|
|
EAMP 2007-2009
|
Seeing the effectiveness of the Project, on behalf of AzETA the US Embassy applied for the Programme for 2 more years. Year 2 started in December 2007 and finished in August 2008. Number of the students, as well as the regions increased. There were 216 in the Project. Most of the students in Year 2 were new ones. However, AzETA involved the most active and talented students from Year 1, too. Project was implemented in all 4 poles of Azerbaijan.
Baku:
Baku is in the East of Azerbaijan. There were 60 students in Baku Group. The classes were organised at Baku Slavic University. In Projeft 1 there were 5 students in the group which made it challenging to involve them in group activities. In Project 2 there were 6 students in each group. As such, there were 10 groups in Baku. Placement tests were held and the students were grouped with their English level.
Ganja:
Ganja is located in the West of Azerbaijan. There were 18 students in Ganja Group. The classes were organised in AzETA Ganja Branch. Sometimes the students were also taken to the Regional Library and Information Centre in Ganja where there are different books on the USA and where the students had an access to internet. Peace Corps Volunteer in Ganja was also invited to the classes to speak about the USA.
Khachmaz:
Khachmaz is located in the North of Azerbaijan. There were 18 students in Khachmaz Group. The classes were held in the new office of AzETA Khachmaz Branch which is located at school #8. The students were invited to Khachmaz TV programme in April 2008 to share their views on the course, especially, to speak about the importance of educating girls. Sometimes the students were also taken to the Regional Library and Information Centre in Khachmaz where they had an opportunity to benefit from the resources, including books on the USA and internet.
Lenkaran:
Lenkaran is located in the South of Azerbaijan. There were 24 students in Lenkaran Group. The classes are organised in AzETA South Branch office at school #4. Senior English Language Fellow in Lenkaran was invited to the classes to speak about the USA.
Mashtaga:
Mashtaga is a village in Baku, where most of the families are conservative. There were 30 students in Mashtaga Group. The classes were held at School #108 in Mashtaga District of Azizbayov region of Baku.
Nardaran:
Nardaran is another village of Baku very close to Mashtaga. The majority of the families in Nardaran are conservative, too. There were 24 students in Nardaran Group. The classes were organised at school #130 in Nardaran District of Azizbayov region of Baku.
Below is the enrichment activities involving EAMP Nardaran students.
Prepared by Qamar Rustamova, Nardaran EAMP teacher
Open air lesson: Visit to Shirvanshahs' Palace and the Maiden Tower
On 11 June 2008 Nardaran EAMP groups visited Shirvanshahs' Palace and the Maiden Tower. They prepared materials about history of these places. The guide gave information about the history of the palace, khan’s bathroom and mosque. Students listened attentively to her information and asked questions about the wells and rooms in the palace. They were interested about writings on the walls. Students took notes from the tablets in the palace. Nigar told about similarity between the constructions of Shirvanshahs' palaces in Baki and in Nardaran. In the 15th century the Shirvanshah dynasty under Ibrahim I of Shirvan transferred the capital from Shamakhi to Baku. The main building of the complex started in 1141 by Shirvanshah Sheykh Ibrahim I.. In Maiden Tower they were informed about the ancient clothes, arms, guns and swords which were kept in the tower. The Maiden Tower was constructed in the 12th century by the architect Masud Ibn Davud. They learned a lot and had a good time that day. They gathered a lot of information for writing essay about Shirvanshahs' Palace and the Maiden Tower.
Follow up: After the visit, as a home-task, I asked the students to find information on the places of interest in the US. They found information on the Statue of Liberty, White House, Disneyland, Pentagon, Capitol, Erie Canal Village in New York City which is an outdoor living history museum, a reconstructed 19th century settlement on the Erie Canal, etc. They were also excited to compare these places and expressed their desire to visit any of these places.
Open air lesson: At the Zoo
On 18 June 2008 Nardaran EAMP groups visited Baku Zoo. Before the visit they had information and vocabulary about animals. They saw different kinds of birds, fishes, snakes, spiders and different wild and domestic animals there. They took notes about animals from the tablets in front of their cages how they are living, growing and surviving in the woods and forests. Ulkar spoke about deer in Azerbaijan telling that there are two kinds of deer in our country. They are deer with spots and stag. Now they live in different Azerbaijan reservations. Alakbar told about monkeys. They were very funny and jumped up and down making different actions. Mehdi spoke about camels and their living conditions. Then he added that there are some white camels in Nardaran too. Even nowadays you can see them before some mosques. Hamid said a few words about the king of the forest - lions, emphasising that lion was very strong and aggressive and roared loudly terrifying everyone around itself. The students liked the fishes and watched them attentively. They were in different colours, shapes and sizes. The students liked the Zoo very much.
