South Bend Schools

On Sunday evening, the Brazilian teachers attended an opening dinner to begin their experience working with the South Bend Community School Corporation. Starting this week the Brazil group will split up and visit five schools throughout South Bend. With six teachers each at Clay and Washington high schools, as well as Jackson, Dickinson, and Brown intermediate schools, the Brazil Program hopes to provide its participants an authentic experience to work with students and schools in the United States.

The dinner served as an opportunity to meet some of the teachers with whom the Brazil group will be working over the next five weeks. 

Members and staff for the Brazil Program are particularly thankful to Karla Lee and the administrators, faculty and board members of the South Bend Community School Corporation for being so welcoming and accommodating. 

Workshop: Foundations in Methodology

During the second week of the Brazil Project at Notre Dame, the language coaches presented a workshop on Foundations of Methodology. The first day of class the Brazilian teachers were asked to list, illustrate, and describe the eight multiple intelligences: bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, visual-spatial, musical, and naturalistic. After taking an online quiz to find their own intelligences, they spent time brain-storming and learning about the different approaches they could take to teaching multiple intelligences in their classrooms.

Throughout the week, the teachers learned many practical techniques they could utilize in their classrooms to promote language learning for all of their students. Some of these techniques included total physical response (TPR), whole brain teaching, wordwalls, and vocabulary activities.

The week ended with a lively discussion on the state of bilingual and English as a Foreign language education in the United States and Brazil. The discussion lead to a critical analysis of the difficulties teachers face. To combat these potential struggles, the Brazil group tried out a few student-centered, investigation-based methods to explore new teaching activities.

Below is a list of the some of the other Websites used in class this week: 

• http://www.wordle.net/
• www.storybird.com
• www.colorincolorado.org
• websitesnsoftware.blogspot.com/2011/06/2010-best-websites-for-english-language.html
• www.everythingesl.net/inservices/elementary_sites_ells_71638.php
• www.fcrr.org/curriculum/SCAindex.shtm
• www.readingresource.net/sightwords.html
• www.eslkidstuff.com
• www.busyteacher.org
• www.starfall.org
• www.knowledgeadventure.com/phonics-games.aspx
• www.adrianbruce.com/reading/room1/index.html
• www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html
• www.superteacherworksheets.com
• www.storylineonline.net/a-to-z-book-directory/

Notre Dame on Ice

When many people think of Brazil, they instinctively think of soccer. They have good reason to do so, especially with the upcoming FIFA World Cup being held in a Brazil. On Friday evening the Brazilians studying at Notre Dame experienced what one student referred to as  "soccer on ice."

The group had the amazing opportunity to go to Notre Dame's Compton Family Ice Arena to see Notre Dame's hockey team take on Lake Superior State. After enjoying a delicious dinner served at the arena, they were offered a course called Hockey 101 by Rita Baxter, a representative of Notre Dame's Ticket and Event Marketing. She was a wonderful hostess and awarded diplomas for everyone's new-found knowledge of hockey. 

Roberta Poubel and Cristiane Santos had the privilege of riding the Zambonis and representing Brazil before the start of the game.

And what ice arena event would be complete without ice dancing? 

The group cheered on the Irish with a lot of pride, as the team beat Lake Superior State 6-3. 

Members of the Brazil Program noted that the hockey game was much more than a game. It was a show, one that was greatly enjoyed by everyone! 

The Grotto

Late Wednesday evening, some members of the group took a trip to visit Notre Dame's Grotto. Modeled after Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France, the Grotto offers a setting of prayer and reflection for students while they are on campus. Bundled in their warmest clothes, the Brazilian students went to light candles and offer petitions at the iconic site.

Chicago: A Travel Guide

Many of the Brazilian teachers took the opportunity to visit Chicago during their time in the United States. Below, you will find some photos of the Brazilians during their trips to Chicago as well as some ideas of what YOU could do if you visited Chicago.

So you want to go to Chicago? 

Here are some ideas on how to get to Chicago and what to do once you're there. Please follow the links for more information and purchase options. 

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District runs between the South Bend Airport and Millennium Station in Chicago. You can buy tickets online or at the train station for any day of the week.

The Chicago Tourism Board has a website that gives you a glance at all the activities the city offers. Feel welcome to explore the site and see if there is anything that interests you.

If you are interested in seeing a Chicago Bulls NBA game, click here to see games and prices. 

Click on the following links to view other activities in Chicago:

1.) The Shedd Aquarium
2.) The Art Institute of Chicago
3.) The Field Museum
4.) Museum of Science and Industry
5.) Millennium Park
6.) Navy Pier
7.) Michigan Avenue

Click here to see an interactive map of Chicago's downtown and Loop.

Keep in mind when traveling to Chicago, there is an hour time difference between South Bend and Chicago. When you go to Chicago, you will gain and hour. For example, 11 a.m. in South Bend would be 10 a.m. in Chicago. When you return to South Bend, you will lose an hour. For example, 10 a.m. in Chicago would be 11 a.m. in South Bend. Keep this in mind as your travel and need to catch trains or shows so that you are not late.

Workshops: Portuguese and English

Throughout their time at Notre Dame, the Brazilian teachers had the extreme luck and privilege to spend some time each week with Stew Markel, from Notre Dame's Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures (CSLC). Stew taught a course on academic English that the teachers found really useful in improving their own English and pronunciation, as well as in learning way they would approach teaching English in the classroom.

The teachers also had the delight of spending the first week in the classroom with Anne Bolster in her Portuguese and English Analysis course. The teachers spent the mornings describing the differences between the Portuguese and English languages, and they were able to share a little about their home states in Brazil. Anne did a great job of merging cultural practices of the United States into her language class, giving a new depth to her instruction. Anne's participation with the Brazil group both in and out of the classroom was such a joy!

Click here for links to:

• Materials use in Anne's Class
• Additional materials provided by Anne

Additionally, Jennifer Dees and Patrick Clauss visited the classroom to offer a Power of Writing (POW) Workshop. As the snow fell outside, Jennifer explained the importance of learning how to attack writing prompts. She then demonstrated the Simple 6 writing traits:

• Stick to the topic
• Check for logical order
• Include interesting words 
• Use different sentence patterns
• Write descriptive sentences
• Write for an audience

Jennifer used a popular children's book series by Laura Numeroff to exhibit teaching students how to identify the beginning, middle, and end of stories. 

Technology Orientation

Today, the Brazil group got an in-depth tour of Notre Dame's library and technology resources. We'd especially like to thank Mandy Havert for her wonderful presentation and all of her help! Mandy showed the group all of the technological tools at the group's fingertips throughout their experience at Notre Dame.