New Teachers

BKC has the pleasure of introducing quite a few new faces to our very dynamic teaching staff this year: Maria Shea (Zheleznodorozhny), Marlene Taber (Molodezhnaya), Sam Duncan, Anne Killalea, Amanda Rose, Alexander Waring, Terri Webb, Anthony Flint, Joshua Walker, Harriet Bell, Simon & Sonja Kelsey (Molodezhnaya), Anna Ingram, Okan Bolukbas (Zelenograd), Danile Boudreau (St Petersburg), Keoki Young, Veronica Ayesh (Zelenograd), Dominique Ovieve (Globus), Jessica Thomas, Meredith Gill (LinguaRu), Marian Bassett (Molodezhnaya), Claire Nichols, Kati Schilling (Globus + BKC), Rozitah Abu Samah, and many more to come in October. We are sad to lose Jan Madakbas as DOS Tverskaya, Kaye Anderson as DOS Borovitskaya, Nick White as DOS Satellite Schools and Joe Davies as ADOS Satellite Schools. We are sure they will do well wherever they go. And of course, welcome back to all continuing teachers. We wish you all a happy academic year!

Borovitskaya News

Well, welcome to Moscow and welcome to Borovitskaya. Most of you will have visited Boro when you were getting orientated, so you'll no doubt be aware that it's a well-resourced school with a well-equipped open access room with at least eight computers for the use of teachers. These resources are available to all BKC teachers, whether you work at Boro or not, so please feel free to make the most of them. The educational management team comprises of me (Senior ADOS), Guy (ADOS), Natasha (Younger Learner's ADOS) and Wayne (DOS Outer-Branches and In-company) and we aim to be available as much as possible for teacher support.

Guy and I have put our working schedule up in the teachers' room and (theoretically) one of us should be available at all times from Monday to Friday 11am to 7pm. I say theoretically because there will be times when we may be unavailable due to meetings, observations or presentations. Although Guy is a veteran Boro ADOS, I'm part of the new team and I'm still finding my feet ADOS-wise, so please bear with me. Just recently we have been increasing our resource library. Books that may be of particular interest to newer teachers include Jeremy Harmer's 'The Practice of English Language Teaching (New Edition), Scott Thornbury's 'Teach Grammar', Gerald Kelly's 'Teach Pronunciation' and 'Instant Advanced Lessons'. Any comments about the usefulness of these books and suggestions for future purchases will be welcome.

Dennis

Tverskaya News

Welcome back! Hope you all had a good summer. And welcome to all those who are new to Moscow and BKC. First bit of news, Jan has left us. He's gone across the hall to teacher training, and has his hands full of CELTA students. It's the last CELTA of the year and if you see any lost/confused faces loitering around the photocopier, please give them a hand. We are still waiting for the new DOS, Wendy, to arrive.

We've got loads of new books - Elementary and Pre-Int Cutting Edge, Elementary and Pre-Int "New" Headway complete with Teacher's Resource Pack, CAE Plus Practice Tests, The Index (a good resource to help you find what you are looking for), and more. Just ask Sveta or Luda in resources for help.

There is an excursion to Rostov Veliky on Oct 13. It's a Golden Ring city about 5 hours from Moscow with it's own Kremlin and Monastery. It's 460 rubles including lunch. It's alot of fun so come on out. Please let reception know by the end of Sept.

The lovely Sveta Radukhina is ready to start elementary Russian classes so if you are interested, put your name down on one of the sign-up sheets or contact Gary Roberts.

Lastly, you might have noticed that I haven't been around this week. I'm somewhere in Kyrgistan, hiking with Brodey, Joe and Annette. In my absence Rachel Peacock is Acting ADOS. She'll be in her favorite corner if you need her. See you in October.

Diana

Kropotkinskaya News

It's a new year - the summer seems long ago here at Kropot, where things are in full swing - new classes every week, and new teachers appearing everyday (Welcome to our latest member of the teaching staff, Samantha Duncan). I encourage all new teachers to come check it out here, wherever you may teach.

It's usually been the case that teachers prepare for classes at Borovitskaya or Tverskaya schools - more resources, computers, and space to work. However, recently we have begun a campaign to spruce up the resources and facilities here. The last three weeks has seen the creation of picture and newspaper files, precut Cutting Edge teacher resources, replacement of missing cassettes, a file on Canada, and so far, 10 new books have arrived (new Cambridge FCE series, FCE Practice Tests 5, Cutting Edge Elem. and Pre-Int…), with many more on the way in the next couple of weeks, including 8 new dictionaries. The FCE resources are improving, including the trial use of the new FCE Gold course book. And hopefully in October the teacher's room will finally see the long awaited new cassette player, and a computer with Internet access.

If you can bear the windowless teacher's room, the odd fly here and there, and somewhat dodgy washrooms (toilets, for you British types), come see us!! I'm here all the time to answer questions. Finally, somehow I managed to volunteer myself for editor of this journal, so please email, phone, or come talk to me about any issue or concern you would like Unbound to address.

Mike Belicic
ADOS Kropotkinskaya

Younger Learners

If you are interested in teaching children from 4 to 12 and teenagers then BKC-IH is a place for you because the school has a large number of various children's classes. Teaching English to Younger Learners is a growing area in TEFL all over the world and this is also true for Moscow. The number of our kids' classes has been increasing since the crisis in 1998. Now we teach preschoolers (4-6 year olds) at Borovitskaya and in some branches (Rechnoy, Molodezhnaya, Electro). Moreover, Babyland kindergarten has just started working and two more kindergartens are going to be opened in September. In addition, we are planning to start play groups for pre-school children at Kropotkinskaya.

Most of our branch schools have always had classes for primary school children (6-9 year olds), juniors (10-12 year olds) and teens. The classes usually consist of 6-12 students who study from September to June.

In summer the school runs a summer camp with English lessons for children aged between 9 and 15. The camp is 90 km from Moscow in Vladimir region on the banks of the river Kirzhach. This summer there were about 120 children and 6 teachers for each two-week session.

If you don't have any experience in teaching children but are willing to try, no fear! One of our regular seminars is usually devoted to Younger Learners and in October we will be running a training course for the teachers who don't have much experience in teaching Younger Learners. The course will be held at Tverskaya school, probably, on the seminar weekend. You can find the resources for teaching children at Borovitskaya and Tverskaya schools and speak to me at Borovitskaya if you need help with your children's classes.

Natasha Chernysheva
ADOS Younger Learners