Up Close and Personal

I reflect often how different my experience would have been if I had gone to Russia as a tourist. Walking down the streets of Moscow, most people look very serious and stern. There is little or no eye contact as people pass on the street. As you approach a stairway, Metro car or escalator, Russians push to the front. Traffic is terrible and drivers are constantly jockeying for position. I'm afraid from these observations that I would have considered Russian people to be unfriendly and rude. How wrong I would have been.
As I have said before, Russian people are the friendliest, most hospitable, most generous people I have ever met.

My Observations of the Russian Education System

All parents and especially students seem to value education. The children feel that an education will help them have a better life. There are many academic competitions and the students pursue the prestigious awards through hard work and dedication.

The teachers must teach from a national curriculum for their regular classes. Every student should be on the same topic, on the same day and receive a mark for that exercise. The rest of the classes are extra curricular or electives. These classes are more creative and offer students a variety of options. These classes may only meet once a week.

The number of students in a class seems to be in the teens. Often schools run a morning shift and an afternoon shift as the school is not large enough to hold all of the students. The students attend school six days a week.

Students seem very happy in school. There is a ten minute break between classes, where students run, dance and play games in the hallways. They also spend time on their cell phones, no matter what the age is. I never saw students in lines in the hallways. In all of the schools that I visited, students were wearing uniforms. Many of the older boys wore suits with a shirt and tie.

The teachers have very few supplies to work with. They create amazing materials with few supplies.

The students know so much about the United States and we know so little about Russia. They talk about the US and British authors that they read.

I did not observe education for children with special needs. Even though the Superintendent talked about classes for children with disabilities, I never observed any and none of the other teachers did either. I question whether there are classes available for these kids.

Children start studying English at a very young age. As a result, they are very fluent. I think we wait too long to study a foreign language.

More Photos of Moscow

Day in Moscow

After arriving on the train, I sat in the van that picked me up for six hours as we picked up others who were coming in on other trains. A quick evening meal and then a good night's sleep.
We left for the walking tour of Moscow at nine in the morning and did not return until six in the evening. During these nine hours, we took the Metro to Red Square, toured the Square, the Kremlin, The Armory (their national museum), saw the changing of the guard, shopped for souvenirs and then had a reception at the US Embassy.It was fun to meet the Russian teachers who will be traveling to the US in a couple of weeks. When we returned home, we had not sat down for the whole nine hours and we had walked and walked and walked. What a day. You can see from the pictures that it was an amazing experience.

Train Trip to Moscow

Another train trip through the night. I did not leave until 10:45 and would arrive in Moscow at 6:00 am. It was hard to say good-bye to my new friends. They have been so good to me and when will I get a chance to see them again?
I shared a coupe with three other women. It amazes me that they come dressed in professional clothes, change into sweats, hang up their clothes very carefully and fall right to sleep. In the morning, they dress in their professional clothes and look as if they are ready for work. I haven't managed the "look like I am ready for work" technique.
I think it would be fun to travel across the country in a Russian train.

Icon Painting

First the figures are sketched on the canvas. Then the gold layer is applied with colors added last. All paints are to be made of natural materials. The spiritual aspect of creating the painting is very important. The painter talked about the lack of spiritual training in schools - that is why they have Sunday School but they wish that more schools were willing to incorporate spiritual training in daily lessons.

Largest Russian Orthodox Cathedral in the World

Irina, the theatrical teacher at school arranged a tour of the cathedral, a visit to Sunday School, and a visit to the Icon painting shop to meet the artist and learn about the process of Icon painting. Much of the cathedral was undergoing reconstruction but we were able to see two portions with the five different levels of Icon paintings. During the visit to Sunday School, the students and the teacher asked some very interesting questions. The teacher wondered what percentage of ordinary people believe in God, how do different factions of the Protestant religion get along, what does the ordinary citizen think of the war in Irag, etc. A student asked what was wrong with American culture?
To say the least, it was an interesting visit. They invited us to the fasting meal of salad, soup and bread and then we got a unique opportunity to visit the painting shop. This shop creates Icon paintings for many cathedrals through out Russia.

