American Councils Moldova launches

Management and Leadership Online

Course for its employees

American Councils Moldova Newsletter

ISSUE IX March 2015

One of the initiatives aimed to celebrate American Councils 40th Anniversary in Moldova

was launching an internal management and leadership online course for Moldovan

employees: program managers, project assistants, teachers and admin staff. The course

aims to share from American Councils best practices on the local and international level,

foster productive collaboration among American Councils Moldova employees and

provide staff the opportunity to grow and achieve optimal performance. Most

experienced American Councils Moldova program managers will volunteer as trainers

and will share from their most successful experiences: Course Trainers.

All course assignments and reading materials will be shared with registered participants

via the Project Blog. Participants will submit weekly assignments on the course blog and

will interact in a relaxing, stress-free atmosphere. The course will run over a period of 10

weeks and will combine online and face to face instruction. Each weekly assignment will

be built around one successful project run by American Councils Moldova, such as: EFL

Blogging School for Regional Teachers, American Language Center Summer Leadership

Academy, Making Changes through Social Theater, Be Someone's Santa, FLEX Education

Network Conference. Topic to be covered: organizational culture (Case study: American

Councils), management styles, motivation and incentives, performance evaluation and

coaching, team management / building a team, leading change, analysis of organizational

impact, strategic planning and implementation/management of change, human resource

management, managing work stress and occupational burnout, emotional intelligence and

dealing with challenging situations and difficult people.

THIS ISSUE:

American Councils

Moldova launches

Management and

Leadership Online

Course for its

employees

EFL Blogging School

Graduation Conference

Professional Fellows

Program updates

Open World Program

FLEX Program updates

Access Microscholarship

Program updates

American Lamguage Center updates

American Councils

Moldova signs

partnership agreement

with NEXUS agreement

2

The EFL Blogging School Project

Conference gathers over 150 teachers

and students from all regions of Moldova

• Eduard Rudenco, Online

teaching as part or as an

alternative to traditional education

• Dumitru Grusca, Blogs as an

alternative to traditional teacher

portfolio

• Irina Pusnei, Web 2.0 tools for

video-based student projects

• Viorica Gaidar, Online teaching

tools for creating and editing

technology-enhanced tasks

• Ecaterina Camenschi, Blogs and

e-portfolios as platforms for

summative and formative

assessment

• Natalia Rața, Enhancing student

speaking skills through

Voicethread, Utellstory and Voki

• Natalia Borta, Enhancing

students' vocabulary and creativity

by using online web 2.0 tools

• Rodica Aculov, Creative ideas for

using Padlet,Wordle and Tagxedo

• Oxana Cazacu, Online tools to

develop students writing, speaking

and reading skills

• Veronica Cazacu, Online

platforms to develop student

vocabulary

• Ludmila Raciula, Advantages of

using Voicethread in developing

student speaking skills

• Emma Matreniuc, Blended

learning -- a new way in teaching a

foreign language

• Victoria Mascaliuc, Online tools

to facilitate the process of

teaching grammar

On February 21st over 150 teachers and

students from various regions of Moldova

attended the EFL Blogging School Project

Conference in Chisinau organized by a

group of American Councils staff, Access

Program trainers and FLEX volunteers.

This innovative project was funded by a

grant from the United States Department

of State, and over the period of six

months trained 25 Moldovan language

teachers from all regions of the country

to bring blogging as an effective teaching

tool into their classrooms.

English language school teachers and

university professors from around the

country joined the project beneficiaries to

learn about the art of blogging and its

benefits to teaching a foreign language.

Hosted by "B.P. Hașdeu" Municipal

Library, the event was a wonderful

opportunity for Moldovan educators and

students to become acquainted with

various online tools used in teaching

English as a foreign language. Kate

Bartlett, US Embassy Assistant Public

Affairs Officer, opened the event with a

welcome message for al l Moldovan

educators interested to bring innovation

in their teaching practice and stated that

US Embassy was very happy to be part of

this wonderful initiative.

The first part of the event was moderated

by project trainers and mentors. Olga

Morozan, Access Program Coordinator,

led the "EFL blogs as platforms for

alternative assessment" session. Svetlana

Lungu, "Mihai Eminescu" High School

Teacher from Chisinau moderated the

"Blogs as platforms for flipped instruction"

session and Corina Ceban, Engl ish

language teacher at "Vasile Alecsandri"

High School from Balti, talked about

"Digital posters for EFL instruction:

Glogster and Thinglink".

A special moment was delivered by

Access Microscholarship students from

vulnerable families who put together their

own script for a live performance aiming

to share their view of the importance of

technology into the classroom. A real

teacher was replaced by a robot who was

unab le to connect emot iona l ly to

students, so at the end of the play, the

students asked their teacher to come

back.

