Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

Saturday 18 September 2021

Why I'm not longer going to school in Smolensk



It is a shame that the government-run public schools in Russia are left to the fraudulent bureaucratic side of things where the common bonus structures lead to corporate corruption, fraud and other forms of unethical behaviour involving headmasters and their deputy directors. At the same time school teachers live at or under the federal poverty level; as we can see, it is almost impossible to reverse the moral degradation of school staff here once it has taken hold.

Surprisingly, being within the poverty threshold, public schoolteachers in this country never resist role as 'concealed administrative resource' in Russia's national elections. Unfortunately, putinism  has transformed the teachers into slaves of a particular type 
 the slaves are struggling for the right to remain slaves. It looks like a kind of pareidolia in which teachers respond to a stimulus, by perceiving pattern of patriotism where none exists.

Why do school headmasters ask you to do something unethical in your job? Why do teachers publish in "sham" journals falsify data? Why do school staff members and administrators ignore pupils' misbehaviour? Why do teachers actively cheat in their school records which leads to a huge personal tragedy for the children and their parents when unscrupulous students beat out honest, hard-working applicants for university spots?
Answers to these and similar questions will clearly contribute to better understanding the depth of the problem.

Similarly, the pupils are affected negatively thus their future prospects are compromised. The teens feel frustrated with the status quo, pessimistic about the possibility of change, and torn between their dreams for the future and the rigid bell-ridden schooling designed to prepare indentured servants harvesting for the party elite. That said, this goes with lowered productivity and absenteeism.

To make things worse, last month the school told that the teachers could keep their position only if they were fully vaccinated with unproven Sputnik COVID jab in two doses. But, legally, no, you can't be forced to take a vaccine; you're not going to be physically restrained and given a vaccine by any legitimate public health authority...

***

I simply could not cope up with this toxic unethical school culture and refused to work for any who did this. That's why I left school.



Tuesday 11 February 2020

An Amazing Site and a Terrible Introduction to the Outer World!



I.
When I first opened the Hetty Feather book, written by Jacqueline Wilson, and saw that it was full of words like Matron-Stingking-Bottomly, my immediate reaction was a refusal to be impressed; on the contrary, I felt like being inside the whale, like Jonah in the Old Testament of the Bible. Hearing teens in the book swear or use profane language toward other characters can be horrifying.

Perhaps one might say that the author explains here that if we have children who are consistently docile and trying to please us, we might have children who are not accomplishing some of the necessary developmental work of adolescence: finding their own identity. Anyway, CBBC loved it! They loved this gang-show feel so much that they began to wonder if Hetty Feather could work for them in the longer term. Who knows? After all, Hannah Brown played Hetty brilliantly. But.. the old unshakeable comfort of childhood had gone... with the author of this bestseller. The great continent once affiliated with fond memories of childhood had sunk like Atlantis. It is sea and islands now! 

II.
"I certainly hate my sister Lulu Angel Wink. She is only two years older than me. But she's dinky-looking and she talks in a special lispy baby voice. It really sucks so that everyone treats her like crazy. She's sneaky too. I don't want to be mean but she tried coming to school in my bedroom slippers one day." (Jacqueline Wilson)

Click the link below and you find initial sign up form (if you want to). Create your own customisable bedroom and post in Storyland, maintaining false beliefs and illusions. Click on the different stalls to enter exciting competitions, view the magazine website or play games. You can also click on the icons on the conveyor belt to download fun activity sheets and vote for your favourite character to be prefect of the month.

To crown this all, keep an eye on the sweet shop, there’s exclusive content. You can also find Jaqueline Wilson's friends there. Their names are Zippy Bluebell Writer, Stormy Stinking Bottomly, Rosa Trapped Wind, Lady Cynthia Telescope, Riley Fashion Meadowlark Jr, Delilah Balloon Meadowlark Snr, Lady Cherry Robot, Tracy Angel Snowflake, India Apple Pants, Opal Kaleidoscope Bluebell, Jacky Balloon Sequin, Riley Dinosaur Lemon, Carrie Breezy Smarties, Ditzy Breezy Fairy, Sadie Sparkling Sky, Jessie Orange Tulips, Crimson Sparkle Giggle, Jacky Bluebell Dreamer, Rosaline Orange Feather, Beauty Echo Hat, Molly Rabbit Lipstick, Dolphin Cynthia Smarties, Electric Silly Jewel, Ivy Dinah Tickles, Stormy Dinah Sparrow, Richeldis Breezy Cuddlepie, Sam Bluebell Parachute, Wendy Strawberry Eyes, Sam Harmony Sweeties, Archie Cynthia Swift. 

Have you ever wished you had that 'perfect' nickname that would fit your personality?


Wednesday 3 July 2019

My teaching introduction video. Обучение английскому в Смоленске.




I look forward to meeting you; 
feel free to contact me via Skype or Preply.

Hello dear language learner!