The Museum of Wooden Sculpture

Have you every strolled through a forest and observed strange root formations or blemishes on tress? Well, I will never look at one the same again after visiting this museum. The director of the museum opened up early in the morning just for our visit. What a special treat! Each carving starts with nature and the artist turns it into a life like creation. His whole collection was created after his retirement. As seems to be the custom, not only did we have a wonderful tour but were treated to tea and pie.

The Circus

We spent the evening at the circus. Nina had never been to a circus so this was a new experience for her. The circus has it's own building in Nizhny Novogorod. Circus troupes travel around from venue to venue. Circuses have changed since I used to take the kids. There are lots of special effects and choreography. We had a good time - even had some popcorn and like a little kid, I have a clown souvenir.
This was one time that we all shared a good laugh. Vladmir, Nina's husband said that he had been to a circus when he was little. Marsha interpreted to me that he had been IN the circus. I got all excited and wondered if he had photos of his act in the circus. They thought I was a little strange getting all excited and we all laughed when we realized the misinterpretation of language. I think I will make a picture of Vladmir in the circus and send it to them.

Classroom Visits Continued

We next went to visit the classroom of the only male teacher in the elementary schools in the whole region. He has taught for twenty-one years and believes that his classroom has to be alive and motivating for students. We watched a theatrical presentation of a classic Russian fairy tale complete with costumes, projected special effects and sound effects.




There is only one man elementary teacher in the region because teachers are paid so poorly. They get about a dollar an hour and until they have taught for ten years they lose 70% of their pay if they miss because of illness. It is difficult to figure out the schedule as each day is different but often teachers start at eight in the morning and go home at seven at night as they teach both shifts in schools that have them. High school teachers get paid more than elementary and vice principals make less than teachers. Information technology is a new area and those teachers get paid less too. This also varies from district to district but teacher's pay is very low.



We also watched the Patriotic club get ready for a competition. They had studied a famous battle and had made a replica as well as a presentation and acted as military officers as they gave the presentation.

Visits to Gymnasium #13 and 91

Students go to school six days a week so we had an opportunity to visit two more schools. The first class was a World Cultures class and the students were studying North Dakota and South Dakota. They first discussed why it is important to study other cultures and then the teacher randomly assigned the twelve students to two groups - similarities and differences. The students had been given an article to read for homework and they were now going to analyze the information in groups. After discussion, the students viewed pictures and tried to determine which state the picture was from. In showing Crazy Horse and the four presidents she asked then to hypothesize why the monuments were located together. The students asked me many questions about North Dakota, some of them I couldn't answer. I should have brushed up on my ND history. I forgot to say, this class was all in English.




The next class was Chemistry in Real Life. The teacher had written the textbook the
students were using. Her lesson this day was how to make colors for paint and then turn them into tempera or oil paint. She had copies of famous paintings for the students to study and then she conducted the experiment to make the color. The color was then mixed with egg (tempera) and oil to make the paint. Some students then painted pictures. I tried too but any of you who know me, know that I am not the greatest artist. This class is held once a week and is especially applicable in a school that emphasizes the humanities.


Onto the Gymnasium #91. We were served lunch first of salad, pirogies, and borscht. I will have to tell Perry Nako that I had borscht four times. It's very tasty. One thing that is hard for me to get used to, is Russians do not drink liquids during the meal. We always have tea afterwards but not during the meal. I think it is a habit that I think I should be drinking something.





This school was built in 1992 and has one thousand students. We first watched a music program with traditional costumes, dancing,singing and playing spoons. The children were delightful. We had other classes on the schedule so we couldn't watch the rest of the program which was too bad.

Nina's Students

I knew that we were going to see a presentation by Nina's students but I had no idea it was going to be such a special night. Nina uses a problem-based approach based on materials from Intel. The program emphasizes problem-solving, group work, data gathering, incorporating technology and communicating findings. The students presented on projects that included 1. How to Get Visitors to Come to Nizhny Novgorod, 2. How to Improve the Local Park, 3. How to Improve the Local Zoo and 4. How to Prevent Traffic-Pedestrian Accidents Especially for Students. The students talked about the process and showed presentations of their results. They often gave English translations, either spoken or written in their presentation. It was very impressive. They made the night special by serving local breads, blinnies(pancakes), chocolate and homemade apple juice. All of the items on the table were labeled with English words. Many students gave me homemade souvenirs or other souvenirs of the area. One very special gift was a booklet with all of their names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. The students had many questions about North Dakota and are eager to come visit. I will post pictures a little later.

