3d day – Lessons: Native Americans. Today we learned Native American sign language, and studied pictographs. The 3d day was very special and very important for everybody in the Camp, because we had an Opening Ceremony. Some of the parents came and the Opening Ceremony began. Each team presented itself, its name, a cheer and a poster. We sang a Camp song together and then we had a Talent Show. Some children sang, and our counselor Andrei played the guitar. It was amazing and very interesting to find out that the children in our Camp are so talented! It was very important for us that Mr. Jonathan Korach, deputy press attaché from the U.S. Embassy, made a wonderful encouraging speech and congratulated us on participating in the English Access Microscholarship program. The day was great and we all loved it!
4th day – Lessons: African Americans. Today we talked about George Washington Carver and his amazing inventions. And we had a trip to a park!
Today we are wearing our hoodies because we are going to a protected national reserve! There may be some ticks there but we are brave and well-protected. Galina Victorovna from a reserve “Bastak” was leading the excursion and gave us all the information about different rare plants, trees and flowers. The place was not very big so we finished our excursion in an hour. Everybody was very impressed, because most of us didn’t even know about such a place in our city. Jonathan was also amazed with the flora of Birobidzhan. We came back to school at 1:30 pm and had a farewell party for Jonathan, because he was leaving the next day.. Some of our students made a performance called “From America to Russia” which showed how difficult it could be for a foreigner to understand a different culture. Then we had tea with cake and sweets and it was very sad to realize that Jonathan was leaving. But we said goodbye to him, and we hope that everything will be great in his life! We learned a lot from him about history, culture, politics and famous people of the USA. We shall remember his motto: “No dream is too big!” and his question: “Have you ever….?” and his encouragement: “You can also become a diplomat, a famous dancer, a singer, a tennis player, an IT expert, a reporter and anybody you can only dream about!”
5th day Lessons: Chinese Americans. Today we learned about fortune cookies, some of the legends of their origin, and what kind of fortunes we can read.
From 12 to 1 pm we were working on our projects in the computer class, and after lunch we played a lot of games with our counselors, such as Scattergories, Taboo Word and Twister.It was a lot of fun. All the children participated and had a great time!
6th day Lessons: American Literature Today we talked about famous American comics, like Blondie, L'il Abner, and Popeye, and what they tell us about American culture and stereotypes.
In the afternoon we listened to the presentation of one of our counselors, Nastya Bystrova, who had just got back from France. She also spent a year in the USA as a FLEX finalist. It was very interesting to find out new things about Michigan and its places of interest. After lunch we had clubs. We divided into three groups. The first group was learning English songs with Andrew, the second group was preparing a play in Drama Club, and the third one was working with Kate on our Design for Change project. It was a very busy beginning of the week, but everybody had fun !!111
7th day Lessons: Mexican Americans. Today we talked about Cesar Chavez, and how he helped Mexican Americans create a workers' union.
We listened to two presentations. Artem Turchanov, who is one of our Access students, won a FLEX summer program and went for three weeks to the USA. He showed us a lot of pictures and videos.
Then our counselor, Nastya, was talking about her trip to France where she had spent about a month. We learned that France is very different from our country and the USA. The pictures were amazing and the story was very lively. The rest of the day was full of activities in clubs.
8th day. Lessons: Jewish Americans. Today we talked about how Yiddish has influenced American English. It was also a Business day, and we took part in Arbat Game. During our lessons we were trying to earn some money called “sholomiks”.
At 12 the students started to organize their own stations (stores and salons). We could also earn some money from our counselors by winning different games in English. There were a lot of shops organized such as a SPA salon, a Dance Club, and an Art Club. Also our guys had a club where they could make any wish come true. It was very funny and we just laughed a lot! Some of us “invested” our money in the “best bank in the world” that suddenly went bankrupt. It was really shocking for us but we were given a chance to get our money back by singing or performing in English. Later we were happy to spend our money at the Main store where we could “buy” some sweets and candies! That was great!
9th day Lessons: Russian Americans. Today we talked about famous Russian Americans George Balanchine, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.
