The "Highest League" online project for teachers from all over the country starts in Russia. Winners, prizewinners, laureates, finalists, and participants of the All-Russian contest "Teacher of the Year of Russia" hold open classes with teachers and share their secrets. The meetings are organized by the Foundation for New Forms of Education Development with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. The partners of the project are the Multimedia History Park "Russia - My History", the online publication "Uchitelskaya Gazeta", the All-Russian Trade Union of Education, and the All-Russian Public Organization of Educational Leaders "Teacher of the Year".

"Classes are held twice a month beginning January 19. This year there will be online meetings with the absolute winners of the competition from different years. To help future contestants properly prepare for this competition, "The Ultimate League" was launched. This is a unique project where teachers can get acquainted with methods and interesting findings of participants and winners of the All-Russian contest "Teacher of the Year of Russia", — said Yulia Ponomareva, director-general of New Forms of Education Development Foundation.

The themes of the "Ultimate League" project in the first half of the year will be "Metacompetence as the basis of the modern lesson", "The three pillars of pedagogy of teachers of the XXI century", "History of the teacher's success.

"The Big League project is a kind of exchange of experience within the teaching community. Those, who were evaluated by the pedagogical community, proved themselves as a high class specialist not only in teaching their subject, but also in solving problems of modern education, will tell about professional victories on the example of personal cases. We invite everyone who wants to join the project: experienced teachers, students of pedagogical institutes and school students who want to tie their life with pedagogy: every participant will find useful and relevant information for themselves," says Artur Zaruba, project coordinator, music teacher, the absolute winner of the Teacher of the Year of Russia - 1992 All-Russian contest, Ph.

Participation in the project is free. All course materials will be available on the website of the Methodological Center "Russia - My History". Classes will be broadcast on the project's YouTube channel, and recordings will be posted on the website. 

Students and staff of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University are working on the play under the title "Volkov. So what?", dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the writer, a graduate of the Tomsk Teachers' Institute Alexander Melentievich Volkov. He is a famous Russian writer who wrote a famous children's novel The Wizard of the Emerald City. The play, which will tell about the multidimensional personality of the author, is being developed in collaboration with the Theater of Young Spectators, the process is led by Katerina Kostina, an actress, and director of the Theatre of Young Spectators.

Students learn the principles of working on the stage during their training at the university: the Institute of Childhood and Art Pedagogy of the TSPU has "Theatre pedagogy" and "Theatrical activity in a preschool educational organization" in the program for future teachers. In addition, students can try themselves as actors, directors, and costume designers at the annual TSPU theater contest "Student Spring".

Today's report is about the importance of developing school theaters in Russia, the role of theater pedagogy in the education of future teachers, and the work on a unique theatrical production.

This year in camps "Green cape" and "Beryozka" children had fun and developed useful skills under the guidance of representatives of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University. Expert of Department of patriotic education of the TSPU Gleb Balabaev was the head of the educational group in "Green cape".

The ten-day training "Wonder Train" was aimed at the development of 6 competencies: creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, functional and financial literacy. The organizers of the shift expanded the existing concept of 4 competencies, which include critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration, based on the challenges of modern society.

"Among the competencies necessary for a modern person, we selected these six, because now they are the most relevant to the current level of the economy and education. Everyone should be creative in their daily tasks, be able to negotiate and unite with people, and use their knowledge to solve any problems and difficulties", — says Gleb.

At first, the guys faced different tasks, which were then solved at the workshops. In the process, children worked through one of six competencies.

At an educational meeting aimed at developing the skill of collaboration, children created a train with all its components: wheels, railroad, doors, etc. from improvised means. Also, children had to present it at the end of the training. The train with the most votes became the best one.

The workshop on functional literacy involved children solving a number of tasks: to come up with a fairy tale about their team, and in the course of the narrative to solve the difficulties encountered. As soon as the tale was ready, it was transformed into a comic strip and the whole story was depicted on watt paper.

The development of communication skills was associated with a sense of empathy. The children were divided into teams and each player, in turn, showed emotions: disgust, affection, fear, anxiety, embarrassment, anger, determination. The group tried to guess what the emotion was by reasoning with their teammates without using words.

