Hello everyone! My name is Kirill and I’m finally being helper on this session (one dream has come true). So yesterday was our very first day of the session and it was a rather exiting day because me and my teammate Lera was chosen to lead the evening event called “wild dances”. Читать далее…
To tell the truth, I’m a very shy person so it was very nervous for me. In the beginning I had a feeling that everything were wrong but then I it just went away and I could feel the atmosphere of the whole event. I guess it works like this: if you are nervous as a leader then people feel it and act the same but if you change your mind and become more emancipated then people be just like you. So yeah, nearly everything were fine except some our helper’s mistakes which we will improve, I guess. But there were a lot of other interesting things, for example our first morning and evening radio. It was lead by my friends: Slava and Ivan, and it was rather hilarious and music was quiet good. Guys said that being helper is very interesting but also very challenging experience and I just can’t disagree with them. But I must admit that we’ve all dreamed about it for 3-4 years growing from 4 team to 1,some kind of evolution. 
I hope that the whole session will be as much filled with significant moments as the day before.
Kirill Korshunov, 16y.o., Zhokovsky.
РУБРИКА ПЕДАГОГА
Hello everyone! My name is Alena, for this session I am in the position of head counselor (chieftain according to the theme of our session). MMC is a special place for me, it is like a home far from home, because this is my fourth year here and I have found a lot of really good friends at MMC. It has a special atmosphere and it is difficult to explain but I feel comfortable when I am here. I used to be a participant once, it was a wonderful time, then I understood that I would like to be a part of the Center. So I was an intern, I tried really hard and afterwards I became a counselor, I really enjoyed it and I spent a lot of sessions here: English plus program for the whole summer, autumn, winter and spring sessions. I realized that I really enjoyed this job and it is not because of money, it is because of the feelings and emotions I have towards this place and of course because of kid`s feedback.
This session is really special for me because also I am a counselor of the first team, we call them pre-helpers because they will try themselves on this position. For the first days we will check their abilities and they will decide if they want to be helpers. So now they are important part of our plot, because they will participate in preparation of evening events, they will lead radio and also they will try the position of the counselor or teacher (during the self-management day). For all of them it is the new and really important experience. The main thing that they have is readiness to work and to create something new. Of course we will help them during the session.
We spend the whole day with children, it helps to create a comfortable and supportive atmosphere in every team. As for the kids we are like guardians: we are responsible for their health and well-being. One more important thing is leading Group –times (GT). During this time we pay attention to teambuilding, because we are here together for three weeks so every kid should feel that their team is like their family. Also we keep in mind that the main idea of our program is to make children feel comfortable to speak foreign language, so the of course the rule of group-time – always try to speak English. Children know that we have our volunteers here, our foreign friends, so kids understand that their foreign counselors want to be a part of their camp life. GT is like a hidden lesson because kids discuss different questions, play games using English language. It helps them to learn new words and expressions; they develop their communicative skills, break language barriers and practice speaking. It is very important to show them that learning English is very interesting and enthralling.
Today we had a normal day with our usual activities. Children had their normal lessons, during TPL English they had sample tests, because final tests are coming, samples will help them to choose the level that they will take. The theme of the day was kinfolk, so during group-times we made sure that this theme was involved in the activities, children watched different, useful videos according to the theme, they spoke about their families and so on. They had to prepare dance for the evening event. We had “Wild Dances”, so we danced a lot and had a lot of fun.
I believe that we help children to be more open, to communicate with each other, to share their opinions. We are here to help them so I hope that is what we do, and I hope we do it in the right way.
Alena Golubeva, Head counselor