The second part of the conference was

b roken down in to th ree p ar a l l e l

workshops moderated by p ro ject

participants, English language teachers

from various regions of Moldova.

A very special presentation was put

together by two students from "Alexei

Mateevic" High School from Causeni, who

actively participated in the project as

administrators of their class blogs: Rusu

Calin from grade 10 and Gritcan Cristi

from grade 11 demonstrated how they

manage their class bogs and how they help

t h e i r t e a c h e r m o ve f r o m p ap e r

homework to digitalized instruction. The

students loved being part of the EFL

Blogging School and insisted that blogging

is easy and should be part of each

Moldovan classroom!

US Embassy to Moldova will be financing

another round of the EFL Blogging School

Project next fall.

The EFL Blogging School Project aimed the training of 25 EFL

teachers from various regions of Moldova on using advanced

technology (blogs and other Web 2.0 tools) to promote English

language learning. The project was funded by a grant from the United

States Department of State. Finalists of the project and

moderators of the work-

shops:

3

PFP alumnus Guzun Ion hosts Bren-

nan Center for Justice expert John F.

As a participant in the Professional Fellowship Program, I was placed at the Brennan

Center for Justice (http://www.brennancenter.org). The Brennan Center for Justice at

NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our

systems of democracy and justice. It works to hold American political institutions and

laws accountable to the twin ideals of democracy and equal justice for all.

During my fellowship between 1 - 30 May 2014, I managed to participate in the

meetings organized the Brennan Centre' programs on several issues: discussed issues

included the experience of the OSI New York in the following areas: (i) amicus curiae

(ii) strategic litigation and the ECtHR cases, (iii) advocacy activities, (iv) court

administration, (v) judicial vacancies, (vi) caseloads, (vii) mass incarcerations etc. I have

managed to meet with several interesting persons with a relevant background, such as

- Mr. Robert Varenik, Program manager at the OSI New York and professor Stephen

Gillers from NYU School of Law.

Additionally to my PFP, I had a great opportunity to know my host family in New York

- Mrs. Wenke Thoman and Mr. William III Sterns and meet with my relatives in

Seattle, Washington.

As a result of one-month fellowship at the Brennan Centre, together with Mr. Kowal

we decided to develop and outbound project. The project aimed to share the

experience of a leading American legal advocacy organization with Moldovan civil

society experts and decision-makers involved in justice reform in Moldova, and

strengthening NGO capacity for advocacy and action in the public interest and discuss

on following issues: (i) the practice of writing and appearing before a court as an

Amicus Curiae; (ii) recusal of judges in cases involving conflicts of interest (with a

focus on judicial ethics), (iii) judicial selection, and (iv) lobbying and advocacy in

organization and/or coalitions' activities.

Project OBJECTIVES:

Get acquainted with the Brennan

Center's experience in lobbying

and public interest advocacy;

Learn from the Brennan Center's

practice of filing amicus curiae

briefs in legal cases in the court

system and its cooperation with

law firms;

Initiate debates in the Moldovan

lega l community on the

submission of amicus curiae

b r i e f s b y c i v i l s o c i e t y

organizations;

Share best practices relating to

the promotion of fair and

impartial courts, including

recusals and judicial selection

reform.

Findings and Conclusions:

The opportunity of having Mr. Kowal involved in the outbound project was relevant for the Legal Resources Centre from Moldova and several of open-minded civil society representatives and lawyers on issues of lobby, advocacy, amicus curiae, disqualification and recusal, filing actions in public interest, rights of LGBT, etc. Relevant Moldovan public authorities and judges are not ready to discuss about filing by NGOs of an Amicus Curiae. Lawyers are to be trained in legislation issues how properly to apply this opportunity. In relevant cases. Lawyers can request courts to allow specialized NGOs to present their expertise. Lawyers do not consider the opportunity to invite ombudsman office in case it has relevant expertise/knowledge – nondiscrimination, prisons, psychiatric institutions, etc. Specialized NGOs and lawyers have to advocate for opportunities provided by law to file Amicus Curiae. It is recommended to start with social rights. Recusal system in Moldova and US is too different. Moldovan Lawyers can consider the journalists’ investigations on judges’ integrity. Moldovan civil society experts and decision-makers l earned about the Brennan Center’s

practice of filing amicus curiae briefs in legal cases in the court system, which they can use for developing similar practices in Moldova; Established networking between Moldovan and American experts acting in governmental and non-governmental field with a focus on rule of

law, advocacy and action in public interest; Initiated debate on developing procedural rules for filing amicus curiae by civil society to the Constitutional Court and courts. Legal

Resources Centre from Moldova will encourage mass-media to attend to the event as to promote the discussed issues.