To develop critical thinking, the counselors and organizers came up with an unusual task: each child was randomly assigned different objects that children use in everyday life and had to think up an unusual application. So an ordinary grater could become a pencil holder.

"The most important question that plagued our kids from the first day of the shift was who is the driver of this train. So the kids actively visited the new 'cars,' looked for clues, completed tasks and traveled to find the answer to that question by the end of the trip. Of course, they guessed that our train was driven by the author of this fascinating story", — says Elmira Askerova, camp counselor of "Berezka" camp.

Amazing ten days in the camps were fun and productive for the children thanks to the efforts of the counselors and training supervisors, who made the days of the start of the new year useful for the children.

For students of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University, January is not only a holiday weekend and time to prepare for the exams: future teachers annually work with children in camps. This year, the students practiced their skills at the Energetik Sanatorium and the Solnechny Center.

Taisia Shutova, a student of the Institute of Foreign Languages and International Cooperation at the TSPU, tried her hand as a tutor at the Energetik Sanatorium in Kemerovo Region.

"When a child comes to a children's camp, he finds himself in an unfamiliar atmosphere with its own laws, rules and traditions. He has to learn this world from beginning to end. And this learning process will constantly be tied to communication with other people. At the language class it is also of an educational nature", — says the head of the Sanatorium.

Of course, the focus of the student's attention was the children: their physical and psychological condition, their satisfaction with the lessons, their interest, and involvement in the activities.

"After lights out the work did not end: together with the counselors we made a plan for the next day and prepared everything necessary for the activities. We worked out all the items in advance, but there were unexpected turns of events: for example, we planned procedures until 12 o'clock, but they were done by 11 o'clock, there was a free hour. So you have to be as flexible as possible and be able to adjust to the circumstances", — says Taisia.

Taisia made her debut as a supervisor during an unusual shift: it lasted for five days, and in addition to recreational activities there were recreational procedures, master classes, and English language training for the children. Despite the linguistic orientation, many students were at the initial level of language learning, so the basis of the educational part was basic topics. For example, in pairs, children wrote complete sentences about each other, describing the name, age, hobbies, drew portraits and signed their interlocutor's qualities. At any moment the children could ask Taisia or the counselors for help with translation or grammar, explaining a rule.

To fully immerse children in an atmosphere of magic phones were allowed to use only one hour in the evening to communicate with parents. The counselors note that this allowed the pupils to be more immersed in the activities that teachers had prepared for them. The feeling of being a fairy tale Hogwarts wizard school was everywhere: counselors divided children into different faculties, just like in J.K. Rowling saga, children earned points to win the Cup at the end. The theme of the shift manifested itself in the decorations of the halls, and in the corridors, you could meet the teachers - Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, and others.

The shift assignments echoed the chronology in the Harry Potter books and movies. For example, as part of the numerology lesson, there was a sequence of numbers and a board with letters like a chessboard. The task was to find the words on the board with the help of a numerical entry and make a short text. It was then translated. This challenge helped the "Distributing Hat" enroll the kids in the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Of course, there was the famous "Christmas Ball", the tournament of three wizards "The Cup of Fire", the preparation of treats from the cafe "Three Brooms" children and counselors.

"We wrote letters of Christmas greetings the day before the end of the shift, so that when the kids came home they could congratulate their parents on the holiday. For those who didn't know how to write words in English, I made a blueprint, then we translated it together. We held a conversation club during the shift and learned to communicate in a foreign language", — Taisia says.

The Student of the Year Award is a unique competition and educational project for students of Russian educational institutions. This year the finals were held online through the ZOOM platform.

"For the student center of Russia - Tomsk region - it is a special pride and responsibility. Together with the Ministry of Education, the non-profit organization "Russia - Land of Opportunities" and the Russian Youth Union with the support of the national project "Education" we will name the best students in the country. We are confident that the award experts will identify those bright stars, who will proudly wear the title "Student of the Year," - commented the deputy governor of the Tomsk region on social policy Alyona Levko.

The professional skills of the participants were evaluated by public figures, political and scientific figures, athletes, cultural figures and artists, journalists, and media personalities. As always, the competition was held in several stages.

