Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Time Flies


The clocks in the classrooms helped the teachers, counselors and campers to be on time.
Goodbye, campers!



July Posts will be Summing Up.

Staff Room


This is our Staff Room that has been the place for meetings and shelter.

Disco and Water Spraying


After the closing ceremony the counselors organized a disco for the campers. In an hour or so they went to the school yard to water-spray each other.
At that time the teachers and some counselors were carrying all camp stuff to the Staff Room and then to the cars.
Wet Campers and Tamara Z. K. in the background with the university tape recorder.

Closing Ceremony: Thank You!


The superactive grandmother of one of our campers was happy to thank everybody in the Summer Camp for their wonderful cooperation. The children's open eyes and their laughter showed that the Summer Camp turned out a success.

Closing Ceremony: Certificates of Appreciation


The Director and the manager presented the cerificates of appreciation - signed by David Fay, English Language Officer (U.S. Embassy Moscow) and Vasiliy K., Director of Institute of Humanities - to the campers.
Each team came out one by one. The campers also received CD with photos depicting sunny moments of their life in the Summer Camp.
Then the counselors,media team, teachers and the school authorities were awarded the cerificates.

Closing Ceremony: Books to Authors


The Director of the Summer Camp Vassili Ivanovich K.presented the books to their authors.

Closing Ceremony: Blue Bikini Bottom's Travelling


Blue Bikini Bottom Team also travelled around the world. As Bossia, the camp manager, noticed, there was an enigma that the audience is still trying to decode.

Closing Ceremony: Green Irish Emerald's Lessons



Green Irish Emerald parodied the teachers and their lessons. That's another me and my huge list of words!
Those are smiles of the parodied authorities.

Closing Ceremony: Yellow Submarine's Legend


Yellow Submarine discovered a new version of the captain James Cook's story.

Closing Ceremony: Orange Cheetos' Travelling Story


The Orange Cheetos travelled around the world as the shaman advised them to do so. The King Chester visited all our five English-speaking countries.

Closing Ceremony: Red Brats Travelling Story


The Red Team started the wonderful talent show.

They produced a fairy tale with Baba Yaga, the dance lezghinca, Kalmyk musical instrument and the unknown tribe.

Closing Ceremony: Words of the Day

The Powerpoint presentation "Words of the Day" proved once more that our campers are great talents! Only some of the illustrations were shown.

Closing Ceremony: Songs through Pictures


The Summer Camp listened to three more songs and watched splendid illustrations made by the campers at the lessons "Ireland Through Comps". Just one e-picture from Mergen A. (Yellow Submarine)!
"Molly Malone"

The campers sang along here too. Then the rest of the pictures will be published.

Closing Ceremony: Singing Along


The closing ceremony started with the mottoes and cheers of the teams. Then the floor was given to Galina V.Z. The campers sang along the songs of Kylie Minogue.

Keeping good memories

So, our Summer Camp is over. Think, it was a great success, this was my first experience in summer camp and I really enjoyed it. Someone said today at the closing ceremony that the eyes of the kids when they were working together or dramatising something on the stage were worth coming to the Camp. They really were! The kids loved what they were doing. Thank you, Summer Camp!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Debate "How to Make the Summer Camp a Success?"


Our manager Bossia organized this debate as a valuable feedback on effectiveness of the camp work.
At first the campers, counselors and teachers were given three pieces of paper: 'blue' denoted 'yes', 'pink' - 'no' and 'yellow' - 'not sure'.Bossia and Mike were reading some statements and everybody raised the card with their answer.
During the second part two leaders were chosen inside each team and the discussion started.
The counselors and teachers made a separate group.

Then those leaders reported on the group's suggestions. "Invite exchange students from English-speaking countries", "Going outside to the park", "20-minute Lessons","More communication with other groups", etc. Everything was filmed.

We are proud of our Access graduates speaking fluently while dicsussing and reporting the results!

NATE Impressions


Our teachers have returned! Having arrived late at night they managed to come to the Summer Camp in the early morning.

On June 25 there was a workshop "Access Microscholarship Program in Russia" under the guidance of V. Shvaiko (Ufa Access).

On June 26and on June 27
Our manager Bossia K. participated in several sections: she reported on
"Lessons in Kindness - Accessing English Through Students' Stories" and "Acquiring English as a Second Language in the USA: Some Practical Implications for Language Teaching".
Bossia K. showed the book of the Access students' stories.

Reading the XV NATE Conference program I met several names of the online course Alumni.
I expect our teachers to share their impressions on Kazan NATE.

Filming


The centre of the city was greatly impressed by the rainbow of the teens and adults in bright T-shirts. Not only our Media Team, but also some citizens took a lot of pictures of the campers. But only our Media Team is going to film the campers.

Word of the Day (21) Love


Love

Love

Love

Feelings of love

Love Associations from Blue Bikini Bottom Team

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Teen Film

We watched the film Bring It On: In It to Win It. Ashley Benson as Carson and Michael Copon as Penn were a nice pair.

Revision Lesson


As there was no Internet connection, the students revised the vocabulary on Ireland.

