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The Gift of ‘Co-Thinking’
Olga Varshaver
Dear Readers,
Let me offer you my warmest wishes for the New Year. Our small and close-knit editorial team of Thinking Classroom/Peremena wishes you steadfastness, wisdom, and infinite patience — because sometimes the teaching profession exposes us to so many challenges that we simply cannot do without these qualities.
The New Year is the time to sum up the past and to develop plans for the future. But for us, teachers, the January report is always an interim one, because a new academic year never begins in January. It begins in September, as the calendar year used to do in ancient times. This is when it was celebrated in my country and in many other countries centuries ago, because the change of years accorded with the
turning of the seasons and with harvest time.
As for interim results . . . In fact, the last 12 months have proved to be a difficult but productive period for our journal. Since the beginning of 2006 Thinking Classroom/Peremena has been published under the aegis of the RWCT International Consortium, and in a way it has been a homecoming, because seven years ago our journal began as a publication of the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project (in abbreviated form — RWCT).
The RWCT project itself actually started 10 years ago, in 1997. So now, I am seizing this opportunity to congratulate all our colleagues in the Consortium, and all the former and current participants in the RWCT project on this anniversary. The Consortium, too, is acknowledging the anniversary year with noteworthy achievements. It is now a registered international organization offering the services of certified teacher trainers working in English, Russian, and 20 other national languages. These trainers are able to assist educators in actively promoting the development of critical thinking (through course modules for elementary and high schools and for universities), in supporting the development of innovative curricula in various content areas, in organizing anticorruption activities in the sphere of education, and in working with parents.
In the meantime, the policy of our journal in its eighth year of existence remains unchanged: Our The Gift of ‘Co-Thinking’ pages are open to colleagues from all continents, to teachers and faculty who are ready to share their practical experience and reflect together with readers about various topics — topics connected with encouraging critical and creative thinking, and with introducing active forms of instruction. As ever, we are interested in how fresh green sprouts of innovation take root in the consciousness of teachers, in the achievements of students, and in the attitudes of society towards schools.
We sincerely hope that the circulation of both the English and Russian versions of the journal will grow considerably in the coming year. We are planning to add a Spanish-language version as well. We have published, in Russian, four thematic collections of the best articles from issues appearing since 2000, and we plan to do the same in English. And we are always awaiting your articles and ideas. We appreciate it when our readers become our authors, and we are always prepared to support you as beginning writers and to learn from you as experienced and innovative teachers.
We are sure that all those who are holding the journal in their hands at this minute are our fellow supporters. Your dedication is an astonishing gift. It has even led one of our readers to spend a week of her life persuading her university’s authorities that their library needs to subscribe to Thinking Classroom without delay. We probably have more than one such supporter, since recently quite a few school and college libraries have subscribed through either the EBSCO or SWETS subscription agencies. Subscription is also available through our website (www.rwct.net).
Another “co-thinker” of ours — one of our readers and authors — is now trying to secure a modest grant for Thinking Classroom, which won’t be unwelcome at
all. Thanks to everyone!
As you see, my “interim report” is somewhat unbalanced: less about results, more about plans for the future. And this is quite understandable. The year
has already begun. It’s time to get to work.
Olga Varshaver
Publications Committee Chair
RWCT International Consortium
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Letter from the editor