All the Arms Around You-Halloween Alaska

Today we spent the day at Integral private school.  While students typically only attend one of the three school sessions, it is very common for teachers to work one or two sessions at a public school and the other session(s) at a private school.  Our host teacher, Alex, is the principal at a public specialty language school, but he also teaches English classes at a local private school.

Today we spent the day with him and eight of his classes at Integral.  We spent some time talking about Montana and Utah, all students knew of Montana was Hannah Montana, and she's not even from Montana!  Most of our time was spent helping students work on their English.  Our lesson today involved postcards of different mountain animals from the U.S.  We had students do various vocabulary, reading and writing activities with the postcards as the basis of the lesson.  Then we had some games to see who could come up with the most English descriptor words or who could identify the animals by name in English.  Overall it was a wonderful day.  Again, the students are so welcoming and eager to learn, it was exciting just to be around them.  I was very impressed with their vocabulary and curiosity.

Can you even find me in this picture?

Typically students attend only one of the three sessions of school (morning, afternoon or evening.)  Students stay in the same room all day while teachers rotate through the classes.  I love Brazilian classes as there is a constant dull roar of conversation and excitement.  Sometimes it is challenging for the teachers to maintain order as the classes range from 40-50 students, but the energy is great.  Students typically have each class once a week so their schedule is different each day, meaning they are often taking 15 classes at a time.  Can you imagine how challenging it would be to learn math or a foreign language when you only have the class once a week?!  Since students schedules change everyday, so do the teachers'.  This means they may teach anywhere from five

 to ten (or even more!) classes per day, with different students everyday, teachers in Brazil have several hundred students to keep track of.

Looking for unfamiliar vocabulary

Making a list of what they see in the picture

Another where's Waldo type picture

Tami helping out with some vocabulary

A few cultural experiences we had:
1. Yestserday I tried Guarana soda, made from a rainforest berry.

Kilo restaurant

2. Today we had lunch at a kilo restaurant where you fill a plate and then they weigh it for you and you pay by the kilo.
3. At lunch I had rice and beans, a Brazilian staple and something that is fast becoming my favorite meal.
4. At lunch I also tried a traditional Brazilan dessert, brigadeiro.  It was so delicious I am sure I will be consuming more of those!
5. I also tried quail for dinner, as well as a cashew drink that is popular in this region. By the way, did you know cashew nuts actually come from cashew fruits, not directly from the trees like most nuts?  Each fruit only produces one nut (no wonder cashews are so expensive!) Google a picture and check it out, pretty interesting.
6. While having dinner (at a table out on the sidewalk which is quite popular,) we heard some "farro" music which is a kind of music very popular in this northeast region of Brazil.

a quail for each of us

Brigadeiro

Cashew juice

Trying quail dipped in salsa and manioc-delicious!