Author: Avenor College

Dr. Daniela Vasile, Director of Learning at Avenor College, is a professional in education with over 20 years of international experience, both as a math teacher and in management positions. We invite you to learn more about her passion for excellence in education and use of technology, how the cultural differences she encountered changed her perspective, both professionally and personally, her decision to return home and her love for the sea.

Daniela talked to Ioana, a 12th grade student at Avenor International High School, the initiator of the series of interviews dedicated to the passions and talents of the members of the Avenor community.

Ioana: Tell us a couple of words about Daniela Vasile. How would you introduce yourself?

Daniela Vasile: I love what I do. I really enjoy teaching; I take pride in the relationship that I develop over the years with students. I like meeting them after they’ve graduated and notice that they have become happy and fulfilled people, contributing to their community and beyond, to society. That’s what matters most in life, belonging that leads to fulfillment that, in turn, leads to happiness.

On a personal note, I have a family that I am very proud of. My husband and I have been happily married for 33 years. We have two children. My daughter studied psychology at The University of Oxford.She also got her Master’s degree, and now she works in the UK. My son is studying Economics and Mathematics at The New York University in Abu Dhabi. He leads the university debating and Model United Nations teams. The most important thing is not where they attended college, but that they are driven by healthy values and principles.

Ioana: Where does the passion for the subjects you teach come from (Statistics and Maths)? ?

Daniela Vasile: I think it highly depends on the teacher, perhaps even more so in Mathematics than in other subjects, because Mathematics is a subject where you need a strong foundation to build upon. The passion seems to have originated from my primary teacher, who taught us how to think logically and who was a great educator. During summer holidays, I remember spending time at her house. She had these small chairs which she arranged in her backyard as we studied mathematics and observed the plants grow in her garden. In the summer, she was always surrounded by children.

After that, I was lucky to have very good teachers, both in middle school and high school, and thus this passion grew, because they revealed to me the beauty of mathematics. Just as important is the fact that my mother is a teacher, an exceptional teacher. She was my Romanian language teacher for 4 years, in middle school. She is a role model, both as a teacher and as a human being.

Ioana: I know you’ve also taught in foreign countries. What cultural challenges did you encounter in each of these?

Daniela Vasile: The main difference is in mentality. I have taught in European countries, and the mentality didn’t differ. However, when I went to Asia, it truly was a cultural shock! I was walking down the street and I couldn’t comprehend what drove their actions! Perhaps the biggest shock was to understand that, there, a rule is followed by everyone. That’s certainly a difference! The Asian societies are less individualistic than ours. Back in 2009, when I moved to Hong Kong, I saw occasionally people on the street or few students in the school wearing masks (yes, the same as we wear now). It took me a while to understand that they don’t wear masks to protect themselves from others, but they wear them when they get a cold, to protect others from them.

However, when I am thinking at the school level, students are the same here and there, all are exceptional people. We all live in a more than ever connected world, where borders between cultures fade. While maintaining our roots, we become at the same time more international. And this is what schools like Avenor and all schools where I worked before are similar.

I don’t necessarily think of my travels in terms of challenges I’ve encountered, but rather in terms of opportunities of learning new things and that’s very interesting.

Ioana: Please tell us about a memorable experience whilst teaching abroad, and one from Romania.

Daniela Vasile: I recall this impactful event from the Anglo American School of Moscowwhich actually happened in my very first month there. When I gave back the marked tests to 11th grade students,

As I handed them their work, I did exactly what my teachers in Romania did: I read the results out loud. I then proceeded to give to this one girl her test back. She scored 78%. When the lesson ended, the Korean girl approached me, extremely upset, and said, “Do you realize that you have ruined my social status?” I asked her what she meant by that. She explained to me how, in Korea, anything below 90% is considered a total failure. I then thought how normal calling results out loud was in the Romanian system! I reflected on that instance and I never do this anymore. Coming back home, at Avenor, when I gave back my first set of tests, I noticed that students share between them the scores. I like that here, at Avenor, there is no such fear of being judged by others. Instead, students are open to learn from each other and to learn together. It is a culture of respect and collaboration.

Ioana: Why did you choose Avenor College and how does your experience here compare to that in foreign countries?

Daniela Vasile: When I first decided to return home, because I had taught abroad for 20 years and I grew home-sick, I started scrolling through different schools’ websites. I liked the Avenor spirit, that I could feel just by looking through the website. I saw a school with well-defined values, giving students a broad experience – school is not about subjects only! I then looked in the media and on Facebook, and I reached the conclusion that Avenor was different from any other school in Romania – a school that matches perfectly my view on outstanding education. I wished to be part of this Avenor Adventure, of the Avenor Spirit and to contribute to the Avenor community. It was definitely a thoroughly researched decision, I didn’t just settle on the first school I came across. Finally, after seeing the spirit from the media, I had the pleasant surprise to come here and see that the spirit is alive. I really like the Avenor College community!