4

OW alumnus Anatolie Caciuc

interviews former US Ambassador

Open World alumnus Anatol Caciuc (Radio Moldova Program Director)

interviewed US Ambassador to Moldova, William H. Moser, right before

His Excellence left Moldova at the end of his two year term. The interview

focused on some key issues related to the Moldovan - American

cooperation, such as the ”Millenium Challenge (MCA)” project. The goal of

MCA Moldova is to provide assistance to the Moldovan Government

through efficient implementation of the Compact according to the

Agreement signed between the United States of America, acting through

the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Moldovan Government.

The Ambassador talked about the justice reform in Moldova and solving

the Transniestria conflict.

William H. Moser's last interview conducted by Open World alumnus

Anatol Caciuc can be watched on Radio Moldova national channel website.

Open World alumni - winners of Small Alumni Grants

Competition

Four Open World alumni: Ludmila Afteni, Alexandru Coica ,Vladimir Thoric and Stela Bucur were among the winners of the December round of Small Alumni Grants Competition organized by US Embassy to Moldova.

Coica Alexandru will implement the “Expedition for Peace” Project, which aims to: - break the existing stereotypes about realities and co-citizens living on opposite side of Dniester; - promote touristic places along Dniester (on both sides of the river) through new media instruments; - build an informal cooperation and communication bridge between socially active young people from Moldova (living on both sides of Dniester);

- raise awareness on alternative tools of Transnistrian conflict resolution directly targeting involved communities. “The project is coming with an innovative alternative for contributing to Transnistrian conflict resolution by breaking exist ing stereotypes and show the similar realities that young people of both side of Dniester are experiencing. A group of at least 8 bloggers coming from both sides of Dniester river, together with project team members will experience a 5 days boat expedition alongside the river. During the expedition the participants will stop in different villages on both sides of the river and will explore its touristic places (if any), interact with the citizens, understand the realities that they leave in.” Coica Alexandru

Ludmila Afteni will implement the “Volunteers from Both Banks of the Dniester Promoting European Integration” Project "Association of Psychologists Tighina" NGO aims to implement a complex animation activity for the initiatives of civic participation in the community coming from the youth from at least 5 rural places of Căușeni district and Transdniestrian region. The implementation which is to last 6 months will include several phases: identifying community leaders among youth; motivating and involving them in establishing Youth Community Initiative Groups (YCIG) for promoting active citizenship; instructing YCIGs on writing funding requests in order to start promoting European volunteering practices and submitting them to the small grants competition part of the present project; implementing funded projects, identifying projects' products and results; taking part in the project assessment event. As a result of this project the implementing team will be able to enhance initiative groups in at least 5 communities from Căușeni district - messengers of European integration, which will implement small projects having an increased impact on the community. The implementing team will monitor the progress of these groups, will disseminate successful, personal and team leadership practices. YCIGs will be able to become forerunners of new NGOs in the localities involved in the project.” Afteni Ludmila

Stela Bucur will implement a project which will develop leadership skills of Bobeica and Ciuciulenu youth in collaboration with Peace Corps experts.

„In December 2014 the NGO I coordinate received funding from US Embassy to implement a project in collaboration with Peace Corps

volunteers. „Always Together" NGO will coordinate a training on leadership involving 30 high school participants from Bobeica and Ciuciuleni

villages. The beneficiaries will learn how to write projects and implement them in their communities. The leadership program will start in spring

and will take one year to complete." Stela Bucur

5

13 Ambassadors on a diplomatic mission to Moldova shared their impressions as part of the "Bridges to Europe"

Project ("Punți către Europa") broadcasted on Realitatea TV and coordinated by Open World alumna Ecaterina

Covali. The project was the result of Ecaterina winning the US Embassy Small Alumni Grants Competition. US

Ambassador to Moldova, William. H Moser was one of the special guests of the project, sharing his impressions about

his mission to Moldova.

"After participating in the Open World exchange I returned to Moldova with a lot

of valuable skills and expertise. I learned a lot from American managers involved

in the project, NGO leaders, academic institutions which hosted our delegation

while in US. I am currently working on a social campaign and I can honestly say I

felt empowered by the experience I acquired when participating in the Open

World exchange, as I had the opportunity to learn from some of the best experts

in the world. For example, I was impressed by the transparency and the quality of

the reports various American NGO provided to their donors and sponsors. It is

very clear where the money went and how it was spent, especially when it comes

to social projects and philantropic initiatives. I also found it interesting how my

american colleagues promote their sponsors and how special their relationship is.