Feeling Better

The day started out early as we fought the traffic to get to the Pedalogical University. This is the school where students learn to be teachers and Dimitri who I met last Saturday was my guide. The first stop was the museum and then a tour of some classrooms and offices. The faulty in each department share one office - it's not a very big space and it holds many desks.

From there we went to the Higher Education School of Economics. I met professors of psychology and we were invited to attend a session of their faculty-student conference. A main focus was "The Psychological Aspects of Communication". One professor is giving me a presentation in English which describes a computer system they built to teach French. Mark, I told him of your study skills system and he gave me his email address.



We then drove to the Center of Gifted Children. It is a boarding school of 345 students from the region that are in the 10th and 11th grade. In ten years they have had over a thousand graduates and every one has gone onto higher education. The students can study in-depth in 15 different areas and only fifty percent of them live close enough to go home on weekends. We sat in on two classes and got a tour of the classrooms, dorms and medical facilities for the students (they are quite extensive). I always get the question, "What do you like the best?" That is a very difficult question to answer.

Home Again

I did not post yesterday for when I came home my fever had returned - bummer. We decided to take it easy today and I seem to have gotten rid of the fever again. It is rather comical as Nina, Vladmir and I communicate with very little common language, but we seem to do rather well anyway.





Yesterday was a very full day with visits to another gymnasium (#67) and an invitation to dinner (lunch) at the home of an Armenian couple. They have two children - the youngest studying in a Rapid City SD high school for the year. Not only did we have more than could you could eat in two weeks but we were also treated to songs by the daughter and her father. When we returned we successfully connected to Twining Middle School using Skype and also managed to talk to Mark right before he taught my class. There were two very talented 15 year old students (Stash and Micha) who set up the equipment, took a short video and when they found they couldn't post it to my blog they uploaded it to YouTube and I thought they were going to post the address in the comment field but I haven't seen it yet.

Getting back to my classroom visits - History Museum, Math, Science, English,
and kind of a Consumer Science class. It seems that most school maintain an historical museum and the gymnasiums that I have visited also maintain a museum of Russian history. This museum highlighted the military during World War II. The students explained very plainly in the English the documents and drawings on the walls.

The rest of the classes were all held in the Media Center that has just recently been outfitted with computers and an Interactive WhiteBoard. The first class was Algebra. The structure of the class starts out with the purpose of the lesson, teacher demonstration with the whiteboard, group work on problems, student explanation of the problem using a chart, and a group test with results entered into the computer. The most amazing thing to me was the students read and accomplished tasks using a book where the information was sometimes written in Russian and other parts in English.


The science class was studying viruses. They read from both a Russian textbook and an English textbook. They watched an English video and took notes on the most important concepts. Then a number of students read their reports they had written in English about a number of different viruses. They easily went back and forth between the two languages addressing a subject with very specific terminology. I suppose it is hard to know how much they practiced but they seemd to be able to do it with such ease.



The English teacher had been to the US as part of the Teacher To Teacher program in April so she took an interesting approach to her lesson on the United States. She first showed images of Columbus discovering America, then showed her trip and how she discovered America for herself and students gave presentations on how they had discovered America. They chose the states of Indiana, Montana and California and created PowerPoints in English.


The final class in the morning consisted of all girls and I was a student in this class. We followed the teacher's directions and created a Russian doll using cloth pieces and string. All of the students gave me their dolls so I could bring them back to the United States and give them to my friends.



After we returned from lunch the extra curricular club gave a presentation about their activites. Two girls sang songs (beautiful voices) and the students told about their International Friendship Club called Globe. Students often travel to England, Italy, United States and other countrues.

I have noticed that many children have cell phones so I asked about the policies. There are no formal policies written down but they ask them to put them on vibrate and wait until the break to return the call. The attitude is they can't take them away because parents have purchased them and that makes them their property.

The classes are forty minutes long and students leave with homework. Gymnasium 67 has about 700 students and they run two shifts in order to accomodate that number.

