The Little Rock Nine and the Civil Rights

Hey guys!

Last Friday, we went to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, so much real history we could experience there.

What call my attention the most was the visit to the Little Rock Central, the largest High School of the city where in 1957 the 9 first black students that were supposed to attend classes there, where prevented in a very hostile way, by the army, to enter in the school on the first day of class.

Before the trip, we received a book “The Little Rock Nine” that described a little of the history to us. But being there and walking at the same places that the Nine have walked it was a very unique and emotional experience, something that I will never forget.

The Nine have faced so much ignorance and prejudice, but it is so inspiring to see that they didn’t give up, and it is really important to witness that.

In Brazil, black people had faced and still face a lot of prejudice and racism, but we rarely acknowledge all their effort like we saw in Little Rock. The next time that I talk about Civil Rights with my students, I will definitely talk about the Nine, and I hope that my students be as inspired as I have been to fight for equally to all always.

Student Center Learning

Hi guys!

Last Thursday, we had a very interesting class with Gavin about Student Center Learning. We dream to create a class here our students are the center, but it is not easy for us teacher to leave the comfortable zone of control.

I really enjoyed the text that we read before discussing about some activities that we normally do that sometimes we call “student-centered” but are really not, because the burden is not in “all” students most of the time and that’s the hardest thing to achieve. I can highlight two sentences, first “I spend so much time studying that I don’t have a chance to learn anything”.  Who never felt like that at school? I did many times, and my goal as a teacher is not to repeat this cycle, it is not easy, but we need to do our part.

Second “The job of teaching is not to stuff them (students) and then seal them up, but to help them open and reveal the riches within. There are pearls in each of us, if only we knew how to cultivate them with ardor and persistence”.

Only with reflection and lots of effort, we can achieve this goal of being really just a facilitator in the classroom.

Microteaching: Speaking

Last week, we had to teach our colleagues a speaking activity from 5 to 7 minutes. It was a very difficult and challenging.

First because of the time, seven minutes is too short to show everything that I think I am capable of doing, and second as an active and energetic person, limit time makes me nervous and sometimes makes me hurry more that I would normally do, but I tried to do my best to show something that I normally do and love doing with my students.

What was really nice to see was the creativity and competence of my Brazilian colleagues. There wasn’t any Brazilian activity that I wouldn’t use at all, maybe I would have to adapt some things, but all that I saw it was very interactive and engaging to students. Although we were very nervous and concern about the short time, I notice a lot of hard work and effort to bring the best activity possible what was really nice and rewarding to see, unfortunately at school we don’t have so much time to do things like that, I hope we could have more, it is so refreshing for our practice. 

Presentation of a Reading Lesson Plan to Colleagues

Hey guys!

Last week we had to present a reading lesson plan to our colleagues. I presented with Gabi and we tried so much to bring an activity that it would be suitable for most of our colleagues.  And it was really interesting to see some activities from our colleagues that I thought it would be very nice to apply to my students too.

One of the activities that I will try to use with my students is the Gisele and Giuliana’s activities for the book “Look, I can read”. I thought the book was great and their activities very engaging for basic students.

Another activity and book that I will try to use with my students is the Rebeca and Danillo’s activities for the book “Little Prince”. I love this book, it is one of my favorites, and the version that they showed us I have never seen before and the activities and this version I think it would be very nice for my basic or intermediate students.

It was really good to have a class where I could see engaging and interesting things for my students. I will show these ideas to my colleagues at Cilc and I hope they like them too.

Literature Circles

Hey guys!

Last week at one of the Christina's classes, she showed us a great technique to teach literature in a more engaging way. I have studied about Literature Circles in my Portuguese Teaching Methodology classes at college, but I have never applied in my English classes, first because I have never thought that it would be possible, I always thought that they were very difficult and complicated to apply.