My Open World experience challenged me to push beyond my limits, not to

believe in half-measures and work hard until the result of your work is up to your

expectations and brings joy to others."

OW alumna Ecaterina Covali interviews

13 Ambassadors on diplomatic mission to Moldova

OW alumnus Cojocari Constantin initiates

the ”Social Taxi” Project in Edineț

Open World alumnus Cojocari

Constantin launched the very

first "Social Taxi" Project ever

organized in Moldova aiming to

provide free services to citizens

with mobility impairments, such

as retired citizens or citizens

with disabilities from Edineț city

and Alexăndreni and Gordineștii Noi villages. The social taxi will

transport beneficiaries to hospitals, pharmacies and stores to buy first

necessity goods or to public institutions such as city halls, mayors'

offices, social assistance offices. The service is available Monday

through Friday from 8.00 am to 5.00pm. All expenses are covered by

OW 2013 alumna Tatiana Costev organizes the reciprocal

visit of the US expert from Toledo, Ohio

In her capacity as the Executive Director of ”Ograda Noastră” NGO, Open World 2013 alumna Tatiana Costev has successfully implemented a series of initiatives inspired from her Open World visit in US. Starting May 2014, Tatiana worked on the "Minority Empowerment in Moldova" Project, implemented with the financial support of the US Department of State and in collaboration with Great Lakes Consortium for International Trading from Toledo, Ohio, US.

December 4-15 2014, Mrs Costev organized the post-program visit of the American expert Elizabeth Balint from Toledo, OH. Mrs. Balint works as a Project Manager within the Great Lakes Consortium. While visiting Moldova, Mrs Balint travelled to15 Moldovan communities involved in the project (the Ukranian community from Baroncea village, Drochia District, the Roma community from Mingir village, Hincesti District , the Bulgarian community from town Taraclia, the Gagauzian community from village Gaidar, Gagauzia and the Ukranian community from Edinet). The busy agenda of the expert also included meetings with the local public administration representatives and innitiative groups from the above mentioned communities.

"It is a great pleasure to host our US partners who organised similar visits for the Open World delegation from Moldova back in 2013, especially when you have the chance to maintain a direct dialog which improves the efficiency of the implementation of best international practices of successful integration of various ethnic communities around Moldova." Tatiana Costev

6

At the moment she lives between two countries – Germany where she is finishing a

Master’s degree and her native Moldova where she serves as president of an ecological

organization EcoVisio. Valeria’s areas of focus are environmental education, capacity

building, and community empowerment. Together with a group of activists and young

volunteers, Valeria implements ecological and sustainability projects, the largest of

which is the activEco Program, which is administered in cooperation with the Theodor

Heuss Kolleg Program of the Robert Bosch Foundation and MitOst Association for

over 2 years. In the course of the activEco Program young activists attend capacity-

building trainings and seminars where they learn about existing environmental problems

and develop skills to hold their own activities in the future. ‘We ask ourselves, where

do we want to see Moldova in 10 years in terms of sustainable development?’ and

everything we do is guided by the image we create. At activEco each activist thinks

about a specific issue, which she or he would like to work on – such as recycling, lack

of biking infrastructure, or children’s ecological education, and then the activist

develops a project. Once the initiatives emerge, activists form teams and we work with them to bring in field experts

that help them take their projects to the next level,’ Valeria explains.

For example, this year one participant team decided to take a

closer look at public spaces in Chisinau through a project they

called, Urban Grass. The project aimed to inspire grassroots

organizations to embrace an environmentally healthy lifestyle.

Using an abandoned square in front of a theater, organizers revived

it with the help of local artists and volunteers. In the end, the

unused space was turned into the location for an NGO fair where

young people promoted their community activities with the

support of local entrepreneurs. ‘This initiative reached a lot of

people in the city. Now that the square is renovated, community

members come to visit it and relax there! They often ask us when

they can get involved in the next similar action. If people realize

that the environmental entrepreneurship and lifestyle are not just a

niche, but something accessible to everyone, they will be more

likely to join us. Empowering people is only possible in the

atmosphere of mutual appreciation and fun,’ Valeria says.

‘Friendraising’ is a crucial part of any project implementation. During EcoVisio seminars Valeria and her team teach

participants how to build networks in order to gather people with different skills and make the biggest impact

possible. They work closely with Eco-Village Moldova, a network and community of diverse people that try to live

based on principles of energy saving, organic agriculture and

sustainability. The Eco-Village Moldova initiative was started by

former Peace Corps volunteer David Jesse, who is now the director

of American Councils in Moldova, and his wife Liliana Botnaru, a

prominent activist.

