Myrhorod thankful for assistance (07/18/99)

Myrhorod thankful for assistance

Myrhorod, a small town of only 47,000 people located in central Ukraine, has just recently established an excellent English resource center and on March 10, Myrhorod School No. 9 hosted the grand opening of this new center. Generous donations of books and supplies by Siena College and Americans for Democracy in Ukraine made this center possible.

Local officials and teachers from surrounding schools attended this event, which was ushered in with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an assembly presentation by schoolchildren.

The center contains a library of English books on subjects as diverse as teaching new methodology for elementary teachers and life in Great Britain and America. It also houses a television/VCR and an up-to-date sound system. Also because of a generous gift from the Narodna Kasa in Montreal, the center is the proud owner of a copy machine.

This center is one of four that has been created by the hard work of Siena College professors and local teachers. The other three centers in Ukraine are located in Kovel, Chernihiv and Ochtryka. These centers are coordinated through the creation of local teachers' associations whose responsibilities include sharing the new teaching methodologies presented by teachers from Siena College in the summers of 1995-1998, building the centers resources and making these resources available to as many teachers and students as possible.

The impact of this center was best describe by Lyuba Zheliznyak, the head of Myrhorod's Teachers' Association, who said "The center has really helped to change our old stereotypes and revolutionize our teaching methods ... I believe this center will be a center for enlightenment."

"Four years ago, after attending the Ochtyrka English teachers' training seminars (Sumy Oblast) conducted by methodologists from Siena College Teacher Training Institute, a group of Myrhorod teachers organized Poltava Oblast's English Teachers' Association. During the last few years Myrhorod's association has collaborated with Siena College and the ADU, as well as with similar associations in Chernihiv, Ochtyrka, Pryluky and Kovel to implement new English teaching methods in secondary schools. Teachers could not imagine before that teaching and learning English could be fun. Unfortunately, until we were exposed to the new methodologies presented by Siena College we had no idea that creative ways of teaching existed. We acted only by intuition seeking effective methods, our only resources being a blackboard, chalk and textbooks full of propaganda such as revolution, constitution, demonstrations, capitalism, Marxism, communism, etc," noted Ms. Zheliznyak.

"But time flies," she continued, "Now we feel as rich as Rockefeller. We possess resources that were unimaginable to us six or eight years ago. We have a wonderful English resource center with a wide variety of audio and video materials and special 'treasure' library of resources books for teachers and students.

"We could never have imagined these treasures, even in our wildest dreams, but now thanks to the tremendous efforts, enthusiasm and generosity of Siena College, Americans for Democracy in Ukraine and Canadian Credit Bank, we use these resources every day in our classrooms," Ms. Zheliznyak said.

She underlined that the main thing teachers and students have gained from these gifts is not material, but knowledge - the one thing Ukraine needs most right now because knowledge will help to overcome the hardships that Ukraine is experiencing.

"We can only say thanks again to the people who have enlightened us. Thank you dear people, whose hearts and souls hurt for our Ukraine and whose initiative and drive have made the opening of our resource center possible," she added.

- Stephanie Richard

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