It was great that we could make the Skype connection to Twining. I am going to give Rachel, Melissa and Katie, Misha's email address so they can write to him and answer his questions.

I am going to try and post some pictures.

Superintendent's Visit & Gymnasium #80

I am feeling so much better today - as I have said Nina (and Vladmir) take such good care of me. She cooks special food (chicken broth, stewed fruit, cauliflower, rice). They even make me warm milk with butter at night. It's supposed to help. The doctor called yesterday to see how I was doing - amazing! Today on our visit Nina brought herbal tea in a thermos so I would have herbal tea to drink. She carries the bag full of medicine and makes sure that I take it. Nina thought, in fact, that I should see the doctor again this evening and I told her I did not think it was necessary.

The day was full with many wonderful experiences. We first went to visit the Superintendent of the district. The district has 120,000 students with 5,000 teachers. The only teacher shortage they have is Teachers of English and Information Technology, otherwise, they have enough teachers that apply. Her wish for her district is to remodel all of the schools and give them all good equipment. There is a chocolate factory in town so I have received many boxes of chocolates as gifts. (I'll have to tell American Councils that the person going to Nihzny Novgorod should leave chocolates at home and not bring them as gifts.)

We then visited the Gymnasium. I have had trouble understanding the differences between Lyceums and Gymnasiums but it is finally clear. Gymnasiums focus on humanities and Lyceums focus on math, science, economics and physics. The students at the gymnasiums learn English and another language - either German or French from a very early age. Children start school at age 7 and go to school until 17. The primary school runs from 8:30 - 1:00. The children go home with homework. If their parents work, the children can stay until 6:00. The older children go home at 2:30.

We visited an elementary technology education class. They were doing exercises in logic which I suppose is the preliminary to programing. At the end of the class the students were using computers to create a card for the anniversary of their school. This school had received 2 million rubbles to buy equipment. So they purchased the 18 computers in the media center and connected them to the Internet. Ten teachers got laptops and projectors for their classrooms and 8 computers were placed in a math area. They also purchased a couple of whiteboards.

We then visited a math lesson for children that are eight years old. The children were actively going back and forth to the chalkboard and the teacher brought the theme of Spring into her lesson. She is a very creative teacher and cares very much for her students.
We visited the physics teacher (she teaches physics to children from age 7 - 17). She demonstrated the software that she has for each level - filled with video and simulations. Onto a math demonstration of software - very much like our Geometer's Sketchpad.

We then visited a technology teacher that showed us projects that the students had designed from recyclable materials. They first needed to study the materials, plan an invention and then create it. One student had created lights attached to the frames of old glasses so you could walk down the stairs in a dark basement and still have light as you carried up the potatoes. I will try to post some pictures later. (Since I am not on my own computer I am just learning to navigate the computer I have access to - since I have also been sick, the interest was not there as well). Also I cannot reach my First Class email so I am sorry if you have emailed and I have not answered.

I visited some extra curricular clubs where they worked with puppets and produced a school magazine. I also saw beading and students showed me their Russian museum. They are part of a Russian culture club that has gathered and continues to gather historical memorabilia. The students used the objects to tell me about their history.

The final meeting was with the teachers of English. They teach 28 lessons a week for beginning, intermediate and advance English learners. They were a delightful group. The vice principal is very interested in setting up a student exchange. She says they offer a formal invitation, the students stay with families, they have many excursions and the only cost is the plane tickets.

I was able to connect with Mark on Skype today. We will try again tomorrow and hope that Lee at Twining is on Skype at 8:00 in the morning.

I realize I have rambled on and on but my days are so full I want to remember. Nina and her husband, Vladmir, are taking many pictures. I will certainly get tired of seeing myself.

I truly believe that I have found some of the nicest and most caring people that I have ever met. I am worried tonight that Marcia, my interpretor, may have caught my illness.

