Teaching sciences was the main subject of the “First Class Teacher” Program conference held at the PAFF and UW School of Education on October 3, 2018. The event was attended by over 130 early childhood education teachers and experts.
early childhood education teachers and experts.
The participants were welcomed by the representatives of organizations involved in the program – Sylwia Żmijewska-Kwireg of the Center for Citizenship Education Foundation, Alicja Pacewicz of the School with Class Foundation, and Karolina Rewska of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. Katarzyna Znaniecka-Vogt of the PAFF and UW School of Education gave an address on behalf of the conference host.
The lecturers shared their experiences regarding good methods of working and together with the participants they tried to work out the ways of making lessons more interesting and stimulating the pupils’ imagination.
“Children know more than we, teachers, realize. It’s worth believing in their skills and challenging them with tasks that will stimulate them to discover the world on their own. We must make the pupils curious,” said Mirosław Dąbrowski, PhD, of University of Warsaw, who confronted the educational tradition of teaching math with actual children’s ability to learn.
Karolina Prus-Wirzbicka and Barbara Benisz, the early childhood education teachers, presented the examples of modern games that can be used successfully in work with pupils at school.
Professor Stanisław Czachorowski of University of Warmia and Mazury presented some interesting ideas allowing to create nature labs at every school. The participants shared their ideas on how and where such labs can be created, and how to encourage pupils’ natural interest in learning the world.
The capstone of the meeting were methodological workshops conducted by experts and educators.
The event was organized by the School with Class Foundation and the Center for Citizenship Education Foundation in cooperation with the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, PAFF and UW School of Education, and mBank Foundation.
The “First Class Teacher” Program supports professional development of early childhood education teachers. It has been run since 2014 and offers training support, an e-coaching course, teaching aids, and the Internet experiences sharing platform as a supplement. The program is managed by the School with Class Foundation and the Center for Citizenship Education Foundation, and supported by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation as part of the “Learning Schools” Program.
