English Literature: next part

Another work I have been busy with recently. I have been arranging the continuation of the Enlish Literature course. This portion includes Shakespeare's dramas, Daniel Defoe with his Robinson Crusoe, and Jonathan Swift (aleady published, but now the material is integrated into a bigger project). Read, learn, enjoy. Just click HERE .

Teachers' Day-2011 Publication

I hope all my co-workers had a Happy Teachers' Day. I am sorry for not publishing for a long time, but I was busy doing really weird and exhaustingly fruitless paperwork. I spent 3,900 minutes (65 hours!) of my precious non-teaching time to prepare the THIRD version of my calendar lesson plans. I had developed a most disgusting allergy to the keyboard, which I seem to have overcome only by now. My attitude to the authorities ranking higher than the school inventing new, improved and updated papers will not be revealed here as some students happen to read my publications, and they don't seem to be ready for the real depth and richness of my vocabulary which is due to be used to describe my vision of the situation.



However, life and teaching are on their way (I hope accompanied by some learning). It means that the tradition of writing My Favorite Teacher compositions by the students of the 3rd course (10th-graders) and publishing them in the HYDE PARK has not been forgotten. You may read them HERE .

English and American Literature-4

And finally, I am happy to present to you the last portion of Group 34-H students' projects on English and American Literature. They are:





Agatha Christie by BOHDANA NEDAVNYA CLICK HERE .
Clive Lewis by ANASTASIA YABLONSKA CLICK HERE .
Eoin Colfer by YULIA YERESCHENKO CLICK HERE .

English and American Literature-3

I proudly present the third portion of Group 34-H students' projects on Literature. Here we go:



Ray Bradbury's biography presented by Vadym Gromadskyi is found HERE .
Daniel Defoe's biography presented by Oksana Marynenko is found HERE .
Robert Louis Stevenson's biography presented by Kateryna Tarakhtiy is found HERE .

English and American Literature Projects-2

Back to school Mr.Z!
I am quite glad to be able to publish the second portion of presentations prepared by the students of Group 34-H. Better late than never. I do my best to keep my word.



Here's ANNA SLOBODYANUK'S presentation of Jack London, outstanding American author. Click HERE .



TETYANA PAKHOLOK presents her work on Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle and his two most famous characters HERE .



To see ILONA CHAIKOVSKA'S presentation of Mark Twain's biography click HERE .

English and American Literature Projects-1

I am quite glad to be able to publish the first portion of presentations prepared by the students of Group 34-H. Each of them speaks about an English or American writer and is very close to a masterpiece. However, I have a feeling that the coolest part of the project was to TEACH the classmates something working in the teachers capacity ("wearing the teacher's shoes").

Semen KYSELYOV presents the biography and literary activities of
Sir Rudyard Kipling

Yaroslav PANNOCHKA presents the biography and literary activities of
Hebert Wells

Alina PTUSHKINA presents the biography and literary activities of William Golding
There will be more. To be continued...

Summer Camp!

This summer Argo Camp Programme is going to join the friendly environment of Camp Leader in Puscha-Vodytsya. I am going to be in charge.
Welcome to the New Summer-2011 World!
English Camp for kids in Puscha-Vodytsya!
Argo Camp Program & Camp Leader Joint Venture
Адреса: Київ, вул. Юнкерова 16, на базі дитячого оздоровчого табору «Лідер» (Пуща-Водиця, 3-я лінія)
Зміна 14 днів
Для дітей від 7 до 16 років


Зміна Назва зміни Арго заїзд від’їзд
1 Галактика Арго/ Argo Galaxy 01.06 14.06
2 Академія виживання Арго/ Argo Survival Academy 17.06 30.06
3 Місто Майстрів Арго/Argoburgh’s Craftsmen 03.07 16.07
4 Арго в Авалоні/Argo in Avalon 19.07 01.08
5 Арго-Фестивальний/ Argo-All Stars 04.08 17.08

Умови проживання: номера на 2 чол. або 2-кімнатний блок на 4 чол. (2+2) з душем та туалетом; 5-ти разове харчування, щоденне плавання в закритому 25-м басейні, танцювальний зал, навчальні приміщення, спортивні майданчики, досвічені та уважні педагоги і тренери.

Тематичну проектну роботу по вивченню англійської мови з відео майстернями ведуть найкращі викладачі Києва за унікальними авторськими методичними розробками. Робоча мова для старшої та середньої груп –англійська.

Незалежно від тематики зміни юних Аргонавтів очікують: ранкова зарядка, традиційні конкурси «Містер/Міс Арго», гра «Побачення наосліп», конкурси талантів, Малі Олимпійські Ігри, КВК, квест-гра на місцевості «Пошук скарбів», підсумковий гала-концерт, чимало танців та кіно…

Вартість путівки на 14 днів: 3900(!!!) грн.
У вартість включені:
• проживання,
• харчування,
• програми розвитку особистості дитини,
• освітні проекти,
• спортивні та шоу програми.

Необхідні документи:
• Копія свідоцтва про народження;
• Медична довідка про санепідоточення;
• Довідка про щеплення.

Табір «Арго» допоможе хлопцям та дівчатам розкрити власні таланти й проявити їх!
Час не буде згаяно!
НАШІ КОНТАКТИ:
телефон: 8 (044) 227-34-57
(044) 221-70-53
факс: (044) 278-02-31

Туроператор «Імпульс-Плюс»
Директор табору: Заболотний Олексій Олександрович, тел. 063 647 90 12, каб. 214-С

April Fools' Day!!!

This year Group 34-H contributed their hilarious jokes to the Hyde Park Collection of Humour. Thank you, guys. You can help yourself to some laughter by clicking HERE .