Ioana: How did you adapt here, after 20 years of teaching abroad?

Daniela Vasile: Naturally, there are things in the previous place that you miss when moving. After all, I think it’s best to live in the present, not the past; to think about what is good here, because there are so many things I enjoy that I could not have elsewhere.

However, I do miss the sea very much. In Hong Kong, every day when I went to school, I drove down the hill and watched the sea. I’m a person who doesn’t like winter, and it’s always summer there.

I still miss the fact that everything runs smoothly there. Of course, I also miss the friends I made there and my former students, but, on the other hand, I am now at home. I reconnected with my wider family, with my friends and I met new people at the same time. I have new, wonderful students.

Ioana: Throughout the year, I’ve noticed your affinity with technology. We’ve grown to rely increasingly more on technology, it has become a crucial part of our lives, whether we want it to be or not. How did you manage to familiarise yourself with this field?

Daniela Vasile: I’ve always liked technology, because I studied both mathematics and computer science at university. I’ve always believed that technology makes our lives easier, that’s why I began using it in the first place. After that, I discovered a lot of apps that help me teach math in a way that makes the concepts accessible, to help students visualize these procedures. And from there, step by step, I started to diversify my classes, to use technology more and more, hoping that it will have a positive impact on the students’ learning process. Then, when the pandemic began, I started using technology to connect with students.

Ioana: Ioana: At the end of January, you were invited to speak at a SuperTeach conference and one of the topics discussed during this conference began with the question: “What are similar experiences and what are the solutions adopted in various countries successfully applied in Romania?”. Can you please elaborate on this?

Daniela Vasile: It’s very important how the teacher sees himself in class. Is he someone who takes a lesson from the textbook and presents it to the students exactly in the way it is there? Or is he someone who can think and adapt the content of the textbook, improve it? For, in the end, the textbook is just how the author approaches the curriculum, his interpretation of the program. As a teacher, I would like to have my own interpretation, which might revolve around this textbook, but include new elements. After that, you can develop this idea even more: the teacher can even create an entire program without the guidance of the textbook. Thus, learning becomes more interesting, deeper and richer.

Ioana: Given the fact that you have taught at many international schools, what do you think of the Romanian curriculum? What do you like or dislike and what do you think can be improved?

Daniela Vasile: In Romania, it seems to me that exam results matter the most. The process that leads to that result is not given enough significance. However, I consider this very important because the way you get to the result determines what kind of learner we grow. I wouldn’t want my students to learn only for the exam, and then forget everything. This does not mean that I expect a student, after 10-15 years, to remember how to solve a quadratic equation. What I want them to be left with are the habits of mind that will allow them to become life-long learners.

Everyone complains that the Romanian national curriculum is old, and indeed it is old. But this does not mean that, if the curriculum changes completely, the students will be more involved and active. It would be certainly good to improve it, but at the moment we can only work with what we have. The way we approach this curriculum can make a difference in the student’s learning process and, consequently, in their engagement.

Ioana: How do you see online teaching from your point of view?

Daniela Vasile: In March, the pandemic caught us off guard and we had to start online teaching. Not everyone was prepared for this drastic change. However, the teachers at Avenor switched to online teaching very quickly, practically in just 2 days.

Of course, for any teacher, online teaching is more difficult than brick-and-mortar teaching. Mainly due to the fact that teaching in person allows you to easily identify, from the reactions of students, who needs help and guidance, something that is harder to follow online. Thus, we put in place several tools to track the progress of students, applications such as Google Classroom, WhatsApporGoogle Docs.

From a cognitive point of view, online lessons run as well as the in-person ones, but require better organisation and planning.

Hybrid learning is the most difficult for teachers, because you have to follow both the students in class and those online. At Avenor we offer it now and will continue to offer it for students who, for various reasons, can’t attend in-person classes. If you think for a moment, we have always been in a yellow scenario, as we frequently had one-two students at home. This pandemic helped us find solutions that we will use in such cases from now on.

Ioana: What other hobbies do you have besides teaching?

Daniela Vasile: For 2 years, I have been supporting another international school with their Mathematics department, as an educational consultant. I am also an international school evaluator, leading teams of 6-8 educators from all over the world to visit and help schools improve. I have just completed such a visit during the February mid-term break, in Kenya.

I like reading, hiking, and being in nature – well, mainly by the sea!

Ioana: What are your future plans for Avenor?

Daniela Vasile: We are going through a very interesting and meaningful period of transformations in education and I am happy to be part of a progressive team here, at Avenor.

