A dying breed as school year starts
Vera Yudina is one of an endangered species in Moscow – a school teacher. "Only those who cannot live without school stay on in spite of the difficulties," said Yudina, citing low salaries as the main incentive to leave. The average salary at school No 1259 – where Yudina has been teaching for the past 10 years – is just over 350 rubles ($80) a month.
With nearly 800 teaching vacancies throughout its 1,366 schools, Moscow's Education Department is struggling with a severe shortage – with teachers of foreign languages, and English in particular, in greatest demand. Some Moscow schools cannot provide instruction in some of the most basic fields, including Russian, English and social sciences.
Russia's teacher deficit is nation-wide, but it is more acute in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where those with a command of a foreign language have more opportunity to trade in their skills for a higher salary with Western firms.
While Education Minister Yevgeny Tkachenko announced that the exodus of teachers from the classroom has levelled off, the staff at school No 1259 do not see an end in sight even though it is a privileged school. And judging by the increasing number of disgruntled teachers who turn to Moscow's employment agencies to find new work, the vacancies are likely to spread.
At firms such as Eurospan and the Russian Connection, they are still redirecting a steady stream of former teachers and recent teaching graduates, finding them better paid work as receptionists, secretaries, or sales personnel.
"In some cases teachers can find work in human resources – like myself," said a representative of The Russian Connection, who gave up his job as a math teacher a few years ago. The teacher deficit has not only affected schools scrambling to fill the gaps, but the quality of education as well. As school administrators find it harder to fill teaching vacancies, they are forced to accept teachers with lower qualifications.
According to Education Ministry statistics, the percentage of teachers with only a secondary education in Russia last year rose to just over 11 per cent. At the same time, the number of pension-teachers rose by 20,000 last year to nearly 9 per cent of Russia's total staff of 1.5 million teachers and administrators.
ВАРИАНТ 8
Задание 1.
Вставьте артикль, где необходимо и переведите предложения.
1. Is this my … pencil? No, it isn’t. It is not my … pencil. It’s … his … pencil.
2. My ... brother is not at ... home, he is at ... school.
3 On ... days when I have no ... classes, I stay at ... home and do some work about ... house. I have ... dinner with my family.
4. It was ... hot day. ... sun was shining brightly. ... wolf and lamb met at ... stream.
5. ... Volga runs into ... Caspian Sea. Several rivers run into ... sea at ... New York.
Задание 2.
Заполните пропуски, вставив одно из местоимений, данных в скобках и переведите предложения.
1. "I haven't got ... clean exercise-books, Mother," said the boy. (any, no)
2. How much did you pay for these pots? – I didn't pay ... . (nothing, anything)
3. “They have … red boots, Kate”. (any, no)
Задание 3.
Раскроете скобки, употребляя глаголы в одном из следующих времен, и переведите предложения:
1. They (to sail) down the river for many hours before they (to come) to the village. 2. How many pages you (to read) by 5 o'clock tomorrow? 3. Tomorrow I (to begin) doing my homework as soon as I come from school. I (to do) my homework from 3 till 6. My father (to come) home at 7 o'clock tomorrow. I (to do) all my homework by the time he comes, and we (to go) for a walk together. 4. I (not to be) to my home town for five years. 5. The rain (to stop) by the time we (to reach) home. 6. Mike (to eat) ice-cream every day. Look, he (to eat) ice-cream now. When I (to see) him in the morning, he (to eat) ice-cream, too. He (to say) he (to eat) one ice-cream already by that time. I think he (to fall) ill if he (to eat) so much ice-cream.
Задание 4.
Выпишите модальные глаголы или их эквиваленты, причастия настоящего времени, указывая от каких глаголов они образованы, и переведите предложения.
1. Is she coming to London to see her father? 2. Can you read English books? 3. We are in the classroom. 4. There were the students in my class. 5. We shall have to visit her at hospital. 6. Does she wear jeans? 7. We're going to a concert. 8. They were to listen to his stories 9.Is it raining now? 10. I am a student. 11. What time did you come after your lessons? 12. I am to do this work. 13. The smiling girl is his sister.
Задание 5.
Переведите на английский язык, употребляя глаголы в Passive Voice.
1. Когда сорвали эти цветы? 2. Колю как раз сейчас спрашивают. 3. Книги уже принесли из библиотеки? 4. В Санкт-Петербурге строят много домов. 5. Куда положили тетради? 6. За этим профессором всегда посылают в трудных ситуациях. 7. Обед только что приготовлен. 8. Задание выполнено до того, как пришел инспектор?
Задание 6.
Письменно переведите текст и задайте 5 вопросов в виде плана для пересказа текста.
The Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) is committed to excellence in teacher education. To respond to the very diverse practices existing in the states that allow alternative teacher certification (АТС) programs ATE recommends these guidelines:
1) Each graduate in а АТС program should have completed college courses which lead to a command of major concepts in written and oral communication, math, social science, physical science, humanities (including the arts and literature) and non-western contemporary culture.
2) State exams in basic skills required of students in regular teacher education programs should be required of АТС candidates.
3) АТС candidates should pass personal interviews assessing orientation to the nature of teaching, the nature of students and goals of school.
4) Candidate selection must include analysis of career and work histories, type and natureof previous careers, performance in former jobs, periods of employment (and unemployment), hospitalization, etc.
5) Selection should follow direct experiences with children and youth. This requirement can be met with a summer of paid work before employment. This enables some candidates to opt out or be selected out.
6) When possible, prior, direct experiences with children and youth should be in the same school building where candidates will begin as intern teachers.
7) АТС candidates should be paid for the direct, supervised experiences with state or district funds provided for them to be paid the same as beginning АТС teachers. A paid experience will be a recruiting mechanism.
8) Experienced teachers should serve as mentors, support teachers and coaches of АТС candidates throughout the first year at a ratio of 2 candidates to 1 teacher. In the years 2 and 3 the ratio might become 8 to 1. At least 20% of the experienced teachers' assigned load should be allocated to the mentor role. Mentors should be paid extra, based on a number of candidates supervised. A minimum of 500 dollars is recommended for each first year АТС candidate with whom a mentor works.
9) Mentors should receive special training in coaching and advising АТС candidates. Training might be offered by university personnel, consultants, highly-qualified classroom teachers, etc.
10) АТС candidates should not be required to take more than one three-credit course or more than 45 hours of instruction per semester – from any source – during their first year of teaching.
ВАРИАНТ 9
Задание 1.