For the first time in the history of the Global Teacher Prize, a teacher from Ukraine, Artur Proydakov, has been named one of the top 10 best teachers in the world. He has already been ranked among the top 50 teachers in the world, and in 2021 he won the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine.

The 10 finalists who will compete for $1 million were announced by British actor, comedian, writer, and activist Stephen Fry on the Teacher Prize Instagram. In addition to the Ukrainian, the shortlist includes teachers from Canada, India, Ghana, Chile, South Africa, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Pakistan.

"It's very hard to believe it and realize it. 10 people on the planet Earth. 10 educators. And I, a Ukrainian teacher, am among these 10. It inspires and motivates me. It means that I am doing everything right. Thousands of Ukrainian teachers are also doing the right thing, continuing to work and preserve values even in the face of a full-scale war," the Ukrainian teacher said.

Artur Proydakov was born in Kadiyivka. In 2014, he left his home because of the war in Ukraine. For some time, he worked at Romny State School in Sumy region and the MIDGARD educational territory in Kyiv. Currently, he teaches classes at the All-Ukrainian Online School and works as an executive director at Mriy Diy, developing education.

Children love the young teacher for his interactive lessons. In particular, he uses memes in his literature classes: after reading the works, he helps to consolidate their understanding with the help of captions to the pictures.

"We captioned a picture from a talk show where two women are quarreling: "Motrya and Melashka from The Kaidashev Family. The photo of some bandit is young Chipka from the novel "Do Oxen Roar Like a Manger Full". Instead of Morpheus from The Matrix, it is Omelko Kaidash, and he has two pills in his hand: go to church or get drunk ," Proydakov says in an interview with the BBC.

As part of their Ukrainian language assignments, students also write a post essay, imagining themselves as bloggers. In the end, they end up with a text written according to all the rules: introduction, thesis, arguments, and conclusion.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA told who won the Global Teacher Prize 2023.

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