Adding more structure…

November 25, 2008

Great news!!! I have some suggestions that I will give you in details afterward. Let me just to tell you that as next year I will have high school students, I am thinking of having classes with movies that could be both seen by my students and yours. One week they would see, for instance, All the Invisible Children, and on the other, they could discuss about what they had seen, by using Skype, blog and maybe Orkut. What do you think about it? – Tyrone

I love it!!! There will be so much more we can do with high school -- but I still think this has been an awesome year. I have two teacher sisters in Georgia who tell their schools about what we do. I correspond with the professor who was my advisor when I was in college. He thinks it is great. Plus the facilitator for the online class that I am taking will be sharing this with the International Society for Technology in Education. -- Cathy

Centralizing student work...

November 14, 2008

Lovejoy students, being older, were delighted with the new and different Orkut -- many had MySpace accounts, which, of course, are blocked at the school. Consequently, it became difficult to track what everyone was doing. Not only that, but I was a little concerned about the number of requests to be friends. This prompted the following e-mails:

Cathy, Although your students are in high school and are able to be independent at school, having their own blogs and Orkut, etc, I think that for the proposal of our activities together, they should use just an account such as a single blog account: a Lovejoy one, and a single Orkut account -- Lovejoy Class of 2009. By doing so, everything becomes more practical: we can access both blog and Orkut, and we are able to see everybody together with their profiles, photos, texts, comments, etc. Even if they create their own blogs and Orkut accounts, there are the Lovejoy blog and Orkut that can be used for everybody. In this sense when we access here, instead of accessing one by one blogs and Orkut, we access Lovejoy ones, comprising in it students' profiles, comments, etc. For instance, my students have their own Orkut, but at school they just use CECR Parque to be in touch with you for pedagogic proposals.

I think it is very nice, your idea of not accepting lots of "friends" at Orkut. If some of my students or strange people ask you to be accepted, you don't need to do so, as some of them, for instance, can upload videos we both wouldn't like. ---Tyrone

Brasilian Principals' Reception

November 13, 2009

At this point at Lovejoy, we were preparing to host a visit from three award winning principals from Brasil, none of whom spoke English. An interpreter would travel with them. This was an awesome time to present what had been done by the students to the community, adult audience as well as a student audience. We wanted to print the program in Portuguese as well as English. The translator sites work okay, but translations need to be monitored by someone who speaks both languages. Tyrone was so gracious to check the translations and make the necessary corrections. Our guests were delighted to have the translation available. We provided the interpreter with a script of any parts we had pre-written.

The week before a shorter version of the program was presented to the parents of the students involved. This can be done in any school to showcase the student work. We purchased a Brasilian flag and marched it in with the U.S. flag. The colors were posted in both programs, with the national anthems played for both. The students took such pride in being a part of this. (A word of warning: it is important to brief the students and probably adults involved about the proper flag protocol for our flag and for when the national anthem of another country is played or sung.) This can be made a part of the program with students explaining what they have learned, so that no one is insulted or belittled in the process of educating them.
Following is e-mail regarding the translation of the program. Once again an insight into culture. Students should always be briefed when e-mail is exchanged between teachers. It is a truly a learning opportunity.

Cathy,
If you haven't translated your text yet, I will give you a suggestion of just translating Posting of the colors as "Hasteamento da Bandeira".
Here in Brazil, in general, we don't have anything similar to that posting of the colors. Here we have soldiers or someone at the flag pole and this person in the morning rasies the flag. We also have that in ceremonies. Although it is not properly the way we do here I think you can translate that way: Posting of the Colors Flag Ceremony (Hasteamento das Cores - Cerimônia das Bandeiras); regarding the Revelation Mime Ministry, the translation is: Mínistério Mimico Revelação.

Please see Portuguese corrections in the text. The only doubts I have are regarding the "posting of the colors". What do you want to do with it? Is it related heaving of flags? If so, it can be translated as: "Hasteamento das Bandeiras". Another thing is Revelation Mime Ministry. Is Mime here literally referring to mime "a play without words, in which actors use signs to express what is happining?" Revelation Ministry is Ministério da Revelação
The translation of Mime will depend on its meaning.
P.S: Our classes here will finish on December 17. We don't have snow in Brazil but just two or three cities in the South Region of Brazil. ---Tyrone

Another Project Idea

November 12, 2008

Cathy,

I have thought about an easy, amusing, interesting and reflexive activity your students and mine could do: it could be called : "Images of the city I can see" or "My every Day Town" or "My city and I" or whatever.

What would the students do?

• 1. By using their mobiles or digital câmeras, they would take pictures of anything related to their city, daily routines, etc, and describe them in short sentences.

For example:

a)S--- decides taking pictures of her neighborhood. She does so and creates an album at Orkut with the title : S---'s neighbohood;

b) M---- decides taking pictures of his workplace. He does so and creates an album whose title is M---'s job or My Job;

c) The twin girls want to work with the church they are used to going. So, they take pictures of the church, of their family, of people that go to the same church as theirs;

d) D---- wants to create an album on people Who has professions or specific working activities that may be just possible to be seen in the US or in his town;

e) Some students could take pictures of places or things they like and dislike in their town, district, or neighborhood;

f) and so on

• 2. My students would do the same and they would upload their photos at their specific albums at Orkut. Thus, your students and mine would share their impressions on how their cities have in common or differ.
• 3. Of course, an activity like this one says more than thousand of words. We could have these photos printed afterward and they could be shown at bulletin boards, showcases, etc.
• 4. In addition, this would be a good way to make both your students and mine use Orkut.

What do you think?

I am going to give an example of how interesting and meaningful an activity like this one could be. See the photos I took today. And see how much your students could learn about Salvador by just having a look at these pictures and reading a few words about them.

• The first picture is an "outdoor" as we say here in English instead of your billboard (You see the usage of English variants). This "outdoor" is celebrating the the law that now demands schools both private and public to teach of Afro-Brazilian history and culture;
• Pictures 19, 20, 22, 24 show people that sell things on our public buses. It is very common to see that. These people are allowed to do so, as there are lots of unemployed people here. I, myself, don't like this because sometimes you are tired and they enter the bus, speaking aloud and disturbing our silence;
• The last picture shows a place next to a bus stop in which a man is selling pirate cds. It is very common that here and nobody does nothing about it. Our city hall sometimes take their goods but people here don't see this action with good eyes.

You see how meaningful an activity like this could be? ---Tyrone