Update on Scratch Unit
(May 05, 2017)
There are fourteen videos posted on YouTube in this series now with several
more planned for the upcoming months. At this point five songs have been
featured in these videos which demonstrate how to draw a variety of subjects
such as bats, turtles, snails, cars, houses, and trees. Be sure to check out
this series of videos which are featured in the Rusky Ed Draws Stuff
playlist available at this link:
RUSKY ED DRAWS STUFF
Scratch Animation Unit
(August 20, 2016)
The first lesson has been posted! It includes a video presentation, a
concentration activity, and a quiz. An index page complete with vocabulary
for each unit provides quick access to all three items. Additionally, a link
from the video lesson at YouTube takes viewers straight to the concentration
activity, which in turn provides a link back to the unit index page. A
special feature of this unit are traditional Russian songs which play while
the visual lesson portion of each video is being presented. This is
definitely a departure from previous units, but it's often good to try
something new. Click here to check
out the unit!
New Unit Soon!
(July 20, 2016)
There's just one more lesson to post in the Geography Unit and then Rusky Ed
will begin a series of Drawing and Animation lessons. This unit will
feature Russian tunes, instructions in Russian, vocabulary quizzes, and
visual demonstrations of how to draw and animate various objects.
Geography Unit Update
(December 30, 2015)
So the Red Coder Channel didn't amount to much, but the Geography unit is
still growing. The plan is to add a few more monthly installments and then
to start a new unit focusing on current news events in Russia. Look for the
Russian News unit around April or so.
Launch of Red Coder Channel
(May 16, 2015)
Rusky Ed is launching a new YouTube channel on which he is sharing coding
tips with viewers. He's also sneaking in a little Russian language
vocabulary along with the tech tips.
Geography Unit Update
(September 8, 2014)
So far Rusky Ed has posted new videos to the Russian Geography unit
according to plan with a new video being posted on the first Saturday of
each month. Seven lessons have been posted so far and another is currently
being put together and is scheduled to be posted on October fourth. Not only
has Rusky Ed been presenting information about various geographical sites
and features found in Russia in this unit, but he has also been reviewing
vocabulary words and providing other useful information along the way!
Geography Unit
(March 8, 2014)
Following the completion of the Rusky Review Unit, a new unit on the
geography of Russia has been initiated. The unit will present information
about cities, mountains, and bodies of water, as well as other interesting
landmarks. The plan is to post either twenty or twenty-four video lessons in
all. Due to a rather crowded schedule, video lessons will only be posted once a
month, usually on the first Saturday of each month, at least that's the
plan!
Rusky Review Unit Update
(November 28, 2013)
So far this review unit has gone as planned and Rusky Ed is scheduled to
upload the fifteenth lesson in this twenty-lesson series on Saturday
(November 30, 2013). At the current
rate this unit should be complete sometime in February of 2014, as originally
projected. Rusky Ed has been considering various ideas for the next unit,
but so far has not settled on anything in particular. Stay tuned for further
developments!
Rusky Review Unit
(June 27, 2013)
With the completion of the tenth unit, Rusky Ed has embarked on a ten month
review project. He will upload two videos each month for ten months. So far
three of these videos have been uploaded with each video covering half of a
unit. The first video dealt with material presented in the first twenty-five
lessons of Unit One and the second video dealt with the second half of that
unit. Rusky Ed plans to proceed in this manner until a total of twenty
review lessons have been uploaded. This should take until approximately
February of 2014, assuming, of course, that everything goes according to
schedule!
500 VIDEOS!
(April 20, 2013)
Although Rusky Ed has not yet reached his goal of creating 500 lessons, he
has uploaded his 500th video. That's a lot of videos! At this point Rusky Ed
is within four video lessons of completing his goal. If Rusky Ed stays on schedule the 500th
lesson will be posted on May 4th. Stay tuned for more spicy details!
UNIT TEN ABOUT TO BEGIN!
(October 14, 2012)
Just a few lessons left in Unit Nine and so it's time to start preparing for
Unit Ten! The intro and outro songs are ready! Many details remain to be
finalized for this unit, but at least the songs are ready! Check them out here:
Unit Ten Songs!
IT MUST BE TIME FOR UNIT NINE!
(April 19, 2012)
With only a couple lessons left to go in Unit Eight, the new song for Unit Nine has
finally been recorded and here it is! The format to be used in Unit Nine
will be slightly different than what was used in Unit Eight. While units
seven and eight were focused on reading Russian, the new focus will be on
translating Russian. Stay tuned to see the changes!
Unit Nine Intro Song!
RUSKY ED IS HERE!
(October 29, 2011)
Unit Seven is now complete and so Unit Eight is ready to roll! And you know
what that means: A NEW INTRO SONG! But before we get to that, Unit Eight
will be the second Reading Russian unit. BTW, units nine and ten will focus
on speaking Russian and so those of you who obsess over proper pronunciation
will have to wait until then to satisfy your desire for perfect
articulation!
Check out the new song for Reading 02!
RUSKY ED REACHES 100,000 VIEWS!
(July 09, 2011)
The Rusky Ed channel on YouTube has surpassed 100,000 views! It took only
three years and a few months to make it this far. Hopefully, the next
100,000 views will come much more quickly. In fact, at the current average
of 750 views per week it should take approximately two and a half years to
reach 200,000 views! What Rusky Ed lacks in speed, he makes up for with
persistence!
