The goal of the Teach for Ukraine Fellowship program is to ensure equal access to education and opportunities for every child in Ukraine to realize their potential, regardless of their place of birth or residence.
To achieve this, the community launched a program for young people — those who wish to teach can move for one or two years to small communities and work in local schools.
The Education Law allows recruiting people without pedagogical education to teach. “Teach for Ukraine” helps participants improve their teaching skills regardless of their work experience or specialty. Applicants go through a six-stage selection process where they try themselves in interacting with children.
DIVOCHE.MEDIA shares the stories of three women who decided to change their lives to become teachers.
“I often hear from children that this subject is difficult, and I fully understand them,” — Sofia Myshelova, math teacher at Velykodimersky Lyceum in Kyiv region
I wanted to somehow turn my life around, even though everything was stable and comfortable for me as much as possible during the war.
After graduating university, I went to work in a bank. Mostly, I had technical tasks that could be done following described algorithms, without requiring live discussions or debates. I am an introvert — in school, I was a loner; in university, I also solved all tasks independently without needing communication with people. That became a challenge for me to apply for the program — to learn how to overcome fear of public communication and interaction with others.
I was also very drawn to the program’s idea that there should be equal access to education both for children from big cities and from rural areas. This experience is very close to me because I myself grew up in a village in the Odessa region. In my first year of university, during classes, almost all my classmates knew some interesting terms and could handle concepts I had never heard of in my life, though they learned them from school education. Then I felt that gap between the city and the village.
Working with children is interesting but difficult to focus their attention on the lesson instead of personal matters or gadgets. Although we often involve phones in lessons. So, my task is both phone work and attention during the lesson. I try to do this through their educational needs, even if they don’t realize they have them. It always helps when you tell a child how the academic knowledge they gain can be applied in real life.
I teach math to eighth graders. I often hear from children that this is a difficult subject, and I fully understand them. Educational losses at this age are very serious and noticeable. The current eighth graders missed normal, full lessons from fifth grade due to quarantine and full-scale invasion. So they missed the time when the foundation of knowledge had to be built, as in this science they rarely study something completely new. At the same time, if the basics are not learned on time, educational gaps deepen. That’s why children often don’t want to do tasks they can manage in class. I try to engage them by preparing tasks where they can cut and paste, for example, geometric shapes.
I will teach for two years. After the program, I want to work either in the education quality assessment system or put my efforts into methodological work.
“I believe that thanks to a quality educational system, Ukrainian society can become better,” — Natalia Filonova, Ukrainian language and literature teacher at the Lithuanian-Ukrainian Lyceum in Borodianka city
After graduating from a university in Ukraine, I spent a year interning at Gdańsk University for young researchers. Returning home, I started working as a pedagogue-organizer in a state school. That year showed me that I can’t imagine myself outside school and education. During that time, we won a grant to equip STEAM laboratories, organized many activities to collect help for soldiers in the East (this was long before the full-scale invasion). We also regularly organized quests, flash mobs, movie nights, clubs by interests, and workshops.
While teaching, I was also thinking about graduate studies, so I started considering different options in Ukraine and Europe. My family has Slovak origins. My grandmother, who raised me, was Slovak. After World War II, Soviet authorities resettled her parents from Czechoslovakia to Volyn. Then I learned that Warsaw University has a program researching Central European countries and studying their languages. I dreamed since childhood to learn the language and culture of the country where my family comes from. So I wanted to try to get into that program. Preparing for admission, I accidentally learned about Teach for Ukraine.
When I started working in the program, I noticed that many students use answers from “Ready Homework” books. So I began developing exercises for homework myself or, when possible, prepared creative assignments for them.
For example, I assigned them to develop an Instagram bio for the author whose work we studied. On one hand, kids can memorize basic facts of the author’s biography in an interesting form, and on the other — improve a very relevant skill today, managing a social media page. In my opinion, such an approach allows students to get not only theoretical knowledge but also important practical skills while preventing them from cheating and forcing them to work independently. Unfortunately, some parents didn’t understand this and were upset that I gave their children such tasks instead of “assigning exercises from the book.”
But such challenges seem small when you do what you want. In his memoir “Long Walk to Freedom,” Nelson Mandela writes, “Education is the great engine of personal development. Through it, children from ordinary families can become doctors and engineers. And a shepherd’s son — the president of a great nation.” These words resonate with me because I believe that thanks to a quality educational system, Ukrainian society can become better.
“I strive to be an adult a child can trust,” — Nadiya Naida, history teacher at Bucha Lyceum No. 5
When I came to teach history at Bucha Lyceum, students initially judged me by my appearance. There were jokes from children asking if I had finished school, then questions about my age and marital status. It didn’t scare me because I had a goal — to work so that children trust me and understand me without raising my voice.
Besides teaching, I started organizing a history and local lore club that grew to 20 participants. We organize exhibitions and historical events at school, including learning to talk about the experience of occupation. Often children approach me themselves to personally share their stories, and in lessons, historical events are compared with the Russian-Ukrainian war. Some students talk a lot about it; they really need to express themselves. When I first came to teach and asked about the occupation, students said that at the beginning of the war, they felt unwanted, but then they realized their testimonies were important in the context of the war.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to accept what, for example, current fifth graders saw during the occupation, but my expectations of teaching have come true. I wanted to be a teacher who can engage students in lessons, take them on excursions, or just be a stable adult for someone. Not everything is perfect, but I feel I am moving in the right direction.
Anyone willing can try to become a teacher; you need a bachelor’s degree and to pass a multi-stage selection. This spring, the NGO “Teach for Ukraine” team is also inviting motivated young people to apply for the program and teach in schools in small settlements.
Participants receive a monthly income consisting of a teacher’s salary and a stipend paid for fulfilling program participation conditions.
The material made in partnership with DIVOCHE.MEDIA
