I´m teaching for 25 years now, so there were times when mine ideas were   unstructured and with a lack of ground, with no ability to grow. However, there have also been other situations where the project's consistency and my ability to be assertive had good results. I remember starting a career in a little school given to change.I remember starting a career in a small school in which creativity and change were seen as a threat. I wanted to work on a project that involved some research, role-play, group work and the collaboration of teachers from other subjects. Today it would be vulgar but at the time to develop this type of project work in which students had to represent / simulate the activity of a court, present ideas or defending them wasn´t an easy task.
The first step was to engage the students and it was very easy. With the students on board it was even easier to involve the parents. the dynamics of project was appearing and gradually the collaboration of other teachers was emerging. A reasonable planning, a constant positive reinforcement were enough to create something that past twenty years the students still remember and me too.

Five years ago I taught in a school in lower grade secondary school. My pupils had 11 years old. They were not interested in school and they were not very keen on studying. It was completely useless to teach English as it was generally done: grammar, exercises, reading. They had very big problems with their mothertongue because they were accustomed to their dialect. So English was even farther from their world, their reality. In their opinion studying English was useless. The first four months were a failure. Then I changed my method. My lessons were easy word games, such ad crosswords, videos from youtube. But the most successful method was through songs. They didn’t get much about proper English but at least they were able to get the right pronunciation and meaning of some words. Having fun is always the right method!! 

In this way authors of ancient time became closer to their mentality  and their world.

The beginning was very hard because I had not had tools to implement a "non standard" teaching way. So, I applied the old known methodology (teacher teaching and student listening and doing activities). And, obviously, it did not work. When I confirmed it, I try to change my methodology. 

First of all, I replaced coursebook with my set guided, activities. It was not enough. Then I realized that students were working better, but they were not highly interested in my activities.   

Some time later,  I decided to program open activities where students would give me a product in a deadline. It improved the previous experience, students were more motivated, but not enough because students felt lost often (they did not know how to follow in their process). I needed some control procedures, better planning, etc. 

I followed searching solutions, so I found out PBL methodology. Since then, I have been implementing this methodology in my classes. I started with a driven question and a process plan. Then I added rubrics and observation guides as assessment. Outcomes were more satisfactory and students became to enjoy learning process. 

Nowadays, I am improving collaboration techniques and FAQ (there are same questions in all groups, so I spent too time resolving same doubts) . 

I did not give up because I was sure that there would be a solution for my disinterested students. There are many things to improve in my classroom still, but I feel that I am on the right path.

A few years ago it happened to me to work in primary schools as an English teacher. I had no teaching experience with young children: neither pedagogical nor didactic! Plus they were so young and I was almost upset. I was afraid they would bother me, or they would start crying, and, in both cases, I didn’t know what to do and how to behave. I did not give up: I accepted my limits, I studied, I looked for all kind of information about kids and teaching kids. Thanks also to my determination and the precious help from an internal teacher,  I happily accomplished my experience! 

I decided to apply for bilateral project with an enthusiastic colleague from Belgium. Despite our tremendous efforts, our project was not approved for funding. That fact let her down, and she declined my offer to give it a second try. So, I started looking for other reliable partners for the 2014 call. And that was the biggest challenge I had ever faced so far: the introducing of the Erasmus+ programme. No one from my new contacts, some of them (unlike me) with a lot of experience with the Comenius programme,  was quite sure what to do. So, I started to read all the available resources that could help me tune with the new programme. As a result, our project ‘Forensics and Creative Theatre‘ was among the very first ones, approved for funding. Three years later our project won the European quality label, and that makes me feel not only proud, but also happy that I didn't give up trying. 

Now I feel satisfied and energised because the outcomes of my persistence have proved me right.      

My first day of teaching - 20 years ago - in a secondary school was terrifying and utterly exhausting. Although I had never felt so unprepared for anything, somehow the first days were smooth. Those days set the tone for the rest of the year, I later realized.

When I was in the univeristy I had to have a language certificate to be able to teach at the schools of my community. It took me some years. I failed the exams couple times but I didn’t give up. I was studying and preparing myself so hard to be able to pass it. Finally, with a lot of effort I did it.

My parents emigrated when I was 4 years old. We went to France. I lived there until I was 17 and when I returned to Portugal to continue my studies, I hardly spoke Portuguese. It was very difficult, because it was often mocking. Never give up participating, namely in the discipline d Portuguese, despite my difficulties. It was this persistence that made her the second best student in the class, in the Portuguese exam. 

Pinelopi, Greece
When I sat the admission exams for the university I failed and I felt a loser. It was a really hard period for me. It was difficult to realise my failure. My dreams would remain dreams and I was not confident for my future success the next year. I felt that my life stood still and I found it difficult to react in any way that could be considered progress. After a month or so I had to take final decisions about my future. Nothing attracted me but the university studies. So I dedicated a whole school year to my preparation and my next effort was successful. Ever since I have been studying in other disciplines. I  believe that the first failure was decisive for the following accomplishments. Psychologically I have become really confident and a fighter in my life.

My teacher wanted me to play Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, which is among the most technically demanding piano pieces. I was so pleased my teacher trusted me so much and considered me able to face the difficulties of that piece. When I started studying it I wasn’t aware of its complexity and after sitting in front of my piano for a month trying to go to the core of those insurmountable parts of the piece I really thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish it and sometimes I was determined to give up but I didn’t… and I’m glad I didn’t because after a WHOLE YEAR of hard work I felt I won eventually. I had beaten what at the time was to me the unbeatable. There were two things that made me stick to the problem and not give up: my teacher always made me feel I could do it because she trusted me; the second reason was because of Music itself. Music makes magic on me and makes the difficulties appear as a challenge what motivates me so much. 

Well, it is more a believe I follow at the moment and I don't still know if it would be successful ... 

The believe is that a link between schools and professionals is something beneficial for and needed by both sides and with my team we are currently developing an online tool to enable and facilitate such link. We were looking for funding for this tool for 1 year and we put enormous effort towards securing this funding. But we didn't get it. So, instead of abandoning our idea we are now developing it without any support because we firmly believe it will contribute towards a more coherent, meaningful and happy Bulgarian society. 

The tool will be FREE for schools and businesses that participate and exchange with it! 

I did this great experience but 1 month before the deadline, my work was still uncomplete. I felt really upset and I was almost sure I was failing in my goal but I decided not to give up. I spent the next two weeks focusing on my work and I succeded to overtake the difficulties that were slowing down my job. 

Most of the time… there is a solution but we have to face the problem and find it out. 

However I made a big mistake: I didn’t choose a role for each member of the group so the experiment failed. I didn’t surrender and I tried again to make my students work in groups. This time I decided to use an ITC lab and let them work with computers. I gave each member of the group a different role providing that there was a student good at using internet and power point in each group. In the end my students surprised me: all groups worked in armony and produced good power point slide shows on the tasks they were assigned 

In relation to my first PBL project, it was a bit elementary. Our work will often be by trial and error. We must make the effort to improve and learn from our mistakes. Make students able to build their learning through proposed problems that exposes them to motivating situations and prepares them for the world of work. Students work in groups and the teacher assumes the role of advisor. Each class consists of three main steps: problem diagnosis, problem solving and solution presentation.