The first one was regional. It included contests in collective and individual nominations. The participants had to present the structure through a video, a photo report, and an article about the award last year.

This was followed by the remote stage, in which experts and jurors evaluated the resumes of the prize participants. The winners of the second stage got a chance to participate in the finals.

The final tests in the "Student Media of the Year" category included "Self-Presentation", "Material", "Project Defense" and "Interview". In "Self-presentation" students presented a business card, where for three minutes they had to tell about the structure, directions of its activities, and successfully implemented projects.

The second round - "Project defense": the guys presented the project that has already been implemented in the structure. The TSPU TV presented the online project "No Spurs" - a live quiz in the Instagram account of the TSPU TV, where activists conducted a total of 25 live broadcasts. This format was born in the midst of pandemics and self-isolation. The organizers used it to stay in touch with the university's students.

"It was easy, I think, to defend the project because we've played it out so many times, the format was created by us, tested back in quarantine in spring 2020 in the quiz show 'Evening Stud. While Everyone's Home'. This proves that the project has real results that can be evaluated and analyzed", — notes the activist of TSPU TV Maxim Goncharov.

The "Material" tour included the creation of a video clip, article, or photo reportage on a topic randomly determined by the organizers. Only 48 hours were given to complete the task. Our guys got the topic "I am a professional". Activists have decided to present to the jury their video with a set in the structure of "Catch our vibe".

The final test of the finals was the "Interview," which was introduced this year for the first time. The leader of the structure met with the judges and answered their questions. For such a responsible mission, the team chose Sergeeva Elena. The experts wanted to know how they work in the structure is organized, what directions are implemented and how the directional leadership is selected.

"We were a little short of time, the moderators had to interrupt the interview, but the members of the jury wanted to talk more. After the interview, the experts said that we have a very cool structure. All in all, it went very well. In any case, for us the communication with other participants and jury members was very nice" — said Elena.

As activists of the TSPU TV note, participation in the final of the award was a good professional test, which not only gave a lot of useful knowledge and experience but also an opportunity to meet interesting people, professionals in the field of media.

In 2020, the Institute of Foreign Languages and International Cooperation was established by the decision of the TSPU's Academic Council. The structural basis of the Institute consisted of the Faculty of Foreign Languages of TSPU, represented by five departments, and the Department of International Cooperation.

Today, the goal of the Institute is to train highly qualified competitive bachelor, master's, and postgraduate students in the fields of teaching, linguistics, intercultural communication, translation, and translation studies. All programs offer the study of two foreign languages in various combinations according to the student's choice, among them English, German, French and Chinese. At the same time, students from all faculties and institutes of the university have the opportunity to study an additional language of their choice: Polish, Spanish, Italian, and others. The Institute's foreign language clubs allow students to practice foreign language skills, including conversational practice with native speakers.

The Institute's educational and research activity is carried out by five departments: Department of Romance-Germanic Philology and Foreign Language Teaching Methodology, Department of English Philology and Intercultural Communication, Department of Translation and Translation Studies, Department of Siberian Languages, Department of Business Communication in Russian and Foreign Languages.

Specialists from the Department of Siberian Languages actively continue the research work of Professor A. P. Dulzon on the study of indigenous peoples of Siberia and their languages and further collect historical, ethnographic, archaeological, and linguistic materials.

International relations of the Institute are actively expanding: for example, in 2020 an agreement was signed with the Jilin International Studies University (Changchun, China) on the implementation of a dual degree program. Together with the University of Bristol (Great Britain) the TSPU launched a project of online meetings of the spoken English language club. The Institute's specialists worked with the Turkish Aymak company (Aymak Makine Ltd, Turkey), bloggers from Norway (Jens Axel Tuckle), and in September 2021 the Institute held the 29th international conference "Dulzon Readings", including linguistic, ethnographic and archeological research of minority ethnic groups in Russia.

In the near future, the Institute plans to update the content of the implemented basic educational programs and open a new unique master's program in English.

The meeting of the English Conversation Club was attended by a guest from America, headmaster of Fairfield College Preparatory School in Connecticut Thomas Smiskey.

