My name is Dilyana Ivanova and I have been teaching and taking part in the Project ‘Together in Class’ for two years now. It’s a pleasure working with Year 1 and Year 2 students at 191st Otets Paisii School in the village of Zheleznitsa.
I was involved in business for more than 10 years but after I had my son, I realised my place was among children and I wanted to help the youngest people of Bulgaria grow happy. It turned out nothing was impossible … When you have bold dreams and really want something in your life, the Universe seems to support and help you realise your dreams … and I had big dreams!
Here I am now … working with children in a school full of colour and teaching in a classroom called ‘Air’.
Thanks to the support of the LightSource Charity with the project ‘I Love My School’ and the help of parents, children and teachers, the school atmosphere is now completely different. LightSource have created a beautiful interior design called ‘The Five Elements’. The classroom colour characterises the colour of the chosen element and the corresponding image.
All classrooms have been renovated and painted by volunteer teams organised by parents, children and teachers. It has been an incredible experience to be part of the school transformation and witness all changes in the school environment, from disappearing dados to changing the traditional white classroom colour to more fresh and cheerful colours.
We removed the classroom numbers and gave them names; now every classroom seems to be alive and with a soul. The children of my class made and decorated a small wooden sign with the name of the classroom on. It is very important that we all took part in improving the school environment.
Then LightSource Charity designed the beautiful photo wallpaper that seemed to give a new life to the classroom. Images from the wallpaper ‘came to life and began to speak from the classroom walls’ … What an incredible, positive change!
If you look at the wallpaper and friezes in the corridors, you will most definitely learn something new and calm your mind.
My classroom is called ‘Air. The wallpaper has an image of a carefree fairy reading a book. You can’t but feel the ease, tranquillity, purity and magic!
After being at school for a few days, a girl says to me: ‘I don’t like reading but now that I have seen the fairy, I am beginning to like it’.
Wallpapers definitely awaken students’ curiosity and interest. The images and information stimulate them. They come to me and constantly ask me questions related to Earth, Sun, Air, Water and Space. Wallpapers expand knowledge and understanding of the world and help them realise they are part of the whole we call the Universe, in which everything is connected. One of the wallpapers contains the sentence: ‘When we pick a flower, the Universe weeps’.
Children stop in the school corridors and read the friezes; they have discussions with friends and run around playing, learning, enjoying themselves, and following their own path.
I think that by changing the interior environment under the project ‘I Love My School, I can build a better teacher-student relationship. It helps me communicate with them more openly. I feel free to teach them spontaneously, because the wallpaper provokes their curiosity. The fresh classroom colours and the magical wallpapers make them feel full of joy, calmness and happiness because they are the ones that will make the world a better place!
Dilyana Ivanova, Teacher
191st Otets Paisii Primary School, Village of Zheleznitsa
