Select language:

A "Horsey Name" and a Happy Ending for Vanka Zhukov

 / Ãëàâíàÿ / Russkiy Mir Foundation / News / A "Horsey Name" and a Happy Ending for Vanka Zhukov

A "Horsey Name" and a Happy Ending for Vanka Zhukov


26.10.2015

On 18-23 October, Minsk hosted the international teacher competition “Crystal Inkpot. Chekhov’s Lesson” with contenders from Serbia, Italy, Georgia, Latvia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Russia and Ukraine. The competition was sponsored by the International Teachers’ Club, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus, the Russkiy Mir Foundation and the office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Ukraine.

A World without Hatred or Malice

Olivera Avramovski, teacher of the Mihailo Petrović Alas school (Belgrade, Serbia), gave a lesson entitled Chekhov and Theater to ninth-graders, who tried to answer the question “Did Chekhov reform the classical theater?” by performing the roles of a playwright, a director, a critic, actors and, last but not least, spectators.

Ekaterina Frolova, teacher of the primary school CENTRO RUSSO ARMONIA (Milan, Italy), presented a lesson entitled The Miserable Life of Vanka Zhukov based on Anton Chekhov’s short story Vanka. Third-graders took part in an original performance, with three actors in the role of Vanka, five readers of stage directions and even a prompter. The children were given a home assignment to write a happy ending for the protagonist.

Isabella Ioseliani, education quality manager and Georgian language teacher at the Mtsignobartukhutsesi lyceum (Tbilisi, Georgia), discussed with eighth-graders the ethical issues raised in Chekhov’s short stories An Upheaval and Misery and tried to describe a human ideal. In the end, the students were given an interesting home assignment: they would have to write their own page in the book A Human Ideal of Our Time.

Diana Pavlyuchenko, teacher of middle school Klassika (Riga, Latvia), invited third-graders to her Russian literature lesson entitled A Short History of Russian Surnames. Using an interactive whiteboard, she spoke about the history of surnames, while students tried to pick synonyms, solve crossword puzzles, fill out a table in the special copybook and learn everything about the “horsey name”.

Two teachers from Belarus had an ingenious idea: Evgeniya Logunovskaya and Fyodor Proshkin, Russian language teacher and history teacher at the Guryev Middle School No. 70 (Minsk, Belarus), discussed the problem of an “encased existence” with tenth-graders based on Chekhov’s short story The Man in the Case.

Dmitry Khorevsky, Russian language and literature teacher at the Gymnasium No. 8 (Sevastopol, Russia), presented a lesson Chekhov and Crimea to sixth-graders. Belarusian students took a quiz and learned many interesting facts about the life of Anton Chekhov at the White Dacha and his dacha in Gurzuf.

Russian language and literature teacher from the Kiev Region gave a lesson Chekhov: Unparalleled Artist… An Artist of Life to eleventh-graders. She arranged a virtual meeting between the Belarusian children and her students by screening a video with her students talking about Chekhov.

Alexei Krivoruchko, teacher from Donetsk, gave an improvisational lesson entitled If It Were Not for Hatred and Malice: The Secrets of the Human Soul in Chekov’s Rothschild’s Fiddle. Students offered their associations with regard to words like family, life and death, worked with the text in groups (“semantical”, “musical”, “graphic” and “family” ones), deciphered the names of Chekhov’s characters, played his favorite game—croquet, learned about his favorite composer and painter and studied his character. Donetsk, Taganrog, Moscow, Yalta, Minsk; a hat, eyeglasses, a handbag, a mysterious number on the blackboard, a dachshund, croquet, visiting cards—all these small details helped the teacher recreate the world of Chekhov and the world “without hatred or malice”.

The main prize—the Golden “Crystal Inkpot”—was awarded to Alexei Krivoruchko, teacher of the Donetsk School No. 30. He was given a certificate and a laptop as a sign of his undisputed victory.

The Georgian teacher took the second place and the Silver Inkpot, while teachers from Italy and Belarus took the third place and the Bronze Inkpot in a tie. All of them received tablet computers.

The award ceremony took place at the Nesvizh Castle.

The Crystal Inkpot competition is taking place for the second time. The first contest dedicated to Mikhail Lermontov took place in Odessa in 2014. The 2015 Crystal Inkpot was dedicated to the 115th anniversary of the birth of Anton Chekhov. The 2016 competition will celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Bulgakov.

A Lifetime of Chekhov

Teachers also took part in discussions, listening to their colleagues’ reports on the Russian literature, pedagogy and teaching Russian in school. The international conference “A Lifetime of Chekhov” dedicated to introducing children to Russian classics dealt with “discovering” Russian writers and their works in middle school and higher education institutions.

The conference brought together over 200 people—scholars, representatives of postgraduate education institutions, Russian language and literature teachers from Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Georgia and Italy. The forum was held at the initiative of the International Teachers’ Club, sponsored by the Belarusian Ministry of Education with the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation.

Modern Methodologies

The competition involved a roundtable “Contemporary Issues in Teaching Russian Language in Middle School”. It took place on 21 October 2015 in Minsk at the National Institute of Education under the Ministry of Education of Belarus. The meeting was organized by NGOs Russian School and the International Teachers’ Club and the Ministry of Education with the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation and the office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Ukraine.

The debate touched upon issues related to organization and facilitation of educational processes, modern teaching methods, retraining, motivating students for in-depth studies, etc. Particular attention was given to the final assessment of students at the 2nd and 3rd stages of middle school, its criteria, indicators and methodologies for assessing the quality of language education and development of next-generation learning kits.

Members of the roundtable expressed their wish to continue communicating with their peers in the future and exchanged research publications. The Ukrainian delegation presented the hosts with the Chekhov’s Almanac published with the help of the office of Rossotrudnichestvo in Ukraine and the Russkiy Mir Foundation.

The Youth Forum

At the same time, students from different countries took part in the international forum “Russian Language as a Basis for Cooperation among Talented Youth” held with the support of the Russkiy Mir Foundation and the International Teachers’ Club in the capital of Belarus.

High-schoolers and college students gathered in a picturesque place in the Minsk Region—children’s camp Ogonyok—to make friends, plan their future cooperation and realize their talents in the field of rhetoric, journalism, linguistics, choreography, vocals and applied arts.

A guided tour around the historical sites of Nesvizh, a visit to the Nesvizh Castle and the award ceremony celebrating the winners of the Crystal Inkpot competition—every event became a colorful piece in the puzzle of the forum.

News by subject

Publications

Italian entrepreneur Marco Maggi's book, "Russian to the Bone," is now accessible for purchase in Italy and is scheduled for release in Russia in the upcoming months. In the book, Marco recounts his personal odyssey, narrating each stage of his life as a foreigner in Russia—starting from the initial fascination to the process of cultural assimilation, venturing into business, fostering authentic friendships, and ultimately, reaching a deep sense of identifying as a Russian at his very core.