Even though Valeria had already been involved in environmental work

before her FLEX year, she received a lot of substantial ecological

knowledge while she was studying in the U.S. ‘In America I saw great

ecological awareness and activism and at the same time extreme

examples of consumerism. All these experiences influenced the way I

live now,’ she says. Upon her arrival back to Moldova she implemented a Global Youth Service Day project focusing

on the ecological movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ by director Davis Guggenheim, which features the work of former

Vice President Al Gore around the subject of global warming. Valeria translated the documentary into Romanian and

Russian and showed it in local schools and universities to increase awareness about the dangers of global warming.

Valeria Svart-Gröger ‘07

Chisinau, Moldova / Manchenster, NH

Education: Bachelor of Science in Geoecology,

Valeria Svart-Gröger ’07 Defining Sustainable Lifestyle

7

FLEX Ability Conference

On November 5, Nicu Gaibu FLEX Alumni Coordinator

together with 17 alumni went to Kiev, Ukraine, to participate

at the FLEX Ability Conference. At the conference they learned

about conflict transformations and problem solving and met

other FLEX alumni from other countries. Besides the trainings

and workshops, they did a cultural exchange where they

represented Moldova. At the end of this conference they

learned how to identify problems, how to write projects and

how to be better leaders in the society. Great conference,

great memories.

Visiting a Youth Detention Centre

On November 15, Nicu Gaibu ’12 along with 2 FLEX alumni and

7 volunteers from the Students’ Senate of Spiru Haret High

School went to visit a Youth Detention Centre. The enjoyed the

networking, exercise, and fun by playing football. Also, they

bought some school supplies in order to provide them the

educational materials they need. The FLEX alumni who

participated are: Nicu Gaibu ’12, Ilie Efros ’14 and Maxim

Mogorean ’13.

Elves Reunion

On December 11, Catalina Cucu ’13 along with her “Volunteering

Club” and “Despre Moldova” project organized a big social event,

called Elves Reunion. The main goal was to sing Christmas songs in

order to collect money for homeless people. Catalina together with 3

more FLEX alumni prepared some posters and printed out the lyrics

for the songs in advance. The event was promoted through social

media websites, like facebook and diez.md. There were 20 students

who attended the event. People were very kind and liked this

wonderful initiative that can be demonstrated by the amount of the

funds raised – 165 lei. It was a wonderful atmosphere and a very

meaningful event.

Charity Campaign

On December 19, Ilie Efros ’14 along with his

classmates organized a charity campaign where

they collected clothes, toys and food. Afterwards,

they donated them to kids from the orphanage in

Straseni. The goal of this event was to make kids

happy and make their holidays more transparent.

Around 100 kids participated at this event, which

means there were 100 happy faces.

8

Little People Make Big Changes

On December 22, Cristiana Chirvas ’14 along with Student Council

from the lyceum “Ion Creanga” participated in the “Christmas

Caravan”. It was a charity event organized by Cristiana Chirvas as

being a member of the Student Council from “Ion Creanga”. All the

students from the lyceum donated clothes, toys, books, copybooks,

and money. On the money there were bought presents for the kids

from two orphanages that the Student Council visited. During the

visit, Cristiana along with her team performed a Christmas sketch,

played interactive games with the kids, gave presents, and organized

a Christmas Dance, where everyone had fun. This event was meant

to bring smiles on kids’ faces and make an action for helping the

poor ones.

Center of the Young Journalist Christmas

Campaign

On December 25, Camelia Stolearenco ‘14 along with 12

other members of the Centre of the Young Journalists from

Moldova have travelled to the Colonita village and some parts

of Chisinau in order to distribute bags of goods such as food,

toys, and clothing to socially-vulnerable families. The goods

were gathered in a campaign organized by the Centre of the

Young Journalist throughout the month of December. The goal

of this event was to bring a moment of joy on Christmas into

the homes of socially-vulnerable families. The number of bags

gathered was 52 and they were distributed to 20 families out

of which 9 were from Colonita and 11 from Chisinau.

Secret Santa 2014-2015

On December 28, Nicu Gaibu ’12 organized the traditional event for

winter holidays, called the Secret Santa. The aim of the event was to

gather as many FLEX alumni as possible and organize the Secret Santa

tradition, since everybody is coming home for winter holidays. The

gifts were put under the Christmas tree, so that everybody could feel

the Christmas atmosphere and would wait impatiently for opening

the presents. Meanwhile, people socialized, played some interactive

games and ate pizza. Also, one by one, all participants shared the

biggest achievement they have got in 2014, and one wish for the

2015. After the sharing part, they played Tornado (each gift was

marked with a number; they needed to pull a signed piece of paper

out of Santa's hat and then find their gift match). The gifts were

opened at the same time. Since there were 26 alumni of different

generations who attended the event, it was such a great scene to see

how 26 people are opening their Christmas gifts at the same time.