Follow up: After the visit, as a home-task, I asked the students to find information on the Zoos in the USA. As there are Zoos in every state of the USA, I tasked individual students to find information on a particular state and thus each student came with brief information on the Zoo in each state. At the end, we compared the Zoos in different states of the USA, as well as the Baku Zoo.
Open air lesson : Visit to Mardakan Botanical Garden
On 25 June 2008 Nardaran EAMP students visited Mardakan Botanical Garden. The guide informed them about the previous owner Murtuza Mukhtarov, his life and activity, about his charity work. There are several thousands of various trees, plants both in open and closed areas of Botanical Garden. Over 2000 trees, bushes, flowers of Azerbaijan flora are preserved there. There is a rich collection deciduous plants and evergreen trees (a cypress, a pine, an olive, etc.) there. The students visited small zoo in the garden too. There were some wild animals and birds from Azerbaijan forests. Aromatic smell of the flowers, grown on bushes was spreading in the garden. More than 30 species of roses are cultivated in Botanical garden in order to impart beauty to our Republic, especially Baku. A rich collection of tropical and subtropical plants was created in Botanical garden. The students learned a lot about the nature of our country in the Botanical Garden. They gathered herbs, took some notes about various decorative, medicine, species plants for making their small book about Botanical Garden. The film “Arshin Mal Alan“was produced in that garden, too. We thanked greatly to the guide for her information, took some pictures of animals, flowers, trees and left the garden with a deep impression.
Follow up: After the visit, as a home-task, I asked the students to find information on the flora of the USA. They came with lots of information on parks, gardens, desert plants and wildflowers of the USA. Then we compared what we saw at the Botanical Garden and what they found about the USA. It was a good practice for them to enrich their vocabulary on flora.
Open air lesson: Visit to Martyrs’ Alley
On 3 July 2008 Nardaran EAMP groups visited Martyrs’ Alley and put flowers on the graves of the martyrs who gave their lives for the independence of our country. A day before the visit I had given the students the vocabulary about 20th of January martyrs and a task to prepare information about those days.
At first I briefed them on the history of 20th January 1990. Then Lamiya told about Ilham and Fariza’s tragedy, about their love legend and added that the 30th June is marked as the Sweethearts’ Day in Azerbaijan in honour of their love. On those days schoolchildren also were killed by cruel Soviet soldiers. Among them were the students of the 6th grade Ilgar and Larisa. Ibrahim told about their school lives, study and wishes for the future. The students also visited Karabag martyrs' graves. Turkan told about our soldiers who bravely fought in Karabagh battles for liberty of our Motherland. I took the students to the Memorials of the Turkish and British soldiers killed during the World War I. I asked the students some questions about the World War I and explained why we had these memorials laid near the Martyrs' Alley.
Follow up: After the visit, as a home-task, I asked the students to gather information on the USA and its history. As our next lesson was on 4 July, we dedicated the lesson to the Independence Day of the USA. We had a tour to the history of the USA. We discussed the similarities and differences between Azerbaijan and the USA, and how they became independent and how it is celebrated in both countries. These celebrations in both countries are usually commonly associated with fireworks, parades, concerts, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions.
EAMP Visitors
On 6 April 2008 Public Diplomacy Officer Dmitri Tarakhovski and Education Assistant Afet Ibrahimova visited EAMP Nardaran classes. They had a talk with the students about their study, interests and highlighted the importance of learning English as a major asset for the future of students and their country. Then Dmitri taught the students two English songs “Tomorrow” and “Over the Rainbow”. The students read the songs, learned unknown words and their meanings. The children sang the songs with great joy and enjoyed the lesson. The students invited the guests to Nardaran saying that they would be glad to show them historical and religious places next time. Dmitri promised to visit them frequently and help them to learn songs and make presentations. Before leaving the guests presented books to the students about the US history, education, culture, teenagers’ life in the US
On April 27, 2008 Dmitri Tarakhovski, Afet Ibrahimova and AzETA president Ragsana Mammadova visited EAMP students in Naradaran. The students took them to the historical places of Nardaran and gave information about the history of those places. Alakbar told about the origin of the village, its location, Nigar and Nariman told about Shah’s Palace and why that time Shah chose Nardaran for building his Palace, Lamiya and Adil spoke about the Nardaran Castle and how the guards defended the palace from enemies, Seyfulla and Mehdi told about Gulamali Mosque’s foundation and holding ceremonies there, Hamid spoke about Aga Mosque and how people in Ashura (a holy day in Islam) gather there and read suras from Holy Quran, besides children have Quran lessons and learn Arabic there. Ali told about Nardaran Pir (Shrine).
