A series of interviews with teachers of Stavropol State Agrarian University continues senior lecturer of the Department of Mathematics Svetlana Viktorovna Popova.
The world of numbers for many seems complicated and boring. It is good when there is a teacher who can open it from the other side, instill love for it – and this is Svetlana Viktorovna Popova. She has been teaching exact sciences for more than 30 years, using an author's approach to students. How are mathematics and nature related? Why didn't students want to study in the 90s? What kind of rest will help you study?
Svetlana Viktorovna, tell us how many years you have been in pedagogy and how did your interest in this field begin?
I have been teaching at a higher school for 30 years and 3 years. Graduated from Stavropol State Pedagogical Institute named after the Friendship of Peoples, now it is part of the North Caucasus Federal University. She studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, majoring in mathematics and Physics.
I have been interested in exact sciences since childhood. Around the 4th grade, I realized that I wanted to be a math teacher. After graduating from the university, she was assigned to a vocational school, and a little later a chain of meetings and events led her here, to the Stavropol Agrarian University. I've been studying all my life, all the time in mathematics and all the time in communication. I believe that I fully realize myself in my professional destiny.
What do you love most about the teaching profession?
I love a lot in my profession. First of all, of course, communication with students. I love mathematics, I like to learn new things. When I graduated from university, I thought that I would not study anymore, I would just have to work. And then it turned out that after becoming a teacher, I continue to continuously learn something new.
What do you dislike about the profession?
It's not that I don't like it, but rather it's annoying when you need to create documents that do not have auxiliary meaning for teaching. It's difficult when "raw" orders come and you don't know how to implement them. This is something that does not give satisfaction… Everything else is emerging tasks that you solve as much as possible.
Of course, some installations are shocking. For example, in 2003 there was an official duty to be able to work on a computer. Everything was new to me, because during my studies at the university there were no computers. I had to master the skill of creating documents in electronic form very quickly from scratch. Many people did not have home personal computers at that time, and we started studying programs here at the university. A huge step has been taken in the transition to "electronic", but now there is joy that I can and understand a lot in this area, I communicate on the same wave with students. Then it was a global transition, and now working with a computer is already a matter of course.
Have you had any professional failures?
I wouldn't call it failures, there have been difficult situations. For example, conflicts on the part of students, although I try not to create them. Unfortunately, students do not always come to us of their own free will – it happens that parents insist. Somehow there was a situation with a student of the Faculty of Economics. The girl burst into tears that it was difficult to study... I started asking questions. It turned out that her soul lies in choreography, but her parents said that this was not a profession, and forced her to enroll in the Faculty of Economics. It was a tragedy for the student. Together we tried to find a way out. They didn't find anything that she liked, and then I suggested taking into account that if life has brought her here, then you need to continue studying, give yourself a chance to realize yourself in this profession.
I have been a curator at the university for almost all of my teaching career. And this is communication not only within the discipline, but also on personal issues with students and their parents. There have been difficult situations, but I do not consider them failures – these were difficulties that we overcame together.
Tell us about your professional pride. Maybe there is a case that warms the soul?
Something so global does not pop up, but there are many memories that warm the soul. Almost every stream has students who are on the same wavelength with me. I travel a lot, I really like to take pictures. When I reveal a topic in class, I give examples from nature, the surrounding world, show how mathematical laws manifest themselves, explain how I comprehend them, how I see them. And there will definitely be people who understand me, try to look at the world also from the point of view of mathematics and my hobbies. So one of my students doubted whether he should do photography, and after talking with me decided to try. And he managed not only to catch photo moments, but also to see the mathematical "highlights" of our world.
We also have a lot more travel opportunities now than we had 10-15 years ago. There are a lot of travel companies that send one-day tours. I always tell students that they will probably spend 1,000-1,500 rubles just like that and won't notice. It's better to put them aside and go on a trip, just relax, see how many patterns there are in the world around us, and with fresh thoughts it's easy to continue studying further. It's nice when one of the guys follows my advice.
It's also nice when you are remembered by adult former students who no longer depend on you. They find me on social networks, add me as a friend. We keep in touch and know that we have each other.
In your opinion, have the students somehow changed since the beginning of your teaching activity?
There are changes because people are changing and society is changing. There are always those who want to study, those who don't want to study and those who don't care.
It was difficult in 1994-2000 . Then most of the students did not want to study at all. There was such a policy in the state when it was not clear whether it was necessary to study or not. It was difficult for many to decide what to do, what to learn and for whom. The changes in relation to studies began only when most parents finally realized that their child comes to work in their own company, and he knows nothing. Why do we need such an employee? And so, when parents realized that children needed to have knowledge, the education of students reached another level.
Over all the years of teaching, I came to the conclusion that a student is a student at all times! He wants to sleep, eat, have fun and in between these things – to study. I think that there are always amazing people, there are not so many. But in the process of interaction, we learn to negotiate, avoid conflict situations, even more so in the classroom.
What do you think a teacher should do to have a positive impact on students?
In order to have a positive impact on students, you need to love your profession. You live in it, you swim in it, you get high from it. Most students studying at the university do not notice how diverse the world is. And the task of the teacher is to expand their worldview, to show that the world is endless and interesting. When you are open to him, he gives you a lot more.
I have found my line – I talk about the abstract world of mathematics through the prism of my hobbies. There are people who don't say anything about themselves, but I like to share my hobbies with students. It seems to me that the intersection of these hobbies with my disciplines gives a student more chances to get involved in the subject. It's a great happiness to share everything I learn with students. The fact that, for example, in Arkhyz in the Sofia gorge, the edge of the coniferous forest is built according to a cycloid, or, as cobwebs are built, superbly beautiful polygons. Or, for example, when a rock has collapsed in the mountains, the fragment has the shape of a cube, or a pyramid, or a complex polyhedron. And what perfect angles are there – most often 90 or 120 degrees. It's interesting how everything is "invented" in nature! And the refraction of light from the surface of the lake or the fractality of a fern leaf – this is how mathematical patterns in nature manifest themselves.
"Dry" mathematics is difficult for our "non-mathematical" students to study, so I try to show the manifestation of its laws in the surrounding world. In my opinion, the more passionate a person is, the more multifaceted he sees the world, the more positive and harmonious he is.
Last week we talked with the professor of the basic Department of Private Zootechnics, breeding and breeding of animals, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor Elena Edugartovna Epimakhova. What made me leave production for pedagogy? What failures happen on the professional path? How to teach students to communicate professionally? – read the link.
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