Everybody was so excited.

9

Presentation Step by Step

On January 10, Maria Mocanu ’13 together with her partner organized a “Presentation Step by Step” event at the American

Corner in her hometown Cimislia. They invited a special guest from “Toastmasters International Club” to give tips about

making a strong presentation. It was a good experience for the students that attended that social gathering because such

events are not organized at all in the town. Maria is one of the FLEX Grants winners and the leader of American Corner in

Cimislia. Every Sunday she organizes different activities for students in order to help them to improve their English speaking

abilities. The target group is the students from 7th to 9th grade. Students are involved in debate, speech, movie and game

nights. They celebrate American holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. They especially enjoy playing board

games because it is a productive way to relax. Besides the students that attend American Corner, there are adults who are

interested in developing their English skills. Maria and her partner, Rodica, organize speech clubs for adults based on

National Geographic documentaries. The videos use a reachable language even

though they speak about topics like human body and facts about animals. In

addition to spending the financial resources for organizing different events, Maria

purchased fictional and educational books. The school library has a limited

number of English fictional books, but American Corner can provide additional

materials for those who are fond of English language. The project started in

September and it will come to an end in March. However American Corner will

still keep its doors open for interesting activities and events. The leaders are

looking for other ways of funding this center.

EcoBag Moldova

On January 31, Valeria Svart ’07 together with her organization

EcoVisio and the support from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

organized the 3rd Seminar in the framework of the project "Moldovas

Zukunft - eingetütet!?" (EcoBag Moldova) in Chisinau. Twenty-six

amazing participants from 9 different localities of Moldova have created

5 video spots with a creative socio-ecological message with a guidance

of facilitator team and especially Stacanov Production. The main goal is

to eliminate the plastic bags and use the ecological ones instead for a

brighter society. Great ideas, great people!

Visiting the Auxiliary Boarding School in Carpineni

On December 27, Nicu Gaibu ’12 along with Victoria Lungu ’13

and a Chochram Program alumna went to visit the Auxiliary

Boarding School in Carpineni. The donations and money for

buying gifts for children were fundraised at the Hello&Win Charity

Ball, the event organized by FLEX Alumni Community in Moldova

in partnership with the Creative Development Association. Before

giving the gifts to children, the alumni organized some interactive

activities and played some games with them. Also, they asked

children to tell them some poems or sing some songs, in order to

make the children feel like they deserve to get a gift. It was an

amazing day that made children very happy.

10

Access Moldova Students Celebrate Valentine’s Day

Learning about the culture of a nation is a very important element of the language acquisition. In Access, the students are always exposed to the traditions and customs of the English speaking world. They discover the culture of the nations who speak English intensively, not only by reading from books. A very productive and exciting way to do it is to experience it. That is why we encourage them to celebrate the English holidays, a thing that they don’t usually get to do at school. Therefore, on February, 14, 100 Access students celebrated the holiday in 5 different regions of Moldova ( Hincesti, Edinet, Causeni, Grigoriopol and Ribnita), that became very popular all around the world, including our country- St. Valentine’s Day. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate love, a feeling that represents the basis of this world. The students discovered the origins of this holiday and how people celebrate it.

Each participant brought the amazing St. Valentine’s Day atmosphere to their classrooms, embellishing them with handmade decorations of hearts, cards, and flowers. They also made St. Valentine’s Day boxes where they put love letters and cards for their colleagues. This was a great team building activity because the students paid compliments to each other, and said things they usually are too shy to. They were very eager to read the received messages.

Obviously, the Access students had a lot of fun celebrating this holiday, the reason such kind of lessons are very effective in Access teaching. They foster the friendly relationships among the learners.

Love & Life

On February, 24 people from Romania and Moldova celebrate Dragobete, the Romanian equivalent of St. Valentine’s Day. 20 Access students from Causeni decided to celebrate this holiday in a very special and unique way. So, they came up with the brilliant and wonderful idea to discover the secrets of love on the day when it is celebrated. How they planned to do it is absolutely amazing. They chose to learn the mysteries of this wonderful feeling from the most reliable source- the people who had found it and had learned how to protect it. This way, they visited 7 couples from their home town, couples that have spent their lives side by side for more than 40-50 years long.

The students got properly ready for these visits. They made beautiful handmade presents and souvenirs for the love experts. They also awarded them certificates for having discovered the secrets of love and for using them wisely. They also brought sweets for the couples.

The hosts were really surprised to receive such unexpected visits and, enjoying a cup of tea, they were happy to share their love stories, to recall how it all began, and the obstacles they faced. They gladly browsed the family albums and showed the students the highlights of their lives.

