Teaching with Heart
Read the story of teacher Rudina Ismaili from Eduten Training
For Rudina Ismaili, one of the teachers participating in the recent Eduten training in Albania, teaching has never simply been a job. It has been a lifelong calling.
“I’ve been working as a teacher for 30 years,” she says with a warm smile and sparkling eyes. “It is always a pleasure for me to work with children.”
Her journey into education was a deliberate choice. At the time she applied to university, future teachers had to compete for limited places and pass rigorous entry exams. She succeeded and began the career that would shape the next three decades of her life.
Teaching, she explains, is also a shared passion in her family. Both she and her husband are teachers, and conversations about lessons, students, and problem-solving are part of everyday life at home.
When she learned she would take part in training for the Eduten platform, she felt excited about the opportunity to bring something new to her classroom.
Developed by the University of Turku, Eduten is a digital and gamified mathematics platform designed to make learning interactive while helping teachers track student progress and adapt lessons to different needs. During the two-day training, teachers explored the platform through hands-on exercises and demonstrations. For her, the experience was both inspiring and practical.
“A good teacher has the ability to make difficult things look easy,” she says. “The experts explained the platform in such a simple way that we can now do the same for our pupils.”
She believes that digital tools like Eduten can help connect with today’s generation of students, who often learn best through interactive and playful experiences.
“Children love learning through play,” she explains. “And this generation is growing up with technology, so platforms like this can help them learn in a way that feels natural and enjoyable.”
Even while testing the platform during the training, she was already thinking about her class.
“I kept wondering how my pupils would solve the exercises, which ones they would like more, which ones would excite them,” she says.
For her, that constant curiosity is part of what makes teaching special.
“The beauty of this profession is that it makes us think like children again. It keeps the child within us alive.”
And for teachers like her, that sense of wonder is what continues to inspire learning, year after year.
