"Be True to Your School"

The majority of news I've shared has been primarily about the city and our adventures outside of school. I think it's about time I introduce my classroom and what I'm teaching at OLM! My first observation by Mr. Rundle was this past Tuesday. I taught a lesson introducing subtraction symbols to my Kindergartners. We sang the "5 Little Monkeys Swinging From a Tree" song to start off an activity with little monkey and alligator puppets. Overall, the observation went really well! I did well with classroom management, adjusting my plans when necessary, and keeping the students engaged. I need to work on how I word questions, where to position myself amongst the students, and being more clear when explaining instructions and expectations. Mr. Rundle said that I have a very positive disposition with the students and great intuition as a beginning teacher. My 2nd observation will be next Monday.

Other lessons that I have taught are the senses of smell, hear, and touch, addition, the letter K, rhyming, St. Patrick's Day, sight words, and short vowels. For the sense of smell, I had various spices and foods in little cups for students to smell while blindfolded. It was funny to hear some of the things they guessed. Tomorrow those spices will be mixed with paint and glue for them to paint scratch-and-sniff pictures with. Our touch lesson was exceptionally fun because we made oobleck (cornstarch and water) and I let the students feel pig eyeballs (peeled grapes) and cow brains (squiggly noodles) while blindfolded. Some poor kids were so afraid to touch the eyeballs and brains until I revealed what they really were after the activity! None of them guessed that both items were only food. My students are going to have to get used to the fact that I use music for everything. Luckily they were willing to accommodate me when I told them to walk around a huge letter K taped on the floor while singing a song to the tune of "My Fair Lady" :)

 The leprechauns came leaving a big mess, green footprints, and chocolate coins!

 My homemade vowel chart. Inspiration came from my 1st grade classroom back home.

 I'm very proud of my classroom management strategy! The board goes with the book "How Full is Your Bucket?" Students earn a sticker in their agenda book at the end of the week if they earn at least one drop each day. Drops are filled and spilled throughout the entire day so that they know exactly which behaviors are/aren't acceptable. Names have been edited-out for student confidentiality.

 Oobleck! It was a HUGE mess but entirely worth it.

 A game I made-up to practice subtraction

Addition aquariums to go with the book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." They turned out so well!

Christ the Redeemer

On the 19th, we finally went to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado mountain. We took the long way there by first stopping at the Chinese Overlook that sits across the mountain range from the actual statue. The Chinese Overlook is a small pagoda built in the 20th century by Chinese immigrants that came to Brazil to start a tea plantation. It's one of the few perspectives from where you can see both the Christ statue and Sugar Loaf at the same time. The drive through the mountains was extremely scary. The roads are narrow and random people, cars, and bikers pop out of nowhere! Not to mention you can't see what's at the top/bottom of a hill or around a tight corner 99% of the time.

Luckily we survived to see the spectacular view of the city at night. Because there were so few people, it was very quiet and serene. I was almost afraid to talk too loud. The air had cooled down significantly, but the ground and stone railings were still warm from the sun. Standing under the majestic glow and watchful eyes of Christ, I felt very at peace. Up close, it was interesting to see the heart carved onto his chest and small diamonds cut out-of the palms of his hands. The view to our left was the new world cup stadium. Straight ahead was the view of Sugar Loaf. Towards the right we could see the cemetery near Botafogo where we stop when riding the 434. To the right of the cemetery was the Lagoa. Copacabana and Ipanema were above the Lagoa. Because we arrived by car, we were allowed to stay after everyone else had left. We also stopped to pray at the small chapel located at the base of the statue.

 The Chinese pagoda

 Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf view

 The Lagoa, a bit of Copacabana, and Ipanema

Couldn't resist doing this!

Samba Parade

On Saturday, March 8th, two lovely staff members from OLM took us to the 2014 Samba Champions Parade at The Sambodromo. The first competition tool place the weekend of Carnaval on March 2nd and 3rd. The parade consisted of many samba schools that competed against each other for a place in the champions parade. A samba school is like a club or dancing school made up of thousands of people that devote their time to learning samba, rehearsing together, and designing their elaborate floats. They are typically associated with a specific neighborhood within the city. Seven places are chosen based on their percussion, harmony, flow and spirit, theme, floats, costumes, etc. The Champion parade started at 9:30pm on Saturday and lasted until 6am Sunday! We actually saw the sun coming up as we got home on Sunday to sleep. It poured down rain for the first couple of hours but we barely even cared with all of the excitement.

Words can't describe how amazing the parade was. Imagination was completely uninhibited and unrestrained. There were floats with a human Foosball table, a giant fountain, a racetrack with an actual moving car, a moving carousel with people riding roosters instead of horses, somebody got shot out of a cannon into a net, one float was a movie theatre with an enormous working television, another was decorated as a pinball machine, ballerinas and cirque du soleil performers balanced and danced at amazing heights, a woman levitated on top of a float, and the famous soccer player, Zico, stood atop a gigantic spinning crown. The people dressed up as birds, rubix cubes, animals, pirates, bugs, plants, nutcrackers, warriors, lego men, dolls, cartoon characters, storm troopers, and Woodys and Buzzs from Toy Story. During one school, there were people walking as they formed a live game of Pacman. Some things I can't even begin to describe what they were supposed to be! Overall, I would describe the parade as one of the most spectacularly beautiful and colorful things I've ever seen.

Climb Ev'ry Mountain...Literally

To celebrate Ash Wednesday, we went to church at St John the Baptist of Lagoa in Botafogo. The church is located just a few blocks away from our villa. The mass was a little different than what we are accustomed to, and they said everything in Portuguese of course. Still, it was beautiful both culturally and religiously. When my dad was traveling for the air force back in the stone ages, he said that attending mass always made him feel closer to home because he knew that the same scriptures were being read, no matter what language they were in. As I sat listening to the priest, I was reassured that my family will always love me and be there for me, no matter how far apart we are from each other.

Later that day... To celebrate our last day off of Carnaval, we decided to visit Sugarloaf, a famous mountain peak in Brazil. To reach the top, there are two sets of cable cars; one takes you to the top of the neighboring mountain, Morro da Urca, and the second takes you from Morro da Urca to Sugarloaf. We heard that it would be cheaper to go up by climbing Morro da Urca, then buying a ticket for only the second cable car. So... we decided to be cheap and adventurous by climbing the mountain! For the record, Morro da Urca is 220 meters high. Good thing we decided to wear our hiking shoes! It was steep, sweaty, and a little unsteady at times, but the monkeys, the beautiful views of the ocean, and the reward of making it to the top made it a complete success. As luck would have it, they did not sell tickets at the top. You can only buy tickets on the ground for the entire cable car package. At that point, we just laughed and decided to fuel-up with açai, fruit, and granola before starting the trek back down.

After hiking back down the mountain, we decided to take a break before going up to Sugarloaf again. Thanks to Beth, we decided to try paddle boarding. It was a BLAST and ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be. Eventually we made it up to Sugarloaf. Although there were many other people, it felt as if the whole view was meant just for me to see (if that makes sense). I'd say it was an extremely rewarding and fantastic day :)

 The cable cars

 View of Sugarloaf from the ground

 The first steps on our journey up Morro da Urca!

 View from Morro da Urca

 More delicious açai

 Our wonderful instructors teaching us the ways of paddle boarding

 We all stood up!

 So tiny in front of Sugarloaf

 Churro filled with dolche de leche and chocolate...my new favorite food

 From the top of Sugarloaf

 I signed my name at the top :)

Copacabana and the city at night