January 23, 2002 Newsletter

Author: Linda DeLaine
Website: RL Online
Department:
Page: 0   ( 0) pages

Summary: Russia and the Olympics, Mealtime in Russia, Chekhov texts, Sex and the future of Russian society . . .

RUSSIAN LIFE'S
RUSSIAN CULTURE GUIDE NEWSLETTER

By Linda DeLaine, Editor
January 23, 2002

WHAT'S NEW

Beloved Russian writer, Anton Chekhov, was born on January 29, 1860. Many of us were first introduced to Chekhov in middle or high school literature and/or drama classes. In honor of Chekhov's birthday, you are invited to enjoy a selection of complete on-line texts of several of the writer's short stories (in English).

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Russia and the Olympics
Russia and the politics of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Also, list of Russian 2002 Olympic hopefuls by sport.

Liberty
We look back on the first decade of a Free Russia with this Literary Excerpt from Mikhail Butov's award-winning novel, "Liberty." Butov offers a poignant and humorous portrait of his generation's coming of age after the collapse of the Soviet empire.

Mealtime in Russia
Find out what the traditional Russian mealtime fare is.

Sex and the Future of Russian Society
Abortion, HIV/AIDS and Russia's infant mortality rates are on the increase. At the same time, the nation's birthrate and population growth are dramatically decreasing with many children being adopted abroad.

St. Basil's: The Stuff of Legend
There is no more recognizable symbol of Russia than the colorful cupolas of St. Basil's Cathedral. Andrei Yurganov takes us on a tour through the legendary history of the famous church on Red Square.

Anton Chekhov
A brief look at the life and works of Russia's famous writer and dramatist. January 29, 1860: Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog.

This Time One Year Ago
Russian Life Magazine, Jan/Feb 2001; 100 Young Russians to Watch This Century (part 1); Nikolai Roerich; Krasnoyarsk, Baikal & Irkutsk; The Decline of Russian; Airplane Dacha . . .

And much more . . .

REGULAR FEATURES

Russian Culture Update
Your Update page includes special on-line features such Time Photo Essays, Russia Journal Lifestyle reports, current ruble rate and more. As always, this page is your source for daily headlines, OP/ED, sports and business news.

Today in Russia's History - January
Key events in Russian history for the month of January.

Events Calendar
Search for Russia related events by category, state/province and/or country.

PARTING THOUGHTS

From the Mailbag . . .

I can't tell you how much we enjoy your magazine and the newsletter. I thought you might want to know about our project and website.

The project is called North Carolina's 6th Graders Go to Russia. It is a North Carolina State University research project with 2 purposes. 1. To make my student teachers aware of the real Russia - the people, culture, education, etc. by taking them there and 2. to see how middle school American kids learn best. We are going to Russia with Project Harmony. This is my fourth trip with them (Smolensk, Petrozavodsk, Pskov) and each one has gotten more technically complex as we have sought to put the internet into the mix and connect kids back home with the trip.

This time we have put up a website to get the state's 6th graders involved from the start. They registered in September to be part of the virtual trip. We have 40 teachers and 4,000 kids involved. Each week they have received a postcard from Russia. The postcards have topics and each week gives students a question to research for next week.

In late November, the students emailed us with questions that they would like for us to research while we are in Russia. They will research them here also and we will send back our information to them. They will each have a question they are researching as their final project that they will present to their class. Teachers will teach a unit on Russia in February to overlap our trip.

While we are in Russia we will interview children and ask them for answers to American kids' questions, take digital pictures and write a daily journal of what is going on. All of this will be sent back on three days: February 25, 26, 28.

After the unit is taught, teachers will give tests as well as assess projects and listen to comments about how much the children learned and how much reflective thinking they can do about Russia. We believe that this approach of teaching, curriculum integration, driven by questions kids are interested in knowing answers to, differentiated instruction options and public presentation of the learning product is exciting and beats the "date and place" learning standardized testing is driving us to.

Sincerely, Dr. Candy Beal,
Education Professor
North Carolina State University

Educators and anyone interested in this project should refer to:
http://www.ncsu.edu/chass/extension/russia-nc6/contactus.html

NC's 6th Graders Go to Russia

Our Great Adventure to Russia