Summer Camp "Orlyonok"

Two delegations – from Stavropol and Birobidzhan arrived at Solnechny Camp. We had a lot of things to do: registration, meeting with the counselors, moving into the house, unpacking, etc. After all these actions we went to the canteen for lunch. Orlyonok is very huge. It comprises 7 different camps. And we were looking forward to seeing all its sights. Our counselors were like real guides. They showed us everything quickly enough and told many stories and legends about Orlyonok. While we were walking around the camp, we saw many unusual plants. Some of them were very rare. We also visited the Palace of Culture and Sports. There is a large swimming pool, a concert hall, an Internet room, etc. there. Then we visited a camp library. It is called “Drugstore for your soul”.

There are a lot of books of various genres there. There is an exhibition room in the building of the library where we saw wonderful handmade dolls. Almost every place in Orlyonok has its own legend. Everything seems so magical in Orlyonok. Where else can you see the Bridge of Silence, the Bridge of Compliments and the Square of Tears? Fountains in Orlyonok are worth of admiration, too. So, we all became open-mouthed with surprise when we saw real carps and goldfish in the fountain’s water.

All in all, that was an unforgettable excursion. It gave all the kids the chance to know each other better. We took a lot of pictures and had great fun together.

The next day (April, 2) a delegation from Ufa, Bashkortostan arrived. Besides an Access teacher (Elena Yakovleva), this delegation was accompanied by a counselor (Guzel Garaeva), who completed the Flex Program.

All the teachers were very kind, creative, responsive and cooperative.

Notwithstanding their tiredness, Elena and Guzel were ready for work. We decided to arrange a meeting party where kids from Birobidzhan and Stavropol could make the acquaintance with Ufa kids.  Every child should bring something to the party, that they associated themselves with. All the kids and teachers sat in a big circle, lit candles and put their symbols in the center. Everyone told about himself in English. Kids’ talismans were various — some of them quite serious, like beads or pendants, and some — funny like coins of 1 or 5 rubles. That meeting was a great success. Everybody felt more at ease.

The following day we divided all the kids into three groups. The groups were mixed – they included kids from different cities. Then children gave themselves a name and thought up their motto. Thus, we had three Access teams: New Generation, Sunny and Super Guys.

Elena, Svetlana and I taught different modules in Access lessons.

Svetlana took a video course (through “Connect with English”) and Grammar. Elena’s module included Reading and Speaking Practice.

I taught a country-specific module (through National Geographic).

Guzel made her best in creating English speaking environment at the camp. Together with the kids she did morning exercises, played different games, made various projects in English.

We rotate, i.e. we gave our lessons to all the Access groups. Every day we had 1 or 2 Access lessons, 1,5 hours each.

When we celebrated Easter, Earth Day or when we held thematic lessons like “My City, my Town” where kids presented their native cities, we joined together and made Project Works.

In addition to Access lessons we were to hold course in English for the camp counselors, who had to get ready for the international shift.

From April, 9 till April, 15 we conducted workshops on English Teaching Methodology for Krasnodarsky region teachers, who had Advanced Training Courses in Orlyonok.

 I conducted four workshops: “Critical and Creative Writing” (2); “The National Geographic Footprint Library”; “Teaching English to Teens”.

“Teaching English to Teens” was a joint workshop with Elena Yakovleva (We both took an on-line course held by University of Maryland on December, 2009).

I was very happy to work with John Regan Silver, Senior English Language Fellow. He is a very skillful methodologist. I attended all his workshops with pleasure and derived much interesting and useful from them.

Mr. Silver is a kind person. He took part in many Access lessons with pleasure. All the kids liked him. They were delighted to see John at our lessons. John is a very sociable and interesting person. He told the kids many interesting things about the countries he had visited, they discussed different topics together. But time flies imperceptibly, it was April, 16 and John had to leave the camp.

But we had to continue our camp life – Access lessons, English Course for counselors, different projects with kids, etc.

We devoted the last two days to writing our own newspaper, which we called “Solnechny Camp News”, where kids and teachers described their feelings and impressions about the camp.

I would like to express my gratitude to the English Language Office for giving us such an opportunity to visit Orlyonok.

I’m also very grateful to my Access colleagues — Svetlana Semenovykh, Elena Yakovleva and Guzel Garaeva for sharing their experience and professional skills with me, for being so cooperative, kind and helpful. They are really great teachers and wonderful people!

These 21days in Orlyonok were unforgettable for me and for my kids.

 

                                                                                                    Natalia Ostrik

Summer Camp "Orlyonok"

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