Kiev, Ukraine (School 323) Student Chapter

February 26, we organized the city conference “Education as the main means of development,” during which we discussed the problems of modern education. Our students and guests from different city schools formed four groups and translated a poem from English to Ukrainian or Russian. Here is this poem:
Learning a Language
Is like doing a jigsaw puzzle of a million pieces
With a picture that keeps changing.
It’s like getting lost in a foreign city without a map.
It’s like playing tennis without a ball,
Like being an ant in a field of grasshoppers.
It’s being an acrobat with a broken leg,
An actor without a script,
A carpenter without a saw,
A storyteller without a middle or an end.
But then gradually it’s like being out in the early morning
With the mists lifting.
It’s like a chink of light under a door,
Like finding the glove you were looking for,
Catching the train you thought you were going to miss,
Getting an unlooked-for present, exchanging a smile.
And then one day it’s like riding a bicycle very fast downhill.

Olivia McMahon – Scotland

Each group represented its variant of the translation.
March 24-26, our students took part in the fourth regional conference “UN model,” in which all participants imitated the work of the United Nations. Our high school represented two countries: India and Russia. Our students expressed these countries’ views on the international economic crisis and ways out of it. Many schools from all over Kiev took part in this conference.
April 9, our school took part in a meeting devoted to the future development of school activities, which was organized by the Ukrainian Movement “Teachers for peace and understanding.”.
We also took part in Global Youth Service Day (GYSD). Information and photos about our efforts were sent to PTPI World Headquarters, and now they are available on PTPI’s GYSD Web site.
May 27, we met a teacher from Scotland named David Stolls. He told our students and teachers about his program of teaching English in many countries via the Internet.
Nataliya Tsareva, Adult Advisor