This gesture of the Access Causeni group was very appreciated by the hosts. For the first time in their lives they received guests willing to find out how they succeeded to protect their love for such a long time. This experience was also a very good opportunity to discover how the life of our fellow citizens looked like half a century ago. The Access students also learned the art of building and valuing the relationships they have with people.

11

Language Police

Nowadays, teenagers spend a lot of time online. They express their thoughts in written form on various websites, unfortunately forgetting about the language accuracy. Taking that into account, we decided to make the time spent online by our students meaningful. Therefore, the Access Moldova Team has embarked on a new adventure. This time we have fought against language criminals.

So, 100 Access students have had to be more attentive at what they see and detect the language mistakes related to punctuation, grammar and spelling from any source- online announcements, posts, advertisements, public statuses, newspapers, etc. After identifying them, the students have had to share them on Access Moldova Facebook page and try to explain what is wrong and come up with the correct variant.

This task has turned out to be a good ice-breaker since language mistakes are a great source of funny and humoristic situations.

We hope that this action raised the awareness towards the importance to follow the language rules among the Access students from Moldova. Their search has helped us create a data base with the most common mistakes committed by English learners, and, at the same time, they were exposed to it and will, hopefully, avoid them.

Write-On Competition

The Write-On International Competition is an annual Competition organized by the Peace Corps in different parts of the world. Young learners from the 6thgrade to the 4th year college students, fond of the English language, were invited to express their creative thoughts on paper, writing an essay on an original topic.

The Access students and alumni were also encouraged to try themselves in this competition and to check how their imagination works. Therefore, 76 Access students and alumni from 10 regions of our country (Ialoveni, Causeni, Balti, Ungheni, Edinet, Hincesti, Cahul, Bender, Grigoriopol, Straseni) spent embarked on the challenge to write about non-existent worlds, curious events and to give impressive answers to tricky questions, such as “You can live under the sea, in the jungle or on a cloud for the rest of your life. Which place do you choose to live and what's your life like?”, or “What would the world be like if the sun was always shining and there was no night?”, and many more.

804 students from all over Moldova have entered the competition and fought for the title of the most creative Moldovan young writer. Among the final winners is Laura Calin, Access Grigoriopol Student, who won the second place among the ninth graders, writing an essay on the topic “A beautifully wrapped package is at your door with the message, "Guard this with your life." What's in it and how do you protect it?” Congratulations, Laura! We hope that you will have many more achievements that will make the entire Access Moldova community proud of you!

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23 Access teachers and teacher assistants participated in the “Keeping the EFLT Fit” teacher training

Since Christmas is the perfect time to be spent with family, the Access Microscholarship Program Moldova organized the “Keeping the EFLT Fit” teacher training for 23 Access teachers and teacher assistants on December, 27. This was an excellent possibility to discuss about the educational outcomes the Access achieved along this year and to share successful case studies each group performed through effective English teaching methodologies and interesting civic-engagement projects. In addition to this, the event highlighted best ideas and experiences 4 Access teachers lived while visiting US and Georgia within Access Teacher Training at the University of Arkansas, US , and Sixth South Caucasus Regional ELT Conference “Reaching Out for Success”.

Special guests from American Councils Moldova staff, US Embassy to Moldova and US Universities joined the event, willing to meet the new Access members, and support the Access program’s main priorities.

This way, all participants enjoyed presentations and sessions on: “Best Access Program Moldova Performances: 6 months of work” ( presenter: Olga Morozan, Access Program Coordinator); “Assessing “Access” Performances” ( presenter: David Jesses, American Councils Country Director); “Classroom Games for Differentiated Instruction” (presenter: Daniela Munca-Aftenev, American Councils Moldova Executive Director); “New Teaching Strategies” (presenter: professor Sheryl Feinstein, Fulbright Scholar, Augustana University, South Dakota, US), “Bridging the Skills’ Gaps in Large Multi-level Classes” ( presenter: Svetlana Lungu, Access Skype teacher); “Activities and Games for EFL Classrooms” ( presenter: Doina Morari, Access Coordinator Assistant); and “True Colors & Learning Styles” (presenter: Marina Zaharciuc, Access- Ialoveni teacher).

The whole training offered to participants the possibility to practice exciting games and activities for the differentiated instruction; to discover new teaching approaches in addressing class management, and multilevel class issues; and to experiment interactive activities helping students to understand who they are, what they can do, and how they can make their learning easier and more pleasant.

In addition to this, the training aimed to help participants to constructively address the problems they face in coordinating the program at the local level, and to come up with appropriate solutions. To this extend, Aliona Bragaru, the former Access teacher from Cahul, and Natalia Toma, the former Access teacher from Chisinau, talked about their experience and the difficulties they came across, giving the new teachers some advice about how they can overcome them in order to build a strong and friendly team.

