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Each year, the United States Department of Education, through the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program, provides funding for Short-Term Seminars in foreign countries. These four - to - five - week seminars are for school teachers who want to improve area study and foreign language programs in their schools. In July and August, 2001, twelve individuals from schools and universities in Arkansas participated in a five-week, Short-Term Seminar in Ryazan', Russia. This site is devoted to that experience. The Short-Term Seminar was five weeks in duration. The first two weeks were spent primarily in an academic setting at Ryazan' State Pedagogical University. At that location, participants took Russian language, Russian history, Russian geography, and curriculum development courses. They also spent a few hours each day in a computer lab developing lesson plans, teaching units, and webpages. The third and fourth weeks were spent primarily in Meschorskiy National Park where the participants were taught about the resources of the park, visited many sites within the park, and built a small log cabin for children who stayed at a tourist camp in the park. The fifth week was spent finalizing course work and preparing to return home. Several one-day excursions took participants to various places within the Ryazan' Oblast and two weekend excursions took them to Moscow and St. Petersburg. The rest of this site is meant to provide an overview of the Ryazan' Short-Term Seminar. The first section is devoted to Russia, the Ryazan' Oblast, the City of Ryazan', Ryazan' State Pedagogical University, and our Russian hosts. The second section shows some of the academic activities, the third section summarizes the park experience, the forth section shows the oblast excursions, the fifth section shows the trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the sixth section is meant to provide an overview of the five week experience through pictures and text. |
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The map at left shows the European portion the Russian Federation. St. Petersburg is toward the upper left, Moscow is very near the center, and Ryazan' is southeast of Moscow. Ryazan' is 195 kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Moscow, approximately a 3 - hour trip by bus, train, or car. |
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The City of Ryazan' is a rather large city with about 535,000 people. Unlike Moscow and St. Petersburg, it is not a tourist center nor does is have any western-style restaurants. It is truly a Russian city - one of the reasons it was selected for the site of the Ryazan' Short-term Seminar. It is located on the high south bank of the Oka River. Most of the interaction with the City of Ryazan' occurred in the northeast quadrant. |
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This is the portion of the City of Ryazan' that we spent most of our time. The hotel in which we resided for the duration of the Seminar is located in the lower right corner of the map at the left. We were taken to the university (upper right center) by Ivan, the university bus driver, or we rode the trolley bus. The rooms in the hotel were large and very comfortable. Each suite had a bedroom, bathroom, and sitting room with chairs, TV, radio, and desks. Because the weather was rather warm while we were in Ryazan', we purchased fans for our rooms. |
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The main building of Ryazan' State Pedagogical University is shown at the left. It is a very beautiful structure. Our classroom was on the second floor in room 20. The computer lab was on the third floor. We also ate most of our meals in a new addition on the north side of this building. Our meals were prepared by a cafe staff that treated us so well and provide nutritious and tasty food in large amounts. We appreciated the way they cared for us. |
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At
the left are our Russian hosts and good friends. Kneeling are (from left):
Ivan, the university bus driver; Victor, student and lab employee; and
Oleg, geography student. Standing are (from left): Lena, cafe worker;
Lena, cafe worker; Marina, cafe director; Vadim, history professor; Lena,
co-director and geographer; Lena, my language teacher and geographer;
Sasha, director of computer lab.  |