Monday at School

I was scheduled to visit classes in Biology, Economics, English upper classes and lower classes and a class in math - this would have been hard to reschedule so I made it school feeling a little weak. My doctor(Nina) took my temperature a couple of times while I was there. It was very interesting to see the classes and to try to answer the student's questions - especially in economics.The children in the biology class are working on a special project to build a garden near their school. They had completed their research, constructed a plan and were now looking for sponsors for their project. The students in upper English were learning about transportation, while the students in lower English were learning about pollution and how to apply why - because. The students in math were studying coordinates and the economics's students were looking at economic patterns. One student asked me if I could compare the economics of today in the US with the economics of the 1980s. I am afraid that I was at a loss.
The afternoon activities were canceled so I could take a nap. I expect to feel much better tomorrow.

Who Wants to be Sick?

How disappointing to come half way around the world and get sick. Nina, Vladmir and Lena took very good care of me yesterday. Lena is a former student of Nina's and Vladmir's and had come to not only visit but help interpret while Marcia visited her mother and sister on International Women's Day. Lena is 23 and an Associate Dean at the University. It is her job to monitor what the faculty are doing in their courses. She is delightful and caring and helped to interpret what the doctor prescribed to help me (I just have a virus but Nina cooks special food and makes sure I take my medication.) The activities of the day were canceled as I spent the day sleeping.

International Women's Day

What a full day! First of all I was invited to visit a family that has created an organization to help families. The families participate in many ways but an important event is the family concert. Each family is involved in the artistic performance of some sorts, whether it be a puppet play, singing or a dramatic performance. I was treated to a slideshow that captured that event, a piano performance by the mother and guitar and singing by the whole family. The youngest daughter had spent four months in the United States. She worked in Burger King and talked about how nice her boss was. She said she spilled and made a mess and he told her not to worry as she was just learning. She flew to New York without a place to stay,met another Russian girl in the same predicament and spent the most wonderful month, cleaning houses for money and going to the Metropolitan Museum every day.
The rest of the day was spent touring Nihzny Norgovrod - Dimitri was our guide - a college student studying to be a history teacher who also writes short stories and paints. Here is one of Dimitri's paintings.

I was telling him the students the day before wanted to know how old I was - I asked them how old they thought I was and they said 38. I told them I was really 58 and Dimitri said "Really good teachers never age" - now is he a keeper or what.
Men cook and cleanup on International Women's day so Nina's husband and her brother in law had fixed this amazing dinner - when I get a chance I will post a picture. Unfortunately, I have caught the flu bug so it was a little hard to appreciate the food. The evening was filled with laughter, food, toasts and presents for the women.
This being Sunday has been a tough day as my fever has been up and down all day. They have taken such good care of me - a doctor even came to the house to see me. She says it is a virus and it should clear up in three days - I'm determined to make it quicker.
I know this has rambled but as I said I'm not feeling well. My Internet connections are a little iffy so I can't promise anything.
This has been an amazing trip so far - you cannot ask for nicer people than the people I have met here. Hopefully, I am well tomorrow.

My Posts Didn't Work

I see that the two posts I did on a dial up connection did not post. Well I will try to remember what I said.
We did arrive in Moscow about four hours late and then took a van to the train station. The traffic in Moscow lives up to its name. It took us four hours to drive 35 miles. Believe me the jockeying for position was a major contest. One car's mirror hit the van at one time and the driver just pulled in the mirror.
The train ride was very interesting. You share a little coupe (room) with three other people. I was lucky to share with a nice lady who could speak some English so she helped me and the other two were two young girls. There is no rule against the coupe being coed.
Nina, her husband and Macia ( my interpretor) met me at the train station. We went directly to the flat where I am staying. A quick cleanup and on to school. This school is a math and science school. They have 200 applicants for 75 seats for the Fall. The has 830 students and 65 teachers. The children in the morning put on puppet shows and a talent show to help celebrate the holiday - March 8 International Women's Day and March 9 - the ending of winter celebration ( I don't think the weather cooperates however).


The principal is very proud of the family lineage at the school. Her grand father had been a principal there and many of the teachers have gone there and their children go there as well. On International Women's Day all women are congratulated so I received many cards and flowers ( I think this is a holiday to bring home.)