The students told about Madrasa lessons and English classes. One of the parents invited guests to tea and thanked them for supporting Nardaran students to learn English.
On 30 June 2008 Dmitry Tarakhovsky and Afet Ibrahimova visited EAMP Nardaran groups again. The students met them as friends, not as guests. Because they always did their best to help students in learning English better. The students showed them their presentation charts and group work handouts. Nigar told about the USA and Azerbaijan food, about the similar and different meals of the two countries. Lamiya and Aysel prepared the presentation about the USA and Azerbaijan holidays. Lamiya told about Christmas and New Year holidays celebrations, how children made preparation for Halloween holiday, about Easter holiday’s symbol Easter Bunny and so on. Nariman told about the USA flag and its history. Then Dmitry taught the students a song about Freedom. He explained them how the song had been created. At first the students read the song and learned the unknown words, their meanings and then sang it together.
They liked the song, especially singing with the musical instrument. Then the students repeated previous learned songs, too. They admired Dmitry’s playing the keyboard and enjoyed the lesson very much.
EAMP Guests
On 20 June 2008 the Deputy of the State Secretary on Problems of the Education and Culture Goli Ameri, her two Deputy Assistants, Public Affairs Officer of the US Embassy Jonathan Henick and Afet Ibrahimova visited EAMP Nardaran students. The guests were so friendly that the students were encouraged to talk about their studies, interests, hobbies willingly and joyfully and demonstrated their newly acquired English language skills. The guests were greatly impressed with the students’ information about historical and religious places of Nardaran. They told about Nardaran Palace and Castle which were constructed in the Middle Ages, about mosques, sacred places and events and ceremonies held there. They visited Nardaran Pir and listened to the students' talks about madrasa lessons. Mrs. Ameri was interested in teaching process of EAMP English lessons. I told them about the lessons, enrichment activities and different events organized by AzETA for encouraging the children to learn English better.
Qebele:
Qebele is located in the North of Azerbaijan. There were 24 students in Qeble Group. The classes were organised at school #4.
Sheki:
Sheki is also located in the North of Azerbaijan. There were 18 students in Sheki Group. The classes were organised at AzETA Sheki Branch which is located at school #8.
Project Co-ordinators:
Hijran Huseynova - Baku
Halima Fatullayeva - Ganja
Gulnar Bayramova - Lenkaran
Vafa Mustafayeva - Qebele
Ulker Aliyeva - Sheki
Sevil Aliverdiyeva - Khachmaz
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES: 2007-2008
Celebration of New Year:
On 15 December 2007 students from all the Project regions came together at Baku Slavic University to celebrate New Year. It was a half-day event, where groups from each region demonstrated different activities on Christmas and New Year.
The new students of the Project were very excited. It was the ever first experience for many of them to demonstrate their English knowledge in front of such a bid audience and at the stage of a University. They recited poems, sang songs, shared views on the USA and its culture, traditions, history, geography, etc. One of the students played the role of a Santa Claus and gave presents to the active students who could answer his questions on Christmas and New Year.
The event was also effective as the students who were shy at the beginning gained some confidence and thus, were more active towards the end of the event. Even some of the students became friends and exchanged contact details to visit each other.
Some parents also attended the event and thanked the organisers for giving such an opportunity to their children to develop.
At the moment the children are preparing to celebrate Easter and Novruz holiday. The event will be hosted by Qebele Group in Qebele on 15 March 2008. The students are very excited as it will be their first visit to that region of Azerbaijan. Also, most of the students have never travelled outside their own area.
Children's 4th Conference
Enjoy English Club held its 4th Conference on 2 February 2008. 40 EAMP students from different project regions joined the Conference. As the working language of the Conference was English, only the EAMP students with good English skills were invited to the Conference For more information on the conference, please, visit: http://www.az-eta.org/eec.php
Celebration of Easter and Novruz
On 15 March 2008 the EAMP students from all the Programme regions came to Qebele to celebrate Easter and Novruz, a national holiday. There are lots of similarities between these two holidays: both holidays are celebrated in spring, both holidays have special cookies, both holidays have special symbols, including the egg.
The event was also of a nature of progress report where the students demonstrated their knowledge and skills from the start of the Programme. The Programme regions gave presentations separately in alphabetic order. The students were very excited for many reasons: it was their ever first trip outside their regions; they were demonstrating their knowledge in front of their peers and teachers; they were competing to make the best presentation; it was the first Programme event where all the students came together. They sang songs, recited poems, danced, put questions to the teams, role-played. The role-play of Khachmaz students was special where they demonstrated the importance of environmental protection.
