Slaveykov University of Applied Sciences. The school has been included in the network of innovative schools of Bulgaria for 7 years. For the fifth year in a row, Slaveykovci hosts, for the first time conducting the second stage of the mobility in the four-way partnership between two innovative and two non-innovative schools. The program is related to the implementation of mobility under the national program “Innovations in Action” for the academic year 2023-2024 with the participation of Secondary School “Petko Rachov Slaveykov” – innovative school – host and guests – teachers and students from Secondary School “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” – town of Velingrad – innovative school, PMG “Ivan Vazov” – town of Dobrich – non-innovative school and SU “St. Paisiy Hilendarski” – village of Mikrevo, region Blagoevgrad – non-innovative school.
The welcome of the guests took place already at the main entrance of “Slaveykov”, where the small cheerleaders and vocal groups from the elementary stage presented a short program. The student parliament welcomed the guests with pita and honey right at the entrance to the school, and the director Milko Bagdasarov invited the guests to officially cross the threshold. He personally led the tour of the school, in which the visiting teachers and students got to know the rich material and technical base and part of the teaching staff. After the tour in the assembly hall, hosts and guests held a discussion of innovations as a basis for increasing the motivation of students to participate in the learning process. High school students of “Slaveykov” presented their clubs and extracurricular activities – the Student Parliament, the “Helping Hand” movement, ECO UPKO, “Champions of Goodness”, WhiteHat, journalism club, photography club, etc. The guests, who also have interesting innovative practices, got an opportunity to present themselves. Director Milko Bagdasarov presented gifts to the schools in the person of deputy directors Veneta Tsanova from Velingrad and Krasimira Yaneva from Mikrevo, as well as to the team from Dobrich. In turn, he also received gifts, souvenirs and many kind words.
The first reunion evening took place on the banks of the Kardzhali dam with a welcome cocktail opened by the folk singer and teacher of the school of champions Filip Sinapov, with the talents of all schools, with a lot of cheer and informal conversations.
The second day of the visit was devoted to academic work. The guests observed two innovative lessons in the elementary stage – a combined lesson between Bulgarian language and literature and information technologies in the 3rd grade with teacher Ekaterina Bakardzhieva, dedicated to the sights in and around Kardzhali and an innovative lesson in the 3rd grade with teacher Anelia Akalieva with the theme of the Bayram and Easter holidays .
Later in the afternoon, the guests also participated in an innovative lesson in a high school stage at the top of Perperikon, where they were greeted by the guard, the god Dionysus and a priestess predicting a bright future for Bulgaria. The non-standard outdoor lesson was directly connected with the talk of the history teacher and licensed tour guide Georgi Kyuchukov, who also prepared the visualization of the legends of the past by the students. In addition to treating the guests to fruit and wine, the god Dionysus presented them with certificates and consecrated them in a solemn ceremony with the title “Conqueror of Perperikon”.
The visit of the group of hosts and guests to the folklore house “Garnatskine Konatsi” brought many impressions and emotions, conveyed by Philip Sinapov, who presented the Rhodopes in an exceptional way.
On the third day of the visit, the place of innovation was the assembly hall, where an interdisciplinary innovative lesson in Bulgarian and English, prepared by teachers Radiana Hristova and Hristina Yaneva, was demonstrated. The fifth-graders performed a theater dedicated to Easter, created by themselves, in which the Bulgarian and Western traditions for the holiday were intertwined. Grandmother Velika /in the role of Hristina Yaneva/ was the true personification of the powerful Bulgarian woman who bets on ours and denies foreign influence. Although it cannot be done without English, the message to remember and honor the Bulgarian language was felt very strongly.
The stage, figuratively speaking, was given to the “IstOrica” School headed by Dimitar Dimov, and the action moved to the courtyard, where from the stage the high school students reenacted the outbreak of the April Uprising and thrilled those present with the thunder of the cherry ball and the Vase “I’m from Batak, uncle…”
The young teacher Zlatomira Jisova presented her innovative mathematics lesson in the 9th grade, in which, using wooden right-angled triangles and a laser, the students, together with the guests, measured different heights that they could not reach with a tape measure, in order to be able to plan a possible renovation of a room. Thus, in practice, she proved to the young people the practical application of mathematics in life, and in a very interesting way.
Since both innovative schools – from Kardzhali and Velingrad – have a lot of experience in different types of school theater, a project session was planned with leaders Raina Paslieva and Alexandra Zaimova, who set tasks to groups of students from the hosts and guests, and in the end everyone enjoyed interesting and fun youth microtheatres.
On the last day of the mobility, the teachers – hosts and guests – discussed various exciting topics related to innovative practices and modern education and drew up the schedule of future meetings and joint initiatives. At that time, the students participated in sports meetings and prepared some of the materials – mobility products.
Neshka Shopova
