News Archive (2012):
8 December, 2012
Conference "Russian Language from Kindergarten to College" organized by Coordinating Council of Russian Americans in the U.S.A.
19-21 October, 2012
UW STARTALK organisers had an oportunity to go to STARTALK Fall Conference to celebrate the programs just completed and participate in continued professional development.
12-13 October, 2012
UW STARTALK organizers participated in the COFLT-WAFLT bi-state Fall Conference 2012, held in Vancouver, WA. Michele Aoki, Svetlana Abramova, and Veronika Egorova presented a workshop "STEM and Heritage Speakers"
July 20, 2012
Final day of the Teacher Program. While the teachers shared their Google site portfolios and received their certificates, then enjoyed a relaxed lunch together at the Continental Pastry Shop, in the U District, the students worked hard on their first major essay about what they had learned this week and at the Museum. They also learned about peer editing, and worked on first and second draft of the essays. The second draft got scanned to be reviewed over the weekend by the instructors to provide feedback to the students on Monday.
Thanks to Dr. Bridget Yaden for a wonderful course and thanks to all the teachers who shared their enthusiasm for Russian and openness to learning new things.
July 19, 2012
Museum of Flight Day! First field trip to the Museum for the students and a chance for the teachers in the Teacher Program to present their microteaching lessons at seven stations in the Space Exhibit at the Museum. The STARTALK site visitors had a chance to see both students and teachers in action, learning about Sputnik, the first Russian Cosmonauts, American Astronauts, Animals in Space, Apollo-Soyuz, the Moon Landing, and Mars -- all in Russian. Everyone was so proud of our teachers and our students!
July 18, 2012
STARTALK Site Visit! Our program was pleased to welcome a team of three STARTALK representatives to observe both the Teacher and Student programs for two days (see Agenda). Today they saw Svetlana in action with a warm-up activity and a lesson on How to do a Good Interview? (Как сделать хорошее интервью), as well as observing Nika introduce Livemocha to the students, where they worked on making flashcards about the Space Race (based on information they gathered yesterday). The site visitors also had a chance to view the second lesson in the student elective projects (Drama, Linguistics, or Film & Culture).
July 17, 2012
The STARTALK Teachers got to observe Nika Egorova's technology lesson on LinguaFolio Online, where she began with a series of questions about why do we learn foreign languages and what goals do we set for ourselves. Then the students were introduced to the Space Race (Освоение космоса) by the STARTALK Student Program Lead Instructor, Dr. Svetlana Abramova (who originally developed this lesson during the 2011 STARTALK Russian Teacher Program). In the afternoon, the students had an opportunity hear about three elective projects for the program (Drama, Linguistics, or Film & Culture), then write a persuasive essay about their first choice and why they should be selected for that project group.
July 16, 2012
First day of the STARTALK Russian Student Program! While the students got to know each other and be introduced to our theme "Russian in the Sky and in Outer Space," the teachers completed the ACTFL OPIc and WPT assessments to demonstrate their proficiency level in Russian. (They all scored well above the minimum requirement of Advanced Low for World Languages.)
July 13, 2012
Important topics covered in the methods class, including performance assessment and proficiency, including the newly revised ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. In the afternoon, a chance to take a "mock" WEST-E test to get a feel for the real WEST-E (Washington Educator Skill Test - Endorsement for Designated World Language) in the future.
July 12, 2012
Big day! Field trip to the Museum of Flight to attend teacher trainings in the Aviation Learning Center and Challenger Learning Center (for the Voyage to Mars), followed by closer examination of all the Museum of Flight Stations in the Space Gallery to gather ideas for next week's microteaching.
July 11, 2012
Today participants in the STARTALK Teachers Program got to observe the 2nd Year Intensive Russian Language program taught by Dr. Valentina Zaitseva, Lecturer in the UW Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. The STARTALK teachers enjoyed watching Dr. Zaitseva work with students in the computer lab in the Language Learning Center as they perfected their pronunciation of Russian. The teachers admired the individual attention she could provide to each student and her warmth and enthusiasm.
July 10, 2012
A highlight today was the introduction of the Museum of Flight Stations for the teachers' microteaching at the Museum of Flight next Thursday during the STARTALK Student Program. All the teachers were excited to create lesson plans and activities for these stations, even though, at first, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) topics seemed a bit challenging. Teachers also got their LinguaFolio Online accounts and watched the LinguaFolio Online Learner Tutorial to get started.
July 9, 2012
The UW 2012 STARTALK Russian Teacher Program launched today! Dr. Bridget Yaden did a great job introducing the eight teacher participants to the program. In the afternoon, Dr. Svetlana Abramova presented her lesson developed last year on the Space Race - Освоение космоса. The teachers got to "begin with the end in mind" by experiencing the lesson first, then learning how Svetlana developed the STARTALK Lesson Plan for it: The Space Race Lesson Plan by Svetlana Abramova.