Two Argentines were chosen among the 50 best teachers in the world

Ricardo Braginski

09/09/2021 3:01 AM

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 09/09/2021 3:01 AM

“I feel full satisfaction in being in the classroom. See how children are changing, see them mature from what they do, grow as people. Knowledge gives them freedom: they will be able to decide whether to work in a factory, continue studying or raise a family. They will have all the options and will be able to choose what to do ”,

Gisela Gómez (35)

, a professor at the Provincial Institute of Technical Education No. 85 in Estación General Paz, a town located 35 kilometers from Córdoba Capital

, tells

Clarín

.

Gisela is one of

the two Argentines selected among the 50 best teachers

in the

world

in the Global Teacher Prize 2021, a prize that has already been consolidated as the "Nobel Prize in education" and that

delivers a million dollars.

They competed against more than 8 thousand candidates from 121 countries.

In November the winner will be known

.

Ana Maria Stelman.

He maintained continuity in 2020 with vulnerable boys.

Born in

Plateau

and a primary teacher in the Buenos Aires capital,

Ana María Stelman (56) is the other chosen Argentine

.

Ana María always wanted to be a teacher and turned her vocation to

teach the most vulnerable children

.

“Teaching is in my blood, I can't imagine doing anything else.

I am excited to see when the boys progress

, to see that they are happy.

Give them tools to find happiness.

I always tell them: 'what they do in the future, they have to be the best' ", Ana María now tells this newspaper.

From bromatology to the classroom

The two Argentine teachers arrive at this distinction by very different paths.

In Gisela's case, she was chosen mainly

for her personal career of self-improvement

, in addition to the achievements obtained.

"Fate plays," he says now, and tells how he came to teaching.

The third daughter of 7 of a family from Córdoba Capital (plaster father, housewife mother), Gisela

studied bromatology

at a tertiary institute, which she received at the age of 21.

Gisela Gomez.

He works with his students on food science projects.

Received, the world of work was uphill.

“I had to do inspections, the environment was hostile.

I had

a vocational crisis

”.

It was then that the father of a friend suggested that she train to be a teacher (the destiny that plays).

With a complementary pedagogical path - of 2 and a half years - I could start giving classes on topics related to food science.

And he did.

"As soon as I passed the last subject and I graduated, I quit my job - at that time in a hypermarket - and

signed up to teach

."

As there were no good places in the Córdoba Capital schools, he enrolled in General Paz, a rural town whose only secondary school is

oriented to the food industry

.

That was in 2011. He got positions to work from 10.30 to 18. “It is very positive when you can dedicate

all day to the same high school

.

Projects can be done.

Our proposal is that the boys can acquire disciplinary knowledge linked to their interests and the problems of the local environment ”, he says.

Gisela Gomez.

He works with his students on food science projects.

Among the fundamentals to be chosen for the global contest are the achievements it has achieved in these years.

In 2014 the students created candies made from nopal and candies fortified with vitamins C and E, which helped to balance their own diet.

In 2015, they took 245 samples from the water tanks of the General Paz Station homes, analyzed them in the school laboratory and verified that 11 had the Escherichia Coli bacteria, which causes intestinal diseases.

They organized a campaign to sanitize tanks and raise awareness about this problem.

Gisela highlights

the diversity in her school

, which has

450 students

and is attended by students from vulnerable sectors and also from the middle class.

"They are from the same area, they have the same customs," says the teacher, who attends

Clarín

from school and leaves homework for her students to do this interview.

“Here they treat me of you, it shows

the distance, the respect and the affection they have

.

This school is

my second home, I would never leave it

”, he affirms and highlights that this distinction would not have been possible

without the teamwork

that he carries out with the other teachers and encouraged by the director, Juan Domingo Moyano.

Motivation before anything else

Ana María Stelman says that she was always a primary teacher and worked "in the classroom" teaching children, that she had the opportunity to be a director or supervisor (with the possibility of a higher salary), but

she preferred to continue teaching

, and especially to children of the most vulnerable neighborhoods, such as the current school 7, in the Hipódromo de La Plata neighborhood.

Ana Maria Stelman.

He maintained continuity in 2020 with vulnerable boys.

She was chosen for what she accomplished with her students: many of them rose to prominence at science fairs.

But, above all, for the work he did to

maintain continuity after the closing of schools

last year.

In the grade that taught, only one boy had computer access.

He says he tried to videoconference on WhatsApp, but he usually ended up giving classes by phone conversation.

“A boy said to me 'And how do I do the U'?

I had to explain it to him over the phone, ”he recalls.

But before, Ana María had already stood out for the projects she undertook in schools.

For example, at the racetrack, with vulnerable kids and in a neighborhood full of loose horses, the first thing she heard was "Be careful, don't talk to kids about horses who get too distracted."

Ana Maria Stelman.

He maintained continuity in 2020 with vulnerable boys.

But he did the opposite: he went to the Veterinary Faculty of the National University of La Plata to seek advice to work with the boys precisely from what generates the most interest in them.

She created the project "Why are there so many horses in my neighborhood", visits to the racetrack with a veterinarian and more related workshops.

They also worked with compost based on horse manure, worms and the production of seedlings.

Now she says that she did not intend to sign up for this award, although the director and colleagues had suggested it to her.

But what decided her was when "the girls in the kitchen" told her.

"That award is for you, they told me with great affection," he remembers.

And the "girls" were right.

How is the award

Known as the "Nobel of education", the "Global Teacher Prize" seeks to

value the work of teachers

.

Organized by the Varkey Foundation, in partnership with UNESCO, it is in its seventh edition.

Any teacher in the world can participate, who

gives classes to boys in the levels of compulsory schooling in public schools

.

The two Argentine teachers will now have to compete to see who gets the jackpot.

It is

a million dollars

, but under the commitment that must be used to continue developing the project for which they were awarded.

The winner will be announced in Paris in November 2021.

For the first time they will award students and the country put two in the top 50

They are both 17-year-old young Argentines.

And although they have very different origins,

today they are united by the same happiness

: having been selected among

the 50 best students in the world,

in the first edition of the international Chegg.org Global Student Prize, which awards

$ 100,000 to the winner

.

Lisandro Acuña.

From the ORT school.

They are

Lisandro Acuña

from the ORT school, from Capital;

and

Maximiliano Sánchez

, from School 5005 JUAN XXIII, from General Mosconi, Salta.

Maximiliano Sánchez.

Student of General Mosconi, Salta.

Lisandro was already promising since he was little.

He was only 8 years old when he began participating in Mathematics competitions and reached

second place in the National Olympiad at 9

.

Today, he puts his energy into using what he knows about mathematics and computer science in solving everyday life problems.

Together with a team of three friends, he developed LectO: a free application consisting of a text editor that

makes reading and writing easier for people with dyslexia

.

LectO has already been used by 5,000 people in the country, Uruguay and Spain.

Maximiliano is a member of the Wichi ethnic group.

He is finishing high school and says he

wants to help other young Wichi do it

.

He dreams of creating a secondary school in his community to combat the dropouts that he sees around him.

Academically, he won a Mathematics competition and the first prize in the First Provincial Literature Contest (genre poetry).

Maximiliano Sánchez.

Student of General Mosconi, Salta.

Students who entered the Global Student Prize were evaluated for their academic achievement, but also for their impact on their peers, how they make a difference in their community, how they overcome obstacles, how they demonstrate creativity and innovation, and how they act. as global citizens.