Compare this peony from the school greenhouse with the peony rose from Ireland.

Word of the Day (20) Proud

Proud

proud

Friday, June 26, 2009

Beauty Contest With Irish Song


Today's lesson was devoted to the song "The Rose of Tralee".
After the first listening the students read the story offered by the Rose of Tralee festival. Then they compared this story with the facts at Wikipedia.
Of course, the texts had been shortened.

Word of the Day (19) Dream

Dream

Dream (Macmillan Dictionary)

Songs on/about Dream

Films tagged with dream

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Improving English


Orange Cheetos Albina is improving her English. She uses one of numerous test books offered by the publishing houses. One of her questions was : "Can I say 'a bit of money'?"

Creativity in Action



While playing 'volleyball' there was one damage - to the Yellow Submarine Mergen's flip-flop/thong. The side strap flew out of its place and the boy had to use a stick, a stone, a pen and two pencils to put it back.

Two Camps Meet



Our English-speaking campers showed a kind of exercise: 'right hand, left hand...'. The younger campers followed with enthusiasm. Red Counselor Natasha M. was the leader.

Happy Birthday!



One of the Orange Cheetos campers - Lyuba M. - celebrated her birthday.
Happy Birthday, Lyuba! Many happy returns of the day! Be always a success at English!

No Admittance!

The campers are rehearsing and they do not allow their teachers to watch their acting.

Sports

We read some facts about hurling, the world fastest game. But we played 'volleyball' in the school yard. By the way, I did not find the description of this popular type, that is , playing without the net, standing in the circle. I suspect there is a special name of this game?!

Word of the Day (18) Creativity


Creativity

Creativity (Wikipedia)

Creativity (Solutions to the Problems)

Creativity (Creativity for Life)

Creativity (The European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009)

"Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun." Mary Lou Cook

Creativity: Campers' Associations

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Twister Playing


Twister playing is very popular with the campers. The plastic mat is being carried from one team room to the other. The students from different teams play together.

Throwing of Water

It has been the 'most hottest' day (I insist on this wrong grammar to underline the heat inside and outside!)!
The campers and counselors have been roaming with plastic bottles and throwing water! I hope it helped a little bit.

Preparing Scripts for Closing

All teams are preparing scripts for the coming Closing Ceremony. It is nice that not only counselors, but also the campers have offered their own ideas.

Ireland Through Video (3)



The campers were watching the silent - without any comment, accompanied by music - videofilm about Ireland. They were commenting it, using the words and phrases from the previous video. Of course, there wasn't any exact matching, but in most of cases the picture and the comment matched perfectly. For example, enchanting beauty...love for horses...sophisticated shopping...greatest tresure...experience the warmth of the Irish welcome...
Photo

Word of the Day (17) Home


Home

Each Irish Emerald contributed to this sheet of green paper with associations.

home and its collocations (Cambridge Dictionary)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Karaoke Contest


So many songs, so much laugh...Our counselors have done their best!

The counselors offered to start with the team singing. After drawing lots:
Red Brats "Don't Worry, Be Happy"
Orange Cheetos "YMCA"
Yellow Submarine "Yellow Submarine"
Blue Bikini Bottom "Since you've been gone"
Green Irish Emerald "Oops, I did it again"

Then a solo singing followed.
Orange Luaba M. "Only You"
Yellow Danzan L. "Black or White'
Blue Altana D. "I will always love you"
Green Jenya B. "Waiting For Tonight"
Red Lera B. "Summer Moved On"

The jury - Galina V.Z., Tatiana A., Valentina E. - decided that everybody was a winner.
The Funniest Singer Danzan
The Most Professional Singer Altana
The Most Arttistic Singer Jenya
The Best Dancing Groupe Red

Ireland through Skills: Irish Americans

Starting again with "Dear Old Donegal" song we went on to discuss hardships of the Irish immigrants in the 19th century. The tasks were very hard.

'Irish-Americans had moved from the position of the despised to the oval office.'
We tried to understand the idea of this final phrase. Only one boy - Danzan L. from Yellow Submarine - knew the exact meaning of the phrase 'the oval office'.

Word of the Day (16) Health


Health

Оньдин цаhан хаалhта болтн!

Let the road always be white!

Almost all our teachers are leaving for Kazan / Казань to take part in the NATE conference.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Good-bye, Professor Leskes and Mr. Ward!

Dear American guests made a farewell speech in front of the campers. They reminded us of this brilliant opportunity given to each to speak English.They were so persuasive that my Irish Emerald tried to speak English, even though adding from time to time that their English was bad. I liked my speaking English with Ars who is eager to become an Access student. He is so enthusiastic!
So, if there is a possibility, why not organize one more school group?!

Sports Day: Green Win Pink Prize


Our counselors organized playing volleyball. Green Irish Emerald has won a large cake! The pink cake with the campers around it was being photographed by several photographers as if it were a Final Cup! Green campers felt so proud!

