Integration Calendar – March 2009

 

The “Two Steps Closer” conference will be held at the Nelijärve Recreation Centre on 6 and 7 March. Anyone who is interested is invited to attend!

 

Discussing topics related to participation and democracy, the conference – being organised by the Integration Foundation with financing from the European Social Fund – is open to all young people in Estonia between the ages of 14 and 19. As with the similarly-themed “One Step Closer” conference held in 2008, the home language of half of the young people taking part will be Estonian and that of the other half Russian.

 

Together they will undertake team work exercises and make plans for further joint activities. The working language of the conference will be Estonian, providing the Russian-speaking attendees with an excellent opportunity to practise the language in an everyday environment.

 

For further information please contact: Lianne Ristikivi, Coordinator, Culture and Youth Work Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9028 / E-mail: lianne.ristikivi@meis.ee.

 

 

 

At an information day to be held at the Teachers Building in Tallinn on 10 March the foundation’s early childhood education coordinators will be introducing the nursery school language immersion programme and talking about its results and the methods used. Specific examples will be used to encourage nursery school directors and teachers to work with immersion nursery schools. An overview will also be given of the language immersion training sessions for 2009, which will be open to all nursery school teachers and are designed to get them thinking about the role of language immersion teachers.

 

For further information please contact: Svetlana Belova, Coordinator, Multicultural Education Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9028 / E-mail: svetlana.belova@meis.ee.

 

 

 

11.00 am on 12 March is the deadline for the simplified public tender for the “Language camp for Estonian youth living outside of Estonia” project.

The aim of the tender is to support the development of Estonian as a language of communication for youth with Estonian origins and to promote Estonia and Estonian culture through language camp exchanges.

Between 2000 and 2003 and between 2005 and 2007 the foundation organised Estonian language and life camps for children and young adults with Estonian roots living in the CSI states, Latvia and Lithuania. Almost 300 young people from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania have attended such camps. Unlike in previous years, the chance to take part in the 2008 language camp was offered to young people with Estonian roots wherever they were living outside of the country.

 

For further information please contact: Kristina Pirgop, Coordinator, Culture and Youth Work Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9024 / E-mail: kristina.pirgop@meis.ee.

 

 

 

The first basic school graduates of the early language immersion programme will be presenting overviews at a meeting of students and teachers from the first schools to join the early language immersion programme – Läänemere Secondary School in Tallinn, Mustamäe Secondary School of Humanities and Kohtla-Järve Secondary School – to be organised by Narva Old Town State School at the Hermann Fortress in Narva on 12 March. The recollections of students, teachers and parents will be presented in an almanac covering their nine years in the programme. The schools will also have the chance to present the home town legends collected or created by their students. The organisers look forward to welcoming officials from the Ministry of Education and Research and the Education Foundation, representatives of colleges and universities and education officials from the City of Narva as guests.

 

For further information please contact: Maire Kebbinau, Coordinator, Multicultural Education Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9847 / E-mail: maire.kebbinau@meis.ee.

 

 

 

On 20 March Tallinn’s language immersion nursery schools (Vindi, Allika and Mahtra) will receive 40 teachers from Finland as guests who are interested in finding out about their experiences in implementing immersion methodology. This will be followed by a seminar in the Ministry of Education and Research, where the participants will be given an overview of the education system in Estonia and of the activities of the Integration Foundation in the field of preschool education.

 

For further information please contact: Svetlana Belova and Marje Sarapuu, Coordinators, Multicultural Education Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9028 / E-mail: svetlana.belova@meis.ee or marje.sarapuu@meis.ee.

 

 

 

24 March will be the 5^th theatre day of Tallinn’s language immersion nursery schools. Ten Estonian-language performances by language immersion groups will begin in the Kanutiaed rooms at 10.00 am.

 

For further information please contact: Svetlana Belova, Coordinator, Multicultural Education Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9028 / E-mail: svetlana.belova@meis.ee.

 

 

 

Language immersion teachers from nursery schools in Ida-Viru County will be presenting the teaching materials they have produced at the Tuhkatriinu nursery school in Kohtla-Järve on 26 and 27 March.

 

For further information please contact: Svetlana Belova, Coordinator, Multicultural Education Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9028/ E-mail: svetlana.belova@meis.ee.

 

 

 

The second part of a three-session training course will be held in Rakvere on 27 and 28 March for teachers of Estonian-language subjects from schools with Russian as the language of instruction. The training groups comprise teachers of up to three different subjects, with a total of up to 60 participants. The course will have a duration of 80 hours, of which 48 will form seminar-based work. The working language of the course is Estonian. The training is being organised by Koolituse Korralduskeskus.

