Ana-Maria Rusu, a teacher of musical education in the town of Focșani, has been selected for the Top 50 Global Teacher Prize, which aims to identify the best teachers in the world.
The prize is awarded by the Varkey Foundation, which organizes the prestigious competition and awards annually USD 1 million to an exceptional teacher.
Ana-Maria Rusu’s nomination comes as a result of her efforts to promote music education and her creative activities and methods that have reached thousands of students and teachers in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and the diaspora, according to the organizers.
„Diagnosed late with ADHD, she empathizes with children from all backgrounds, working with 16,000+ students. She currently meets 1,000 middle schoolers weekly who are neurotypical, neurodivergent, from divided families, below the poverty line, of Roma ethnicity, with huge emotional issues, all combined into general classrooms”, states her biographical note on the foundation’s website.
Ana Maria Rusu has been a teacher for 18 years. She has consistently aimed to instill a general musical culture in children at an early age, by co-founding the platforms „More Musical Education in Schools and Kindergartens” (MEMIS) and www.edumuzicala.ro, which provide hundreds of resources and ideas for adapting music education methods to other subjects. These resources are accessed by thousands of teachers from all disciplines and levels every month.
Rusu has also created an activity guide for the integration of refugee students from Ukraine into Romanian schools and published „The Arithmetic of Sounds,” an encyclopedic book that makes music education accessible to everyone. For several years, she has facilitated music education method workshops for hundreds of teachers from all specialties across the country, collaborated with Cantus Mundi, conducted amateur student choirs, and even had Olympians and former students from theoretical high schools who have become musicians or teachers, reports Romania Insider.
She was selected in the Top 50 Global Teacher Prize for using effective and innovative teaching practices that are globally replicable, for demonstrable student learning outcomes in the classroom, for contributing to the formation of global citizens, and for the impact of her activities beyond her job description in the community beyond the classroom.