A quick word about myself,
My name is Oleg, I'm originally from Russia. I spent 20 year in the army serving as a mil interpreter and liaison officer. And I'm a fully qualified teacher of English too; I have been teaching English for 15 years. I worked in primary, secondary schools and universities in Russia and abroad. I'm particularly interested in teaching British English (I also taught Russian, French and Ancient Greek). 

My range of lessons starts with English conversation. Then academic writing, exam preparation. So if you're looking to take your USE (Unified State Exams) in English - here in Russia - I can help you pass these exams. Equally, if you need help developing your study skills or your general English - if that's the case - then again we could perhaps work together.

What our lessons be like?
We'll start with short warm-up activity to prepare you for learning. 
We'll review our previous lesson and go through any homework you've completed. 
After this I'll introduce a new topic or grammar point: this could be through a story, pictures or a short video. I'll support you every step of the way. 
We'll finish our lesson with a quick recap of what we've learnt and I'll give you a task to complete before our next lesson. 

Above all, I think it's important that we build up a good relationship. And I think that people tend to learn better if they have mates. So, I look forward to meeting you; feel free to contact me via Skype or Preply. 

Thank you for reading the blog, by the way - it means a lot to me! 
Best wishes,
Oleg A. 



Friday 1 February 2019

Russia’s Education Woes

     We will often find that the reformers of  our education system including Olga Vasilieva, the Minister of Education and Science of Russia, went to traditional school. I believe they perhaps had a few boring teachers, or they felt education was too traditional for them, so they come out and spent their lives trying to reform the education system as best they can. And they mistakenly think that the Russian children nowadays are receiving the same eduction as the one they did.
     However, the result is that they create the situation where a number of children no longer have access to that essential ‘bag of goodies’. A bag of goodies which they themselves got from their traditional educations and have benefited from this bag so well throughout their lives. In other words they climbed the ladder to the top then ‘unwittingly’ pulled the ladder up from under them.
     A number of reformers in our education system believe, for instance, that we are educating our children for the 19th century world. But it would be a mistake to believe that our classrooms are like the 19th century classrooms: there are no canes, no inkwells, no cursive writing, no memorisation, no rote learning, no chanting – no; there’s lots of group learning , there’s lots of asking the children what they think of their teacher and so on – nothing like the 19th century classroom.
     I believe that in fact the problem is that the reformers    misunderstand what ought to be in that bag of goodies –  they misunderstand the essential parts. Let’s take Eton, for example. For super-wealthy Russian MPs, education at one of Britain’s top traditional boarding schools has become as desirable as a pad in Mayfair. Kitting out your little Boris or Svetlana in boaters and blazers has a particular cachet, and that is unlikely to change even if sanctions affect Russia’s relationship with the West (in Sep 2016 Eton boys secured private audience at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin).
      Eton has very traditional education;  and I’m sure everyone would agree that this is an extraordinary school. Though Eton has two interactive white-boards in its school – we have more interactive board in any primary school here in Smolenk than in Eton. Yet, in the state sector every classroom has in interactive white board, every teacher (there is an expectation) should be using those interactive white boards.
     In Eton where there is a very good education, children will learn Geography instead of taking Travel & Tourism courses: in Eton, they are doing Geography, Ancient History and Latin, and so on.
     One can hardly accuse Eton of  not being able to create creative thinkers when the likes of George Orwell, Hugh Laurie and James Bond himself (or rather I suppose I should say Ian Fleming) went to Eton.
     There’s a quote that I like which sums up what I’m saying: “The education that is best for the best is the education that is best for all.” And I believe that only when we understand the concept of rejecting some reform and embracing some tradition, only then will we be able to move our schools out of chaos and place them firmly in the 21st century.

Tuesday 29 May 2018

A Defence of Grammars

"Against the conventional wisdom, we find little evidence that gaining entry into a grammar school has a positive impact“, the Telegraph, 23 May 2018.
      This leads us to an important conclusion: gaining entry into a grammar school in the UK may actually not be as important as many assume. But one thing this article has managed to avoid saying in its negative assessment of Grammar Schools is the utter failure of the system brought in to replace them, the "Comprehensive System". The comprehensive system has failed and it is, quite frankly, a national disgrace.
     It seems to me that if children are failing it is because the Government have experimented by introducing other kinds of education ie Academies; Comprehensives; Secondary Modern; Religion based schools and not concentrated enough on bringing the quality of education in these State schools up to the same level. It is the State schools that are failing children, because of degraded methods of teaching, not all, but most of them, not the Grammar or High schools.
     At the bottom this is not the fault of comprehensive schools or the comprehensive system itself. It is a direct consequence of academic capitalism and marketisation, which has brought about the replacing of developing deep learning through teaching all pupils in a cognitively challenging way by behaviourist cramming.
     There are few experienced teachers that deny this.


Copyrighted.com Registered & Protected