The Vo Truong Toan Award is presented annually on the occasion of November 20 to honor teachers and educational managers who have outstanding contributions, have initiatives, innovate teaching methods, apply technology, are prestigious in the teaching community, and are respected by parents and students. Each cadre and teacher is only considered for award once during their working period.
Receiving the prestigious award of the Ho Chi Minh City education sector, teacher Ho Thi Ai Chau (born in 1984) expressed her emotions and pride.
Ms. Chau shared that since childhood she had a dream of becoming a teacher. However, after graduating from high school, she took the entrance exam for the pedagogical major but did not pass, and her dream of becoming a teacher had to be put on hold.
Four years later, she decided to retake the exam and be admitted to Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, officially starting her journey in the teaching profession. In 2010, she graduated and started working at Hiep Tan Primary School until now.
Looking back on the past, Ms. Chau considers it a journey of perseverance. "The dream never goes out. When the opportunity arises, I seize it and go all the way" - the female teacher said.
One of her most memorable memories was in 2013 - when she had just started her career for three years, she participated in training a student to compete in the National Traffic Safety Competition and won the prize. The first time taking students to compete in a big playground, she was moved to see the students grow up and clearly felt the value of accompanying and nurturing each student. The joy of students, according to her, is the biggest motivation to continue to stick with the profession.
According to Ms. Ai Chau, the biggest difficulty for primary school teachers today is the large number of workers and the large workload, from teaching, homeroom to organizing activities.
Students are still immature and have just left the preschool environment, so teachers have to teach, take care of, and correct them little by little. However, she still maintained her enthusiasm.
"For the past 15 years, I have never thought about reversal. Working with children brings many emotions, their innocence makes the teaching profession worth it" - she said.
Ms. Ai Chau commented that the education sector of Ho Chi Minh City is changing strongly, especially with the application of technology and new teaching methods. However, according to her, this is also a challenge for teachers - having to constantly update and nurture themselves to improve the quality of teaching.
Ms. Chau said that in teaching, she often flexibly combines technology application methods with traditional teaching methods depending on the characteristics of each class.
"Each student has a different way of receiving it, teachers have to observe carefully to choose an effective method" - she said.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet - Principal of Hiep Tan Primary School - shared that Ms. Ai Chau is a teacher who always shows a progressive spirit, is willing to learn and is very responsible for students. In terms of expertise, she has been a professional team leader of grade 4 for many years, and is one of the teachers who boldly innovate teaching methods.
When the education sector promoted the application of information technology, Ms. Chau was a pioneer in building electronic lectures, organizing students to study on the LMS platform and achieving remarkable results. Not only does she strive to develop her own abilities, she is also willing to share and guide colleagues in the group when there are new methods and new teaching methods. Thanks to that, the quality of general teaching is improved, creating a positive and creative learning environment.
"The Vo Truong Toan Award is a worthy recognition of Ms. Chau's many years of efforts, a source of pride and motivation to continue to strive. At our school, there was also a teacher who won this award before Ms. Chau. The fact that she became the second person to be honored spread the spirit of learning and contributing to the team. The award is not only meaningful to Ms. Chau personally but also a common joy of the school community," said Ms. Minh Nguyet.
