Teacher+Letters

Overview Letter 2007

Olympiada of Spoken Russian West High School Friday, April 18, 2007

Directions Getting to West High is tricky. We are at 1700 Hillcrest Drive, Anchorage.

If you are coming from the south, follow these directions: 1: Start out going NORTH on MINNESOTA toward downtown. Cross Northern Lights. 2: Turn RIGHT onto W 25TH AVE. 0.2 miles 3: Turn LEFT onto SPENARD RD. 0.1 miles 4: Turn LEFT onto HILLCREST DR. 0.2 miles 5: End at Anchorage West High School, 1700 Hillcrest Drive.

If you are coming into town from the north on Fifth Avenue, follow these directions: 1: Start out going West on 5th Avenue. (It's one way.) 2: Go all the way through town. 3: Turn LEFT onto L Street. 4: L Street becomes MINNESOTA. Get into the right lane. 5: Take the HILLCREST Drive ramp. 0.3 miles The ramp comes very soon after the road becomes four lanes. 6: End at Anchorage West High School (you can go to Mapquest.com for a map!)

Parking Please park behind the school close to the tennis courts. If you park in front of the swimming pool, you are likely to get towed.

Contest Sign students up at least two weeks in advance using the registration forms available at the ACTR website. Students will participate in three commissions at regular levels 1-5. Native and Heritage speakers will participate in Страноведение и стихотворение.

Materials are available at the ACTR website. Students should bring their poems to hand to the judge and a copy of any maps they plan to use. 2008 Alaskan adaptations to national plans: no text retelling, and only three topics are required for Commissions 1 and 2 at levels one and two. Levels three and four and native speakers/heritage speakers draw three tickets for those areas.

At the competition, students will fill out their names on the judging forms for each topic. They hand the form to the judge, who will fill out the score and keep it for the runners to collect. Students will ask judges to initial their passports.

There is a fair amount of variability in how the judges understand their roles. I do hold a judging meeting the night before, and those judges usually follow the “rules,” but others may not. Also, an occasional judge is not in tune with the goals of our competition: to support these learners. Point me out to your students so that they know whom to reach if you are not available to discuss problems. If there are problems, we need to know right away. We want this to be a positive, if scary, experience.

Upper level students should check for second-round information. The judges will pick one winner and up to two alternates. Teachers keep in mind that the trip is not paid for until the kids reach Russia. The school will need to help the student raise airfare ($2000 this year…eek!). Heritage speakers go through an interview process to be able to participate in the travel part of the trip.

Judges Please help me by sending me names of people who would be able to work on a Friday. It will help if you tell them about the contest in advance. If you can send complete names, e-mail, phone and home address information, that’s also helpful.

Parent Volunteers Tell your parent volunteers that they will get a job upon arrival. The three areas are the registration table, overseeing the judging, and monitoring the various sessions. Let me know if any of the parents are particularly good at crowd control.

Sessions When students finish all three commissions, they take their passport to the desk and get a nametag. This nametag will allow them to go with ROTC students to sessions outside the library. Students should continue to fill out the passports as they go through the program. Students must carry their passports with them to enter the sessions. Teachers might want to use the passport as a grading tool, collecting it after the day.

Because schools will arrive at different times, the students will get judged first and then join sessions, even during the middle of the classes (except art, which has to start on time).

See the program for the sessions. Remember to talk with your students about proper behavior in the library, the sessions, and the auditorium.

Lunch Lunch will be on the students, offered in the Eagles Cache at West. The snack bar has “healthy” snack items, baked goods, fruit, and drinks available. Students will need $3-5.00, or they are welcome to bring their own lunch. We will work with the cafeteria to have Subway open as well.

Behavior Students should know that they are fitting into the schedule of a regular day at West High. They must wear the orange nametag that they receive after competing and they must be accompanied in the halls with ROTC members. They should travel quietly because classes will be in session. Our security personnel are likely to detain and question students without nametags.

Awards Assembly The awards assembly is a chance to show off our students. We invite schools to do presentations and high-scoring students to recite their poems. Those who recite poems will earn a small prize for doing so. It will not be possible to mention all the medals at the awards assembly. ACTR is providing us with the Excel file for the scoring, so it is not possible to use the sort function. It may be that the medals levels will be decided for us within the program, but it is a big change. Please be patient!

This year Susan Kalina and Carol Comeau are our speakers. It is a big year, because we have been doing this for (at least!) 20 years!

Teacher Reminder letter (2008?)

I’m realizing that we’re going to have a few more kids than I’d thought. (That’s good news, of course.)

Please talk with your students about decorum. The main center for the Olympiada is in the library. They will have to be very quiet so as not to disturb the judging process. It won’t be the situation that has been at UAA, where they can move into the common area and at least feel free to chat there between classes. There will now be computer sessions, but I will need at least one ASD teacher to actively monitor them. (Maybe Michelle?) Wendy, Jill, and Valerie will be running sessions. Please keep an eye on the clock and finish sessions on time. Otherwise there will be overlap with West High’s passing periods. Step in to establish good behavior as necessary.

Please ask your students to have their school ID that shows they have Internet permission if they wish to be able to go to the computer session. They can’t get in without it.

Other paperwork: if you can, get media release forms from your students. There may be some representatives of local and state media here. The kids can't be on TV or in the paper without their forms. Some schools collect those at registration. Ours didn't this year.

Ask students to go to a session and stay there until it ends, rather than wandering between sessions. They should go to three different sessions, unless they run out of time during judging. ROTC members will accompany all students between sessions. When they move through the halls, they should do so quietly, so as not to disturb classes.

The lunch break will be very short. Students will go to our cafeteria for Subway sandwiches or salads, or they can get more snack-like food (Ramen, pocket lunches, enormous cookies, a variety of drinks and junk foods) in the Eagles Cache. Of course they are welcome to bring their own lunches, but warn them not to eat in the library. After lunch there will be an awards ceremony, with a variety of performances and speakers.

For those who have regular level 3 and 4 students, please remind them that they will need to check near the door of the library for a posting of second round candidates in between sessions. Last year, one of the second round students left the building and did not have a chance to compete.

Ask students to be flexible and helpful. Remind them that we’ve never done this in a school, on a school day, and there are likely to be some pitfalls.

Thanks for your support,

Michele

p.s. attached is the updated program. Please review it with your students. I haven’t nailed down the TV session, but I hope to do that today or tomorrow.