North Allegheny parents should be pleased by Reelika Sinijarv's first impression of her pupils at Marshall Middle School.

"I am impressed by how eagerly they discuss literature," she said. "They like reading."

Ms. Sinijarv, 33, is an English teacher in Rapla, Estonia, a small country on the Baltic Sea. This academic year, she is teaching seventh-grade English and reading in the North Allegheny School District as part of Fulbright exchange program.

Reelika Sinijarv, of Estonia, is teaching English at Marshall Middle School. Click photo for larger image. Listen In Marshall Middle School teacher Neelika Sinijarv talks about the differences between students here and in Estonia. Ms. Sinijarv describes foreign language instruction at schools in Estonia. American culture is popular in Estonia, Ms. Sinijarv says. Ms. Sinijarv makes an interesting comparison between the weather here and in Estonia.

She and Suzanne Roy, 56, a veteran North Allegheny reading teacher, have switched jobs and homes under a 50-year-old effort sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

Ms. Sinijarv, her son, Margus, 15, and daughter, Kadri, 12, arrived in August and moved into Ms. Roy's condominium in Adams.

While she relies on public transportation in Rapla, Ms. Sinijarv found that wouldn't work in suburban Pittsburgh. Her first challenges included learning to drive, so she would no longer have to rely on colleagues to get her to work.

Margus, who has studied English since second grade, adapted easily to the Mars Area School District, earning As and Bs during the first grading period. Kadri has struggled more with the language, her mother said, but has been getting extra help through the district's English as a Second Language program.

Initial homesickness appears to have subsided for all three. "They haven't asked, 'When do we go home?' for a long time now," Ms. Sinijarv said.

In Estonia, Ms. Sinijarv teaches English in the same school where she was a student in the 1980s. Her school in Rapla serves about 800 pupils in first through 12th grade, and she instructs students in the upper grades. At North Allegheny, all her classes are for seventh-graders, and that has made preparation easier, she said.

Estonia was part of the Soviet Union until 1990. Ms. Sinijarv, who graduated from high school in 1991, well remembers the days before her country declared its independence. During the Soviet era, most of Estonia was closed to visitors from the West.

"Many of us wanted to learn English, but we had no chance to practice with foreigners," she said. Her language classes, though, provided good preparation for her first practical experiences using the language.

After high school, she worked for a Swedish firm where English was the language used in business. "I only had spoken English in practice, and now was using it in real life," she said. "The Swedes' [language skills] were not perfect, and I was not perfect, but it all worked out."

When her children were a little older, she returned to school, graduating from Tallinn University in 2004. Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is about 30 miles north of Rapla.

She learned about the Fulbright exchange program through an ex-Peace Corps worker who now lives in Estonia.

She changed her mind several times before deciding to go through the rigorous selection process. She is one of about 170 foreign teachers chosen this year.

At Marshall Middle School, she teaches reading, grammar, composition and literature. She and her pupils already have tackled perennial favorites "Where the Red Fern Grows," by Wilson Rawls, and Scott O'Dell's "Sing Down the Moon."

"And we are going to read Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol,' " she said.

She has found pupils curious about her homeland, and she hopes to teach them something about it. At 16,000 square miles, Estonia is about one-third the size of Pennsylvania. With 1.3 million people, its population is slightly larger than that of Allegheny County.

She and the pupils will view an Estonian movie called "Spring," which deals with school life in the 1920s and '30s.

"Having Reelika here provides a window to the world for our students," said Cindy Kainaroi, principal of Marshall Middle School. "She is teaching us about her customs and traditions. She and her children are learning about life in the United States."

Before she left for Estonia, Ms. Roy organized a "support group" to help Ms. Sinijarv adapt to life in southwestern Pennsylvania. "Everyone has been wonderful and patient with my accent," she said. Her pupils have been eager to teach her American idioms and slang.

American-made television pro grams and movies are popular in Estonia, she said. Soon the country will have its own version of MTV.

"We even have many of the same soap operas," she said.

She was pleasantly surprised to find so many NA pupils were eager to explore literature and talk about books. Too many Estonian teenagers tell her they would rather read comic books or play computer games.

"Other than that, the students seem very similar in both countries," she said.

North Allegheny reading teacher Suzanne Roy is keeping an online journal about her year in Estonia. It can be accessed via the North Allegheny Web site, www.nallegheny.k12.pa.us. Click on schools, then select "Marshall" under middle schools. The link to Ms. Roy's blog is in the right column of the Marshall home page.