As teachers, we have a huge responsibility to prepare our students for the future. But in Serbia the school system makes that quite the challenge. It’s relies on standardised testing, and memorising facts. Unfortunately, many teachers spend most of their time reciting monologues in front the class.

To add to the problem, teachers aren’t valued by our society, and the administrative part of the job consumes so much of the actual teaching time. It’s also not uncommon for teachers to give in to the pressure from parents and give students a better grade than they actually deserve.  

My students are seven- to 14-year-olds - they’re the Z-generation born after the year 2000. They’ve grown up in the era of the internet omnipresence and don’t know what it was like to live without computers, mobile phones or social networks.

The way in which we teachers were taught and the way in which we teach our pupils today is dramatically different: we relied on text, they rely on multimedia. We had a limited number of sources available to us, they can search for any information with only a few clicks. My mission, as an educator, is to use the enormous potential of the internet for learning - I don’t want pupils to see it only as a way to play games or watch YouTube. Technology can help them to become explorers, critical thinkers and lifelong learners, if they allow it.

The internet opens up learning opportunities

However, my school is located in the suburbs of Niš, and it’s not very technologically equipped - only two classrooms have internet connection and we’ve got just 20 computers in the school. The teachers take turns in using the available resources and I often ask the students to bring their smartphones for a certain online task or I bring my own laptop when we have a Skype call scheduled. I use every opportunity to link what they learn in other subjects with learning English. For example, they can practise both their geography skills and asking questions in English through playing Mystery Skype - a programme which allows us to connect our classroom to others around the world.

Most of my students don’t get a chance to travel much so taking virtual field trips on the internet to the Yellowstone National Park in America, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo or the zoo in Lisbon are the perfect opportunities for using their English and making learning in history or biology relevant and important.

A lot of my students lack the motivation to learn, they tell me school is boring and a waste of time. Unemployment is a huge problem in our country: the know that even if they study hard and manage to obtain a university degree, it’s no guarantee they will get a job.

I try to boost their motivation by showing them that there’s a big world out there, full of endless possibilities. They could become marine biologists or astronauts, even though Serbia has no ocean or space agency.

One of my most memorable lessons was in 2014, when, through Skype, we interviewed the leader of Mission 31, Fabien Cousteau, while he was in the underwater laboratory Aquarius. Another lesson my pupils will remember for a long time was when we used Twitter to ask questions to the astronauts on board the International Space Station and got their reply in the live stream directly from space.  

We have 900 students at my school, but just 18 classrooms. To ensure that everyone has lessons, we organise the classes into two shifts: half of the students have lessons in the morning and the other half in the afternoon, and we alternate the shifts every week.

My day usually begins at 6am if I have lessons in the morning shift. I walk 10 minutes to school with my son, who is currently in grade 2. The first period starts at 7.30am and lessons last for 45 minutes with five-minute breaks in between. After the second period, the students have 20 minutes for breakfast or snack. During that time, the teachers have a coffee break in the teachers’ lounge or talk to the students’ parents if meetings are scheduled. My lessons finish at 1pm and after lunch at home, I usually have some papers to grade or I prepare the lessons for the next day. In the evenings, after I check my son’s homework, I continue teaching - only this time it’s other teachers. I co-moderate online professional development seminars so I can share my experience with others.

Ana Živković is an ESL teacher at Osnovna škola “Čegar” in Niš, Serbia