A teacher at a specialized school in Hai Duong has been persistently passing on her love of history for over 20 years.

For over 20 years, she has persistently passed on her passion and brought success to many generations of students.

The first student in the province to win the national history exam

Hearing that Ms. Ha had been awarded a certificate of merit by the Prime Minister, I contacted her to ask to write an article. She humbly declined over the phone: "That is just a small achievement, nothing compared to my predecessors. What I have achieved is all thanks to the enthusiastic support and help of the school leaders, colleagues, parents, students and loved ones."

I contacted the leadership of Nguyen Trai High School for the Gifted to ask for help in approaching Ms. Ha one more time. Meritorious Teacher Nguyen Thi Hong Thanh, Vice Principal of the school, revealed: "Ms. Ha is the first student from Hai Duong province to win first prize in the national history competition. She is one of the prides of our school, training many excellent national students, trusted by students and parents but always modest and discreet."

Thanks to the influence of the school leadership, I finally got an appointment with this talented teacher. Ms. Ha said that she was a student at Nam Sach High School in the 1996-1999 school year. At that time, Ms. Ha was a "literature team member" but when she was in 12th grade, she was selected to compete in the history subject at the provincial and then national levels. Surprisingly, in the national history subject competition in the 1998-1999 school year, the first prize in history was awarded to the female student Dang Thu Ha. In this subject, Ms. Ha was the first student from Hai Duong province to win the national first prize.

Being admitted directly to university, Ms. Ha chose to study at the History Department of Hanoi National University of Education 1. "Up until my third year of university, I still wondered why I, a literature major, was studying history? Gradually, I realized that this was my destiny, so I was determined to stick with it," Ms. Ha confided.

Excellent track record

In 2007, Ms. Ha transferred to work at Nguyen Trai High School for the Gifted. Over the years, her professional capacity has gradually improved, and the school has entrusted her with the main responsibility of teaching specialized history classes, training excellent students at provincial and national levels, and preparing for high school graduation exams...

Reading Ms. Ha's achievement report, I was very impressed. From 2007-2024, she participated in training 117 students to win national excellent student awards, including 1 first prize winner, 23 second prize winners, and 10 third prize winners. She also directly trained 118 students to win provincial prizes, 24 students to win excellent student awards in the coastal and Northern Delta regions.

Students in English, French, math, physics, etc. major classes were also inspired by Ms. Ha to study history. In the 2023-2024 high school graduation exam, the 12th graders she directly taught all achieved good results, including 4 students in non-history major classes who scored 10 points, helping Nguyen Trai High School for the Gifted rank first in the province in terms of average history exam scores.

Ms. Ha also has the passion to help many middle and high school students in the province achieve high results in the 10th grade entrance exams and high school graduation exams, many of whom achieved 9 and 10 points. There is a family in Hai Duong City with 6 children and grandchildren studying history with Ms. Ha and all achieved high academic results.

For many years, Ms. Ha has been an excellent teacher, achieving the title of emulation fighter at the grassroots and provincial levels, and was appointed Deputy Head of the History - Economic Education - Law Group of the school.

But what Ms. Ha is most proud of is not the above achievements. She confided: "The greatest happiness I have had over the past 20 years is to have passed on my love of history to many generations of students. Many students who were indifferent and had difficulties have risen up to study history well, have cultivated patriotism, national pride and have had a bright future."

Based on the information provided by Ms. Ha, I contacted Senior Lieutenant Phan Tuan Hung, who is working at the Ha Long City Police (Quang Ninh). Mr. Hung is a former student of Marie Curie Secondary and High School (Hai Duong City). He admitted that he likes listening to history stories but is lazy to study this subject. However, everything has changed since he started studying with Ms. Ha. Right from the first lesson, Mr. Hung was captivated by the gentle, humorous way of conveying knowledge mixed with familiar stories. He learned both literature and geography through emotional historical stories, charts, and historical facts prepared by the teacher.

"Historical events were imprinted in my mind. The subject seemed dry and difficult to learn, but I was passionate about it and fell in love with it without even realizing it. In the university entrance exam that year, I scored 9.75 in history and was admitted to the People's Police Academy," Mr. Hung said emotionally.

Ms. Tran Thu Ha, a student at the National Economics University, also did not like history when she was in middle school. But after just the first session with Ms. Ha, she completely changed her perspective on this subject. "Her teaching method is close, fun, and closely related to reality, so I understand the lessons quickly. She spends a lot of effort preparing learning materials, constantly checking, asking questions, and accompanying us to solve all the difficulties we encounter to achieve the best learning results. Thanks to her passion, I went from being a lazy student to winning second prize in the national history competition in the 2021-2022 school year," Ms. Ha shared.

"You have helped many students go from being indifferent to being passionate about history. What is your secret?", I asked. Ms. Ha smiled and replied: "I don't have any special secret. I just try to simplify the problems, decode the numbers, events... so that students can easily remember and draw lessons in the most proactive way."

In each lecture, Ms. Ha always tries to relate to reality, using vivid and funny examples so that students can understand the lesson and not feel tired. She believes that no matter how much science and technology develop, artificial intelligence is greatly supporting educational activities, but the role and dedication of teachers in preparing lesson plans, learning materials and accompanying students still plays a key role. Teachers always need to have empathy, love, perseverance and trust in students for teaching and learning to be effective.

Write books and join TCRR center

TCRR is the abbreviation of the four phrases "brilliant success". TCRR is the first online competency assessment test preparation center established in Hai Duong with the orientation of online learning as in-person learning. Although it has only been established for more than a year, the center has attracted a large number of students from within and outside the province to participate.

The center gathers many excellent teachers, with 16-22 years of experience in training for national and provincial excellent students, university entrance exams, etc. Ms. Ha is one of the teachers participating in teaching history at TCRR. She said she is very excited to collaborate with dynamic teachers who share the same goal of "teaching with all their heart". For her, this is a transformation, helping her adapt to the major changes of the new general education program and exams.

Attending an online class of TCCR, I saw teachers working hard, actively interacting, and supporting students. The lesson plans are exclusively and appropriately drafted. All subjects have a practice system, practice questions on copyrighted software to help students practice skills and review conveniently...

Chu Duong Minh Thu, a student at Tay Tien Hai High School (Thai Binh) is a student of TCRR and said: "The knowledge compiled by the teachers is easy to understand, easy to remember, close and creates excitement for the learners. I clearly feel the new, abundant energy and enthusiasm from the teachers through each lesson."

Ms. Ha's passion for her job does not stop at the above-mentioned activities. At the end of December 2024, the book "Reviewing for the 2025 High School Graduation Exam in History Subject according to the New General Education Program" which she participated in compiling was published.

The structure of the book is designed to include 5 parts, including: knowledge system, some notes on the topics, review questions by topic, topic assessment questions and answers. In addition, the book also has some comprehensive practice questions that closely follow the reference structure of the Ministry of Education and Training. This is a book that will be very helpful for teachers and students in the upcoming 2025 high school graduation exam.

"In reality, there are still many students who love history but have difficulties that they cannot solve on their own. My colleagues and I want to try to inspire our students. Hopefully, what we have done and are doing will contribute a small part so that today's and tomorrow's young generations will always love, respect and cherish history and be successful in the future," Ms. Ha shared.