The topics covered will include subject didactics, implementing active study methods in subject studies and in the teaching of language for a specific subject, and integrated subject and language studies.

 

For further information please contact: Maire Kebbinau, Coordinator, Multicultural Education Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9847 / E-mail: maire.kebbinau@meis.ee.

 

 

 

The Integration Foundation has launched a partnership with BDA Consulting to produce a 4 CP in-service training programme for teachers from institutions of vocational education, develop training materials and conduct the training courses throughout Estonia. The in-service training is designed to provide participants with knowledge of ways in which subject and language teaching can be brought together, e-studies and the development of language skills, and to prepare them to work in another vocational education institution in another language. The training is being provided for teachers of both vocational and general subjects. Information about registration, training locations and schedules is available from BDA Consulting’s project manager Reilika Paas by e-mailing reilika@bda.ee or telephoning +372 627 4414.

The training is being organised as part of the “Language Studies Development 2007-2010” programme financed through the European Social Fund.

 

For further information please contact: Kristina Johannes, Coordinator, Lifelong Learning Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9065 / E-mail: kristina.johannes@meis.ee.

 

 

 

The Integration Foundation is offering vocational education institutions yet another language learning opportunity, which the schools themselves have been seeking.

As part of the “Language Studies Development 2007-2010” programme financed from the European Social Fund, students from institutions of vocational education will be able to take part in a linguistic and cultural exchange programme. Students whose native languages are other than Estonian will have the chance to go to another school as an exchange student to study Estonian and professional language, with students who speak Estonian able to go to other schools as support students. The costs involved will be covered by the Integration Foundation.

In order to take part in the programme, institutions will have to find themselves a partner school in Estonia which offers the same subjects and to which it can send its students. The opportunity can also be provided by schools which are capable of offering an Estonian-language learning environment. The cultural programme forms an important part of this activity – the school which the exchange student attends must think of ways of showcasing Estonian culture and customs in its area.

Applications to take part in the exchange programme can be submitted to the Integration Foundation by vocational education institutions at any time. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the programme will come to an end at the end of 2010.

 

For further information please contact: Edydt Johanson, Lifelong Learning Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9842 / E-mail: edydt.johanson@meis.ee.

 

 

 

 

In early March the Integration Foundation will be launching the procurement competition “Preparation of teacher training students to work with pupils whose native language is a language other than Estonian”. The procurement is designed to enable students studying to become teachers and those already working as teachers to obtain the knowledge they require to work in general education schools and vocational education institutions with languages of instruction other than Estonian. To this end two specialised courses of free subjects will be developed and carried out as pilot courses on the topics of “Developing skills in the language of study in subject lessons” and “Intercultural differences: students with a Russian cultural background”.

The procurement is being launched as part of the “Language Studies Development 2007-2010” programme financed through the European Social Fund.

 

For further information please contact: Ave Osman, Coordinator, Lifelong Learning Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9030 / E-mail: ave.osman@meis.ee.

 

 

 

In March the Integration Foundation will be launching a simplified public tender for the “Publication of preparatory materials for Estonian-language professional examinations” project. The aim of this tender is to produce training materials and glossaries for professional Estonian for sales people, hairdressers and beauticians and chefs and wait staff. The procurement will also include the recording of listening texts for the training materials.

The procurement forms part of the “Preparation of adults with insufficient skills in Estonian for professional examinations” strand of the “Language Studies Development 2007-2010” programme.

 

For further information please contact: Merlin Mägi, Lifelong Learning Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9068 / E-mail: merlin.magi@meis.ee.

 

 

 

In early March the Integration Foundation will be launching a simplified public tender for the “Organisation of preparatory courses for the Constitution and Citizenship Act of the Republic of Estonia examination” project.

 

The procurement is designed to provide free preparatory courses for the Constitution and Citizenship Act of the Republic of Estonia examination for 2000 people with undetermined citizenship or from third countries until the end of 2010.

 

The procurement is being carried out with the financial support of the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals, which was established as part of the general European Union programme “Solidarity and management of migratory flows”. The support of the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals will also see the launch of a procurement in March which is designed to find an organiser or organisers of free Estonian language courses for people with undefined citizenship and citizens of third countries.

 

For further information please contact: Tea Tammistu, Coordinator, Citizens Education Unit / Telephone: +372 659 9062 / E-mail: tea.tammistu@meis.ee.