Monday, December 21, 2015

The Best Letter for Santa Christmas Contest 2015

All the Access students and alumni are invited to participate in our contest for the Best Letter for Santa. Share your achievements, difficulties you had in 2015, as well as the plans and wishes for the upcoming year with Santa Claus, and win a prize! He is already stuffing his sack with gifts! Hurry Up!


CONGRATULATIONS to WINNERS!!! 



27 comments:

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Module 4. Tips for a Successful "Spelling Bee" Performance




Dear "Access Youth Voice" participants, 

To get enough prepared for the Spelling Bee Section, please analyze the tips presented by:





1 comment:

Module 3. Hints to Succeed in Public Speaking


Dear "Access Youth Voice" participants, 

 One of the main goal of this cometition is to ditinguish your expertise in:
a.  building a well-organized speech on  one specific global issue presented in a video, and 
b. presenting your speech in a 2-minute time.  

 Your speech should include: 


a. the global issue/ problem the movie arises specific for your community ( 1 phrase),
b. 2  consequences this problem has nowadays ( ofeerring the specific examples from the history, massmedia, world statistics) (2 phrases) , 
c. 1 possible solution you propose to reduce this problem and 1-2 ways to implement it into practice (concrete examples) ( 2 phrases) ;  
d. what  would be the impact of this solution( 1-2 concerete examples) (maximum 2 phrases) . 
e. concluding idea on the future actions the society needs to do to fight  with this problem ( 1 phrase) . 

 Your presentation should be supported by visual materials, such as for e.g. pictures.
To succeed in developing a public speech, please analyze the following resources: 



Sample of persuasive seech:

Global Warming
Social Networking
10 Ways to Make your House Carbon Neutral 
Organ Donation 
Please  Help Keep the World Safe
  The Global Issues video could be on the following topics:  

 430 Persuasive Speech Topics 
50 More Persuasive Speech Topics
Persuasive Speech Ideas








1 comment:

Module 2. Exploring US Culture & Civilization

Dear "Acces Youth Voice" project participants,

During the "Access Youth Voice" Contest, it will be proposed for the discussion the following 5 US Culture & Civilization topics: 


Use the following resources: 
  • Janet Borsbey, Ruth Swan. 2007. Crossing Cultures, ELI Publishing
                                           
  • Milada Broukal, Peter Murphy. 1991. All About the USA 3: A Cultural Reader. 3rd edition. Pearson. Longman

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1 comment:

Developing and Implementing Civic-engagement Projects

Developing and Implementing Civic-engagement Projects

Task 1. Scan the following resources, and identify the following details about engaging the community in education:
  1. what is the service-learning or community engagement?  
  2. what are the benefits of service learning? ;
  3. what are the most efficient ways for you as the Access students to engage with community members and resources .

Task 2. Analyze the community-service projects examples and ideas presented below: 
  1. 55 Environmental Service-Learning Projects
  2. Global Youth Service Day
  3. Access Program celebrating Global  Youth Service Day
  4. Access Program Civic-Engagement Projects
  5.  Service-Learning project ideas
  6. Project ideas , and 
together with your Access teachers select 3 community-service project ideas relevant for your community. 

 Task 3.   Analyze the following civic-engagement project proposals developed by Access students from various regions of Moldova to identify the project stages/ procedures each project ran.   
  1. Different but Equal
  2. Learn English through Creativity
  3. A Holiday for Everybody
  4. Colorful Town. Make Your World Better. 
  5. The Struggle for the Environment
  6. “Making Changes through Youth Civic- Engagement Projects”
  7. “Making Changes through Social Theater”  
  8. “ Shorter School Breaks”
Task 4. The following resources reflect the highlights of a successfully  civic-engagement project writing process. Let's explore them one by one:
a) Analyze the structure of  the project plan examples posted here: what steps does a project plan include?
Developing a project plan 
b)  Explore the Project Tipsheets list and choose 3 most important ones - why do you consider they are the most important ones for s successful project implementation? Youth Changing the World Tipsheets 
c) Examine the Youth Changing the World: Youth Service Project Toolkit guide, which explains in detail the important steps that will help teachers and students, in collaboration with school administration, make a meaningful impact on an issue that is important to you and your community: INVESTIGATE, PREPARE, PLAN, ACT, REFLECT, DEMONSTRATE AND CELEBRATE. 
Think about: 
  • what you learned new in terms of project planning and implementation;
  • how these steps are different from regular projects you usually do in your regular classes ( for e.g., Christmas or Halloween parties, school plays, poster displays, school competitions, etc.)
  • Which of these steps would be the most difficult to implement and why.
Picture
Task 5. Think of one of the and develop a detailed plan of its implementation, according to the  “Civic -Engagement Project Template” . Download this document, complete it and submit your project proposal.    Use the examples listed below as reference points. 


Additional resources:
Developing a Project Plan
Additional project examples:
Music and Graphic Arts Projects Examples
Creative and Language Arts Projects
Social Sciences Projects

6 comments:

Stage 4: Project evaluation, and results’ dissemination

Stage 4: Project evaluation, and results’ dissemination.  



