Name: Oleksandr Zhuk
Age: 29
Education: Alfred Nobel Dnipropetrovsk University of Economics and Law, Zaporizhzhia National University, National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, Zaporizhzhia Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education.
Profession: computer science teacher
Did you know? Besides dancing and doing yoga, Zhuk designs clothes — even the wedding dress for his future wife.
Oleksandr Zhuk, a computer science teacher from Zaporizhia, won the annual national Global Teacher Prize Ukraine 2018 at the age of 29.
Working with children with hearing problems and the deaf at a boarding school called Dzherelo (Ukrainian for “a spring” or water source), the teacher feels personal responsibility for the children in his care.
“I understand that every day is important — both for the children and for myself personally. I do not perceive my work as a job, as it’s simply a pleasure for me,” Zhuk told the Kyiv Post.
Originally from Dnipro, Zhuk did not dream of becoming a teacher in a childhood. Instead, he wanted to be a banker, and he even entered Alfred Nobel Dnipropetrovsk University of Economics and Law.
However, Zhuk realized that this was not the profession for him. “When you work only with a computer, you don’t feel contact with people, and it really made me feel isolated,” he said.
So Zhuk decided to study psychology in Zaporizhia, the city of 750,000 people located 560 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, as well. Then, when he was 19, he started to work as a social tutor at the boarding school, where he still works now. At first, Zhuk set the goal of understanding how the children he was teaching developed.
“My mom was shocked when she found out that I was going to work at a school. I thought I would try six months or a year there, but after two months I realized that I wasn’t going to leave,” Zhuk said.
Zhuk entered the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, where he studied speech therapy for the deaf. Later, he started to work as a computer science teacher at the same school.
Now his working day begins at dawn.
“I get up at five o’clock in the morning to wake up the kids at 6:45 a. m. After that, they have breakfast, we do exercises, and go to school, where the classes start,” said Zhuk.
After lessons, the teacher’s working day continues — he prepares children for various festivals and competitions. Zhuk’s students are winning prizes in computer graphics, web design, and ecology competitions. The children have traveled all over Ukraine. In December, they plan to visit Poland.
“At the beginning of each year I’m already planning where we will go, which competitions we’ll participate in, and what the kids will do on vacations,” Zhuk said.
His biggest dream now is to open his own school of robotics and modeling, where children with special needs will also be able to study.
