Please check our Bulgarian site regularly.

Training for teachers who want to understand how technology can help in the classroom and not only.

• Digital tools that complement and facilitate teaching practice
• Models for distance learning from e-learning and how to use them in my school
• More efficient work and more time saved with free online applications

And more:

• How to motivate students to learn?
• Can we get kids excited about the tests?
• Or about not giving up if they haven’t understood something?
• Is it possible to forget about checking homework?
• How can I know instantly how many tasks each of my students completed in the previous week, what was difficult and what was not?

The training is intended for teachers in all subjects and primary teachers and presents a set of the latest technologies, platforms and software products for teachers and students of all ages. It is suitable both for teachers who are already actively using new technologies in their work, and for those who focus on other methods, but want to stay up to date with the digital world.

Internet platforms such as Khan Academy – the largest and most developed general education platform in the world (also completely free), Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Meet, Cam Scanner, Doodle, TimeTracker, Mind Meister and many other applications and platforms are included in the training. Various examples of educational software, devices, good practices, and guidelines for their use are featured. The program focuses on how the use of different tools can make lessons more attractive and practically useful for teachers and students, and how to make the learning process and its organization easier and more effective for all parties. Emphasis is placed on the importance of cooperation and teamwork, interdisciplinary relations, and project-based learning.

The training provides developed practices entirely in Bulgarian, suitable for classes and extracurricular activities for students from preschool group to 12th grade.

Preliminary program (in Bulgarian): https://bit.ly/2QNLOLd

Price upon request by school/group of teachers: as per agreement depending on the number of participants and other conditions.

Discounts from the standard price:

• For groups of 3 participants from one school – BGN 100 per participant.
• In case of early registration of individual participants by a certain date: BGN 110 per participant.
• Other discounts for different amounts, for example when announcing training with donor support, depending on the support attracted by the organizers.
• Scholarship for teachers – in case of justified impossibility to pay the fee. Email us and specify the reasons why you cannot pay your fee and motivation to participate in the training.

You can see reviews, opinions, presentation of the trainings of “Education Without Backpacks” in this video.

Necessary equipment for participation in the training: For face-to-face training, participants need to have a laptop. As an exception and after prior agreement, the organizers may provide a work tablet. When participating in online training, an Internet connection, and a device with a microphone (desktop computer, laptop or, in worst case, a smartphone) are required.

• What innovative approaches do schools around the world use?
• How to get the best out of the experience of colleagues and apply it in our class or school?
• What makes an educational practice successful?
• How to motivate students to grow and achieve high results?
• How to build a supportive school community?

During the workshop together we will look for answers to these questions in the form of lectures, discussions, and exercises, analysing the possibilities of a practice to be applicable and useful in the Bulgarian educational environment and in the specific conditions of educational institutions whose representatives participate in training.

Participants will gain knowledge of various successful, already applied approaches to improving the learning process, learning environment and community by implementing examples from Finland to Japan. Participants will learn to use a SWOT model to assess the application of new educational practices (analysis of: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

The objectives of the program are to support participants in:

• Developing skills for analysis and evaluation of new/innovative practices;
• Enriching their knowledge of the different approaches around the world in order to introduce them in their own communities /schools/classes.

The program will cover a diverse range of hot topics:

• involving students in the learning process and school life,
• negotiating,
• conflict resolution,
• classroom management,
• development of analytical thinking,
• scientific literacy,
• digital literacy,
• team work skills,
• project-based learning,
• networks of schools,
• innovation and support networks,
  research learning, etc.

Sample program (in Bulgarian): https://bit.ly/32a8yLu

You can see reviews, opinions, presentation of the trainings of “Education Without Backpacks” in this video.

Discounts from the standard price:

• For groups of 3 participants from one school – BGN 100 per participant.
• In case of early registration of individual participants by a certain date: BGN 110 per participant.
• Other discounts for different amounts, for example when announcing training with donor support, depending on the support attracted by the organizers.
• Scholarship for teachers – in case of justified impossibility to pay the fee. Email us and specify the reasons why you cannot pay your fee and motivation to participate in the training.

Necessary equipment for participation in the training: For face-to-face training, participants need to have a laptop. As an exception and after prior agreement, the organizers may provide a work tablet. When participating in online training, an Internet connection, and a device with a microphone (desktop computer, laptop or, in worst case, a smartphone) are required.

Lecturer: Ivan Gospodinov

Dates: upon individual request for a group of teachers, for the whole school team or according to dates announced by the organizers

Sample topics included:

• How to organize a class online – planning, steps, and common difficulties
• Classroom management tools – Khan Academy, Google Classroom, MS Teams, etc.
• Remote assignment of independent work and monitoring of students’ work through automated feedback
• Tools for communication with colleagues, organizing school work, online meetings, etc.
• Online learning resources to help students and teachers
• Work with parents to support distance and online-based learning and much more.

A minimum of 10 participants is required.

Contact us for new dates or for request.

How close or far are we from the digitalized innovative schools and the systematic introduction of instruments such as Khan Academy in Bulgarian education? This was the topic of the “Digitalization of Education?” special panel of the “Education Without Backpacks” association during the annual conference “Quality education for every child”, which was held on November 10, 2017, in Sofia. This panel was part of the project “Flipping the teaching model in Bulgarian schools following the example of European good practices”, implemented by “Education Without Backpacks” with the financial support of Sofia Municipality, Europe 2017 Program, in partnership with the capital 2nd Acad. Emilian Stanev Secondary School and Alphonse de Lamartine French Language High School.

The panel began with a presentation by Ivan Gospodinov, Chairman of “Education Without Backpacks”, about the results of the pilot implementation of Khan Academy in the two partner schools, various conclusions, and open questions, as well as policy proposals to digitize the learning process. The following panellists took part in the discussion:

•  Deputy Minister of Education and Science Denitsa Sacheva;
• Eleonora Lilova, Principal, and Galina Timova, Primary teacher, Acad. Emilian Stanev Secondary school, Sofia;
• Emilia Bogdanova, Principal, and Petranka Dimitrova, 11th and 12th grade mathematics teacher, French Language High School Alphonse de Lamartine, Sofia;
• Alexander Angelov, Center for Creative Training – Member of the Commission for Innovative Schools at the Ministry of Education and Science.

Representatives of the pilot schools highlighted the different benefits of using Khan Academy for the learning process, such as instant feedback for students, opportunities for individual work with each child, the variety of practical tasks. The Deputy Minister of Education, Ms. Sacheva, commented on the commitment of the Ministry of Education and Science for more e-learning content and providing hardware and internet connectivity to schools in the country, the desire for more dialogue with all parties (including NGOs and business), as well as the positioning of the topic about education during the Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018. The discussion, in which the audience was actively involved, involved more topics such as the insufficient freedom of teachers and principals, the lack of time and workload of teachers, the need school administration to understand the digitalization of the learning process. The students’ point of view was also presented directly.

The project “Flipping the teaching model in Bulgarian schools following the example of European good practices”, which ends with this event, provided the implementation of a pilot model for “flipped classroom”, using the free, accessible tool of the largest educational platform in the world, Khan Academy. Since the beginning of the 2017/2018 school year, several teachers of mathematics and information technology from the 2nd Secondary school and the French High School in Sofia have been using the Khan Academy intensively in their work with students. A total of about 30 teachers were trained on the project – how to use Khan Academy, what is data-based teaching, classroom management with devices, added value of the digital lesson and more. A wide range of students and parents were also introduced to Khan Academy and topics such as digital literacy and security. We hope that more and more schools, as well as the responsible institutions, will realize the need for the systematic introduction of such tools in the Bulgarian education.