On the top of the cake was the “Be A Santa for a While” activity - a perfect chance for the Access members to get to know each other better, create a wonderful team atmosphere and live the Christmas spirit around.

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ALC Advanced continues working on ESP

ALC Advanced is focused on developing English for Specific Purposes (ESP) to augment the courses that are offered by ALC. ESP courses are on the rise in the world now because of increasing internationalization and globalization.

ESP consists in English language teaching which is: 1) designed to meet specified needs of the learner; 2) related in content (i.e. in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines, occupations and activities; 3) centered on the language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, etc., and analysis of this discourse; 4) in contrast with General English.

ALC Advanced has managed to create a team of experts who can design new courses and who have expertise in economics, business studies, medicine, engineering and the like. Dr. Marin Cerchez, Dr. Amy Samuelson, Vladimir Snurenco, Will Dickson and other instructors have already successfully developed and taught a number of ESP classes. The courses designed by our experts have turned out to be popular and the number of our students is growing. On the other hand, being a new methodology in Chisinau, ESP needs promotion. The promotion of this methodology and scarcity of experienced ESP teachers are the main challenges ALC Advanced team is currently working on.

English Teaching Resource Center Trainings Organized by ALC Advanced

ALC Advanced has also organized a number of trainings for teachers at ETRC. On January 15, 2015 Dr. Marin Cerchez and Vladimir Snurenco made a How to Apply for Scholarships – Practical Tips and Real Life Examples presentation. On January 19, 2015 Dr. Amy Samuelson and Vladimir Snurenco led training on Academic Writing. On March 19, Dr. Marin Cerchez, Dr. Amy Samuelson and Vladimir Snurenco led a seminar on Accent Reduction Tips and ‘Moldovan English’.

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ALC Advanced

In September, 2014 ALC Advanced signed a collaborative agreement with Department of Education, Municipality of Chisinau. According to the agreement, ALC Advanced offers the Department of Education staff and school principals from Chisinau free English classes for the academic year of 2014-2015. The Department, in its turn, assists ALC Advanced in disseminating information about American Councils, ALC and ALC Advanced programs. In addition, ALC Advanced has been organizing free workshops for high school students in Chisinau schools on how to apply to exchange programs and English-speaking universities. The workshops focus on typical mistakes and difficulties that may be made and experienced by Moldovan students and are about how to write one’s CV and motivation letter, how to look for funding etc.

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Clubs at ALC Advanced

ALC Advanced runs a number of clubs for those who want to improve their English and to learn more about American culture: Book Club, Poetry Club and Toastmasters Club. Both Book Club and Poetry Club are run by Will Dickson. The Book Club meetings take place every Saturday at 2 P.M., are free and are for anyone who is interested in American and British literature. One needs to read a short (4-5 pages) story during the week and on Saturday he or she discusses it with others. So far, we have read and discussed some stories by E. Hemingway, R. Kipling, O. Henry, O.Wilde and some other American and British writers. In addition, we read and analyze English poetry at our Poetry Club. Toastmasters Club at ALC Advanced concentrates on public speaking. It is led by Trish Ostroski who used to run one of Toastmasters Clubs in the United States. The meetings are free and present an opportunity to improve one’s English and speaking skills.

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We recognize and cultivate the

potential of Moldovan citizens

by providing valuable

intercultural academic and

professional development

opportunities.

David Jesse

Country Director,

American Councils Moldova

ACM Newsletter

ISSUE IX March 2015

American Councils from Moldova will

collaborate with NEXUS

American Councils for International Education Moldova

81 Mihail Kogalniceanu St.

MD-2009 Chisinau

Republic of Moldova

+373 22 22 58 60 ph

+373 22 23 34 07 fax

www.americancouncils.md

On February 18, 2015, American Councils Moldova signed a partnership

agreement with NEXUS Moldova. The International Agency for Source

Country Information is the lead partner within the "Strengthening the

Link between Migration and Development: Testing an Integrated Service

Provider to Moldovan Migrants and their Communities" Project or

NEXUS, implemented by a consortium of partners and funded by the

European Union and co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development

and Cooperation.

NEXUS Moldova is a prototype initiative offering practical solutions to

help Moldovan migrants achieve their goals by means of an integrated

service platform that allows good communication and community

development. As American Councils Moldova's mission is to recognize

and cultivate the potential of Moldovan citizens by providing valuable

intercultural academic and professional development opportunities, we

hope that in partnership with NEXUS, we will create even more services

aiming to bring positive change into Moldovan communities around the

country.