Pupils of psychological and pedagogical classes met with the psychologist of the year in Russia

Teacher-psychologist of the year in Russia Varvara Lavrentieva met with future professionals

Pupils of psychological and pedagogical classes attended the next meeting of the project “Conversation with the Master: Dialogue of Generations”. Varvara Lavrentieva, winner of the All-Russian competition “Teacher-Psychologist of Russia – 2020”, candidate of psychological sciences, told them about their professional path in the field of education.

The meeting, dedicated to the International Day of Psychologist, was held at the Institute of Psychology and Complex Rehabilitation of Moscow State Pedagogical University. The participants devoted the conversation to career guidance in the field of education and psychology, issues of interaction between teachers and students, and the personal and professional qualities of a specialist.

Varvara Lavrentieva told how she chose the profession of psychologist. Her self-definition was influenced by personal experiences.

Having difficulties communicating with peers, she began attending psychological trainings, which helped her not only solve the problem, but also choose a specialty.

“I saw that the tools of psychology are real, they work. They worked for me. I really liked this. At that moment, I got excited about the idea of ​​becoming a psychologist,” Varvara Alekseevna shared.

The speaker spoke about the opportunities for self-realization available to a teacher-psychologist in his work with schoolchildren, about the qualities that a specialist should have, as well as about the content of the professional standard of a teacher-psychologist. A separate conversation was devoted to the issues of choosing a profession and the direction of work within the specialty.

“For example, you passed some test and confirmed to yourself: this is about me, this test truly reflects me and my knowledge about me. But it is worth paying attention to the moment when the surprise occurred. What were you really surprised by after passing this test or some kind of workshop, getting acquainted with the profession? If you suddenly see an unexpected side to yourself, it’s worth considering what else you can do to bring it out and express yourself in it. When we talk about professional profiles, we must remember that not all great professionals in their field became successful and respected people in the field to which they gravitated due to their abilities and natural abilities. Very often, people achieved success in those areas in which it was difficult for them and they had to make efforts to learn new skills,” the psychologist emphasized.

The educational psychologist also spoke about her experience of participating in the professional skills competitions “Teachers of the Year in Moscow” and “Teacher-Psychologist of Russia”.

“The most difficult moment for me was when I found out that I made it to the finals, because I thought: “What else can I show? I already showed everything at the previous stage.” One of the stages of the city competition was an in-person master class, and I didn’t have a single idea for it. It was difficult to find it, and I found it in my college notes from the first year,” said Varvara Alekseevna.

At the end, the speaker shared her views on the problem of professional burnout.

In her opinion, the key to preventing burnout is the variety of roles in the profession.

“Everyone has difficult periods, but it’s not always burnout. Sometimes there is less energy, sometimes there is objectively no strength. But, for example, the good thing about working as a psychologist at school is that you can engage in different types of activities. Of course, there is a work schedule, certain rules, structures, and there are meetings that cannot be rescheduled. But there are still moments when you can do something easier, and this will support you, help you save energy and resources for something else,” noted Varvara Lavrentieva.

“Psychological and pedagogical class in a Moscow school” is a project for future educational psychologists, speech therapists and speech pathologists. Schoolchildren study the Russian language, biology, social studies and mathematics in depth, master special courses in general physiology, social psychology and the foundations of modern neuroscience, and become familiar with the work of resource schools and school psychological and pedagogical services. You can find out more about pre-professional classes on the website “School. Moscow”as well as in the pre-professional education community on the social network “VKontakte” and in telegram channel.

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