An overall evaluation will be provided at the end of the project  through an online  feedback questionaire, which will stress on qualitative aspects of the project preparation and implementation, received from online instructors, mentors, participants and volunteers.

The project results will be disseminated through Facebook page, project webpage, American Councils’ webpage and newsletter, and civic.md news portal.
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Stage 3: Final competition event

Stage 3: Final competition event



Each team will select 5 best representatives to participate in the final competition event, where they will have to prove their abilities in sharing  facts about US culture and civilization, developing and implementing civic engagement projects,  delivering a public speech and correctly spelling English words. 
The selection process will be managed by both online and local mentors, based on the performance each students showed during the online and face-to-face mentorship.

The participants will have to pass through the following sections:

Section 1: "Picture Your Access Team " : a 5-minute presentation of your team in a creative manner (team's nickname, motto, presentation of the abilities/skills the participants have).


Section 2. " Be the Change you Dream About!" through community projects. 
Each team will present 1 civic-engagement project   they  have recently designed and implemented  in their  region. 
The length of each team's presentation is 10 minutes  and 3 minutes for the Q&A session. 
 The project presentation should include: 
1. the title of the project
2. the problem this project arises
3. the objectives
4. beneficiaries
5. project partners
6. project steps, proven by pictures
7. project impact and overall conclusion 
8.  future plans or project ideas to do.  


Section 3. "Be the Voice of Your Mind" Public Speech Section. 

 The participants will need to express their  point of view on a global issues video  in a 2-minute persuasive speech,  following "What? Why? Examples/facts &  Conclusion"  structure.


The participants will need to:

1. watch a short video reflecting a global issue,
2. work in teams to develop their speech ( 20 minutes), following the hints presented in Module 3.
3. deliver the speech in a 2-minute time, by using visual materials.
4. answer the questions the jury or other participants will ask ( for maximum 2 minutes).


Section 4. "World  Built-in" Section (teams will be given 20 minutes to make 3-D puzzles on EFL countries wonders and sightseeings, and present facts the students know about these places).


Section 5. "US Cultural-Mania":  in 20 minutes all teams will play a jeopardy game on US Culture and Civilization, referring to   the 5 following  main topics:


 
The teams will be judged by representatives of the US Embassy, American Councils, Peace Corps Volunteers and/or Flex Alumni.
The competition event will end  up with the selection of 3 best teams, that will be finally awarded special prizes and certificates, signed by the American Councils.



Stage 2: Teams’ Online Mentorship

Stage 2: Teams’ online mentorship


Each team will pass through 4 online guidelines modules, referring to the following topics: 
  • developing and implementing a civic engagement project, 
  • facts about US culture and civilization,  
  • delivering a public speech and 
  • correctly spelling English words through "Spelling Bee" contest.
At the end of each module, the teams will post their works they developed according to hints and guidelines offered by the instructive modules.

Each team will have 1 mentor (a former/current Access teacher)  who will be monitoring, and offering any support to participants at the local level.

These will be:
  • 2-3 speeches on actual world problems (environment, conflict resolution, tolerance, democracy, etc),
  • a developed and implemented civic-engagement project idea ( Global Youth Service Day, iEARN, or other funds),
  • Answers to US Culture and Civilization (sightseeing, winter holidays, etc.) ( quiz, or Jeopardy games);
  • Audio or video presentations of spelling 20 most challenging  English words, using online platforms, such as Vocaroo and Movenote.
4 Online Guidelines Modules: 



Stage 1 : Project Logistics

Stage 1: Project Logistics



will include:

a. advertising the project among Access Moldova community, and Peace Corps and Flex communities;

b. creating 10 teams of Access students and alumni;

c. establishing online instructors and mentors’ team;

d. creating the project webpage on “Access Path to Success!”  , and the project Facebook page;



e. establishing partnership network with local educational institutions and NGOs.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

"Access Youth Voice" Competition

"Access Youth Voice" Project



will represent a nationwide Access youth competition, provided for almost 180 Access students and alumni from 9 regions of Moldova (Edinet, Bender, Ialoveni, Hincesti, Causeni, Grigoriopol, Ribnita, Balti, and Ungheni).


This way, 9 Access youth teams will follow online and face-to-face guidelines on US culture and civilization, community projects, and public speaking,  and  finally will prove their acquired competences in sharing  facts about US culture and civilization, developing and implementing civic engagement projects,  delivering a public speech or correctly spelling English words. The project  will end up with the final 1-day competition event, and selection of best Access teams.  

The main goals of the project are:
- to empower the participants' social, linguistic, cultural, civic and digital skills through a series of online instructional game-like stages,
- to enforce the Access students' motivation by nominating and awarding  best Access students;
- to maintain the spirit of activism among Access alumni, by involving them in competition and collaborative projects;
-to strengthen the Access community network around the country.    

The project will run 4 stages:

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