In May, we will participate, as a school, at an international conference, one of the biggest in the educational world: the COBIS conference, where we will present Avenor’s story as a case study. I am very proud that I am able to represent the Avenor school in conferences and workshops. We have a lot to share and to offer.

Also, at the moment, we are at the end of a process where the entire community defined the strategic plan for the next 10 years. The future is bright and interesting – it is now time to get to work, in order to make it happen!

Ioana joined Avenor College International High School in the 9th grade and the adapting from the Romanian system to the Cambridge system was intimidating at first. The new subjects and the differences between the two systems worried her, but with ambition and guidance from the Avenor teachers she managed to overcome her fears and the limits she felt she had.

“I am grateful to my teachers for their support and patience and I am glad that ever since I became an Avenor student, I’ve had many opportunities to discover new areas that I can connect my passions to,” says Ioana.

Now, in the 10th grade, Ioana has discovered her passion for Computer Science and guided by Mr. Ali Yuksel, her teacher, participated in Girls in AI – Romanian Hackathon, an international competition in which students from all over the world aim to find solutions to global problems using the technology of the future – Artificial Intelligence.

We invite you to find out more about Ioana’s experience in this video.

Interested in Avenor High School?

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Tudor G. is a 12th grade student at Avenor International High School and already has an impressive business record: several IT projects built from scratch. We invite you to discover more about Tudor’s journey in a new interview from the series created by Ioana – who is also a student in the 12th grade of Avenor High School – dedicated to the passions and talents of the members of the Avenor community.

Ioana: Spune-ne câteva cuvinte despre tine, cum te-ai prezenta?

Tudor: Pot spune că sunt o persoană liniștită, văd lucrurile obiectiv și îmi place să fac business.

Ioana: Where does your passion for Computer Science come from?

Tudor: It all started in 6th grade. I started attending Computer Science classes, I studied and I also participated in Computer Science related contests. Next, I wanted to learn and understand additional information about what was being studied in class and that’s how my love for it grew. After a year or two in which I kept on learning, I started a business with a friend, where I programmed non-stop, I made different websites and projects. Now I have other companies with other friends where I program less, but I still coordinate technically everything.

When I was younger, I wanted to become a scientist or a veterinarian, but there was nothing set in my mind. Anyway, with Computer Science, even though I was learning a lot, I didn’t think I would make a career out of it. It started as something fun to occupy my time with when I was 15. It wasn’t until about a year ago that things started to get more serious and I started to think more about my future and my career.

Ioana: I know you coordinate three big projects outside of school. Tell me about how it all started, how did you come up with the ideas and how you now manage to support yourself financially from your work?

Tudor: To be honest, until a year and a half or two ago, I didn’t consider money at all, just how cool it was that I had my own projects, where I designed a site or two. Anyway, from these websites, since we had just recently started them, we didn’t earn a lot of money. It was very interesting for me to learn how to do things by myself, how to start a business from scratch, just to try to see what comes out of it. That’s how I learned all the things I know now and because of this I am very comfortable with big projects and large sums of money. I got used to it from the beginning, to be aware of everything I do.

Ioana: How do you manage to divide your time between school and work? And especially, how do you manage to do it all at such a high level?

Tudor: That’s the hard part. I simply have a very strict schedule, meaning I have an app on my phone where I schedule my day up to the minute. I always follow this schedule, especially at school, because here the schedule is already very strict, with classes that start and end on time. If, for instance, I have a meeting and the person I was supposed to meet is very late, I’ll tell them that I’m sorry but I’m no longer available. Otherwise, I really can’t handle school, projects and homework simultaneously. Anyway, homework already takes up a lot of my time.

Ioana: How did the people around you support you and your businesses?

Tudor: My friends generally supported me, as well as my parents, but until the point where my projects began interfering with school work. They told me I had to prioritise school above all. Now, that they have seen the magnitude of my projects, they are 100% supportive of them, but still believe that I must remain focused on school. Overall, I can’t say I wasn’t supported because everyone around me just said “Go for it!”

Ioana: How was the transition from the Romanian system to the Cambridge system? Was the Cambridge system more convenient for you?

Tudor: I personally think the Cambridge system is better for me because I have much more independence. This was very helpful because I was very independent before anyway, and now I can organise my schedule the way I want. This would have been impossible to accomplish at a school following the Romanian curriculum.

Ioana: What other passions do you have? Do you have sufficient time for other hobbies as well? Do you have sufficient time for other hobbies as well?

Tudor: I like to do research on the scientific side of things and a little bit of medicine; I enjoy doing my projects separately from the business ones, when I have time. I still play games on the computer, but very little, maximum 3-4 hours a week. Instead, I go out every night with my friends, for an hour or two, because I can’t work every day from morning till night.

