26/08/2020

Award winner at OBMEP is competing for best educator in the country.

Foto: Reprodução Site Educador Nota 10

If Luiz Felipe Lins needed to use numbers to tell his story, he could say that, at 48 years old, he has already spent more than half of his life—52% to be precise—in the classroom teaching mathematics. The results are positive. The 7th and 8th grade classes he taught have accumulated more than 650 awards, including medals and honorable mentions in mathematics competitions. Now, the teacher, awarded by the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP), celebrates achieving a Top 10 ranking in the Educator of the Year Award and is competing, with nine other education professionals, for the title of best in the country.

“In September, our educational projects will go to a popular vote online. The following month, we will participate in a final presentation for the judges of the Top 10 Educator award, so they can decide who is the best education professional of 2020,” says the only math teacher in the competition with great anticipation.

The announcement of affordable housing near the Francis Hime Municipal School, where he works in Jacarepaguá, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro, was the source of inspiration for the work submitted to the award. Between August and November 2019, Luiz Felipe divided the students into groups that dedicated themselves to analyzing a floor plan of properties, designing the construction of houses with the right to a scale model, and calculating areas and costs for floor installation.

The class measured the amount of mortar needed per square meter and finalized the budget. Although imaginary, the project included real prices. The students got their hands dirty: they checked prices online, visited construction stores, and talked to bricklayers, architects, and engineers.

“Recognizing the integration between geometry and other areas of mathematics as a transformative agent, which enables not only the construction of knowledge but also the sociocultural and emotional development of the student, is gratifying for the teaching profession,” he celebrates. Luiz Felipe also believes that the project has contributed to students valuing their homes and families more, as they deal with real-world costs.

All the work was recorded in a video, which includes testimonials from the students. “I learned how to deal with problems that arise in group work and that mathematics is very useful in building a house. We applied the discipline when calculating areas and also when using proportionality for the model,” stated Adler Borges, a student of the professor.

When Luiz Felipe learned he was among the recipients of the Top 10 Educator award, he set up a Google Meet room with his students to share the news. Even though they were physically distant, some of the 120 students cheered as if they were all together. Internet access is still far from being a reality for the classes and has been a challenge during the pandemic.

At OBMEP, Luiz Felipe has already won 10 awards. “I think our school's work is very important because we don't have just one or two outstanding students. We have a history in the competition of reinterpreting things and having a different perspective on the content. Last year, when I learned about our medalists, I was very moved,” he recalls. The teacher also mentions that, since the 2018 OBMEP awards ceremony was in Salvador, the students started using the expression “off to Salvador” when they correctly solve the calculations in class.

“It’s an incentive for them!” and a reason for professional recognition for Luiz Felipe. In September 2019, the teacher was featured on the “ Olha Essa História” segment of RJTV 2, on TV Globo . The 176 medals won by his students up to 2017 were also highlighted in Revista Época . The educator's work was also documented as an inspiring story published on the IMPA website.

With the R$15,000 he received from the Educator of the Year Award, the teacher plans to resume robotics classes for the IMPA's Olympic Girls project, funded by CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), which encouraged teenagers from public schools in Rio to pursue careers in science and technology. The rest of the money will be used for a party to celebrate the victory with the students, which already has a location set, but will only take place after the pandemic. "Their anxiety and mine are enormous."

This year, the Top Educator Award has representatives from Amazonas, Bahia, the Federal District, Pernambuco, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Of the winning projects, five were carried out with elementary school students, three with high school classes, one on management, and another with very young children. Among the subjects covered, two are in Portuguese Language, one in Arts, one in Physical Education, Philosophy, Mathematics, Geography, and Physics. There is also one on school management and one with very young children.

The Victor Civita Foundation, in partnership with Abril, Globo, and the Roberto Marinho Foundation, holds the award ceremony to recognize and value teachers from early childhood education to high school, as well as school administrators (educational advisors, pedagogical advisors, pedagogical coordinators, and principals) from public, private, philanthropic, publicly accessible, rural, or urban schools throughout the country. The award is supported by Nova Escola, the Rodrigo Mendes Institute, UNICEF, and BDO, and sponsored by the Lemann Foundation and SOMOS Educação. Since 2018, the Educador Nota 10 Award has been associated with the Global Teacher Prize, a global education award.