Story about a teacher who used her own money to give gifts to students on November 20th

(Dan Tri) - Waiting for gifts from the teacher becomes an indescribable joy for the students of Ms. Trinh Thi Lien's class - Xa Dan Secondary School, Hanoi . The feeling of knowing they have gifts makes every holiday truly a festival for the children.

"Teacher, please save me, teacher, please save me," a little girl panicked and ran from the classroom to the hallway, grabbing the teacher's hand. The teacher turned around and comforted her: "Teacher, I'm here, no one will hurt My. My, go into the classroom and sit well and wait for me. When I come in, I'll sit with you." The little girl kept begging for "teacher, please save me" a few more times, her cries for help gradually softened, and she calmed down, then she let go of the teacher's hand and returned to the classroom. My sat at the last desk. The class had only more than 10 students. Each student was engrossed in their homework, not paying too much attention to her friend's unusual actions. In one day, My could have so many paranoid episodes that everyone was used to it. Moreover, at this school, normal, healthy students saw her disability as just another difference. The teacher was not in charge of My's class. She only came to help manage the class. Her class also had a few autistic students like My with different disorders. Normally, the harder a teacher works, the more support they receive, both spiritually and materially, from parents. But that is not true for the teachers of this school. It is even more so for the teacher My called for help from. Because she is famous among generations of parents for giving gifts to her students on every holiday, including November 20. She is Trinh Thi Lien - an integration teacher at Xa Dan Secondary School, Hanoi.

Le Khanh Hai, an 8A student at Xa Dan Secondary School, is a former student of Ms. Lien. Although he has not studied with her for 3 years, Hai still receives gifts from her on special occasions. The most recent time, when he brought home achievements for the school in the TIMO international math competition, Ms. Lien gave him a pair of headphones. Before that, it was a box of superhero puzzles that he loved. When he was in primary school, Hai said he would never forget the feeling of waiting for her gifts on every opening ceremony, November 20, Tet, March 8, and the last day of school before summer break. Waiting for her to print each small name label with funny shapes to stick on pencils, rulers, and books for each classmate. Waiting for a notebook with a superhero image. Waiting for a new pen with his name engraved on it. Girls waiting for hairpins. Boys waiting for Lego. On November 20, waiting for milk tea that she made herself. At the end of the school year, we look forward to the photo diary that she took, printed, and wrote loving words about each person in the class. "Those are the gifts we can guess. But there are many gifts we can't guess. So we are very excited to see what she will give us," Hai said.

Waiting for gifts has become an indescribable joy for Ms. Lien's students. The feeling of knowing they have gifts, but not knowing what they are, makes every holiday at school truly an anticipated festival for the children. Ms. Lien also looks forward to those holidays, to give gifts to her nearly twenty children at school, to see their happy faces, to hear their joyful sounds when receiving gifts. She usually prepares gifts a week before the holiday. If she has to make hair bows, headbands, bracelets for the girls, she will prepare them a month in advance. Sometimes her daughters also have to roll up their sleeves to help their mother. She has three children to educate, and her family's conditions are not very good. When asked where she gets the money to buy gifts for her students on holidays like that a few times a year, she smiles and says: "I always look for discounted items online." When she sees discounted school supplies and discounted toys, she buys them, because there will always be an occasion when she needs to give them. Knowing that the kids love drinking milk tea, she finds the ingredients and recipes and makes it herself. Sometimes, she treats the whole class to a fancy meal by ordering from a popular milk tea shop, so the kids can also "catch the snack trend" like everyone else.

Ms. Tran Hanh Nhan, a former parent of Ms. Lien, said that in the 5 years her child studied with her, the class fund was always surplus even though the amount of money paid was only a few hundred thousand dong. She paid for most of the students' activities in class with her own money instead of using the fund. If the class had a party, she would make and prepare a lot of food and drinks for the children herself. Ms. Lien said that buying gifts for students does not cost much. When the children received gifts, which she personally prepared for each student, they would be very happy. "Seeing the children happy makes me happy too. Holidays are for both teachers and students," Ms. Lien laughed, a little embarrassed that her giving gifts to students was considered special.

