When I saw the photographs of Artem MALININ, and then looked through the materials sent by him: a lesson, a master class, methods and just reflections on the profession, I already got the impression of a young teacher. The confident knowledge of all ICT tools, the ability to present oneself and one’s work virtually, and the willingness to meet my desire to download a program more convenient for our video communication were not very surprising. By his age (30 years old), I first perceived him as a generation of “clicks”, that is, those for whom the Internet has always been.
For young people, it is not only natural to have information and communication technologies, but also participation in social networks, VK, Telegram channel is implied by itself. However, in my perception, even photos convey a much more important quality, in music, in oratory they call it “flight”. There are singers, actors and, of course, teachers, whose voice flows easily, as if by itself, and the manner of behaving makes you think about readiness for flight, for moving forward. It seems that they do everything without much effort, although this, of course, is not so, such a skill requires constant training.
Talking with Artem, I was convinced that he clearly has a flying ability. But about the “click” generation, it turned out differently. “I was born in Udmurtia, I myself am an Udmurt, the Russian language turned out to be the second. For sixteen years of his life he lived in the countryside, graduated from high school and went to the city of Izhevsk to enter the university. Although, you know, since childhood I was fond of athletics, played football and for some time even thought about a sports career. But the desire to get a higher education won, and history has always been my favorite subject, says Artem. “I learned about ICT, the possibilities of the Internet already at the university, I quickly learned everything, these are such huge sources of information, such fast means of communication!”
I ask traditional questions. Did your family influence your career choice? No, it didn’t in the sense that Artyom had complete freedom of choice, support. But still, he thinks, my mother is a speech therapist, her sisters are teachers … Probably, to some extent, the family environment influenced. In the fifth year, all students of the university had an internship, and Artem, in his opinion, ended up in an excellent educational institution. I realized that I can keep the attention of the class, cope with discipline, and most importantly, present the current topic in such a way as to interest the students.
After graduating from the university, in 2013 he came to work at the Udmurt State National Gymnasium named after Kuzebay Gerd. The website states that the school was founded in 1994. This is the only gymnasium in the republic that provides four levels of education (from preschool to profile secondary) and has a school boarding school. The mission of the gymnasium is the formation of the ethno-cultural competence of students. This concept includes knowledge of the traditions, culture of one’s own and other peoples living in the Udmurt Republic, acceptance of the differences of people around, based on national characteristics, the ability to self-realization in a multi-ethnic community.
The workload of a young teacher used to be 32 hours, this year – 24. I would like to have an “old” rate of 18 hours so that there is enough time for growth, for all the endless affairs of the so-called afternoon: checking notebooks, preparing for lessons, extracurricular activities , parent-teacher meetings, filling out magazines, cultural trips, advanced training … But, as the young man prosaically notes, you want to eat something, you have to gain more hours. He teaches lessons in high school, annually prepares his students for the OGE and the Unified State Examination. How did he enter the competition? After working for 6-7 years, I felt that the routine was starting to get stuck. Work – home – work plus tutoring for additional income, but when to live?
I wanted to experience new challenges. The Teacher of the Year competition was a logical choice. In Udmurtia, the process is clearly divided into two stages: first you send methodological materials, if you pass the qualifying round, the real competition begins. In 2020, Artem submitted his materials on his own and did not pass. This forced him to think carefully, to reconsider what he had learned.
A plan was gradually drawn up, in other words, the teacher learned from his own mistakes, tried to understand what the requirements were, what exactly of his own, original he could present to the judgment of his colleagues. In the first years of his work, he was assisted by advice from a history teacher with great experience and experience, Vladimir Vasilyevich Volkov. The director of the gymnasium, Tatyana Gennadievna Volkova, also supported the desire of the young teacher to take part in the prestigious competition. The employees of the Institute for the Development of Education were always ready to provide methodological assistance. There was someone to rely on, whom to ask.
