DISPATCHES
Base financing training for accountants from national culture association and art collective umbrella organisations
On 15 November 2007 the Project Division of the Non-Estonians Integration Foundation held a training session on accounting for accountants from the umbrella organisations of national culture associations and art collectives. The rules and laws and regulating the accounting of non-profit organisations and foundations were discussed at the training session, as were the reporting requirements of the “Base Financing of National Minority Culture Associations” competition being organised by the Integration Foundation.
For further information please contact Iris Järv from the Project Unit.
Language immersion worksheets and teaching materials
The training course for compilers of Estonian language-based worksheets came to a conclusion on 30 November and 1 December. While support for language learning is already offered by the subject-based worksheets that are currently available, worksheets for targeted language learning remain few and far between. A dozen teachers of Estonian as a second language have obtained new computer skills and knowledge of Estonian-language teaching methodology and simple language rules and have entered into agreements on the format of worksheets. Those produced in the course of the training are available from the website of the Language Immersion Centre at www.kke.ee.
On the last day of the course on 1 December, the teachers of Estonian were joined by the authors of the language immersion teaching materials, teachers from schools with Russian as the language of instruction. Together they looked back on the development of teaching materials over the last 15 years for children with Russian as their home language, from a Russian-language alphabet book to materials for studying different subjects in Estonian.
For further information please contact Kai Võlli from the Language Immersion Centre.
5 years of language immersions in kindergartens
The 5th anniversary of the language immersion programme in kindergartens will be marked on 8 December. Nine kindergarten groups adopted the early immersion programme in 2003. Today 41 groups from 24 kindergartens are part of the programme. The birthday celebrations will be opened by Minister for Population Affairs Urve Palo. Attendees will be given an overview of the current state of the programme and of the challenges facing it in the future. Tallinn University will also be introducing its scientific study titled The Preparedness for School and School Performance of Pupils from Language Immersion Kindergartens at the 1st Stage of Study.
For further information please contact Svetlana Belova from the Language Immersion Centre.
Methodology training
Methodology training for teachers from the 2nd and 3rd stages of study will be held at Jüri Upper Secondary School on 6 and 7 December. 32 language immersion teachers are registered to take part. The training session will focus on the implementation of active learning methods in language immersion lessons, with the chance to compare and analyse such things as open classes.
For further information please contact Maire Kebbinau and Aivar Liivrand from the Language Immersion Centre.
Organisers of language courses for police officers and rescue workers announced
The tender competitions organised as part of the “Staff Excursions within Estonia for Language Practice” project in order to open additional groups for Estonian-language courses for police officers and rescue workers have been won by AS Kesk-Eesti Arenduskeskus and AS TEA Keeleõpetus.
The courses to be run by AS Kesk-Eesti Arenduskeskus in Ida-Viru County between December 2007 and April 2008 will involve a total of 75 rescue workers and police officers who speak languages other than Estonian. The courses to be run by TEA Keeleõpetus in Tallinn and Paldiski will be attended by 54 rescue workers and police officers. The aim of the courses is to improve the participants’ listening and speaking skills in Estonian and to prepare them for the basic, intermediate and advanced level state exams in the language.
Three stages of the course have been completed as part of the project since December 2005, with 127 police officer and rescue workers from Tallinn and Harju County and 158 from Ida-Viru County taking part. Anyone who participates in the course can, if they wish, be sent to police and rescue units in other districts of Estonia for 30 days of language practice. The project is being financed through the European Social Fund (measure 1.1) and the Estonian state budget.
For further information please contact Liilika Raudhein from the Administrative Unit of the Structural Funds.
News from the “Support for the Transition of Non-Estonian General Education Schools to Bilingual Studies” project:
- A training day will be held for teachers and teaching directors from schools with Russian as the language of instruction on 5 December on topics related to the transition to Estonian-language studies. The training is being organised by Koolituse Korralduskeskus OÜ.
- Training in the methodology of bilingual teaching for history teachers from schools with Russian as the language of instruction will be held on 3 December in Tallinn and 12 December in Narva.
- A state tender competition titled “The Publishing of History-Themed Teaching Materials” is to be launched.
- A competition is to be launched for Estonian literature-based plays for students from schools with Russian as the language of instruction. It is to be organised in association with the Ministry of Education and Research and the public relations firm Alfa-Omega Communications.
For further information please contact Ave Osman from the Administrative Unit of the Structural Funds.
Citizen’s Day Quiz launched
The 2007 Citizen’s Day Quiz will be held until 2 December. The Internet-based quiz, designed for school students, can be entered through our website at www.meis.ee.
The results of the quiz will be announced online on the same site on 10 December.
The Citizen’s Day Quiz, which is traditionally held around Citizen’s Day, is designed for students in years 7 to 12 from general schools with Estonian and Russian as the languages of instruction and students from vocational schools. Its purpose is to improve the students’ knowledge of the constitutional institutions of the Republic of Estonia, human and civil rights, freedoms and duties, and issues associated with the European Union. The quiz is in Estonian, with links to laws and other sources of information able to be used to some extent when answering the questions.
Winners will be named in six categories – students in years 7 to 9, secondary school students (years 10 to 12) and vocational school students from schools with Estonian as the language of instruction; and students in years 7 to 9, secondary school students and vocational school students from schools with Russian as the language of instruction. Prizes will also be awarded to the schools with the largest number of participants. The winners will receive their prizes in January 2008. In previous years an average of 3000 students have taken part in the Citizen’s Day Quiz each time, and active involvement is expected this year too.
The quiz questions will also be able to be used as teaching materials once the quiz is over.
For further information please contact Toivo Sikk at the Centre for Educational Programmes.
“How Cultural Differences are Construed in the Media” teaching material completed
Additional teaching material titled “How Cultural Differences are Construed in the Media” supports social, media, native language, people, history and foreign language studies, providing students with the opportunity to understand how cultural differences (including opposing views and misinterpretations) are produced and reproduced through analysis of media material. The central focus is on television news (with newspaper news also included to a lesser extent).
The teaching material is to be issued on CD and is designed for the 3rd and 4th stages of school study. A seminar introducing the materials will be held in December.
The working group convened to develop the materials was led by Kristina Veidenbaum.
For further information please contact Toivo Sikk at the Centre for Educational Programmes.
CONCLUDED COMPETITIONS
National Culture Society project competition
The aim of the competition is to support the preservation of the language and culture of ethnic minorities through the activities of national culture societies and art collectives.
The projects submitted needed to accord with one of the following topics:
- extending the knowledge of national minority culture associations and informing Estonian society of the activities such societies;
- acknowledgement of the multicultural nature of Estonia and the introduction of the aspects of the cultures of national minorities to Estonian society via cultural projects aimed at the public (public events, lectures, exhibitions, seminars, TV and radio programmes, leaflets, etc.);
- developing cooperation between the cultural societies of national minorities.
The total amount of grants is 350,000 kroons, with 13 projects receiving funding.
For further information please contact Kristina Pirgop from the Project Unit.