As Qebele was hosting the event, two students from Qebele were the announcers of the event. Another peculiar feature of the event was that all violets, the messenger of spring were distributed among the participants.
At the end of the event a dove was released into the air as a symbol of friendship.
Dmitri Tarakhovsky, Public Diplomacy Officer of the US Embassy also attended the event and encouraged the students to learn English better where he emphasised the exchange programmes which can only be achieved by those with fluent English besides other skills.
Representatives of the local education authorities, media and cultural department also attended the event. All of them thanked the US Embassy and AzETA for such an important project and for having the event in Qebele highlighting the importance of learning English and support to the children who come from the sensitive layer of the society.
It was a very memorable event in many ways. The children were not tired at all and sang songs, recited poems on their way back to Baku as they were very impressed and encouraged by the event.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES: 2008-2009
Storytelling with Mario Rinvolucri
Mario Rinvolucri, famous trainer from Pilgrims, Ltd. UK was visiting Azerbaijan on 24-30 April 2009. On Sunday, 26 April he had a workshop in AzETA office with EAMP teachers and students. The title of the workshop was Storytelling. The students were very active. The first task started with the students' individual drawing on the blackboard which led to a fantastic group work where they created a story. The task was: a participant should come to the blackboard and draw any picture. One of the students went to the blackboard and drew a tree. Then each student came to the blackboard and drew different pictures related to the tree. As a result a story was created of a man called Jack at the age of 50. And the last student just wrote instead of drawing: Welcome to EAMP. Although his drawing was a bit ambitious and made his drawing on the top of everything, it demonstrated how much he enjoyed being a part of the EAMP and for the unique opportunity to sit in this session.
While making a story around these drawings the teachers witnessed their students' different abilities. Even the students with limited vocabulary were active in the session and nobody felt shy at all.
The next story where the participants were tasked to make a story using just 3 words in only 5 sentences demonstrated how creative the students were. It was so enjoyable to see the students so confident in front of their teachers. Mario Rinvolucri was amazed with the stories the students created.
At the end the students had a family photo with the trainer.
Celebration of New Year:
On 20 December 2008 the most active and hard-working students from all the Project regions were brought together to celebrate Christmass and New Year. As always, the event was organised in Baku Slavic University.
The students were very happy to come together again. Each group tried to perform better and to get more applauds. Moreover, they were happy to meet their old friends from Ganja, Lenkaran, Khachmaz, Gabala, Sheki, Mashtaga, Nardaran and Baku.
Each region demonstrated what they had prepared: Khachmas students surprised everybody with their impressive, funny and unforgettable role-plays. Students from Nardaran performed famous “Cinderella”. Baku students sang famous "Happy New Year" song by ABBA. Role-plays by Ganja, Lenkaran and Sheki students were also very interesting and unforgettable. EAMP song composed and performed Qebele students got the most applaudes. The girls were very excited, as well as happy for their successful performance. After their 2 role-plays Mashtaga students addressed the teachers and parents to always pay their most attention to educating children.
Santa Clause brought lots of presents, and each student got their special prize. Then everybody was invited to dance with Santa Clause and sing songs.
At the end of the party, AzETA Executive Director Ragsana Mammadova thanked the children for their great job, congratulated them on the New Year Holiday and wished them every success in their future studies.
Some feedback from the children:
- The party was great. I enjoyed a lot.
- Thank you for bringing my friends here. We had a good time.
- I liked all the role-plays. It was very interesting.
- I am very happy to come to Baku again. When will we meet again?
- I am looking forward to Easter celebration. I promise that we will perform then better.
- Thank you, AzETA. Thank you, US Embassy. Happy New Year!
- I will always study well so that my teacher always selects me to attend EAMP events.
- I am very happy that now I have lots of friends in many regions of Azerbaijan thanks to EAMP.
- Please bring all these children to Qebele again. Our Easter party in Qebele was great.
EAMP celebrated Easter on 14 March in Lenkaran, 28 March in Baku and 4 April in Sheki.
EAMP students attended INGED 11th Drama Festival
With the invitation of INGED (English Teachers’ Association of Turkey) 4 EAMP students and 2 teachers attended INGED 11th Drama Festival held in Ankara, Turkey on 31 May.
