On September 28, Saratov State University opened the Start into the Profession part for the participants of the University Shift educational and tourist programme.

The lessons for high school students from the People's Republic of Donetsk were conducted by Head of Priority Projects and Programmes, Professor of the Department of Literary Studies and Journalism Elena Yelina, a specialist in education-to-methodology of the Centre for Support of Talented Children, the head teacher of the Pedagogical Classroom, SSU, Olga Prozorova, Senior Lecturer of the Corporate Department of Russian Philology and Media Education Marina Kabanova, and a practicing student-teacher Alina Yegorova.

At the beginning, Head of Priority Projects and Programmes Elena Yelina welcomed the audience. ‘We have been waiting for you in our city for a long time, and we are very glad to see you at Saratov State University. Today, we will discuss the profession of a teacher and the skills necessary for school teachers. Our university is the only university in the region that trains teachers. If you want to devote your life to this profession, we are happy to see you among the students of our university.’

Elena Yelina spoke about the pedagogical projects of Saratov State University, which are implemented with the support of the Priority 2030 programme. The third cohort of the SSU virtual Pedagogical Classroom starts today. She invited young people to participate in the project and noted that, in 2023, young colleagues from the People's Republic of Luhansk Saratov would join Saratov schoolchildren.

Furthermore, Elena Yelina proposed to put the schoolchildren into an ideal educational situation. The children needed to choose epithets, synonymous substitutions for the following three school words – a teacher, a pupil, and a lesson. High school students suggested such adjectives as fair and outstanding to describe the teacher; engaged and diligent – for the student; interesting and informative – for the lesson.

The second part of the lesson was held as a pedagogical game. The participants came up with the titles and mottos for their teams, and then drew a school of the future. After that, they presented them. Their curators, Olga Prozorova and Alina Yegorova, gave the participants coloured tokens, by the number and colour of which the students learned about their type of leadership – emotional, intellectual, performing, and disorganising.

A lecture on effective communication was delivered by Senior Lecturer of the Corporate Department of Russian Philology and Media Education Marina Kabanova. She suggested that schoolchildren should define their type of communication and determine how much infoglut negatively affects communication. Also, the senior lecturer marked the importance of the right poses and gestures during a speech. For example, many teaching staff members have their own secrets for concentrating attention when conducting a lecture.

‘Saratov philologists have studied the peculiarities of good speech. Professor Olga Sirotinina, who has celebrated her 100th birthday this year, has written many books about correct and appropriate speech, as well as effective communication. She is a person of incredible character, she has an amazing feel for the Russian language,’ Marina Kabanova said.

Marina Kabanova also introduced another contemporary – Doctor of Psychology, Professor Julia Gippenreiter, who also answers the question in her research what needs to be done to achieve effective communication. Her books are devoted to the secrets of active listening, communication with children, and much more. The schoolchildren were recommended to pay attention to the works of these outstanding researchers.

To remind, 48 schoolchildren from a new Russian region arrived at the SSU intensive. The shift of the profile camp is dedicated to The Teachers of the Future.