From January 18 to 23 in the Carpathians, we held the second Great Teachers Seminar. The permanent authors and facilitators of the seminar are Olha Bershadska, an educational consultant who knows how to create a space where you just want to be, and Nataliia Starynska, a trainer who masterfully moderated the event’s program and unlocks potential through precise questions.<\/p>\n
Over two seminars \u2014 in June 2025 and January 2026 \u2014 62 teachers from medical universities across Ukraine visited the Carpathians. And a figure that rarely occurs in educational formats: 100% of participants are satisfied and confirmed that they found themselves in a comfortable and productive atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\n“We create a space where every teacher is a bearer of valuable experience. It doesn’t matter if you have one year of teaching or 40. As a result, this event without speakers becomes an event with 32 super-interesting speakers, deep conversations, and new connections between departments, disciplines, and universities,” <\/em>Nataliia shares.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The format, as before, is modeled after the North American Great Teachers Seminar: there is no rigidly fixed program. Instead, a lot of attention is paid to finding questions that truly concern teachers and that they can influence. The seminar began by voicing real challenges from daily work, which were then discussed in small groups under one main rule: do not complain or criticize, but ask questions.<\/p>\n
The location played its role once again \u2014 not only mental, but also physical distance from familiar roles and classrooms. In the context of the full-scale war, this distance proved to be a functional condition for deep learning. In their feedback, participants wrote in almost identical words: “For the first time in 3.5 years since the start of the full-scale invasion, I felt no anxiety,” “thoughts about the war occupied only 10% of my thoughts, instead of 90% as usual.”<\/em><\/p>\n