An inclusive class at Xa Dan Secondary School usually has less than 20 students. The proportion of students with disabilities in the class is about 10-30%. There are at least 2, at most 6-7. Teaching requires deep differentiation. The cognitive gap between students with disabilities is different. The gap between students with disabilities and normal students is even more different. Not to mention, teaching 1 student with disabilities is equivalent to teaching 5 students. A class period is only 40-45 minutes maximum. How to make all students achieve goals appropriate to their abilities is not an easy problem. "Usually, I have to divide the amount of knowledge into smaller parts. Each student receives a different amount of knowledge corresponding to their ability. At the same time, I train class officers who are students with better learning abilities to become my active teaching assistants. When asked by the teacher to help, the students are very enthusiastic. They learn very quickly. I set an example, the students observe and imitate, then go help their friends. Not only in studying but also in all activities at school. The children all know how to take care of each other very well," Ms. Lien shared.

However, the workload of a teacher at a special school is always overloaded. Many times Ms. Lien feels helpless because she does not know how to handle situations that arise related to her students. Each year, there are nearly two dozen children, each child has different problems. Every five years, returning to grade 1 to welcome a new generation of students, she has to face new problems, many experiences have to be erased, and she has to learn from the beginning. But pressure is absolutely not the reason why she intended to leave four times. Of those four times, two times she submitted her application, one time she went to a new school to try teaching. The reason is sometimes personal, sometimes it is the desire for a change in career, wanting to test herself in a different environment to see how far her abilities can go. But she has never left successfully. Ms. Lien said that in 2013, after giving birth to her third child, many family pressures made her fall into depression, feeling unable to continue working at school. However, sometimes parents called to ask when she would return to teach, and students also texted to ask when she would return to school. The calls and messages made Ms. Lien reluctant to let go.

"Some students have a hard time getting used to it. If they have to move to a new teacher, it will take them a long time to get used to it all over again. Some students are making progress little by little, and their parents are full of hope that their children will progress even further. Thinking about their parents' hopes, I can't bear it. I have to go back and continue my unfinished work. The idea of ​​moving away also gradually fades away," Ms. Lien confided. Choosing to stay also means choosing to face it. Not all parents cooperate with teachers. Many parents cannot accept the truth about their children's condition. They still think that their children are only temporarily disturbed and will change and get better. Convincing parents to accept and accompany their children long-term, with consistent care and teaching methods from school to home is difficult and does not always result in agreement. Ms. Lien, like other teachers in the school, also has to learn to accept such things.

For other schools, their goal is to have many excellent students, many national and international awards. For Xa Dan School, the teachers' goal here is for students to develop normally. Ms. Lien said: "Achieving those two words 'normal' is a great happiness, a very, very great happiness." Especially as a special school for deaf and mute students and other types of disabilities to study and integrate, teachers here do not consider the students' graduation as the end of their duty. They also have to follow the students' journey afterward, sometimes their whole life. Ms. Lien had a student who was secondary deaf after a serious illness at the age of 3. When she welcomed him into first grade, he hardly cooperated with anyone, often tearing up his books. A child who was hearing and speaking normally suddenly lost contact with the world of sound, causing him to be deeply hurt, giving rise to a strong reaction towards his parents and teachers. But with patience, Ms. Lien gradually helped her student get used to her condition, guiding her to believe that everything would be fine without sound.

Ms. Lien's student overcame the crisis, studied well, became a university student, got a job, got married and had children. But then an incident happened, her partner suddenly passed away, she became a widow, life once again challenged her like the loss of her childhood sounds. "As for me, I can't help her like when she was young, sitting in a small classroom at Xa Dan school. I can only say words of comfort and encouragement from afar," Ms. Lien choked up. So, as Ms. Lien said, in this place, even normalcy and peace are a big ambition. Ms. Lien was born in 1978, graduated from the preschool education department of Hanoi National University of Education. She used to be a special person, not fond of communication, had no friends. Even when she graduated, even though she was offered a good job, she didn't dare accept it. She didn't believe that she could stand on the podium in front of dozens of students and teach them. Ms. Lien decided to work in the ward's youth union. 3 years of working in the union changed the pedagogical bachelor into a different person. Being forced to communicate and work with children made her discover new abilities and determine what her true passion was. She returned to the teaching profession, where she thought she would have the most meaning, Xa Dan Secondary School. Ms. Lien's teaching career was not a straight path and she tried to turn to another path many times. But the pull of the "normal" aspiration is still keeping her here.

Content: Hoang Hong

Dantri.com.vn

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/chuyen-ve-co-giao-bo-tien-tui-tang-qua-cho-hoc-sinh-ngay-2011-20241119152537698.htm