Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Teachers' Workshop

Tuesday, April 78h:

On Tuesday afternoon, from 3-5pm, our host school, the Lyceum, hosted a teacher's forum. More than 44 teachers from around the Khabarovsk Krai came to our school to meet us, learn about the American educational system, and have a round-table discussion abut the issues facing teachers. As it turns out, their issues are our issues, and vice versa. I really have to take my hat off to the our host, Marina, and her fellow teachers for pulling this all together.

Eric and I made presentations about our own schools and what graduation requirements are for our high school students. Marina led us all in pointed discussion questions.






Here are some of the things I learned:

-- Families of the students in the best, most sought after schools are very involved with their children's education and fully support their schools. Parents of students in the less regarded public schools: Not so much. Same as in America.

-- Russian teachers employ the same kind of "best practices" teaching techniques as American teachers.

-- The public perception of teaching in Russia is on the decline: As it has been in America. One teacher stated, "Parents expect the very best for their children. They want us to give and give and give, but they don't want to support us in return."  Sound familiar?

-- Student engagement in the Russian schools is higher than the US, in the better schools. But about the same in the US in the public school.

-- Teachers want to do away with the 6-day school week. "Our students work hard and the are tired," one teacher said. "And so are the teachers."

-- Some parent are more concerned about their children getting high marks, instead of high learning.

-- For too many students, socialization in school is more important than learning. Ditto!

-- There are many problems associated with immigration issues. For example, how can they expect students from other areas of Russia (or the Far East) that are not proficient in Russian to learn in Russian? That is the same problem we have in America with ELL ("English Language Learners)students.

-- Conservative Orthodox families want to have too much say n how education is conducted. Hmmm. And on the other ide of that, Muslim families want their students taught by Islamic teachers when it comes to religious education.


Other discussion topics included: How to get more family involvement in their children's education; the Russian school system compared to the American school system; what kinds of interactions do teachers have with their students outside of formal classroom activities; professional development; and best practices.

1 comment:

  1. I find this post very interesting. I wish I could have been present for your discussion. On the one hand it's nice to know that we're not alone in our problems, but on the other it's sad to hear that these problems are so prevalent.

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