Bruno Miguel Cavaco Gomes, Physical Education teacher at the João de Deus Schools Group, in Faro, received the Honorable Mention for Adaptation and Innovation in Distance Learning, at the Global Teacher Prize Portugal (GTPP) 2021.
This Honorable Mention "recognizes all the work of teachers and educational communities since the suspension of classroom activities, and whose return this year turned out to be a surprise made possible thanks to the surprising success of the crowdfunding campaign that GTPP tested this year."
Professor Bruno Gomes has been implementing projects of his own for 19 years (“Pinheiríadas” and “Francisquíadas”), this year under the name of “Licíadas”.
Through these, the teacher seeks to involve, in a cultural and sports competition, other teachers, students from several years of schooling and family members. This irreverent and innovative response intends for non-curricular and curricular activities to coexist in an education system that formats less and humanizes more.
«After 19 years of implementing these projects in schools, the motivation of students to participate in Physical Education classes has increased significantly, and the scoring book is on the way out. In adapting to distance learning, the teacher managed to keep students doing physical activity by reversing roles and challenging students to prepare parts of the classes», explains the organization.
This year, the big winner of the Global Teacher Prize Portugal is Elsa Cerqueira, professor of Philosophy at Escola Secundária de Amarante, who moves «with the challenge of creating and implementing “small utopias”, in order to enhance the development of critical and for a society that is gradually more authentic, that is, more humanized».
The teacher combines her three passions: philosophy, cinema and education, ensuring the transmutation of utopia into reality. Professor Elsa is also the creator of the “Philosophy with Cinema” project, which aims to develop the philosophical thinking of each student, inside and outside the film.
«The pedagogical action of dialogic transformation allows each young person, in cooperation with peers, to develop, through the films, their questions, cognitive and affective autonomy, following fundamental values such as respect for others, tolerance for diversity and solidarity. The extension of this action to the civil community makes them active beings capable of improving it according to the practical approach of enlightened, interventional and collaborative citizenship. In this way, the student-philosopher is encouraged to exercise thought, actively discovering and building knowledge and discovering himself, with the teacher's guidance, as a critical and creative being, in addition to the other skills considered essential in the Student's Profile at the end of the Mandatory Schooling», frames the organization.
This turned out to be another atypical edition of the award due to the context of the pandemic crisis, but with the historic participation of teachers with applications validated by the auditors of PwC Portugal.
With a clear national coverage, this year the applications came from all over the territory, that is, from the 18 districts of the continent and from the two autonomous regions, with teachers from all levels of education once again being represented.
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