Professional Development: Somos Nós: Diverse Brazil, Brazilian Culture and Language for the K-16 Classroom
This week, I will spend time at Vanderbilt University located in Nashville, TN to attend the Somos Nos: Diverse Brazil teacher workshop with my good friend over at Taught2Travel. I've been through Nashville many times on my way to visit my family and my hometown of Indianapolis, IN. However, I have always only made the connotation between Nashville and country music. As I found out, there is country music in Nashville, but there is so much more! This is our agenda for the week.
Day 1: Today we checked in and attended a film screening of Central Station. I was impressed by our dorm rooms. They were roomy and up-to-date. I felt that they were very far removed from my college dorms at Cornell University as an undergraduate! Since I was in driving distance, I brought a lot of extras, including a radio, extra blanket, food and goodies.
Day 2: Today was our first full day. We learned about race in Brazil and how it differs from the concept of race in the US. We learned about the plight of students in the Amazon based on the dissertation work of a graduate student. Very interesting. We had a beginning lesson in Portuguese. We also started to work on our curriculum. Afterwards, we watched the movie, Wasteland. Unfortunately, after our enlightening institute, we had a situation. My friend and I came to our hotel and were questioned by the dorm security. We tried to explain that we were teachers, that we had been in the dorm earlier, but they made each one of us show our IDs and were quite rude. We were astonished. We felt as though this encounter was a greater statement regarding the social fabric that makes up Nashville. Obviously, something else is going on in Nashville. We, as educators, felt as though our presence was not threatening. However, security did not feel that way. It made us rethink some of the topics we had been learning in our institute regarding race, class and status in the Americas.
Day 3: Today, we learned about curriculum, learned some more beginning Portuguese and worked on our curriculum. After a long day's work, we headed over to Opry Land mall where we shopped and had a good time and had a nice meal at T.G.I.F. Friday's. There were many restaurants and shops and we ran into some great sales!
Day 4: Whew! What a long day. We learned about Zika and the Brazilian Olympics in 2016. We watched the film, O Zelador before our capoeira lesson, which was amazing! This was my second turn at the martial art, no easier this time around, but I really did appreciate the history and lesson. After our classes, we took a trip downtown to Nashville, TN and visited a blues bar called the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar. It was an amazing experience. They feature live music and at the end of the set, there is an opportunity for a jam session. Random strangers, granted, some have performed together on this stage and I'm sure others previously, but they are called to the stage based on their talents and then that's where the magic happens. They agree spontaneously on the set of what to play and how to play. A definite must-see in Nashville!
Day 5: This was the last day of our innovative and really fun teacher institute. We prepared our teaching curriculum and presented it to the rest of the class. We had some really innovative teachers. Feel free to use the link above to access curriculum to help teach about Latin America in your classroom! The institute ended, but next year will be here soon and we will regroup again at the University of Georgia in 2017!
Day 1: Today we checked in and attended a film screening of Central Station. I was impressed by our dorm rooms. They were roomy and up-to-date. I felt that they were very far removed from my college dorms at Cornell University as an undergraduate! Since I was in driving distance, I brought a lot of extras, including a radio, extra blanket, food and goodies.
Day 2: Today was our first full day. We learned about race in Brazil and how it differs from the concept of race in the US. We learned about the plight of students in the Amazon based on the dissertation work of a graduate student. Very interesting. We had a beginning lesson in Portuguese. We also started to work on our curriculum. Afterwards, we watched the movie, Wasteland. Unfortunately, after our enlightening institute, we had a situation. My friend and I came to our hotel and were questioned by the dorm security. We tried to explain that we were teachers, that we had been in the dorm earlier, but they made each one of us show our IDs and were quite rude. We were astonished. We felt as though this encounter was a greater statement regarding the social fabric that makes up Nashville. Obviously, something else is going on in Nashville. We, as educators, felt as though our presence was not threatening. However, security did not feel that way. It made us rethink some of the topics we had been learning in our institute regarding race, class and status in the Americas.
Day 3: Today, we learned about curriculum, learned some more beginning Portuguese and worked on our curriculum. After a long day's work, we headed over to Opry Land mall where we shopped and had a good time and had a nice meal at T.G.I.F. Friday's. There were many restaurants and shops and we ran into some great sales!
Day 4: Whew! What a long day. We learned about Zika and the Brazilian Olympics in 2016. We watched the film, O Zelador before our capoeira lesson, which was amazing! This was my second turn at the martial art, no easier this time around, but I really did appreciate the history and lesson. After our classes, we took a trip downtown to Nashville, TN and visited a blues bar called the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar. It was an amazing experience. They feature live music and at the end of the set, there is an opportunity for a jam session. Random strangers, granted, some have performed together on this stage and I'm sure others previously, but they are called to the stage based on their talents and then that's where the magic happens. They agree spontaneously on the set of what to play and how to play. A definite must-see in Nashville!
Day 5: This was the last day of our innovative and really fun teacher institute. We prepared our teaching curriculum and presented it to the rest of the class. We had some really innovative teachers. Feel free to use the link above to access curriculum to help teach about Latin America in your classroom! The institute ended, but next year will be here soon and we will regroup again at the University of Georgia in 2017!
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