Teresa Segaliene, technology teacher, Vilnius Shalom Aleichem ORT Gymnasium, Vilnius, Lithuania

Even now, when the prize is standing in my classroom, I can’t believe it. I was taken aback. I only tried to do my job so that a modern child’s life, with all its high demands, became more interesting and calmer. I always try to turn negatives into positives, try to find an activity for a child to like it.

This is how my story went – for 30 years I taught Maths. I teach Technology now.

The most difficult part in teaching Technology is that, the reality of XXI century doesn’t meet technology lessons demands. I didn’t want to embroider. I teach children to mend clothes, not to embroider. I teach that every problem has at least three solutions, that information can be found in any language. If one can use this information – good for them. I insisted on assessment of my subject and proved to my colleagues it takes much effort from a child to design and print a toy, make a robot move along the line. Either no marks for all subjects, or at least some sort of a mark, although I don’t give unsatisfactory ones. I always encourage helping friends. I explain that in future these children may grow a business together. I use YouTube lessons and it matters neither for me nor for my students which language they are in. What’s important is getting useful information. I print the first dog designed by a child on his or her own on demand and give it to the child’s family, so that they could share the joy. I make a small dog 1*1*2cm. I managed to prove that material consumption is little, but the model brings immense happiness. Sometimes such a small dog can tell you more than you think. Parents show it to relatives, take it to work to show it to colleagues.

I want to see children’s shining eyes.

I’m sincerely grateful to ORT for fascinating seminars, selecting good speakers and equipping classrooms. Collaboration with ORT gives me confidence in getting state-of-the-art knowledge, I can always count on ORT’s support. I like the way my ORT colleagues work - those clever people responsible for Jewish youths.

I wish advanced practice of countries, which gained success in teaching children (Finland, Canada, Hong Kong), could spread faster. I’m very grateful to ORT and all the technicians and IT-specialists who I can always address for help. A special “thank you” to all the donors who support ORT. May they be generously repaid.

Niina Botina, Computer Science teacher, ORT Tallinn Jewish School, Tallinn, Estonia

World ORT Excellence Award is very important for me. I view it as support and recognition of my work at ORT Tallinn Jewish School.

I became a teacher by chance. 30 years ago I wanted my daughter to enter a school specialized in English. The school was booked and I offered my professional skills of a programmer. I got an invitation to work as an ICT teacher once a week. On starting to work at school I was surprised by the amount of clever and talented children and it is interesting to work with them, communicate, they handle the computer easily. Though back in 1987 those were absolutely different computers.

The first obstacle in my practice was the fact that ICT was on curriculum but there were no computers at school. Then I agreed with regional Polytechnic University that children, who are interested, would attend their computer lab. This is how it worked 30 years ago.

For some time we had outdated computers, which would go down when working in some applications. However we received new computers from ORT, and I’d like to use this opportunity and express my gratitude for help.

There was another issue. I attended brilliant Arduino courses taught in Estonian. There are no cost-free courses in Russian. I mastered the course and learnt Estonian terms. Course materials were also in Estonian. In spring 2016 I attended ORT courses “Modelling of autonomous vehicles” remotely. These courses helped me to understand the terminology (home tasks were especially useful). After that I went to Kazan to attend courses in June 2016, which also added to my professional growth. After that I managed to translate course materials into Russian. Starting from September 1, 2016 I launched Arduino robotics class for grade 9 students.

Being part of ORT school network is very helpful. We are provided with seminars, webinars and courses that keep us up to date in terms of IT. Certainly it helps to grow as professionals. I have the opportunity to communicate with colleagues from abroad. Participating in contests and projects motivates our students and makes their school life more interesting.

So I managed to master and start teaching Arduino robotics course for grade 9 students. We took part in a regional project called Esti 2.0 and won a 3D-printer. We took 15th and 16th places among 61 competitors in Robotex 2016, category “Moving in the Line”. It was our first experience in this competition. This year we placed 34th and 36th among 112 competitors in the same category. We also got the 2nd and 3rd prizes in drawing competition.

For me personally collaboration with ORT stands for getting together at the seminars and courses with such professionals as Igor Kot, Nikolai Tsybulyanko, Sergei Petrov, and Sergei Kosachenko. It means qualification upgrade when sharing experience with colleagues from abroad, it’s an opportunity to see others’ achievements at contests and take part in distance or in-person courses.

I was very flattered by receiving World ORT Excellence Award directly from ORT directors, who came to Tallinn. It was very nice to meet them and have a talk. Thank you for your warm words.

ORT has brilliant management, I love working with this organization. I’m proud to be working at ORT Tallinn Jewish School.