Hello teacher!

Two young teachers go from the city to the village. Like in old Soviet films. “Such things” went to the village of Glazov Tambov region to see how modern romantics-pedagogues live, who abandoned warm megacities

Roxane Ponomarenko is 22 years old, she is from Yekaterinburg. In the summer she finished the pedagogical. Muscovite Arina Sachkova 23 years old, in the trunk - MPGU named after Lenin and a whole year of experience in a private capital school. Both last winter accidentally learned about the “Teacher for Russia” project and caught fire to participate in it. The New Teacher and the Higher School of Economics are selected and taught talented young specialists who are eager to change the world for the better, to work in ordinary regional schools of the Kaluga, Voronezh, and Tambov regions. Most project schools are in regional cities and district centers. The girls chose the work in a rural school themselves.

By modern standards, a large village - almost one and a half thousand people - and quite prosperous. It feels life in it. Several grocery and economic stores, Sberbank, a large culture house with interest circles, a new playground, a restored church. But here and there the eye clings to abandoned houses and entire parts of the streets - the remains of the former luxury. Once in the eye there were almost five thousand inhabitants, a millionaire state farm, enterprise. Now there is practically no work. In almost every family, someone leaves for earnings, watch: to Voronezh, to Moscow. To the district center - Michurinsk - an hour by bus along a snowy road. From there night by train to Moscow. There are no lamps. It’s dark at night, stars, dogs bark, and snow crunches underfoot.

Arina Sachkova photo: Oksana Yushko for TD Roxana Ponomarenko photo: Oksana Yushko for TD

On the central street, the eye, which, oddly enough, is named not Lenin, but Pushkin, all local attractions are collected, including the local comprehensive school (the full name of the school sounds, like most modern abbreviations in education, quite intricately - the Glazkovo branch of the MBOU of the Kochetovsky secondary school named after the Hero of the Soviet Union N. Sherstov).

Advanced rural school

The school, I must admit, makes a stunning impression. For the village unexpectedly. The first association is the estate. But there were no noble estates in the eye. Locals are quite smiling at the already familiar reaction of the guests. The school is new, such a one was built in return for a burned standard three -story building eight years ago. They only forgot about the gym. They promise to finish, but then the matter is not going further.

Two girls come towards. One seven-eight, the second is older, with a charming smile and a silver star on the cheek. This is Roxana Igorevna

There are several pairs of skis at the entrance. Someone brought a physical education lesson. They ride immediately on the field 100 meters from the school. And some are skiing and conveniently get to school. A third of the guys are brought from a neighboring village by bus. In total, at school from zero to the 11th grade now 96 students. In the 11th this year, the only graduate. I go in with trepidation. Get into someone else's school in the middle of the lesson and call the teacher to the mobile - crime of the highest test. New Year's week. There is a large Christmas tree in the lobby of the first floor, walls in tinsel and snowflakes. But the whole hall is at the entrance - in posters about the rules of the road and the harm of smoking and drugs.

Two girls come towards. One seven-eight, the second is older, with a charming smile and a silver star on the cheek. This is Roxanne Igorevna, a teacher of Russian, literature and English in primary and middle classes. In English, second -graders concentrately make New Year's cards from colored paper, simultaneously repeating the English alphabet in verses. Roksana Igorevna cuts the workpiece for postcards and tells the guys that postcards will be presented to grandparents in the nursing home.

At the break, Arina Mikhailovna is looking at. Her lessons have already ended, and only a slight rout of the dining room is ahead. They promised to bake gingerbread with children. From the school principal, the teachers received almost a complete card blanche. If you want a stove, bake. The stove and decorate the gingerbread work 30 - both girls and boys from different classes.

Arina Sachkova and Roksana Ponomarenko in the village

“The first month, parents somewhat warily asked if it was normal that children are drawn in literature lessons,” says director Nadezhda Dmitrievna Sorokina. - I went to see myself - yes, fine! Let them sing, let them draw, let them do everything that helps to absorb the material. I really like what an open and creative atmosphere in girls in the lessons. I immediately said: everything that is not prohibited is allowed. Let them carry their desks, let them sit down, as they want, if only there was a result. ”

There are many children, someone is raised by grandmothers, on someone from childhood, someone was a witness to the death of his father

They call themselves teachers. Like Bel Kaufman in the famous novel “Up the stairs leading down” - about how much one enthusiastic teacher can change even in the most difficult school. At a break on Roxan, children hang by clusters. And somehow, suddenly, the whole GURBA begins to rush with a train, noise, din, fun and twenty people on the tail. Adult teachers look condescendingly, but friendly teachers at the fun of teachers. In the load by 25 hours a week, each has a cool guide. Roxanne has a fifth grade, Arina's eighth. When at the parent meeting they arranged a tea party with a Charlotte, there was a break of templates. Parents are used to listening to the negatives at the meetings, and then everyone received a note with gratitude for the child and a description of his achievements. When the class has seven and eight people, everyone manages to find out and understand.