2 students from Mashtaga and 2 students from Xacmaz were selected to attend the festival. The aim was to extend co-operation between INGED and AzETA in the field of learner involvement in projects. INGED held drama festivals for the students from different schools of Turkey annually. This year they also extended invitation to AzETA to send students as participants to learn from the experience. But AzETA decided to benefit from the opportunity and prepared the students to role-play. EAMP teachers Sudaba Sadigova and Sevil Aliverdiyeva thought of two very interesting role-plays and prepared their students for that. The students first were trained separately. On 23 May, at the AzETA 6th Regional Conference in
Xacmaz, the students were brought together and rehearsed their role-plays. They also had a chance to rehearse in Istanbul one day prior to the Drama festival. Their presentation also included a song about friendship.
EAMP students rehearsing the song in Istanbul
On the day of the festival the students were very nervous. It was easily read from their eyes: “Will we succeed?” As soon as they finished the song, very strong applauds encouraged them to continue in a high spirit. They demonstrated a great performance. They were awarded with certificates of appreciation.
Drama Festival was not only something memorable for the students, it was also a great opportunity for EAMP teachers to learn from their INGED colleagues and exchange experiences.
EAMP students at the Ataturk Mausoleum
AzETA acknowledges INGED for this unique opportunity and for great co-operation.
2 of the EAMP students attended a workshop in the US
Every year EAMP organize summer workshop and invite students and teachers from the Programme countries to the US. This year the workshop was held on 25 July – 13 August and hosted by Intrax International Institute. This year's Workshop group was one of the most diverse ever: 25 students and 4 chaperons were invited from 11 countries, such as Azerbaijan Brazil, Chile, Myanmar (Burma), Russia, Palestine (West Bank), Morocco, India, Lebanon, Kosovo, South Africa plus the U.S.A.
Two students: Aytan Tahirova and Kenan Musayev were selected to attend the workshop to represent Azerbaijan. I was selected to attend the workshop as a chaperon.
The workshop mainly focused on three main themes:
• American Culture and Values
• English Language Study
• Understanding of US Government
The program began in Washington D.C. at a youth conference center. The students had a placement test and after it they were divided into two groups and had English language training, cultural activities and spent time with American teenage mentors. They had also local tours and activities, which included: Tour of US Capitol Building, DC Monuments Tour by Night, Boat tour to Mt. Vernon. Students also learned about their classmates' cultures and completed a special assignment - they gave an informal presentation to the group on their countries. The presentations took place in the evenings at the 4H Center.
Students of Azerbaijan Aytan Tahirova and Kanan Musayev also gave a presentation about Azerbaijan: they began with a song about Azerbaijan. The students liked the song a lot and applauded Aytan and Kenan. Thus, the ice was broken! They gave a power point presentation. The information included the country's flag, population, territory, languages spoken, religion, economy, music, clothing, food. After the presentation students asked to demonstrate the dance and Aytan and Kenan performed it! It was great!
After the presentation they gave presents to the participants: national cookies like: shekerbura and pakhlava and cherry jam. Children were happy and some teachers asked about calories in pakhlava!
Then the group was invited to the Department of State and Mrs Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State told about the Access Program and asked the group to stand up and all people in the hall applauded them.
After our stay in Washington DC we travelled to Philadelphia, where we stayed in the University of Pennsylvania Dormitory and visited Pennsylvania's historical and cultural sites and rural countrysides such as: Tour of Independence Hall and Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center, Religious Houses of Worship, Amish Country and Farmstead. It was so amazing and wonderful to see the places and monuments they read and learnt about!
After visiting all these places students made presentations about religion in their countries.
We flew to San Diego, California after Philadelphia, where were placed with a host families and the students continued the English language and cultural program. In San Diego students visited Old Town San Diego and activities also included UC San Diego University Tour, Mission Beach Picnic, volunteer activities.
The last day in San Diego was the Access Workshop Graduation, where students got certificates and then they went home with a lot of impressions. Now every student has a lot of friends all over the world!
Non-residential summer camp
Pursuant to the Project, the students had 80 hour non-residential summer camp in July 2009, too. That was the last summer camp. Prior to the summer camp, the Project teachers had developed a special pack where they had included materials covering all aspects of the US life, including, politics, presidents, elections, geography, culture, history, places of interset, etc. On the last day of the summer camp, they students had a final test based on the materials of the summer camp.
Although, the Project is over, to achieve the sustainability, AzETA invited the most promising students to join Enjoy English Club. Now they are active memebrs of Enjoy English Club.
Thomas Santos meets the alumni
On 10 November Thomas Santos, Regional English Language Officer of the US Embassy in Kyiv visited Lenkaran where he met the EAMP 2007-2009 Program alumni. The alumni shared their impressions on the programme. At the end of the meeting. they were awarded with the certificate of accomplishment. The meeting was also attended by Brent Maier, Assistant Public Affairs Officer of the US Embassy in Baku and Ragsana Mammadova, AzETA Executive Director.
 |
|
 |
|
|