Ioana: You have already begun your career, working on your passion daily, which is very rare in people our age. What about your personal goals?

Tudor: Personally, I feel that all the projects I handle help me to ground myself and most importantly to keep being modest – this has always been my strong point, I always want to stay modest. I want to be a reasonable person and I feel like I’m almost there. I still have to work on certain aspects such as the fact that in some situations I tend to get angry a bit too quickly.

Ioana: There is this question I often ask: “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”. In your case, I would like to ask: “In 5 years, do you see yourself doing the same thing as now, or do you wish to explore other opportunities?”

Tudor: Honestly, I don’t want it to be a cliché, but if you had asked me a year ago where I see myself now, I couldn’t have imagined that I would reach this point in my life now. In 5 years, all the least! If things continue to run as they did this year, a year that wasn’t very good overall, but business-wise it went very well for me, I don’t even want to know what might happen! 😊

Interested in Avenor High School?

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In February, Avenor College participated in the Mangahigh competition along with 125 schools around the world. This year, our school ranked 1st in the top of the participating schools in Romania and in Eastern Europe, and 8th in the world. We invite you to learn more about the experience of participating in this competition from our teachers and students.

Mihaela Ancuța, Professor of Mathematics and Mathematics Curriculum Leader:

Mangahigh is about challenges, competition, perseverance, ambition and suspense. It is one of the first gamification platforms for mathematics and coding and contains innovative games, adapted to the needs of students. Not only do students compete with their classmates and other students from other schools around the world, but they work at the individual level of knowledge and skills and learn new concepts while solving math problems through play. Moreover, Mangahigh improves students’ teamwork skills, and as they complete math activities, they earn points for their schools in the competition leaderboard.

Ioana, 10th grade: It was my first math competition in high school, but in the past I participated in the Olympics, Comper and others. The online experience I had participating in the Mangahigh contest made me fall in love with this kind of contest, which requires mathematical knowledge, logic and attention. Both the level of difficulty and the type of problems vary – most are grid-type, many illustrating everyday situations, or games that can help you increase your score. Correctness and work matter a lot. The ranking of the top 10 in school and of the class was visible, and it motivated me to work hard to be among the first. I appreciated the diversity of the exercises and the possibility to work in the intervals in which I can concentrate best. In addition to the fact that there was a change in the routine of working past papers (exam preparation, n.r.), I feel that I have enriched my ability to combine logic and mathematical knowledge in solving practical problems. At school I worked for a week during math classes (about 5 hours), and in my free time I spent a little more time, every night during the event about 2-3 hours, sometimes even more.

Ana, 2nd grade: I really like math and I was very happy when I heard that we will be able to participate this year as well. It was my first math competition.

During the week, at school, I worked 3 hours, and on weekends around 6 hours. Once I started solving problems, I couldn’t stop. I mostly enjoyed the ones without time limit, because I could better focus on the logic of the problem.

Mara, 5th grade: Mangahigh has all kinds of math problems, some are based on logic games, others are problems you have to solve on paper. I spent 2 hours at school and almost 4 at home.

What I liked most about this competition was that I was able to learn by playing and I was able to better understand certain concepts that I learned in math classes.

Alexandra (10th grade) wanted to help her younger schoolmates adapt more easily to the requirements of Avenor International High School. Thus, she created a tutoring programme in which she and other student-teachers offer extra hours to students who wish to work overtime. We invite you to find out more about Alexandra’s scholarship project from the following interview.

 

Avenor College: Tell us about your project: what was the initial idea and how did you think of putting it into practice?

Alexandra: I’ve always wanted to volunteer, coordinate such a project and help people. Unfortunately, due to the epidemic, I could not fulfill my wish. So, with the help of Mrs. Luminița Susanu, coordinator of the scholarship programme, I adapted the volunteering project and turned it into a tutoring programme.

At the beginning of the IGCSE course in 9th grade, I wasn’t sure where to begin. I wasn’t sure how I should organise myself and what expectations I should have for this course. I feel that these things could have been overcome with the guidance of a person closer to my age, who has had a similar experience. That’s why I decided to give this opportunity to those who are at the beginning of the journey.

Avenor College: Where are you with your project now?

Alexandra.: The project is constantly evolving. At the moment we are a total of five student-teachers offering extra hours for two 9th graders. In total we have seven active hours per week. Each class, student-teachers identify gaps in classmates’ knowledge in different subjects and work on additional exercises based on the lesson of the day.

Avenor College: What are the next steps?