Teachers, communicating with colleagues in the program who left for other places, believe that they were very lucky with the school and the director. Here is a very good atmosphere, bright. And the children are open, everyone is feeling. Although many have enough problems. There are large, someone is raised by grandmothers, on someone from childhood, someone was a witness to the death of his father. There are unexpectedly bright heads. They were just born. Although they have the same problems at home.

Teachers conquer the village

The life of visiting rural teachers is also very cinema. They say that they did not expect the locals to surround them. They met from the train, found the house. They applied vegetables from their farms, lard, butter. They taught how to do cabbage rolls. They brought them to the hand, to whom to go for eggs, and to whom for milk. Processed bicycles. The neighbor shared a password from his Wi-Fi. At first, everyone looked around whether they figured out a gas boiler, water, whether everything works. When Roxanne fell ill, they came to treat her with pork fat. “This is the main medicine,” Arina laughs. - What hurts is smearing with lard. And it helps, what is the most amazing. ” “At first we were confused, we did not know what we could thank for such care. And at school they accepted right away, without straining, ”says Roxanne. “They didn’t throw them into the arms, but good, workers, even relations developed right away.”

Arina Sachkova House Photo: Oksana Yushko for TD Roxana Ponomarenko at home photo: Oksana Yushko for TD

From home to school for about five or seven walks. A large village house for three families with three separate entrances. In the courtyard is a dozen various outbuildings. Toilet in the far corner. Sarai, garage, chicken coop. A formidable dog on a chain. And clearly in the summer of the beds. Terrace, canopy, large cuisine with a bathroom, two bedrooms and a living room, amenities in the yard. Refrigerator in the kitchen in quotes from Brodsky.

They come home from school, leave notebooks and go to the store. Almost daily ritual. Buy olives, delicious local bread, vegetables, sometimes sausages. The veranda has already gathered local cats. For dinner, everyone has a paste of Bolognaz, salad and cheesecake in Glazkovsky. They usually have lunch at school for 300 rubles a month. There is no cafe. Of the entertainment on Saturdays, a disco at a local club. There are few youth in the village.

At first, the arrival of the teachers caused a revival of the male population. Hi-hee, haha, ayda walk, girls, you are not married. When the boyfriends at two in the morning began to sober up the doorbell and walk under the window, the frightened potential brides at the next morning talked about visitors at school and neighbors, and those blown up.

“We went to the local disco a couple of times. In general, there are no alcoholics in the village. Everything is very calm and moderate. But they cannot rest or dance without alcohol. We somehow invited two friends to visit. But the conversation did not set. The guests added wine, asked why we drink so little, and listened in bewilderment of our stories about the school. It seems that there are no princes-princes,-Roxanne laughs. “Or we have not met them yet.”

Sometimes they go out for a walk in the mood, amusing funny, fastening huge glasses, silver stars, funny accessories. And they arrange a holiday for themselves. Arina's accessories are made of silver insulation.

Every evening in their living room-teaching, they gather each with their notebooks for verification, prepare for lessons the next day. Arina makes cards for English. Roxanne, grumbling, fills out a magazine from which she blocked for two weeks. Arina teases that it is better, like her, to spend twenty minutes every day at school. Roxanne Igorevna is not to her liking. In the first quarter, they put only four and five, then the director softly asked to be “not so kind”. The printer occupies the main place in the living room. It was bought from the first scholarship. Most materials prepare and print them for the lessons themselves. To the usual teacher's salary, it is with the teachers of 17-18 thousand, they receive a scholarship of 35 thousand according to the program. The director was busy in the local department of education, and, perhaps, there will be a local surcharge of another 2500. The salary is transferred to the old -speed savings. There is no ATM in the village.