English Project in Argo Camp

From March 20 to March 26 I was in charge of Argo Camp Programme in Camp Leader (Puscha-Vodytsya). The whole period was a kind of a demo version of our capabilities. We had a lot of Artistic Studios, a couple of PDP (Personality Development Programme)sessions, loads of dancing and three sessions of English Project. My part of it with more mature campers was devoted to creative writing. We took the good old OUP Project English-2 by venerable Tom Hutchinson with the comic strip about a spaceship's crew finding themselves on a mysterious planet, which is a sort of an Intergalactic Zoo. The crew appear to be just another exhibit there. So, the task was to create continuation of the story in the form of a comic strip. Three days proved not to be enough for completing the whole project, but the beginning looks quite promising.




The authors: Anna Tisnoguz, Sophia Padalko and Maria Samovol, with creative participation of Dmytro Klymenko, Artem Bondur, Artem Drozdov, Mykyta Solodkyi and Mykhailo Kaplun.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Yet again.

The St. Patrick's Day custom came to America in 1737. That was the first year St. Patrick's Day was publicly celebrated in this country, in Boston.



Today, people celebrate the day with parades, wearing of the green, and drinking beer. One reason St. Patrick's Day might have become so popular is that it takes place just a few days before the first day of spring. One might say it has become the first green of spring. In Chicago, for example, they paint their river green!



And this is the way it is celebrated in Ireland. You can watch some Balcony TV HERE.

English Literature Project

The time has come for the students of Group 34-H to finalize their English Literature projects. You should choose your favorite English author and his/her book. Then - tell the audience about the author's biography and about the book (the plot, main character(s) and messages). The actual time of speaking: 10 - 15 min followed by 5 - 10 min of comprehension questions (comprehension control tasks) and discussion. The project material is to be prepared in the form of a Powerpoint Presentation (to illustrate your lecture) and a Microsoft Word Document for handouts.

You can find the sample presentation of Jonathan Swift (my favorite author) HERE . Of course, your presentations do not have to be THAT BIG - 12 - 15 slides will be enough. As to the text document, you can see the sample HERE . In your case, make it 2 - 3 pages with illustrations. Your projects are to be READY by March 19. Good luck!

International Women's Day

Happy 8th of March, dear ladies!
Thank you for enabling us, men, to prove being not just men but gentleMEN. And may every day of your life you feel as special as on the 8th of March.

English Literature Course

In early September last year I was assigned to teach Group 34-H ("H" stands for "Humanities") a course of English Literature. I was teaching some in Consul Gymnasium, and in Intellect Lycee. However, when I first tried to teach it in Naukova Zmina four years ago, I found the available coursebooks not meeting the needs of our curriculum being either too shallow, too huge or not systematized. That is why I decided to create a sort of a coursebook myself compiling it from a number of sources and calling it A Glimpse of English Literature. You can get your own copy of its Part 1 by clicking HERE .


The general course plan is the following:
1. Teach Old English Literature from Celtic Sagas to Chaucer (see Part 1).
2. Teach Elizabethan Literature focusing on Marlowe and Shakespeare.
3. Present Jonathan Swift and his Gulliver's Travels in a format of a lecture with a Powerpoint Presentation thus setting an example for the students how to do THEIR projects.
4. Have the students present their projects on their favourite authors.

I hope we'll manage to complete it before the academic year ends.

Queen Mary University of London

On the first spring day (March 1, 2011), the Lycee was visited by Dr Stuart Perrin, Deputy Director, Language and learning Unit of Queen Mary University of London, UK, accompanied by Yulia Dmytryshyn, Program manager from DEC-Education, Kyiv.
Dr Perrin made a lively presentation of his university for the audience consisting of our students from Groups 22-E, 42-E and 43-E. Our students demonstrated impressive abilities not only to understand the presenter, but also to maintain dialogue. Dr Perrin liked the questions they asked, and eagerly answered them. Our guys were interested in the contents of studying at different faculties, the possibility to obtain a part-time job in London, details of accommodation, visa matters etc. In the final part of the meeting Ms Dmytryshyn checked if the audience has understood the presentation by asking a number of questions. The correct answers won our students some cute prizes including baseball caps, mugs, bags and badges. The most active participants were Vlad Chykivchuk, Sasha Barchuk, Vlad Kuzmenko, Ulyana Tkachenko, Artem Rudnytsky, Yaroslava Martsenyuk, Kate Martynyuk, Ivan Batrak (all of Group 42-E); Oleksandr Sikorsky and Ann Atamas (both of Group 43-E).

You can view the actual presentation HERE .
For further details contact Yulia Dmytryshyn at www.dec-edu.com

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

On this sweet holiday of love enjoy a smile or two from the leading cartoonists:

Good Results

On Saturday, February 12, I was a member of the Mala Akademiya Nauk (Junior Academy of Science, hence "MAN") jury. I listened to 24 9th-grade students from a number of prominent Kyiv schools who were orally presenting their research papers investigating different aspects of the English Language. Here are my conclusions:

1. None of the schools sent as many young researchers as Naukova Zmina (13!).
2. None of the schools had that percentage of Powerpoint presentations as Naukova
Zmina researchers.
3. Naukova Zmina students sounded second to no other establishment.
I was very pleased to receive other judges' comments about NZ achievements. I am proud to work here.

Happy Holidays

May the year 2011 be happy to all of you. May your achievements be appreciated. May your friends support you. May jolly smiles surround you. May phone numbers 101, 102 and 103 never be dialed. Wish you good luck!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


P.S. My blog activities have recently been reduced. Sorry about that. I have been busy sorting out the new English Literature course which is being delivered to Group 34-H, and preparing for the Argo Winter Camp Programme, which hasn't materialized though. Hope to be more regular this semester!