The teacher Alicia Tojeiro She teaches in a public school in Oleiros (A Coruña) and has just been recognized as the best primary school teacher in Spain for the methodology and approach she applies in the classroom to 10-year-old students, who consists of “listening with the heart”, is the “teaching of being and knowing”.
“The children go to class happily, they enjoy learning, they are supportive, they investigate, they learn by doing, feeling and sharing,” explains Tojeiro in an interview in which he emphasizes that his award “has been won by the school of the heart, which shows that children go happy to class and that you can learn by playing, that it is fun, and that there is no education without families “.
However, Alicia Tojeiro (Vigo, 1978) clarifies that “the first one who has to go to school happy is the teacher, so that you can convey that illusion. “” You have to believe in what you do first, humanity is needed, be open to communication, to respect “, maintains this professor of the Plurilingual CEIP Isidro Parga Pondal, where she maintains a “horizontal” relationship with parents and children.
Precisely, the parents of his students were the ones who submitted their candidacy for the Educa Abanca Award, in this fourth edition for the third time, in which Alicia has imposed herself on teachers from all over Spain and in which she has obtained a diploma of recognition, a statuette and 1,000 euros, which in all probability she will use for her educational projects.
The parents of her 17 fifth graders, whom she teaches through projects, natural and social sciences, mathematics, language and values, contribute in the tasks that the classroom needs, such as renovating it, and they interact with Alicia daily, a lot on the phone, so “in the end they love you”, is a constant communication about children and their circumstances.
On any given day of any month, the schoolchildren enter the classroom and dance, choose the music, then one of them acts as a “heart doctor” and asks the others how they are doing, empathize and develop their intra and interpersonal capacities.
The spray of joy or the eraser of bad thoughts are some of the tools that these children use and that the coronavirus pandemic has forced to save in a drawer, so “this year we just listened and talked to each other.” Simply.
The schedule of this class is altered depending on variables such as the priorities of the children themselves, but “You always start by talking, dancing and listening.” Then comes the content, the materials, which Alicia translates from the abstract to the practical, for example, in the design of a shelter for animals they have to calculate the perimeter and the area, and first they manipulate a rope, talk about surface, and then the calculations arrive.
Creativity, talent, the multiple moments in this class to teach and also to invent, create, individually, in pairs and in groups, have a single premise, “the idea is always to touch the heart, to move, because once you get excited, the brain kicks in. “
These children share a concern for a common goal with their diverse abilities to seek a social purpose, to help someone, thinking about education as a transformer of the world, as a project focused on doing good to the community that they have managed to translate into a renowned game, Limpiamundos, in collaboration with Crecer Creando de A Coruña, or Limpiacovid.
The classroom has to adapt to this approach but, he adds, “not all teachers are willing, many are pressured by content, fear prevails, the rigidity of standardized tests, that is why people do not risk so much “.
As the mother of a child enrolled in a private school, Alicia admits that she suffers because “I feel like I’m rowing alone.” “When your child does not meet the pattern stipulated by the educational system, sometimes you row alone, teachers should think that we are building and that it is a long process “.
He instills strength in his students and that is why neither COVID slows them down, “You have to be resilient,” he says, and act as a “world cleaner”, their opportunity to help overcome this situation, and with humor they launched the Syrup of Laughter project to help other children cope with that moment. “I encourage you to take advantage of every day in class, every minute, you have to empower them and You do not have to be afraid”, says the teacher in case there was another confinement.
At the moment, the fast-paced and endearing story of the dog Quin and respect for animals, the book on spelling with humor and rhymes and the numerous initiatives of this teacher and her students to learn and especially to help have received a well-deserved award that will undoubtedly be the first.
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