The Previous Week of Our Camplife

So, the third week of our camplife has begun. It is so fast, guess, because it's so eventful. So was the previous week: Indigenous people's stories dramatised by the kids were, I think, a great success! The actors were fantastic and really enjoyed what they were doing on the stage. Hope that coming events are going to be as colourful as this one. Way to go!

Ireland: E-Painting and Singing

As I had guessed there was no Internet connection and the students e-painted the characters from the Irish songs learnt earlier.
Blue Bikini Amulya e-drew, then together with Blue Bikini Altana D. sang "Molly Malone".
Red Brats Ghylyana, Vanya O. and Temir K.were the only campers who managed to e-paint a horse from "The Wild Colonial Boy".

Word of the Day (15) Knowledge

Knowledge

Compare our Word of the Day with one more Word of the Day.

Ireland Through Comps (5), or Let's paint

On Saturday there were created wonderful illustrations to the Irish songs.
Now I want the campers to use Paint to create e-pictures to the songs.

Follow this route:
Пуск - Все программы - Стандартные - Paint.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Around English-speaking countries... England

The teams got two tasks. Both tasks had time limitations.
  1. They should put the names of the English counties in the alphabetical order as fast as possoble.
  2. The team should create a story about two pictures. The funnier story is, the better it is.
All the stories were great!
But the story of the Yellow Submarine Team was the funniest and the most interesting!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Professor Leskes and her husband Mr. Ward





Vivian Leskes Ward attended classes

Frank Ward is a professional photographer. 

He gave us some very good lessons.

when we were going around the school yard, he found an american flag:)

Stories of Indigenous people of English-speaking countries





Prize Goes To...


Big and smaller pizzas were the delicious prizes! I think everybody got hungry after travelling around five countries for only one hour!

Professor Leskes in Assembly Hall

Professor Leskes talked with the campers .

Open Lessons. Ireland Through Comps (4)

Our guest teachers were shown the two blogs of Access School and Summer Camp. We were exploring various gadgets, links, labels and words of the day.

Word of the Day (14) Confident

Confident

The quotation from the interview with 'Harry Potter' actors and the director of the films:

QUESTION: Does being a movie star help overcome shyness?
RUPERT GRINT: I’ve always been a bit shy, but I do feel more confident now, yeah.

Around English-speaking Countries...Ireland

The teams were to work together and fulfill five tasks, based on our lessons “Ireland through Music”: Crying Cockles and Mussels and Travelling with Irish Songs.
In some teams their counselors organized the work successfully, though they didn’t attend my lessons, but they asked questions and the campers explained to them what they remembered after my lessons.

In some teams ( Yellow Submarine and Blue Team) the campers managed to do everything by themselves.
Green (Irish Emerald) surprised me by their Gaelic greeting Fáilte!
Among the song characters Molly Malone was Number One. The Wild Colonial Boy was Number Two. That’s why, most teams mimed their meeting. Orange Canada Cheetos remembered the lucky immigrant from Dear Old Donegal.

Red Team received the highest marks in this ‘Irish’ contest.

The tasks were performed in different ways. Look through my Photo Album!
All the teams were accompanied by our guest teachers, sometimes being outnumbered by the guests. The teachers were enthusiastic like our campers, some gave some advice.
Everybody did their best!

Around the English Speaking Countries in One Hour- USA


The activity 'Around the English Speaking Countries in One Hour' concluded our week which was full of events for both teachers and students. Each group was given ten minutes with each teacher who asked them to fulfill a certain task. Teams who visited the station on the USA were tasked with remembering Native American sign language. They first had to work together to determine what they thought different pictures were depicting. To provide a few examples, students had to try and decide on the signs for peace, war, to lie, chief, and a woman. Then as a group, ranging in size from 6-12 today, had to imitate the signs. All the groups were terrific and were so enthusiastic throughout the activity!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Poster Contest

The teams presented their posters with their countries profiles.

Stories of Indigenous People

All five teams presented their dramatizations of stories of indigenous people from their respective countries. The guest teachers were the jury.

No Russian!

The article was published in the newspaper "Elistinskaya Panorama".

Green Certificate From Green Team


Alta K.,a girl from Green Team, has been succesful in the secondary school, in the Access school and in the Summer Camp. She has managed to find time for everything. She has just received the Green Certificate (=Excellent marks)after finishing the ninth form.Congratulations!

Professor Leskes and Her Workshops

Professor Vivian Leskes Ward from Holyoke Community College (HCC), Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA has led two workshops for the teachers of English today.

American Professor with Campers


Professor Leskes met the students during their Team Time.

Travelling With Irish Songs

One more lesson of "Ireland through Music". The campers were offered to listen three songs, one by one, without the lyrics. The Big Question was written on the board: "What is the general idea of the three songs?"

"Dear Old Donegal"

"The Wild Colonial Boy"

"If We Only Had Old Ireland Over Here"

The students' suggestions were the following: love for Ireland, travelling, English-speaking countries,love.
Then the lyrics were read and discussed. The lucky and unlucky fates were mentioned.

Word of the Day (13)

Attitude

attitude

Seminar Photo Report





some photos from the Seminar