![[HOME]](/./redesign/gerbik.gif)
Events 2005
6.01 “Christmas travels around the world”
Christmas holidays go on! The presentation of the book exhibition dedicated to the history and traditions Christmas celebrations throughout the world. It’s interesting that the exhibition was accompanied by Christmas melodies, which became the leitmotif of the event. It’s the Christmas tunes of different nations, which inspired me to carry out the exhibition.
This event
was covered by the regional radio stations.
17.01, 31.01 English language lessons
The students
of Kirovohrad Shevtshenko Gymnasium together with their teacher paid
one more visit to the IRC “Window on America”. Another lesson of
English was conducted on the basis of our centre with students getting
access to English-language sites. The students did not only learn how
to get useful information, but they also realized that Internet gives
boundless opportunities and that the knowledge of English is the key
to getting this information.
11.02 Round table (in the context of the month of African-American history)
The round table
for the students and teachers of the History Department (3-4th year
of study) ‘The Citizens and the Constitution. The Constitution as
a Means of Protecting the Afro-American Rights”. In the course of
the event the laws and the amendments to the US Constitution, adopted
after the Civil War and up till now, were considered.
16.02, 17.02, 18.02 “African-Americans in Hollywood”
A series of
video films from the history of the US cinema: “African-Americans
in Hollywood” (for the students of the department of Foreign Languages
of the Kirovohrad Vynnychenko State Pedagogical University, conducted
by a candidate of philological sciences, associate professor Khrypun
V.S.) Each film was accompanied by the excursus to the Hollywood history.
25.02 Virtual photo exhibition
The presentation
of the virtual photo exhibition “Images of African Americans of the
19th century” from the digital collection of New York Public
Library. (Serheyeva O.P., the supervisor of the IRC “Windows on America”
was the conductor). I would characterize this event as a romantic trip
to the picture and the image world of the 19th century America.
This event was both interesting and useful for me personally and for
our guests. No such events were held by us previously. But I consider
this form of work to be very perspective as the internet allows us to
perform real wonders.
20.02, 24.02 “Virtual trip to the USA”
This project appeared as a response to numerous requests from our city teachers to prepare and hold multimedia lessons on the US history, culture and traditions based on the materials from the IRC “Window on America”.
Last year we started with a celebration of the Presidents Day, proclaimed by President Nixon in 1971to be a commemoration to all the US Presidents. Such events became traditional for our center. Thanks to our collection we were able to provide our guests with interesting information. They had the opportunity to hear the recorded voices of the 20th century Presidents – from Theodore Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, to see the attributes of presidential power, such as the seal and the National emblem and also to become acquainted with the biographies of the Presidents and the first Ladies, as well as to learn interesting facts from their lives.
Especially
for this fest we developed an exhibition presenting the information
on various data carriers: books, magazines, video, CD and DVD. It gave
one not only the possibility to familiarize oneself with the information
on the history of USA presidency but also to conduct a virtual excursion
throughout the White House. We hope that an event like that will help
everyone to open some part of America to him/herself.
14.03, 15.03 “American artists to the theatre”
In the frames
of the action, taking place in the USA, “American artists to the theatre”
our city was visited by Frank Galiano, a Professor of Theatre Art and
Scenic Design from the University of West Virginia. He presented a photo
exhibition dedicated to scenography. This exhibition was brought to
Kirovohrad with the support of Pavlo Bosiy, our compatriot who earned
a Doctor degree in this university. They received a grant to hold this
event. Why was our city chosen? It’s because it is the home of Ukrainian
drama theatre. In addition to the exhibition, Mr. Galiano presented
his own mono play “My Chekhov’s Light”.
11.04.05 “Welcome to Window on America center”
The IRC “Window
on America” was visited by the 11th grade students of the Shevtchenko
Gymnasium. It was their first visit to our centre. We organized the
presentation of the information resources: printed editions and documents
on non-traditional carriers. The large screen presentation of the electronic
resources – CD ROMS containing the information on the history and
present day USA, as well as internet resources, informing on the USA,
drove especial attention of the listeners. (32 students)
22.04.05 Internet search
And again we
were visited by the students of the linguistic division of the socio-pedagogic
department of the “Pedagogic Academy”, who came to a seminar in
the US county study. In the context of the seminar, a class “Effective
search for information in the Internet” was held. In the course of
the seminar the students got familiarized with the search systems and
computers in general and with the peculiarities of formulating inquiries.