Alexandra: In the coming weeks, we will resume recruiting students so that we can offer our help to as many younger students as possible. Next year we want to gather more student-teachers in order to extend the programme to middle school classes, respectively to 8th grade.

Avenor College: What did you find most difficult about this project?

Alexandra: The most difficult thing was to succeed in attracting students to the project. Some students may have considered that they will not find any use for extra study time, but those who are part of the programme at this time have only words of praise for the classes and students who tutor them.

Avenor College: What surprised you about working on this project?

Alexandra: Alexandra: It surprised me how quickly the volunteers I recruited mobilised. Everyone complied with their tasks, there were no delays and it all went smoothly. 🙂

Avenor College: What did you find out about yourself, as a team, working on this project?

Alexandra: Myself, together with the team of volunteers, discovered that things can go “smooth” as long as everyone respects their schedule and responsibilities. In addition, we got closer as a team and became friends at the same time.

Avenor College: What are the main benefits of your project to the Avenor community?

Alexandra: In addition to helping younger colleagues, I believe that this programme brings together students from different years, having the opportunity to get to know each other better and discover new perspectives.

 

Although they are separated by an age difference of two years, Maria (8th grade) and Ilinca (10th grade) are united by their common passion for ecology and the environment. We invite you to find out from the following interview the story of the tree planting action that they have planned in the smallest detail and how they reorganised after the event was canceled at the last moment.

 

Avenor College: What was the idea behind your project?

Ilinca: Ilinca: Through my scholarship project I wanted to help the Avenor community become ”greener”.

Maria: We wanted to raise awareness towards an important global issue that is deforestation. This subject has interested me ever since primary school, which is why I made the most out of the opportunity that my scholarship projects presented. They have helped me include my hobbies and passions and share them with the whole community.

A. C.: What have you done so far for this project and where are you now?

Ilinca: In the first semester, we managed to organise down to the last detail a tree planting event – Avenor Reforestation.

Maria: The project has been discussed and developed, eventually presenting it to every class from Preparatory to 12th, and the number of people wanting to participate exceeded our expectations – 120 participants. The project was fully ready to happen, but sadly it was canceled by the partner we were working with, Romsilva. Currently, we have started discussions with our project coordinator and we are working towards organising Avenor Reforestation this spring.

A. C .: What are the next steps?

Ilinca: The next steps are discussions with various NGOs with which we can partner and organise the next edition of Avenor Reforestation. We look forward to announcing the community when we have more details set.

Maria: We are also going to register for the Eco Film Awards organised by COBIS, where we will present in a short video how our community integrates sustainability through the Avenor Reforestation project.

A. C .: What did you find most difficult about this project?

Ilinca: I think the most difficult part of this project was when we had to create the registration questionnaire. Although it seems a small thing, I personally did not have much experience with this type of document. What was the order of the questions? Do we have to ask for the participants’ email addresses? How do I attach a map to the questionnaire? All these were small things, but they taught me skills that I use often and that help me in other projects.

Maria: The most demanding part of this project was to be able to include every member of the community, regardless of age. This required a lot of work, as we had to adapt the information presented from 6-year-olds to adults. However, the children reacted with great enthusiasm, which encouraged us on this journey.

A. C .: What surprised you?

Ilinca: This autumn, when we organised the reforestation project, we all wanted to gather as many people as possible, and have as much impact as possible, but I don’t think anyone expected to have more than 120 people enrolled. I remember that we wanted to gather a little more than 50 people, the number of participants in the previous edition of the event.

Maria: An unexpected thing was the interest of the primary school children and their ability to understand, from an early age, the importance of trees. This helped us to continue and ensured success.

A. C .: What did you discover about yourself as a team working on this project?

Ilinca: Due to the fact that we were a team, we had the opportunity to share our tasks. This helped us work faster, and to check each other’s small mistakes. We had more ideas, but most importantly, we had a bigger impact – we presented the project to all classes in the school (from preparatory to 12th).

Maria: Un avantaj al diferenței de vârstă dintre mine și Ilinca a fost impactul extins pe care l-am avut asupra colegilor noștri. She, being in high school, knew how to communicate better with her peers, and I managed with my peers, in lower secondary school.

A. C .: What are the main benefits of your project to the Avenor community?

Ilinca: I think Avenor Reforestation has given everyone in the community a chance to come and help, it has given us a chance to socialize and learn new skills – how to plant trees, for example. Another benefit of the project was that it raised awareness of the whole community, even if not everyone was able to participate in the event. Maria and I went to all grades and gave a presentation, followed by a question and answer session, in which we talked about the deforestation rates in Romania and in the world, as well as about the benefits of forests.

Maria: I believe that Avenor Reforestation caught the attention of all the students and raised the awareness of the community towards an important cause. Also, researching about mass deforestation took me out of the “bubble” in which I lived, waking me up to reality.

