This autumn, endless and wonderful

From the diary notes of Mr. Bleyan, the director of the Educomplex

Now I am mostly concentrated on giving a proper look to our educational farm by planting trees and taking more care of the greenswards and inter school bicycle tracks. Lusine Pashayan and gardener Edmond did their planting as educational work. My work with Davit on the farm didn’t last long but it was so impressive. “Leave this block of flats and let’s build a house on the real ground and live in it”, says he.      

Fruit-trees, especially the cherry tree, grows very well in the district where I school is. I have learned it by living and working here for 30 years. Cherry tree in blossom, you are a real wonder. Let it grow and become one of the green symbols of the Educomplex. 

I wish we didn’t stop the gardening work during the whole week. I wish the five-year-old children not only baked lavash on the farm, but also began an animal care project with the zoologist Karo Mandalyan. I wish our new terrarium became a New Year present to the Educomplex from the Farm.      

The gardener of our Northern School Edmond Pashayan has written in his blog “The slightly cold weather in November is suitable for autumn sowing.” Is there a more exciting and required educational project in Armenia? “Autumn sowing” with its technology resulting in making a 150 square meters of area fertile. And the whole process of work was done with watering cans under Mozart’s music by the primary school learners: Aghazaryan Davit, Durgaryan Shant (the 10-year-old son of the well-known musician-conductor Karen Durgaryan), Tamazyan Shahen.

The Educomplex is a live, real and extensive teacher training center

Every Monday and Thursday kindergarten teachers from different regions of Armenia, Artsakh, and Georgia take part in the seminars of our pedagogical laboratory. This is a unique phenomenon in Armenia. The seminars foster the professional growth of kindergarten teachers by sharing the author pedagogical experience.

Yesterday a learner-journalist asked the participants of the seminar what they would take home with them. In answer to that question, some of them shouted: “Blob based teaching and learning”. Others said: “Freedom”.         

The music keeping a faithful man alive and divine

My diary notes about pre-school musical education are as follows: the use of piano accompaniment, like phonogram, should be justified. We will follow this restriction persistently. Song dances on Fridays and outdoor performances on Saturdays in the square outside the Holy Trinity Church: kindergarten teachers’ live singing, supporting the creation of new instrumental music bands, emphasizing live concerts with musical instruments and without any audio players in the way we did in Tbilisi during our latest visit.        

Art in the Educomplex: 2017

Yesterday I took part in the rehearsal of our teachers’ choir “Sebastatsies”. The conductorof the choir is Harutune Topicyan, the well-known musician-conductor in Armenia. They have these rehearsals every Monday and Thursday at 15:15-16:30. The choir is preparing for the concert-performance within the framework of the project “Art in the Educomplex”. The concert will take place in Ashtarak on December 16. This teachers’ choir is a unique phenomenon in Armenia.   

Teaching the five-year-old children

I am Manvel…I am Alex…I can already ride a two-wheel bicycle…

The five-year-old children of the Southern School have made a video film of their abilities “I can” with their pre-school teacher Tamar Marimyan and organizer Hasmik Poghosyan. That is a real example of our author pedagogical standards for the children of this age group. Will this standard be shared with the children in our Northern, Eastern and Western Schools?