The ease of being

Teachers believe that for the locals they are a little strange - such alien. “We have an easier attitude to life and to the very status of a teacher. With children on an equal footing. We can dress up with them, sing, watch cinema and there is pizza. They allow themselves to joke over us. The cultivated distance teacher-teacher does not automatically compliance with discipline, ”Arina is convinced. “Some closes on the system: step to the left, step to the right. How can you write dictations not in a notebook for dictations. I got caught with this, ”Roxanne rolled his eyes laughing.

Arina Sachkova and Roksana Ponomarenko at school

“Those who have been working for 20 years are tortured by regulations and checks. They cannot let go of the situation. And we have a different approach. We do not make any revolutions, but we have an inner feeling of freedom. I can sit on the floor with children and read books. Recently, we read the “terrible revenge” of Gogol by candlelight. And vocabulary words are best remembered during the game of “Viselitsa” or “Crocodile”.

The main thing is to look at the lesson through the eyes of the child. He is bored with 45 minutes to listen to the rules of the Russian language. The school should not be a ward in which children are sentenced to spend 11 years. You need to be as interactive as possible, then even eighth graders come off the phones, ”says Roxanne.

With reading, it is difficult for almost everyone and in all classes. There are almost no books at home, the school library burned down

We eat sweets remaining from such an interactive lesson of literature in the seventh grade. How to attract the attention of seven -graders to poetry? Just force to teach - does not work. Roksana Igorevna invited the children to make candy wrappers for sweets with a secret. Choose your favorite poem and rewrite two quatrains per piece. The boys make physiognomy from love lyrics, and Roxanne offers to choose any poetry from the collection of poetry that she brought. Silence reigns for a few minutes, while one of the guys, leafing through the book, suddenly exclaims: “Oh, Pasternak is a topic,” and begins to write quickly. Somewhere, once Pasternak had already surfaced in the lesson, and now, he found his new admirer. Then, in each such candy wrapped sweets, collect in one bag, stretch out in turn and read out loud who got something. With reading, it is difficult for almost everyone and in all classes. There are almost no books at home, the school library burned down. In middle classes, software works are often read aloud, and in parallel they draw what they hear about.

Although already on experience they realized that sometimes, no matter how the teacher got it, they do not listen to him. “It happens, you say something, you are all trembling from the topic, and suddenly someone from the class says:“ Oh, you have Reebok sneakers? And I have the same. " - And all. You understand that you are not talking about them about Taras Bulba, but a person in sneakers, with a hairstyle, jewelry. They look at you all. They catch your emotions, sensations, and this mutual process is very interesting, ”says Arina. “I somehow started a week of deep longing for the house,” says Roxanne. - I came to the lesson in the seventh grade and realized that I could not conduct literature. And we just began to talk. Stand up the children, stand in a circle, here is my laptop. ” Roxanne admits that then instead of literature she used a lesson as a session of psychotherapy from seven -leggeds. She told them about her family, her house, showed photos. Roxanne says that the family until her departure at the end of August thought it was some kind of joke. Before that, she had never left her parents anywhere. Arina's mother asked with surprise: "What, there were no closer schools?" Arina assured not. She, on the contrary, wanted to go away. "The more contrast - the cooler."

Arina Sachkova and Roksana Ponomarenko in her house in the village of Glazov photo: Oksana Yushko for TD Arina Sachkova and Roksana Ponomarenko in her house in the village of Glazov photo: Oksana Yushko for TD

The "Teacher for Russia" program is designed for two years. Roxanne with Arina in the eye is only the first academic year and think what they will do later until they want to. “Our teachers look with interest at the positive that girls radiate, and admit that they are completely different. We all want changes. And I am ready to do everything to stay here. I generally see Arina in place of the head teacher. It seems to me that she will succeed, ”says the director of the Glazkovo school.

“I still can’t understand, this is a program for people who want to teach, or for children from whom new teachers will most likely leave in two years. The motto of the program "Help the child to become the author of your life." But in reality it turns out differently, ”Arina did not understand herself.

“It seems to me that the main task is to make a person who understands what he wants, what is interesting and what is important and interesting to people around him,” Roxanne argues. - In a regular school, this is not. For the child, they decide in advance where he should go and what to want. Read, write and even go to the toilet by permission. Almost the first thing we did was canceled the rule to ask permission to come out. You can go out, you can raise a pen from the floor, you can ask for an eraser - this is an endless series of unnecessary questions that only distract everyone. Of course you can! "