“I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. Maybe only if I had no other choice.” | The story of a multigrade teacher

AllGrow’s programs are built by people, with people, and for people. Behind every remarkable result, there is always a teacher eager to learn more, give more, and help students grow. That is why we are launching a new series of stories about the educators we work with — people who are changing a small corner of the world, each in their own way. We hope their stories will inspire other teachers as well, because we believe their voices matter.

We begin this series with the story of Paraschiva Flocea, a participant in the “Future in Multigrade Classrooms” project, implemented by AllGrow with the support of Dacia Foundation for Romania.

At just 18 years old, Paraschiva Flocea became a primary school teacher. During her pedagogical high school years, she had practiced teaching in regular classrooms, but that was not enough to prepare her for her first year teaching in a multigrade classroom. She had seven first-grade students and nine third-grade students, and during those first days she brought as many learning materials as possible to class, trying to keep one group engaged while working with the other.

As a child, Paraschiva dreamed of becoming a “teacher,” inspired by her own primary school teacher — a kind and warm woman who always wore beautiful dresses. A teacher who, when Paraschiva struggled with dictation exercises, would stay beside her desk during breaks and patiently explain what to do. Back then, while playing school with her dolls, little Paraschiva never imagined how difficult teaching could be. She only realized it years later, when she became colleagues with the very teacher who had once inspired her.

In more than eight years spent in the classroom, Paraschiva has gone through many stages of professional growth: university studies, a master’s degree, pedagogical circles, inspections, certification exams, and teaching degree evaluations. Although she has taught only in multigrade settings — sometimes even handling three classes at once — she believes teaching in a regular classroom can also be challenging because of the different learning levels among students. “There are very strong students, good students, weaker students, and average students, which also requires differentiated teaching,” she explains.

How does a regular day in the classroom looks like

A typical day for the teacher from Gemenea begins around 7:40 a.m., when she arrives at school and has coffee with her fellow teachers before classes begin. Lessons start at 8:00 a.m. with the first-grade students, with whom she can teach Romanian and mathematics until 10:00 a.m., when the fourth graders arrive.

Then, between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., they have science, civic education, drawing, or physical activities — subjects that she can teach simultaneously without too much difficulty. At noon, when the first graders finish their classes, Paraschiva helps them get ready, assists them with their coats, and takes them to their parents or to the school bus. She then returns for lessons with the fourth graders, teaching Romanian, mathematics, history, or geography until 2:00 p.m.

The teacher does not believe students feel the difficulties faced by educators in multigrade classrooms:

“They believe their teacher knows everything, can do anything, and can handle every situation. It’s not difficult for them, because the teacher does everything possible to make it easier for them.”

The real challenges may come in the years ahead. In Gemenea, as in many villages across Romania, the number of children is decreasing year by year, and Paraschiva believes that soon students may have to commute to the central school in Stulpicani.

Yet unlike many schools across the country that struggle with a lack of basic resources, the school in Gemenea is modern. It has wooden flooring, heating, interactive whiteboards, marker boards, new desks, and new chairs. Most importantly, the students come to school with joy.

Future in multigrade classrooms

Paraschiva Flocea is one of the 25 teachers involved in the “Future in Multigrade Classrooms” project, implemented by AllGrow with the support of Dacia Foundation for Romania. The project aims to bring design thinking — a methodology that AllGrow has been using for more than 8 years in Romanian schools — into multigrade education systems, where its use can significantly improve classroom learning experiences.

For the students in Gemenea, involvement in the project represents a way to show how hardworking and open they are. The students created a map of their local community as they see it, identified issues in their village, and proposed solutions together with their parents. The main challenges they identified were the lack of a dedicated playground for children and the absence of a local medical clinic in the commune.

Throughout the project, students will test different approaches to help improve, at least partially, the issues they have identified.