Besides, they eagerly discussed the nuances of the Internet search of
the information on the United States. (22 people)
5.05.05, 6.05.05 The Soviet Union and the USA during the World War II
On the occasion
of the 60th anniversary of the victory, a two-day seminar
“Cooperation of the peoples of the USSR and the USA during the World
War II” was held in the IRC “Window on America”. In the context
of this seminar a big exhibition of documents from the fund of our library
in Russian, Ukrainian and English languages was prepared and presented.
This exhibition included books, periodicals, video materials, electronic
resources and the lists of webliography. Besides, we enjoyed interesting
and substantial presentations by the scientists who work on this topic:
“From the History of Russian-American Relations at the End of the
XIXth and the Beginning of the XXth Centuries”, “World War II in
the Sight of US Historiographs”, “The US Writers about the World
War II”, “The History of Land Lease” and others.
13.05.05, 20.05.05 Hollywood: the history and the present
The final classes in the course of “US Country Study” for this academic year were dedicated to the history of the USA cinema.
Who created
Hollywood and how it was done. Under discussion were the important
milestones in the history of the USA cinema, the most popular genres,
the history of “Oscar” origin, - the prize awarded by the American
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. These facts were introduced
to the students of the Department of Foreign Languages of the Kirovohrad
Vynnychenko State Pedagogical University in the course of discussions
based on video films from the history of American cinema.
6.04, 13.04, 19.04, 27.04, 4.05, 11.05, 18.05, 26.05 The English conversation club
“American
T.V. Club”: Come and Learn about American Culture through its media…/
(136 visitors)
Since the 5th
of April a video club for children came to exist on the basis of our
centre. This club was constantly attended by the students from School
¹18 and the children brought from the Petrivskiy and Oleksandriyskiy
regions by the US Peace Corps Volunteers who work in the schools of
the indicated regions.
3.07 The US Independence Day
On the eve of the Independence Day, IRC “Window on America” presented an exhibition, dedicated to the US Independence Day.
The exhibition included books, video films, quotations from great people and other materials, which had to do with this event and its history.
The video club
celebrated this event by demonstrating the film “Born on the Fourth
of July”. (38 people were present)
15.07 – 23.08 “America – nature and civilization” (Alaska, Colorado)
On the 15th of July the IRC “Window on America” presented the photo exhibition “America – nature and civilization” (Alaska, Colorado), developed by Ivan Dudkin, a famous traveler, photo artist and journalist. The exhibition was organized with the support of the US Embassy in Ukraine.
Ivan Dudkin, the author of the exhibition, presented his own 42 works.
Being a journalist and a photo artist, he has many publications and photo exhibitions. He is one of the best known Ukrainian travelers. As a geophysicist he made 2 circumnavigations on the research ships. He traveled through countries on foot, by yachts, ski, bikes, and motorbikes. He visited 82 countries. He traveled all alone by bike throughout the USA in October-November 2000 and June-July 2002. The exposition author visited 17 US states, having ridden on his ‘iron horse’ around 3000 km and more than 10 000 km on other kinds of vehicles.
The exposition presents the fragments of an extremely interesting photo diary of the trip around the most exotic and wonderful states of America, such as Alaska, Colorado and Connecticut. This trip was accomplished by Ivan Dudkin in September-October of 2004.
I would put
it like this; the exhibition wasn’t a mere exhibition, but a meeting
of old friends. Together with Ivan we planned to introduce the exhibition
and the slide-film to the district libraries of our region, but the
vacation time became a hindrance to us. But I still hope that we’ll
be able to fulfill our plans in the future. As a result of our work
there were 8 publications in the regional media.
