September 1st was an important day for Garik when he was a student, a university student and a teacher. He hopes to welcome this coming September 1st in one of the schools of Artsakh too, and accompany one of the teachers to their new workplace.
Garik Vanyan moved to the village of Mets Shen of Shushi region, Artsakh, through Teach For Armenia program two years ago. After discharging from the army, the teacher, biologist decided to use the opportunity to pursue his profession and at the same time get acquainted with Artsakh.
In 2017, Teach For Armenia sent 4 Teacher-Leaders to Artsakh. Next year, already 14 teachers were placed in the villages of Artsakh, and Garik was one of them.
“First of all, the program provided me with teaching experience as well as a change of scenery. I love comfort, and Artsakh helped me get out of my comfort zone, which leads to stagnation. Outside the comfort zone, stages of growth and self-knowledge begin. You live alone, your community changes, people change, everything changes. It’s a lot of stress, which makes you think about where you have been before that moment and where you are headed. In this regard, these two years were time for me to think, to explore and to evaluate things.”
Garik completed the program last month but won’t be going to Artsakh. He is going to help new teachers who have moved to Artsakh spend the two years of teaching productively. He believes that everyone should do what they do best. For Garik, the programs for upcoming years revolve around Artsakh and the sphere of education.
“When I was a program participant, a Leadership Development Manager was working with me, helping me develop pedagogical skills, methods of communication with students, assess the needs of the community. Now it’s my turn to work with teachers. I am going to visit communities, attend lessons, help the teachers work in the classroom to the best of their abilities, use their knowledge, master new technologies and be flexible specialists.”
Photo: from personal archive
Prior to assuming responsibilities of a Leadership Development Manager, Garik worked at the Summer Academy. The intensive 7-week training program is for teachers who have applied to Teach For Armenia and reached the final stage. The Academy is held online this year. The participants have already gained the necessary skills and knowledge to work with students and have reached the practical stage. Online lessons started on July 13 and are attended by 300 students from 24 communities.
“I work with English language teachers. I monitor the lesson online, then analyze it with the participants. The teachers record how they are getting ready for the next day’s lesson and we discuss it together. There are some technological difficulties but I am very glad that our Teacher-Leaders are trying to teach the children patiently, step by step,” says Margarita Khamoyan, TFA Leadership Development Manager.
Margarita traveled this journey years ago. In 2015, when Teach For Armenia began recruiting young specialists to place them in various communities of Armenia, Margarita moved to the border village of Choratan of Tavush to teach English.
Photo: from personal archive
“Those were years of shootings; the roads were closed and I could not go back to Yerevan. Then the April events began. The organization called and asked me if I wanted to return. I said, if these people are here, how can I leave them and go back? It was very interesting to watch the children’s internal conflicts. Some said there was nothing to do in the village, life was in Yerevan, while others said the opposite - this is ours, we must develop it.
I became a part of the community and took part in every event possible, be it an army party or a birthday. Those 2 years were a very important period of self-discovery: you gain independence, express yourself, learn your own potential and discover Armenia.”
Upon completing the program, Margarita never went back to her old job- translations. After working at a private school for a year, she decided to join Teach For Armenia as a Leadership Development Manager.
Many of the program's Alumni continue working with the Teach For Armenia Educational Foundation.
We met Husik Martirosyan 3 years ago, when he was teaching in the village of Yaghdan, Lori region. He said then that the program gave him the chance to do what he loved. Today, Husik lists his achievements.
“I have grown professionally and personally during the program. After you take that journey, you start thinking differently and in a more beautiful way, you look for other things in children and become someone who thinks like them. We have overcome difficulties together, we have worked together, which brings us very close to each other, and I can no longer imagine myself doing anything else but working with children. Now I think I am a much more child-centered, child-loving person.”
Since Husik has already decided to continue working in the sphere of education, he wanted to try something else. Husik has been mentoring TFA Teacher-Leaders since 2019.
Photo: Mediamax
“They are mostly people who have no experience in education and I have to help them pass this journey smoothly and as effectively as possible. I saw myself here too. I have a lot to pass on to teachers. If I am good at something, I definitely want to spread and multiply the result.”
Husik says he is looking at things from two perspectives: the combination of TFA Alumni and Leadership Development Manager makes the work more interesting and productive.
Lusine Gharibyan
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