 

Iarina and Teodora, students in Grade 9 and scholarship holders at Avenor College, wanted to raise awareness about the COVID-19 pandemic among their younger schoolmates. Organising attractive and interesting activities for children, the two scholarship students launched an awareness campaign very well received by colleagues and teachers, which helped them better understand working in a team and commiting to a long-term project.

Avenor College: Tell us about your project: what was your idea and how did you come up with it?

Iarina & Teodora: The purpose of our project this year is to inform primary school and 5th grade students about COVID-19 and the recommended precautions that need to be taken during a pandemic. We chose this project idea as we thought it would be an important subject in the current climate, especially considering how much it impacts us all.

We decided to mainly focus on younger children, as we knew that they can be easily taught new and important information with the help of fun games and activities. An art exposition and a Kahoot competition seemed the perfect way to do this.

A.C.: Where are you now with your project? What have you managed to do so far?

Iarina & Teodora: So far, we have introduced the idea of an art exposition with the theme “My life during the pandemic” to the pregatitoare students, asking all of them to draw anything they want related to the theme and send the drawing to us. Furthermore, we have visited all the primary school and 5th grade students during Form Time and invited them to take part in the first stage of a Kahoot competition. Kahoot is an interactive platform where players need to be both correct and fast, choosing the correct answer out of four different options and accumulating points. We created a Kahoot game for the 2nd and 3rd grade students, and a separate one for 4th and 5th grade students. The questions were based on COVID-19 fact that we believed everyone should be aware of, and precautions that should be taken. Every student participated, and the one who had the most points from each class qualified for the final.

A.C .: What are the next stages of the project?

Iarina & Teodora: The next thing that we are going to do is present the first graders the idea of the artwork exposition. For the smaller children, we decided not to organise a Kahoot because they are just starting to learn how to read and write, so we thought of something else, something that every child at this age loves to do – drawing. After we will have presented the exposition to the first graders as well, we will collect all the drawings from both years. Photos of their drawings will go into a Google Slides presentation which their parents, their teachers and themselves will be able to access anytime. 

For the upper classes, the next step is organising a new Kahoot. Since it is the final round, the questions need to be harder than in the first ones. The final will be organised in a joint Zoom meeting, where classmates will be able to root for the competitor from their class.

A.C .: What did you find most difficult about this project?

Iarina & Teodora: Our project was very well received by children and teachers as well. However, it was a bit difficult to plan all the meetings because all the teachers had a lot of other activities with the students and we had to find a common time schedule good for everyone. 

A.C .: What did you find surprising?

Iarina & Teodora: We were pleasantly surprised by the children’s joy and hospitality. As soon as they noticed they have “guests”, they paid attention to us and were curious about what we were going to tell them. We absolutely loved their enthusiasm when hearing they were going to play Kahoot, how focused they were on every question and how they congratulated the winner. They were very sweet and we realised we were right: children really do learn a lot of things through fun methods. 

A.C .: What did you discover about yourselves working as a team during this project?

Iarina & Teodora: We learnt how to work better together and share our tasks better. Even though we are classmates and have worked together in the past, the work for this project needed much more organisation and planning beforehand. It helped us discover things that we like doing and what we do best. 

A.C .: What are the main benefits of your project for the Avenor community?

Iarina & Teodora: First of all, we are happy that we managed to start such a beautiful project in the midst of a pandemic and online schooling. At the beginning of the school year, we didn’t know when and if we were going to have online classes, and then we didn’t know if we were going to come to school in person. As well as the other students, we managed to adapt and bring into the school an educational project for the primary school classes and the fifth graders from which they can learn important and interesting facts about the times we are going through. 

We resume the series of interviews through which we aim to discover together the passions and talents of the members of the Avenor College community. The initiative belongs to Ioana, a 12th grade student at Avenor International High School. Viorel Căpățînă is a professor of Geography and Global Perspectives at Avenor College, an incurable optimist, an enthusiastic storyteller and a collector of experiences and passions. We invite you to find out more about him from the next interview.

Ioana: Tell us a couple of words about Viorel Căpățînă. How would you describe yourself?

Viorel Căpățînă: I am an optimist, a person with a sense of humor, a simple man who really loves nature and his job: teaching. I come from a family of simple, modest people, from whom I have learned common sense and having a proper attitude.

Ioana: You were my Geography, Biology and Global Perspectives teacher. What is your specialty, what university did you graduate from?  

