I love bare feet
The opportunity to enter the profession of Ms. Trinh Thi Toan (from Tho Xuan, Thanh Hoa) came very naturally. In her high school years, her father, a retired bank officer, opened a free class for poor children in the hope that they would escape the life of “muddy hands and feet”. At that time, little Toan observed and checked the children’s work and accidentally became a “little teacher”.
After finishing grade 12, Ms. Toan studied at Thanh Hoa Pedagogical College, graduated and became a contract teacher at Xuan Le Primary School (Thanh Hoa). The place where she taught was Boong Nang area, 4km from the main school.
In the following school year, Ms. Toan was assigned to work at Luan Khe 1 Primary School - a school located in a remote, isolated, and extremely disadvantaged area of the district to this day. Every day, regardless of rain or shine, she traveled 60 km from home to school, and then back from school.
“In the past, I had to use ropes to tie the tires tightly to prevent slipping. When the water rose, flash floods and landslides came, we had to ask someone to carry the car across. There were times when teachers had to use hoes and shovels to clear a path along the hill to get to school,” Ms. Toan recalled.
The incident that haunted her the most was also on a rainy day two years ago. On the way to school, due to the flood water being so strong, the front of her car slid into the drainage ditch, the back of the car was upside down and her face hit the road. Luckily, two colleagues who were with her quickly pulled her out of the rushing water, and Ms. Toan narrowly escaped death.
“I feel sorry for the children with dirty faces and bare feet, tiptoeing into class after a long journey of wading through streams and forests to get to school in the freezing winter weather... It's difficult and tiring, but we are still determined to go to school, not letting the students miss any class,” Ms. Toan choked up as she recounted.
Pitying her daughter's hard work, her family advised her to change jobs many times, but she refused because she thought, teaching is the same everywhere, why not teach in places where students need more special attention.
“I always feel lucky because I always have relatives and colleagues willing to support me,” said Ms. Toan.
Love your job - your job will love you
When she first started working, the language barrier was something that worried Ms. Toan because most of the students at Luan Khe 1 Primary School were ethnic minorities and communicated in Thai.
To overcome this, she had to ask her students to teach her the ethnic language. She always carried a communication notebook with her, writing down the words her students often said and the questions they needed to ask. Gradually, the language gap between her and her students was shortened, and they understood each other better.
During the teaching process, Ms. Toan is also aware of her responsibility to improve her knowledge and master technology, and innovate teaching methods to create excitement for students.
“Teachers must quickly catch up with innovation, apply technology to teaching and learn from many different sources. When encountering difficult math problems, I will apply both new and old methods to explain to help students understand better,” said Ms. Toan.
With the special characteristics of ethnic minority students facing many difficulties, in addition to teaching in class, Ms. Toan and her colleagues have to work hard to visit each student's home to encourage them to come to class.
"I hope that in the future, the children will have a better life and the path to school will become easier," Ms. Toan said emotionally.
Mr. Kim Ngoc Huynh - Principal of Luan Khe 1 Primary School commented that Ms. Toan is a dedicated teacher and responsible for her students.
"Ms. Toan always completes all assigned tasks well, is trusted by colleagues, respected by parents and students" - commented Mr. Ngoc Huynh.
During her work, Ms. Toan has been awarded the title of excellent teacher many times; received certificates of merit from all levels and recently, Ms. Toan was excellently named in the list of 60 outstanding teachers in 2024 organized by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Youth Union in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Training, and Thien Long Group.
