Support for pre-college students and teachers as they explore the cultures and societies of Russia and Eastern Europe lies at the heart of REEI's outreach program. REEI's engagement with the pre-K and K-12 community takes many forms, including development and dissemination of lesson plans and other teaching guides, a resource library that lends materials free of charge to any borrower in the United States, classroom visits, teacher training workshops, and after-school Russian classes.
SUPPORT FOR PRE-COLLEGE EDUCATION
Teaching Guides for Russian and East European Area Studies
Committed to promoting knowledge of the Russia/Eastern Europe world region across all pre-college grades and subject areas, REEI maintains a collection of teaching guides (lesson plans, unit plans, etc.) created at REEI and its counterparts across the United States.
Resource Library
REEI lends material from its resource library to users nationwide. The collection includes new releases of Russian and East European feature films (with English subtitles) and documentary programs designed for college -and precollege-level audiences. Youth-specific videos for K-12 students of Russian, books, and other teaching aids are available.
Bridges: Children, Languages, World (Bridges)
Bridges offer exploratory language and culture classes to children in the greater Bloomington area. The program emphasizes Less-Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs), many of which have been identified as Critical Needs Languages by the U.S.State Department, and Russian has been offered continuously since the establishment of Bridges in the teaching approach used by Bridges instructors rely on the communicative method, which means fun in the form of games, stories, free play, crafts, puppet shows, and other interactive activities to help children acquire new vocabulary in the target language.
Classroom visits
REEI recruits IU faculty, advanced graduate students, and international students to give presentations at K-12 schools on a variety of topics related to Russia and Eastern Europe in both in-person and online formats. Teachers with an interest in arranging for such a presentation should send an email to reei@iu.edu.
Teacher training workshops
REEI participates in in-service teacher training workshops on a variety of topics. Workshops take place on the IU Bloomington campus, at Regional Education Centers throughout Indiana, or in the online format. The workshop series, Geography, and History of the World is designed to assist Indiana teachers with the implementation of the new Indiana Department of Education Standards for teaching world geography and history at the high school level. Teachers interested in attending such workshops should contact REEI at reei@iu.edu.
REEI newsletter
REEI publishes a free biannual newsletter, REEIfication, which reports on research projects of faculty, students and alumni. A section entitled Outreach Notes shares information about new publications, audiovisual materials, teaching aids, workshops and fellowships.
Email distribution list
You may subscribe to our reei_k12 e-mail distribution list by sending an e-mail to reei@iu.edu. This list will inform K-12 teachers of opportunities for professional development related to teaching about Russia and Eastern Europe. Postings will include such items as free curriculum materials, announcements of teacher training workshops, opportunities to apply for grants, and other outreach services. Postings will average one message per month during the academic year.
Summer Institute for International Studies
The Indiana University Center for the Study of Global Change hosts a residential international studies institute for K-12 teachers. Recent workshop topics have included environmental problems, population and gender and conflict management.
Indiana in the World
Indiana in the World has been selected for inclusion in the ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies / Social Science Education. Over 4,000 copies of materials have been distributed to Indiana middle and high school teachers, education faculty and teachers in training across Indiana, various Indiana education associations, and other national global educators.
Other resources
Resources offered by other universities and institutes.