But still, Artem Malinin believes that, first of all, one should work independently. You don’t need a team of assistants, because you show your own achievements, your talents. He was also influenced by the reaction of the students, who accepted the news that their young history teacher would participate in the competition with enthusiasm, rejoiced for him at every stage. Like any competition, advanced training, conference, competition takes a lot of time, additional strength is required, you have to be absent from your own lessons, and then catch up on what you missed, give lessons to an unfamiliar audience. If you have reached a high level, you will have trips to different cities. They provide a unique opportunity to meet other contestants, because our entire country is represented there, to feel like an equal among other talents.
The question about the methods used in the lessons makes Artem so excited that I again think: now it will take off! In his opinion, it is important for teachers to speak with students, including in a modern, understandable language of the Internet. This helps students to get involved in the learning process more easily and learn the material better. One of these tools to attract the attention of students, according to Malinin, are memes. According to Wikipedia meme (English meme [miːm]) is a unit of culturally significant information. A meme is any idea, symbol, manner, situation, or mode of action consciously or unconsciously transmitted from person to person through speech, writing, video, rituals, gestures, etc. The term “meme” and its understanding were introduced by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 in The Selfish Gene. Dawkins proposed the idea that all information significant for culture consists of basic units – memes.
“I actively use them in my lessons in a variety of formats as an interesting addition to the main program. For example, at the beginning of the lesson, such pictures act as motivation to start studying. In addition, memes can be presented as tasks to find errors or help in summarizing the material already covered. To generate memes, I use several Internet portals where you can upload a picture and make a caption. These are, for example, Clideo and iloveimg,” explains Malinin. – In our gymnasium, we also attach great importance to the use of video content in school life.
We have been running a media center for several years now, where we create educational and entertaining videos with the guys. This, in particular, is a video lecture on the topic of preparing for the OGE in history and a fragment of a lesson where I use the LearningApps platform, which allows you to create educational games. As for entertainment content, these are videos for Teacher’s Day, New Year, graduation and other holidays. The simplest digital video creation tool is the InShot mobile app. It allows you to quickly and easily edit, make captions, and much more.”
Like any conscientious teacher, Artem Malinin pays attention to teaching network security. By creating, for example, chat groups common with schoolchildren, he necessarily reminds the children of the need to use a code, password and not give out personal information about themselves on the Web. And in addition to academic and extracurricular activities, he finds time and energy to sometimes play football with colleagues and high school students. Is there time for hobbies? Yes, twice a month he broadcasts in the Udmurt language, he is attracted to this type of journalism. He believes that it is important to preserve the native language and culture. This is not only dance songs and national costumes on holidays, this is a centuries-old history of a whole people that needs to be preserved, told about it to new generations.
Being a teacher means being in demand, Malinin believes. “Therefore, in addition to working at school, I am engaged in other projects. I work as a broadcaster on the republican radio “My Udmurtia”. I broadcast on the first Udmurt Internet channel “Daur TV”. As one of the founders of the resource center “Kuara” (“Voice”), as a project manager, presenter and interviewer, I participate in the process of creating high-quality video content in Udmurt and about Udmurt. One of such projects is “Video courses of the Udmurt language”, with the help of which anyone with Internet access can take the first steps in studying: get acquainted with the pronunciation and spelling of words, their translation, learn the features of the languages of the Finno-Ugric group and the Russian language, find out curious historical aspects and interesting plots of the history and culture of the Udmurts”.
According to the results of the All-Russian competition “Teacher of the Year” -2022, Artem Ravilevich was among the 15 best teachers in the country. The republic managed to achieve such a result for the first time in 15 years.
Nina KOPTYUG, Udmurt Republic
Reference
Artem MALININteacher of history at the Udmurt State National Gymnasium named after Kuzebay Gerd, head of the school media center “RosPros”, laureate of the competition “Teacher of the Year of Russia” -2022, winner in the special VK nomination “For mastery in the use of modern information and communication technologies”.