Meeting with a native speaker was a great opportunity for the students to practice English and learn more about the United States by asking questions, such as about the differences in life in America and Russia, education peculiarities, and more.

"Talking to someone from another country can change the way you think about that country. For example, with Thomas we talked about cities in the United States. For me, America was associated mostly with Los Angeles and New York (celebrities, noise and parties), and today we learned more about Boston and Chicago, which, despite their more peaceful lifestyle, may well be just as full of history and interesting for tourists and residents of the States", — says Pauline Kharkiv, a member of the club and a student of institute of the Foreign languages and international cooperation (FLIC).

According to the club moderator, Vera Valerievna Golubeva, deputy director for educational work at FLIC, Thomas will be a regular guest of the club. The guest himself said kind words about the meeting at the TSPU:

"One of the advantages of such meetings for me is the opportunity to get to know the students, their life in Russia, — Thomas said. — I think it's always better for them to hear native speakers. In many countries, people learn English, but here, in Russia, people usually learn British. I can hear a little British accent in everyone, so maybe hearing the American version is not a bad change."

The TSPU students, members of the conversation club, are happy to have the opportunity to talk to native speakers, which the university provides. Such dialogue allows them to immerse themselves in the culture of another country, adopt foreign language experiences, and expand their vocabulary. Students also work with native speakers as part of the Chinese conversation club. Students also plan to meet with their British colleagues in the next semester.

A new project "School of Student Initiatives" was organized on the basis of the TSPU. Its purpose is to exchange experience in the implementation of traditional projects, as well as to develop and modernize the plan of student activities for 2022.

Representatives of the university student structures took part in educational blocks and project preparation: Student Council, Student Club, Students Trade Union Organization, TV TSPU, University Staff of Student Detachments, Volunteer Detachment "Point of View", Intellectual Games Club, Open Pedagogical Class.

"The main task of the School of Student Initiatives is to look at the projects and events that take place at the university from a different angle: how interesting they are now, what problems they solve and what professional competencies develop in students. In the new year, the old formats will expand and change not only in scale but also in content", — says Natalia Mikhailovna Kosovskikh, director of the Center for Educational Work and Youth Policy of TPSU.

At the lecture "Volunteering: a step towards professional activity", participants discussed the basics of volunteerism and areas of this activity: medical volunteers, elderly volunteers, Victory Volunteers, and others.

"The main emphasis was placed on how volunteering can help in professional activities, when a person is still choosing their path, or even when working in a particular area, but wants to develop in another direction. For example, volunteering teaches you to feel confident in any, even stressful situations", — shared volunteer of "Point of View" Elena Pankova.

Student Club, TV TSPU, and Intellectual Games Club went to the meeting with Darya Doronina, Chair of Tomsk Region Youth Parliament, who talked about the promotion of projects in social networks, in particular about the importance of assessing the target audience of the event and speaking the same language with them.

After the educational part, the practical part started: structures were united into teams for the modernization of the TSPU events. For example, the team of the Students Trade Union and Student Club came up with a new version of Knowledge Day, proposing to celebrate it as an outdoor festival with many interesting locations. The students also came up with an event with the working title "120 Steps to the Dream", which is planned to coincide with the 120th anniversary of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University. The activists proposed a contest of 120 days and four stages, during which first-year students could develop a number of important competencies and compete for a prize.

Several priority projects were identified as a result of the work through a vote by the activists of the School of Student Initiatives. As early as this week, leaders and activists from TSPU student structures will begin working on new university programs that will be included in the university's 2022 action plan.

"PsychoLogos" All-Russian Olympiad in Psychology for 2-3 year students of educational institutions of higher education has ended with the victory of the team of the Faculty of Psychology and Special Education of the TSPU.

The contest was organized by the State Socio-Humanitarian University with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Moscow region. The purpose of the contest is to improve the professional psychological and pedagogical competence of students, help realize their creative potential, as well as to increase the prestige of the practical psychology service in the education system. Forty-eight teams from 23 Russian universities took part in it. The team of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University was presented by Grigorieva Anastasia, Durova Elizaveta, Kornyushchenko Lydia, Myslivtseva Anastasia, and Tenyaksheva Anna. The team was prepared by Alena Pavlovna Golovina, senior lab assistant of the Department of Social Pedagogy.

