Brazil, Germany & USA: For a Three Flag Project

With the arrival of young German student Laura Gispert to Salvador, Brasil in order to estabilish a partership with Escola Parque, more specifically with the Global Connections project, Cathy McDonald suggested a possible three flag project, comprising German, Brasilian and American Students. Thinking about Cathy’s suggestion, ideas of a possible 3-flag project were given to Laura and Cathy thru e-mail by Tyrone Santiago:

Cathy & Laura,



Laura, Cathy McDonald, my American colleague, made a suggestion of a possible 3-flag project among us. I started thinking about it. See whether it is possible or not a publishing of our Indian State Project on your German newspaper. This way we would have a German collaboration in the process. What do you think? As you have not been teaching yet... We could consider this newspaper article as one of the final parts of the project... What do you think?
If we had a subject that could be researched by our students in Brazilian, German and American culture... maybe the educational systems of the 3 countries.... Questions such as: Is an 18-year-old person mature enough to make their professional decisions? How do Brasilians, Americans and Germen deal with this? We could ask our students to describe this educational matter in the 3 countries and give their own opinions on this subject. If possible, Laura could make an interview,virtual or not, with 18 to 20 young Germen about it in order to add this information to our project.... What do you, Laura & Cathy, think about this?

PS: Laura could use her colleagues or ex-colleagues as the source of information.

See Laura how we are all the time thinking about things and projects... lol.

E-mail sent on July 10th, 2010 to both Cathy McDonald and Laura Gispert.

A New Project from Tyrone - Native Indians & States of Brasil and USA

I have a new school Project: I will make my students reflect a bit about both Brazilian and American Indians. They will make researches on this subject. More specifically, they will see the number of states in Brazil and in US whose names are Indian. For instance, the states of Pará, Paraná, Goiás in Brasil; Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa in US. After such researches, they will use Microsoft Publisher to illustrate the learning they acquire. (See the example that is attached). After having used Publisher to illustrate Brasilian and American “Indian” states, I will use a banner to put their work together. In fact, two banners will be used: one for Brasilian states; other, for American ones. I think this activity will be very nice and interesting. It will make students know more about our Indians and the history of names of our 26 states. They will also compare our history with the American’s. They do not know anything about American history and states. So, they will be able to know how many states you have, the states whose names have an Indian background and, of course, they will learn a bit both Brazilian and American ethnic groups. I hope you can also work with this Project because half of the American States have Indian names and in general Indians are forgotten by our schools...

PS: Microsoft Publisher activity:


1. flag of the state;

2. The etymology of the state name;

3. An image to illustrate such definition or etymological meaning.

On videos and school relationships

Cathy: To solve my problem with sending the video, I joined the free Microsoft video site and tried again. This time, it told me that it could not handle my video (too big). Talk about frustrated!!! But then, it saved the wmv version to my computer. Then I could upload to FaceBook and YouTube -- so I was finally happy and went to bed. I have not used the Movie Maker before, but we like so much what your students do... I have to try these things and understand them myself... This year I do not have experts at all things technology in my class -- last year it was Maurio... so I muddled through and now I can teach my students to do it.

In reference to the beautiful video which Tyrone's students made as a farewell to the Lovejoy seniors, Cathy responded: "As for including you and Escola Parque, how could I not? The students said to me that it had to be there. I have watched them move from being a little reluctant to looking forward to talking to all of you. (Down South, we say y'all as the plural for you) Melanie is also including you guys in her valedictorian speech where she runs down a list of important accomplishments.

Melanie was their spokesperson at the appreciation dinner -- and she mentioned how special learning to communicate with you and your students was, and how not many students in the US have that opportunity.

Comments from Tyrone

These remarks are in response to the Appreciation Dinner that the Lovejoy seniors gave last night for their moms, their teachers and administrators, and the school board members. Students raised money themselves to pay for the buffet dinner.

I got really touched with your Orkut pictures!!! Congratulations on your effort to be a good teacher and become unforgettable to your students: that´s the greatest award you can have! God bless you!! Everything is so beautiful and serious!!!... Brasil has become more and more important in international scenery, due to our government and our oil, but we need to improve our educational system so that the majority of your boys and girls have a better future. In this sense, you Americans have great lessons to teach us!!!!!

On Celebrations...

This project has not been as effective as the Facing the Future project. I think it is more impersonal than the other. There are submissions but they are so varied in length. We may have to carry this project over into the new school year.

And speaking of celebrations, it is time for prom and graduation activities for the Lovejoy seniors. We have many activities planned. Pictures will be shared with Escola Parque using Orkut. We may even try to use Windows Moviemaker to share some of these pictures with Escola Parque.

On the selection - Tyrone

As soon as I know about the places I am going in the US in September, I will let Cathy and Rae know. Three more Brazilian State English teachers will go with me on this trip. Ms. Santos, U.S. Consulate General Cultural Affairs Specialist and the one from IAT, Bahian institution were responsible for teachers´ registration.

I was selected by Ms. Santos who works in Rio de Janeiro. She called me and made an interview both in Portuguese and in English. I used our project Global Connections as a tool to convince her of the importance of my going to the US. There I will visit schools and universities. When I come back, I will be supposed to present what I have learned and seen thru workshops.

Tyrone coming to the U.S.

Tyrone will be coming to the United States in September. He has been chosen to represent English language teachers from Bahia. He will visit colleges and universities in the US -- which ones have not yet been determined. It will be an awesome opportunity; and then he will go back to Brasil to share with other teachers in Bahia.