Made It to Nizhny (I found one of the posts)

The adventure continued yesterday, the flight got in at four and we then took a van to train stations. Because the traffic was so bad, some of the teachers got off the van with a greeter (university student) and took the Metro to catch their trains. Jeanie and I didn't leave until after ten. The traffic was so bad that we spent four hours going 35 miles. A university student (Sasha) met us at the train station and stayed with us until we got on the train. On the train I shared a coupe (small room) with three others. I had very helpful roommates - two in their early twenties and a mom who worked 12 days in Moscow and then went home for 12 days.



Vladmir Marsha and Nina


I did sleep some so I managed to get through the day but I am very exhausted. The day was filled with meeting many teachers, watching student performances the celebrate the beginning of Spring, visiting the Dean at the Linguistic University and seeing a Russian Ballet tonight - Sleeping Beauty. It was very good but my tired head bobbed a few times.There is so much I want to write but my weary brain can't do it tonight.

First Unexpected Adventure

Here we are in Frankfurt - I can see by my computer clock that it is about 1:30 am in Grand Forks. We arrived about 6:30 am and were supposed to be on the 8:30 flight - IT'S CANCELED! We had heard that maybe there was a Lufthansa strike but when we got here it was only our flight. We were immediately booked on a ten-thirty flight and everyone here was very helpful and friendly.
When I opened my blog page the options were all in German - now mind you I had two years in high school and three quarters in college but not much of that has stuck. Luckily, I can remember where the options are.
We should arrive in Moscow about 4:00 and my train leaves at 10:30 this evening. I will be on the train for eight hours - some teachers have to travel 25 hours on the train. When I arrive at six I will be taken to where I stay first and then onto school. The schedule is busy all day with the ballet or opera in the evening, I think my eyelids are going to be a little heavy.
It's a gorgeous day here - sun shining and temperature about 27. I just purchased a 30 day pass on T-Mobile for Internet connection. It will be interesting to see how often I can use it.
A few more tidbits about what to expect. You will be served shots of vodka but it is only polite to drink any of it when someone has proposed a toast. You can take sips and not the whole thing but only when someone gives a toast.
We are called teacher diplomats, representing the United States as part of the State Department. We were very much encouraged to be ourselves. Probably the most important advice was Be Flexible and Maintain a Sense of Humor.
So there was no real panic when the flight was canceled and all seems to be OK. It may be a little more dicey when we all head our separate ways on different trains out of Moscow.

Meetings Are Over - On to the Airport

Just a quick note - learned some of the ins and outs about our home stay - take off your shoes when you come into the house and wear the slippers that your host gives you. You will be fed, fed, fed. Do not clear your plate as that is a sign that you want more. Everyone will toast - need to go!

70 Degrees in Washington

Who would have believed when I left snowy North Dakota that Washington DC would be seventy degrees. It was definitely a shock getting off the plane. Luckily, travel was quite uneventful today even with all of the warnings of storms. Tonight I met the five other teachers that I had not met before. They are from Indiana, Virginia, California, Tennessee and Montana. We walked to the restaurant called Skewers for kabobs. It is so interesting to hear about other districts and also about upcoming schedules in Russia. I think we will all have quite the stories to share about our experiences.
Tomorrow comes bright and early for meetings at the American Councils offices.

An Interesting Start

North Dakota weather - you've got to love it. I am sitting in a Super 8 Hotel room tonight in Fargo. My plane leaves from Fargo at 10:45 tomorrow and it's supposed to snow tonight. The Interstate between Fargo and Grand Forks was closed last night because of blowing snow and ice, so we decided not to chance missing the flight in the morning. Mark dropped me off and headed on down to Iowa to visit his mother - I'll catch a taxi in the morning. Packing was a challenge - I always tend to take too much. Hopefully, they will let me on the plane.
Tomorrow I fly to Chicago and then to Washington DC. I will meet seven other teachers at the meetings in Washington and will fly with them to Moscow Wednesday night. WE will spend time at the Embassy and then head to different cities. I have an eight hour train ride to get to Nizhny.

Russia - Can You Believe It?

It's March and I am almost organized for my trip to Russia. I knew I had been selected for this State Department program last June and thought March was a long way off - time sure flew. I spent a weekend in October with sixteen Russian teachers - I learned so much. I found out the end of January that I will be visiting Nina in Nizhny Norgorod. This city is the fourth largest in Russia and between 1932 and 1990 it was called Gorky.