The competition was divided into three stages. During the first one the team answered questions in pedagogy, psychology, and deviant behavior. In the second round, students made a presentation on "Meet the modern child" in the format of "PechaKucha", participants from the TSPU presented the periods of age development of modern children, features of development and socialization, as well as non-standard for modern generation problems that children face and possible ways to solve them. Case analysis was the final test of the competition. The students had to solve the situation of bullying in school when the legal representatives dont pay attention to the problem. The TSPU students developed an action plan for the classroom teacher that could help get out of the situation and strengthen the child-parent relationship in the family.

According to the results of the tests, the team of the Faculty of psychology and special education of the TSPU became the absolute winners and took the first place.

"It is very important for students to take part in these kinds of events, it is the first experience of presenting themselves and testing their capabilities. Although the participants are only second-year students, they were able to show a high level of professionalism", — says A. P. Golovina.

As the students noted, the victory was possible not only because of the vast knowledge base: competent coordination from the supervisor and well-coordinated work of the team were the most important factors in the process of working on the solution of professional problems.

On November 19 there was a meeting of the Tomsk consortium of scientific and educational organizations in the course of which the Rector of the Tomsk State Pedagogical University Andrey Makarenko along with the other rectors of universities, research institutes of Tomsk signed the Charter of the Big University..

The document outlines the basic principles of collaboration. The key points are the joint work and the academic freedom of each partner. Scientific, educational and organizational activities will allow forming the international brand "Big University of Tomsk" and to promote it and Tomsk in general as the first city-university in Russia.

"We consider that the vector set by Tomsk to unite the efforts of scientific institutes and universities is very important: in the modern world, it is necessary to achieve global goals. The actions of the scientific and educational community within the Big University of Tomsk are truly a unique and exemplary example. We see the results of such consolidation — Tomsk universities showed themselves very well in the Priority 2030 project and have already received support from the government (assistance in the construction of an interuniversity campus and other large projects is planned", — said Minister of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Valery Falkov.

According to Governor of the Tomsk Region Sergey Zhvachkin, the date chosen for signing the Charter of the Grand University is symbolic. It was on this day that the outstanding Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov, founder of the first university in Russia, was born, and this day has become a professional holiday for teachers of higher education.

The universities plan to work together to create a city-university ecosystem and provide a world-class education in Tomsk. The universities and research institutes of the Big University will implement joint educational programs of all levels - from undergraduate to postgraduate and residency training, as well as interdisciplinary programs in priority areas of training for the country's economy.

"Pedagogical University actively interacts with all Tomsk universities.'Space Lesson',one of the large-scale projects in Russia aimed at popularizing the space sciences and the prestige of domestic cosmonautics among young people, united the efforts of three universities: TPU, TPU, TUSUR, and the Institute of Petroleum Chemistry. Our university is a participant and organizer of postgraduate schools together with TSU, TPU, and SibSMU. In collaboration with SibSMU we carry out activity of federal innovation platform 'Transformation of medical and pharmaceutical education model on the basis of innovative pedagogical approaches', the project 'Pedagogization of medical education' will be launched on the basis of Laboratory of medical and pharmaceutical education. The signing of the Big University Charter will certainly allow for a more effective inclusion of the "pedagogical education" component in programs primarily aimed at international students, when along with engineering and medical specialties, a student will be able to get a pedagogical education. In the future, such education will give him the right to work as a higher school teacher. Pedagogical education, integrated into research, educational and training activities of Tomsk universities will be one of the important factors to strengthen the competitiveness of Tomsk universities in the international arena of education and promote the brand of 'Big Tomsk University', - commented Rector Andrey Makarenko.

The Big University of Tomsk will implement activities to improve the level of comfort and security of infrastructure for study, work, life, and leisure of students, graduate students, and young scientists. One of the largest joint projects not only for Siberia, but also for Russia will be the construction and development of a new campus on the left bank of the Tom River - a unique scientific, educational, and technological innovation platform. The Great University projects will be aimed, among other things, at raising Tomsk's status to the best of the world's cities for higher education.