19.10.2013  Results of the educational project "1150-th Anniversary of the Slavonic Writing"

On 13 October, the results of the educational project "1150-th Anniversary of the Slavonic Writing" were summed up

The project was a part of activity plan dedicated to the 1150th anniversary of Slavonic written culture, approved by the Governor of the Novgorod region Sergey Mitin, by Diocese of Novgorod and Staraya Russa Lev and by Rector of Novgorod State University Viktor Weber.

The initiative of the main inspirer of the project - professor of journalism  Tatyana Shmeleva - was supported by the NovSU Institute of Further Education which presented a re-training module consisting of those opportunities which scholars of philological faculty were ready to offer to the teachers.

On September, 29 Tatyana Shmeleva delivered an hours-long lecture on history of the Slavonic writing to 10 teachers of gymnasiums, schools, and technical schools located in Veliky Novgorod. She also explained how to cover a topic of   Slavic educators both during class hours and outside educational institution.  University scientific library organized a thematic exhibition.

On October, 13 another meeting took place at which the teachers made announcements of their own projects. Various forms of lessons and extracurricular activities were demonstrated, methodical and presentation materials were analyzed. All reports received strong but favorable feedback by professor Victoria Didkovskaya from NovSU Russian Language Department. Despite small number of participants, the audience vividly reacted to each performance. Each teacher not only made a report, but also gave a comment on the colleague`s message. Thus, each report was either corrected or worthily perceived.

The amazing fact about it is that the Cyrillic writing managed to unite teachers of Russian language, literature, history and primary school. It was interesting to learn how classes would be organized for the third-year students who were trained according to the new National Education Standards, and for the senior students who studied history, and for gifted children who dreamt of winning the contests in the Russian language and literature. For the first time, it was discussed how to use new pedagogical technologies before  adult audience, such as technical school students. The lively discussion forced organizers to repeatedly obtain more information during the course of the meeting by means of Wi-Fi, which is available in classes of Philological Faculty. One could be amazed not only with the efficient work of the teachers but also with their inspired interest to the subject. They honorably defended various forms of the projects ranging from Cyrillic writing lessons to a virtual excursion to cities where there were monuments dedicated to Saints Kirill and Mefodiy. As a result, the participants received Certificate of Accomplishment of the 1150-th Anniversary of the Slavonic Writing Training Module. Vladimir Shadurskiy, the head of the Institute of Further Education expressed his hope for a long-term cooperation with educational institutions that would allow improvement of teacher`s professional skills. He has also spoken about opportunities of making this kind of work systematic, paid attention to the value of this project experience not only for the Philological Faculty but also for the university in whole.

Tea party was arranged for the participants at the end of the meeting. However, it was the visit to the Purification of Virgin Mary church that became the culmination of that friendly reception. Father Evgeny told the guests about history of the churches composing that architectural complex of Antoniev Monastery, and about the just-opened sabbath school. He invited them to the opening of public lectures - an important part of  the Research and  Museum Centre.

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