NEW SONG FOR UNIT SEVEN
(April 26, 2011)
Rusky Ed is just about done with the third grammar unit. That makes a total
of six units completed so far! The seventh unit will be called Reading 01.
The format for this unit will be slightly different from the format of
previous units. Since the emphasis will be on reading, students will be
presented with a short paragraph written in Russian at the beginning of each
lesson which they will be asked to translate. After students have attempted
to translate the paragraph on their own, Rusky Ed will take them through the
paragraph line by line.
Check out the new song for Reading 01!
RUSKY ED MUSTACHE
(January 26, 2011)
Rusky Ed is currently on his third mustache. He's worn out two so far and
chances are that he'll need a few more before he completes all ten of the
planned units! This photograph is from the end of one of Rusky Ed's videos.
RUSSIAN GRAMMAR UNIT THREE
(October 31, 2010)
The first lesson of the third unit on Russian grammar is expected to be
posted on Saturday (November 6, 2010). The first unit covered parts of
speech other than verbs and the second unit covered verbs. This third unit
will deal with all the parts of speech and more! It's not so much a review
unit as a unit that is intended to consolidate and coordinate what was
covered in units one and two. From the perspective of an English speaker
there's a lot to keep track of when it comes to Russian grammar and
Russian Grammar Unit Three will keep track of all the picky details!
Check out the new video intro song!
AUTHENTIC VERSUS NATIVE ACCENT
(September 08, 2010)
Recent research has shown that students trying to learn a new language take
longer when the language is modeled by speakers with an authentic accent.
They actually do better when the language is mispronouced slightly to
conform to the phonemic structures of their own language. This way the words
are different, but not too different. So, at first it is best not to
concentrate so much on proper pronunciation. Build vocabulary and master
the grammar first and then worry about working on proper pronunciation and
accent!
IMPERFECT PRACTICE ALSO WORKS!
(April 20, 2010)
Worrying about picky details and trying to do everything perfect are enemies
of progress. As Noam Chomsky observed in Syntactic Structures
(1957), children have an astonishing facility to learn "the rules of natural
language no matter how complicated" and they do so "incredibly quickly from
what are often imperfect and degenerate samples." People make lots of
mistakes when they are learning something new and often their teachers and
the materials they use while learning are less than perfect, yet with persistence
all the imperfections get worked out and coherent knowledge emerges.
PRONUNCIATION
(February 21, 2010)
Rusky Ed presents his lessons with a strong accent of unknown origin and
many claim that he often mispronounces Russian words. While this is true,
the tendency to over-emphasize pronunciation early in the learning of a
lesson is counter-productive. First one develops a basic vocabulary, then one
learns the grammar, next reading and listening fluency become the focus,
and only after all these stages does pronunciation become of prime
importance. So, keep this in mind and concentrate on the appropriate focus
at each stage of your learning of the Russian language!
PROGRESS UPDATE
(November 12, 2009)
Rusky Ed is just about through with his second review video for the first
Russian Grammar unit. Rusky Ed is putting out one lesson per week at this
time, but hopes to increase his output in the not too distant future. Rusky
Ed is also quite pleased to have accumulated over one hundred subscribers on
YouTube. It is his hope that all who view his videos are either entertained or
edified, or a little of both!
RUSSIAN GRAMMAR UNIT
(September 2, 2009)
The long awaited units on Russian Grammar are now being produced and
uploaded. The introductory lesson for this unit can be viewed by
clicking here!
As has always been the case in the past, a new introductory song is used for
this unit.
RUSSIAN VERBS UNIT
(March 26, 2009)
Rusky Ed kicked off the Russian Verbs unit just a few days ago. You can watch
the preview video for this unit by clicking here!
As is the case with the previous units, this unit will include a total of
fifty lessons.
RUSKY ED'S LESSON PLANS
(December 11, 2008)
UNITS 1 to 3: Vocabulary Building - Introduce various categories of words
with an emphasis on spelling. Grammar and pronunciation are not priorities
here. In fact, grammar is pretty much ignored and pronunciations are a bit
Americanized without attention paid to stress or anything like that.
UNITS 4 to 6: Grammar - After a foundational vocabulary of about 900 words
has been built up it is time to start worrying about word forms and
stringing words together to form phrases and sentences. Pronunciation is
still not a priority.
UNITS 7 and 8: READING - The goal in these lessons is to develop reading
fluency and seconarily to work some on writing skills. Pronunciation is
still not really an area of focus.
UNITS 9 and 10: SPEAKING - At this point grammar rules should be understood
and it is now time to work on real time production of language. This is
where pronunciation becomes a key focus.
UTILITY WORDS UNIT SONGS
(December 10, 2008)
СВЕРХНОТА
(September 30, 2008)
The Super Note contest was a little contest held between some prominent
YouTubers to see who could accumulate the largest number of video responses
in which people held a note on a single breath for as long as possible. The
winner was determined by adding up the total number of seconds that notes
were maintained in their video responses.
Super Note Song
Click here to watch
СВЕРХНОТА (supernote)
at YouTube!!!
Entire site,
Copyright © 2008-2021
RuskyED.com