From 12 to 1 pm students were working on the presentations of their achievements in the camp. After lunch everybody was doing the Design for Change Project. We chose the problem of Computer and Video Games addiction which is very urgent nowadays in our opinion. We made flyers showing the danger of this addiction. Also Vitya and Artem were making a presentation discussing this topic, its reasons, consequences, and stories from real life. It was a very productive day!!!
10th day Lessons: Hollywood.
It was a Movie day! Today we talked about traditional melodrama and silent films, and what themes were popular. After our lessons we were making a movie. It was a very hard process, because it took a lot of time to think of an interesting and unusual topic. Students had a lot of ideas. They were very active, and everybody took part in this activity. Finally, we did it!!! The movies needed some work and by Monday they were done.
11th day Lessons: Education in the USA.
At the beginning of the day we watched and evaluated our movies we had made last week. They were incredible!!! Students showed their great talent and rich imagination! Today we played a game that had different questions about school subjects and about the US system of education.
At the second half of the day we were preparing for Closing Ceremony. We rehearsed our plays and sang songs.
12th day. Lessons: Education in the USA. Today we tried to complete part of an SAT exam. This day was very busy. We learned two new songs in English with Andrew. Four of our students will play guitars, and others will sing by their accompaniment. Also we were thinking about our costumes for plays and we actually tried to act. At the end of the day students made invitations for their friends and parents to come and see our Design for change Project. Also we had a new guest, Katherine Scodova, Education USA coordinator in Russia, who helped us learn more about Education in the USA. She gave a presentation about an Opportunity program.
13th day Lessons: American art and Design for Change Project. Today we tried folk art forms - we made sand paintings with colored salt, colored paper quilts, and masks for the Day of the Dead.
After lessons and clubs we began our presentation on Computer and Video Games Addiction. We were glad to have several guests though it was raining cats and dogs! Vitya and Artem told us how dangerous it could be to spend a lot of time playing computer games and even just searching the Internet. We learned a lot about symptoms of computer addiction, its consequences and ways to get rid of this problem. After the lecture we played many different games to show people that there were lots of other activities besides the Internet. Everybody was glad to take part in this and each person was awarded with sweet prizes.
14th day Lessons: Mexican Americans. Today we talked about Cesar Chavez, and how he helped Mexican Americans create a workers' union.
In the morning Katherine played a Hangman game with us, and we answered a lot of questions about an application process to an American college. We watched and discussed a film about Rebecca who is applying to various musical colleges and dreams of becoming a song writer. In the afternoon we had to do a lot of important things, because tomorrow we would have our Closing Ceremony. We finished our presentations “My Achievements in the Camp”. Then we rehearsed our plays with costumes and also we sang all the songs we learned during our time here. After lunch we were making invitations for parents and decorations for plays.
15th day. Lessons: Final tests. Today we gave speeches about what we remember from our lessons.
From the beginning of the day everybody was a bit nervous, because today we had the last day of the camp with a Closing Ceremony. Our parents, friends and rector of the Teacher-in-Service Institute Tatyana A. Fain came to watch it. The children performed very well and they were satisfied with their achievements. They were also given certificates by Svetlana Alekseevna that proved their hard work. It was a bit sad to leave the camp but we shall meet soon at our Access lessons in September and we are already looking forward to it. Every single minute spent here was awesome and everybody was happy!
Words of thanks:
We would like to express our deep gratitude to our teachers - Noel Marie Becker, Oksana V. Potylitsina, Svetlana A. Semenovykh - for sharing generously their knowledge and experience with us; to our counselors – Anastasiya Bystrova, Andrew Trifonov and Ekaterina Kalinina – for keeping us busy all the time and making our camp life interesting and enjoyable.
Our special thanks to our outstanding guests – Jonathan Korach and Katherine Scodova – who crossed the country from Moscow to the Far East to meet with us, to help us learn new things about American culture and people and encouraged us to think about further life opportunities.
Our camp would not be so interesting without books, games, and materials from the English Language Office. Our deepest thanks to Thomas Santos - English Language Officer, to Elena Lubnina and Natalia Fomenko who have been supporting different educational programs in Birobidzhan for many years.