Viorel Căpățînă: I graduated from the Geography and Geology University from Iasi, specialising in Geography-English Language. I had my PhD in Geomorphology (the Science that studies the genesis and characteristics of landforms, their grouping and distribution on the Earth’s surface) in 2008. Next, I moved to Bucharest and I got a job at an international school, where I took IB (International Baccalaureate) courses in the subject of “Environmental Ecosystems in Societies” and I did an online Geography course also for IB. Then I went to Singapore, where I taught these subjects at school – Humanities and Environmental Systems. Later I returned to the country, teaching at Avenor College, where I currently follow the Cambridge curriculum and also where I studied online the subject of Global Perspectives and in particular Cambridge Geography.

Ioana: Where does the passion for the subjects you teach come from?

Viorel Căpățînă: I grew up near the mountains, close to Brasov. Almost every day I roamed the meadows there and I was desperate to know more about plants and nature. I remember having a book called “Romania’s Natural Resources,” something like that, a book that had a collection of medicinal herbs. With this little book in my hand, when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I would walk on the grass and identify by myself the plants from the book.

Later on, in high school, I had a teacher, who was also my form tutor, named Popa Mariana. She was a teacher of Geography and English and had also finished the University in Iași, studying the same subject that I would eventually end up studying. She had a method of teaching that appealed to me; I think she was my role model. She was the kind of person who had a lesson plan, tested the students’ knowledge in front of the map, and had these open-ended questions that made you find an answer by yourself. Something we do today as well, known as “Critical Thinking”. She was very nonconformist for Communist times.

I remember as a child I really enjoyed pretending to be a teacher. I was making my own gradebook and I was testing and grading children from my neighbourhood. It looks like that’s where this madness came from. I knew that after I finished high school, I would become either a priest, a veterinarian, or a teacher. Later on, I wanted to become a comedy actor as well, but I gave that up and focused on Geography.

Ioana: I know you have taught in other countries also. What cultural challenges have you encountered there?

Viorel Căpățînă: It’s like another world in Asia. From the language, the behaviour towards people, towards the environment, cultural traditions and the celebration of the Chinese New Year, where there was chaos for a week. The noises woke you up in the morning and you didn’t know what was happening, or if the fire alarm went off. Actually, it was the person who announced – as we have ” Mascații” and “Plugușorul”- the arrival of the new year. The culinary variety bombarded me in terms of taste and digestion. I had just arrived in Singapore, and because I was very curious and wanted to taste the local cuisine at Hawker Centre, a place where all kinds of food were prepared, I said why not try a sauce with some rice. I remember that I had to go to school at noon – it was during the accommodation period for me when I was doing medical tests and I was looking for a house to live in – and I told the school secretary that I couldn’t come because I was currently in a very close relationship with the toilet. I couldn’t get too far, because I had to hurry back. In three days, I lost about two pounds.

On top of all these cultural influences, I had to deal with an unbearable climate. I was sitting at the bus stop, not moving, and I was sweating profusely. I was one of the few people there who wore linen and cotton clothes to allow the skin to breathe, but I was always soaking wet. I was traveling with the bus where it was 16 degrees inside, and people felt very good, and when I got off the bus, I was shocked by the 33 degrees Celsius and almost 100% humidity where I felt that I was suffocating, I couldn’t breathe.

The first Christmas in Singapore was very strange because my wife had cooked sarmale and we had wine, but looking out the window everything was crazy green, the birds were singing and I didn’t understand where winter was and where Christmas was.

But what I really appreciated in Singapore was the fairness of the people. There were situations when I would leave my camera on the tables where we ate and people came after me, shouting: “Sir, sir, you forgot your camera!”. I also really liked that in Southeast Asia it doesn’t matter how rich you are, it matters how you live in the moment. I noticed that in simple people, who had nothing to offer, ate maybe a portion of rice and two Pak-Choi leaves a day, a kind of salad or spinach, but who always had this power to smile. Something that we have lost. We are in this continuous chase and we no longer know how to enjoy what we have and to be grateful for the roof over our heads, for the healthy family, for the mother who loves us and so on. I think the kindness of the people there came from their religion or from the fact that nature provided them with a lot of fruits and vegetables, which have a taste incomparable to ours. For example, when I first ate mangoes there, I was dumbstruck. I ate eight or ten mangoes a day and I never got tired of them, they were so sweet and fragrant. 

I can say that I had cultural shocks of all kinds, but the most impressive were the culinary ones. We became addicted to spicy food, we often go to stores that sell Asian products, we buy and cook Thai and Indian.

Ioana: Tell us about a memorable experience from your international teaching career. 

