Our University

I’m a first-year student at the Samara State Pedagogical University. It is one of the most important educational and scientific centres in our city. Its history goes back to 1929. A lot of public men, writers and scientists studied here. Our University occupies many buildings in our city. The teaching staff of our University consists of professors, lecturers and assistants. Many of them are well-known not only in this country, but also abroad.

As for me, I’m a first-year student of the Faculty of Primary Education. Our faculty is based in a grey, three-storeyed building which is situated in Antonov-Ovseenko street. There are a lot of trees and even a lake near it. It’s very pleasant to walk there in late spring and early autumn. You can see a sportsground behind the building. Sometimes we have physical training lessons there. At the entrance a guard will ask you to show him your student card and you are on the ground floor. There is the dean’s office of our faculty here. It is a big and light room. Near it there is a computer class and the dean’s office of the extramural department.

If you enter the University and go to the left you’ll see a canteen. Here the students and teachers have their lunch and dinner.

There is a gym near the canteen. It is very well-equipped.

There are five classrooms on the ground floor. We have classes in English, Literature, History, Maths, Theory of Education here.

The Department of Aesthetics is also on the ground floor.

On the first floor there is the Department of Foreign Languages. It is a comfortable and cosy room. Sometimes we have classes here. We learn new words, dramatize texts and dialogues, listen to the native speakers and watch video films. There are many classrooms, a gym, the Departments of Biology and Anatomy on the first floor.

All classrooms are big and light and each of them has two or three windows with curtains, flowers on the window-sills, a bookcase near the door, the blackboard on the wall. There are new desks and comfortable chairs in the classrooms.

The second floor is occupied by the Departments of Sports and Information Technology.

It is not an easy task to become a teacher. Teacher training includes subject studies, education studies and teaching practice. Education studies include lectures and seminars on Theory of Education, History of Education, and Psychology, as well as practical classes and seminars on teaching methods. We study History, Philosophy, Politics, a foreign language and other subjects. The academic year is divided into two terms. We take exams at the end of each semester. After five years of studies students are to take final exams and to defend a graduation paper. Then they get their diploma and can start teaching at a secondary school or do a postgraduate course.

Topical Vocabulary

educational and scientific centre	образовательный и научный центр
Faculty of Primary Education	факультет начального образования
a three-storeyed building	трехэтажное здание
a student-card	студенческий билет
dean’s office	деканат
an extramural department	заочное отделение
Theory of education	педагогика
Department of Aesthetics	кафедра эстетики
Information Technology	информатика