In order to ease the problem of poor equipment with modern teaching aids, rationalize teaching time and teaching material and, at the same time, to implement more teaching units in more grades, a general classes teacher working in combined classes must have knowledge of a contemporary and integrated approach to the planning of the teaching process and be infected by the germ of creativity which would make it possible for him to remodel problems, which he encounters in this not-so-easy job, into a challenge which should be used to the utmost.
Working for thirteen years in a combined class, I've realized that just these combined-class schools are “fertile ground“ for encouraging a research spirit in students, for developing idependence and the connecting of contents of various school subjects, and I'm especially glad by the fact that there are even numerous resources in the environment, which for sure should be used for teaching. I think that the contents of various school subjects must be interwoven, so I talk about nouns, adjectives and verbs even in the mathematics class when we solve textual tasks; in the music class when we analyze and learn the text of a song which we’ll sing, or on the other hand, in the physical education class in the situations when students get tasks to come to the hidden object by march, whose name most often hides a certain type of a noun.
We don't sing only in the music class – music is a way for us to relax, but also a way for creating a working atmosphere. stvaranje radne atmosfereMusic inspires us to make tasks of mathematical character, connect music with lingustic, literary and other contents. sledećem linku.
A rural environment offers a lot of possibilities even for the conducting of outside-classroom teaching. There were the examples of the activities realized in kitchen gardens, next to polythene greenhouses or in them, in raspberries patches, in a meadow, in a forest, beside a river… We remember even the days when each student had his own little garden he had to look after – a sack half-filled with soil with various planted crops. Everyone had a task of weeding their garden, watering and monitoring how the crops developed and stories still retell about how we used to pluck nettles and make a healthy drink from them at school. Although they’re always in contact with domestic animals, the task of making a product about animals, using collected material, also seemed very alluring for students. You can find more information about such activities on the following link: sledećem linku.
I’m especially proud of a class of the Serbian language, which I carried out in the schoolyard at the beginning of October this year. Students were impressed by all implemented activities putting them in various positions: they had to make an appropriate text from the words hidden in rubber balloons, jump on the models of letters, find hidden “nouns” and, then, determine their type, gender and number, they guess the notion from an unusual crown, collect pebbles which a first-year student used to make a letter, discover what it’s in a plastic bag… Such a designed class is an excellent example of connecting sports, linguistic contents and the contents tied in with various material. You can find the photos from this class on this link. ovom linku.
Such and on this principle organized classes are an indicator of how teaching even in combined classes can be raised to a higher and better quality level, for example, how by integrating teaching contents both teaching time and teaching aids can be saved. Thirteen years spent in a four-year class under the auspices of Beljanica, fight with misfortunes which I came across and a sweet taste of victory give me credibility to publicly say that rural schools aren’t something that should be criticized and marginalized, but they’re real treasure which should be used.