August 25, the Kirovohrad Chizhevskiy library on the basis of the IRC “Window on America” hosted an annual September English teacher conference. Such events are an opportunity to meet your colleagues on the eve of the new school year, to discuss urgent problems and to come to an agreement on modern ways of teaching, etc.
The conference
participants listened to the speeches of the Methodists of the Regional
Institute of the Continual Post-Graduate Pedagogical Study: “The Methods
of Teaching English nowadays” and “The Peculiarities of the English
Teacher Work in the Specialized Classes”. The teachers shared their
experience in the usage of project methods. The resources of the IRC
and the possibilities of modern technologies usage in the process of
studying were also presented at the conference.
5.09, 7.09, 9.09 Open House
September is the month of the presentation of the IRC “Window on America” to the first-year students of the Kirovohrad educational establishments.
The students learned about the pearls of the book collection, about the I-resources, about the events held here and the clubs, which functioned here. Moreover, they got to know about the opportunities to study in colleges and universities of the USA.
And I can definitely
say that all the first-year students expressed a desire to become our
permanent users.
All the visitors
on this day left our center with small gifts, the colorful booklets
about the work and resources of the IRC “Window on America” in Kirovohrad
in the course of 3 years of its existence.
One of the major vectors of the IRC “Window on America” activity is the work with teachers. Meetings, practical classes, trainings, seminars have become traditional for the teachers of the town schools and the entire Kirovohrad region.
On the 28th of October a seminar for the teachers of the Kirovohrad district was held. The seminar was named “The Resources of the American Center at an English Class”. In the course of the seminar we demonstrated the possibilities of usage of the center information resources for the country study lessons. Special attention was given to the usage of electronic data medium. Video tapes and DVD disks are the material to be used for interesting and notable lessons.
It being the
first meeting with the district teachers, special attention was given
to “Window on America” methods and directions of work. I express
hope that this meeting was the beginning of a fruitful cooperation.
29.10 “American Economy and Culture Today”
An anniversary
(fifth) meeting and a public lection dedicated to American culture and
economy conducted by our friend and patron Professor Donald Jack London
(Urika, California, USA), took place in the IRC “Window on America”.
After the answers to numerous questions had been given, all the guests
had a chance to get familiarized with the traditional book exhibition
“Gifts from Overseas”, which offered new book collections sent by
Professor Donald Jack London and his wife Doris.
During November
different surveys were conducted for the students of the Department
of Foreign Languages of the Kirovohrad Vynnychenko State Pedagogical
University who study English as their major. Taking into account the
peculiarities of study, the surveys for future teachers were aimed at
acquainting students with various school-books and manuals, methodical
literature, dictionaries, encyclopedias and country study information
on different data carriers.
November 15 started a Week of International Education in the IRC “Window on America”
A week of international
education promotes the opportunities to study abroad. To mark this week
the IRC handled a number of measures. More than 60 people visited the
presentation “In Search of Education Opportunities in the USA” to
find out the perspectives of getting education in the USA at the expense
of international funds and organizations, which provide grants and scholarships
for this very purpose. The presentation gave answers to major questions
as to application forms, the requirements to the candidates, diplomas,
testing, getting visas, accommodation, etc.
The second
half of the meeting was dedicated to the electronic version of the “See
you in the USA” magazine, published by the Bureau of Education and
Information Programs of the US Department of State. This edition has
a section, where the experts in international exchange programs give
advice how to enter colleges and to find funds for tuition.
23.12.05 “America” throughout Years”. An exhibition, dedicated to the magazine.
The IRC “Window
on America” made a Christmas gift to its users.
The “America” magazine was first published by the U.S. Information Agency in 1956 as a result of a bilateral intergovernmental agreement with the USSR and existed up to September 1994. During this time 454 issues were published. These editions differed from the majority of soviet periodicals by the high-quality paper, colorful print, and a large number of pictures. And it was the only publication in the USSR, which gave the readers the possibility to learn something about the USA. This edition amounted to 50 000 copies. Our exposition presented unique editions of the years 1980-1994. In 2000 the magazine publication was recommenced and now it is called “America Illustrated”. The new magazine revived the traditions of the “America” magazine, but unfortunately we have no opportunity to get it.