Viorel Căpățînă: I had all kinds of cultural shocks with children in Japan. In Singapore I only taught high school students. I taught the 9th and 10th grades students Humanities, meaning History, Geography, Economics. In class I had a little girl named Maki, a hard worker, like all other Asians, especially those from the East. She told me that she had to do a lot of projects, and that she didn’t know how to say no. Due to her culture, she had to accept anything, and complete all of those projects. At one point, I talked to her and she told me that she feels a little overwhelmed by the many tasks she has to do and she doesn’t know how to proceed. After our discussion, in which I tried to resolve her situation, I saw her crying in the hallway, after which I quickly went to the school counselor who told me that I had done very well because in many cases, because they are not allowed to say no, students arrive on the brink of commiting suicide. For me, this situation was frightening.

Another thing about the children in South Korea: they were terribly noisy. I thought the Asians were all silent, and they told me very cheerfully that they were called the “Italians of Asia.” I loved this association so much!

But the most beautiful experience I had was when the whole class, all Asian children, entered the classroom. Everyone greeted me in a fantastically respectful way, and at the end of the lesson they thanked me for the class and for the things they were taught and learned in class. It seemed unbelievable to me.

Ioana: What do you think about the Avenor College experience as compared to the experiences from other countries?

Viorel Căpățînă: I must confess that when I first came to Avenor College in 2015, I was a little shocked. I went from the IB and Romanian systems, which were a kind of semi-chaos for me, to the Singapore system which was by the book, to return to Romania, where I couldn’t help but wonder “what am I going to do now?” and “where am I going?”. I ended up here at Avenor. Georgiana Socoliu, Middle School Coordinator, had told me to come because I will definitely like it, that the school is not very big, and the children are very nice and very well raised and in the end, I said why not give it a try. 

At first, I was afraid that it would not be the same as my last experience, but I must admit that I had a very beautiful transition, from an international school to a Romanian school that also follows the Cambridge system.

I remember intending to teach Geography, but the High School Coordinator at the time suggested that I should teach the high school students Global Perspectives as well. I had no idea about this subject, but it wasn’t the first time I would be teaching a new subject. She told me that as a Geography teacher, I have this ability to juggle with concepts in Global Perspectives. 

I went through this change very smoothly, without any setbacks, and the group of teachers helped me to integrate perfectly. It was an extension of the previous experience, only the characters changed. That is, from Asian children and teachers from all over the world, to children mostly from Romania, and Romanian teachers – at that time there were not so many foreign teachers. The transition was elegant and pleasant.
Ioana: What other passions do you have besides teaching?

Viorel Căpățînă: I have so many passions! I am deeply grateful to my wife who has shown fantastic patience with me. Before leaving for Singapore, because I was and am very close to nature, I really enjoyed watching birds in nature, a sport invented by the British called “Birdwatching”. In Singapore, I made her go through all the swamps and holes in the earth to see some birds, lizards, snakes, beetles, etc. In time, however, she became part of my team, and she also shows me from time-to-time birds in the trees or in flight. I had a backpack that weighed 10 kilograms, containing only cameras, tripod, telescope … By the time I got to the location I was already tired, I was returning home beat but happy that I had added to my list another 20 species of birds.

Coming from Singapore, and seeing different botanical gardens there, I fell in love with the world of orchids. I was struck primarily by the scents that these flowers can have, and their size. There are extraordinarily large plants, and some extraordinarily small ones. At the moment I think I have about 120 orchids, contained within a very small space, and their sizes range from a peppercorn to 60 cm leaves. Our place is a studio, and all my plants are lined up by the window, in the room. It’s a jungle.

In addition to the hundreds of orchids, I have an aquarium with fish for the simple reason that it relaxes me a lot. Orchids develop my patience, the aquarium helps me relax. And I also have a Labrador. My wife really wanted a dog 2 years ago, and all that was missing from our studio transformed into a jungle was our 40-kilogram „piglet” who became a member of the family, like our child. We do everything for him and we are grateful that thanks to him we get three hours of physical activity every day. 

Ioana: I know you are passionate about the culinary arts and you have stated that you like to try different cuisines. Could you make a top 3?

Viorel Căpățînă: I really like Indian Curries; they are extremely rich in spices and I find them fantastically good in combination, of course, with basmati rice or Paneer, which are some Indian sticks. I would say Seafood Curry is one of my favorites. Then I rediscovered in Indian cuisine, legumes, chickpeas and lentils. In second place I would put the Indian-style chickpeas, semi-stewed with a harsh sauce, a lot of coriander, pepper and ginger. Somewhere in third place I would put a terribly spicy Tom Yum Soup, Thai soup, which is based on coconut milk to which is added either chicken, sweet potato or seafood.This doesn’t mean I don’t eat Romanian food. I would always eat a lot of “piftie de curcan”, there is no Christmas without “piftie de curcan” with a lot of garlic and a little spice. And I would eat sarmale all the time.