Veteran and first-time teachers begin new school year

Teachers of different generations are starting the new school year, LSM’s Latvian Radio reported, including an educator who has worked in schools for more than 50 years, a new teacher entering a classroom for the first time and a mathematics teacher who will switch to physics this year.

Johanna Adakovska, 82, said she continues working because she enjoys being with colleagues and students, talking to them and helping them.

“What else would I do at home? Just sit and read and weed all the time?” she said.

Adakovska teaches physics and engineering at Uzvaras Primary School and works with students preparing for mathematics Olympiads at Bauska State Gymnasium. In recent years, she has reduced her workload to eight lessons a week.

“I reduced my workload so I would not have to mark exercise books every evening. Earlier, when I taught mathematics full-time, I did nothing in the evenings but sit over exercise books. We older teachers marked everything constantly, both homework and everything else,” she said.

She has noticed that younger teachers often listen to answers orally instead of asking students to complete tasks in their exercise books.

Adakovska said she preferred working at Uzvaras Primary School, where classes are smaller and she can speak with each student and give them more individual attention. She added that rural children behaved better than urban children.

At Bauska State Gymnasium, she was persuaded to teach mathematics as an elective and prepare students for Olympiads, although she had warned that she did not know how long she would be able to continue. She said working with students preparing for Olympiads was easier and more interesting because they wanted to learn.

A new teacher interviewed by Latvian Radio said she wanted to make a real contribution to her life. A physics teacher at Carnikava Secondary School said teachers also need to be challenged.