 After Christina’s classes I think it would be a great technique to apply in my intermediate and advanced classes. When Christina selected me as an Illustrator I got really scared of my role, because I do not draw so well, but during the discussion with my group, it was really engaging to see so many sides of the same story and after I heard some discussions about the story, I got some really nice insights on how to draw some parts of my story that I didn’t think at first. So this why, I think that this technique is so unique and engaging. I am excited to show it to my colleagues in Brazil, and I hope they would like it too, and the book it was also great, I just read some chapters I really would like to read the whole book when I get  more free time.

“The Elevator Romance” - Teaching Reading

Hey guys!

Last week at one of the Christina's classes, she showed us some really nice techniques to teach reading in a more engaging way. Some of these techniques I have already studied and also have already applied them in my classrooms, but some I have just studied, but haven’t used in my classroom yet, but after Christina’s class I am motivated to try to integrate them.

I really like the techniques that Christina used on the text “The elevator romance”. Some of these techniques like, showing the picture before the text and asking students what they think it is the story about or what the people are doing, giving some pictures and asking the students to put the text in the correct order before reading, and the post-reading activities, I frequently use.

What I haven’t used before and I think I will try to integrate more in my classes is the active vocabulary activity that we did in the pre-reading, where in pairs we had to move around the class to find the words after the teacher read their definition to us, I thought it was really fun and that my students would think too, because most of them love to move around the class instead of being sitting all the time. 

I loved the text too, it is usually so difficult to find funny and interesting stories to my basic students and I think the text would be perfect, first because the grammar and vocabulary are really easy to understand and second the topic is something that they love to talk about, romance and unexpected endings. I also think that many of my colleagues from my school might love it too, because it was really engaging,  I can wait to show them when I come back.

See ya!

Game: Circle and have you ever?

Hey guys!

Today I am going to talk about another very interesting game that the teachers of the University of Arkansas applied to us on the first day and I think it will be very nice and useful to my students in Brazil.

The first option was like this: in a big circle, the teacher put a post it on the floor in front of each person in the circle. The person in the middle asked the others a question with have you ever. If the answer was yes, you had to move around and find another spot, but you couldn’t be just next to your previous spot, the objective was to move around the room.

The second part was more communicative: the teachers reduced the post its to half and separate the students in pairs, the pair in the middle had to talk about an experience that both of them have already done. After that they asked the others, if the answer was yes, both had to move around, but before that had to discuss the option with each other. They could only move if both have already done.

As I said, both games were very fun. As an active person, I love to move around, but specially the second one, where the students have to talk and decide together if they have to move, it was a very short opportunity to promote interaction with a topic so abstract to Brazilians, because we do not have a similar tense like present perfect in Portuguese.

We used the game to practice have you ever but we can apply it for other topics too, this was another reason why I liked the game and will try to use it with my students in Brazil.

I will let you know when I do it back to Brazil.

See ya!

Naming Game with gestures

        

         Hey everyone!

I have got a scholarship for a Brazilian English Teachers Program at the University of Arkansas in USA for 6 weeks. Here it goes some reflections about my experience here.

On the first day of the course, we played a naming game that I have never played before that was really interesting to get to know other people for the first time. At first I thought it was very childish and difficult, in a big circle, we were supposed  to create a gesture that would represent the sounds in the English language of my name or parts of my name to the other and repeat the names and gestures of the other people. I had many difficulties to think in a short time which sounds would represent mine, but I came up with something at least to represent Pat and not be totally embarrassed in front of everybody. lol

In the end, it wasn't difficult at all, but really fun. It was very nice to see people from different parts of the world, we are doing the course with some Iraqis, trying to pronounce Brazilian names, like Andre, Tulio and Lorena, and we Brazilians trying to pronounce their names in a very visual way. Much easier to remember and connect with a person in a unique.

The name game was really nice for me, because as an active person I love to move around. I always try to remember the name of my students, but with the game everything was so visual. I will definitely try to use with my students, but maybe I will have to adapt a little for basic students, because they do not have so much knowledge about the English sounds, but I think it will be fun when they see everybody moving. I hope it will work. 

I will give you feedback when I go back to Brazil. 

See ya!