Escadrias da Lapa.

When Ellen was here last semester, she met a girl named Marcia who is about our age, Brazilian, and speaks fluent English. We became friends with her (on Facebook, of course, this is the 21st century) and then finally got to meet her in person yesterday. She came over to our villa and then we hopped on a bus to Lapa. In one trip we were able to see the Arcos da Lapa (the Arches of Lapa) and the Escadarias da Lapa (stairs of Lapa). I wanted to see the arches so badly and kind of freaked out a little when we saw them. I think they are gorgeous, I could have taken pictures of them all day.

Acros da Lapa.

We walked down a couple of back streets that were so lively and filled with so many people and little bars before coming to the stairs. Which are also gorgeous. I don't know what I was expecting, but these steps just appeared. We were just wandering along down the street and then all of a sudden, there they were!

Me hanging out on the stairs.

This man, Selaron, is from Chile and decided to design these stairs. People from all over the world sent him different tiles with all sorts of pictures on them and then he placed them together in a giant mosaic staircase. They were breath-taking. I could not even believe how amazing and intricate they were.



This was literally twenty feet off the ground. Amazing.

At the stairs in Lapaaa!

All of us with the man who designed the stairs!

Marcia and I acting Brazilian.

Reppin' our home state.

Oh yeah, Flat Stanley came too.



A Not So Typical Week at OLM

It has been such a busy, crazy, fun week here at OLM! On Tuesday we celebrated Valentine's Day AND the 100th day of school, then on Thursday we celebrated the Carnaval Ball AND Ms. Cruz's birthday. The students have been so wound up and wild, but so excited about being at school.

The students exchanged the valentines that they had made with me and the valentines that they had made with Ms. Souza. The students randomly picked the name of the friend who would be receiving their valetine to avoid people being fiesty about who they were sending their card to. "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." The students are all at the point in their lives where the girls think that the boys are gross and the boys think that the girls have cooties. So it was super funny to watch the some of the kids exchange valentines and squirm when they had to give each other a hug.

In the afternoon, the students had a "100 Day Exhibition". They had brought in a collection of 100 something-- balloons, stamps, coins, whatever, and then counted them out on their desks for everyone to see. We brought various teachers into the classroom to ooh and ahh over the kids' collections. They also made 100 day hats which had ten rows of ten different items on them. Some of them really hated it, but some didn't really want to take them off.

They also had to bring in 100 of a certain food, so we had 100 Bis, 100 brigadero, 100 jelly beans, 100 chips, 100 of some sort of Argentinian candy. 100 stomachaches. But seriously, it was so fun. The kids and the teachers all loved it.

Yesterday was the Carnaval ball, and wow, let me tell you. That was crazy. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. The kids brought in costumes and changed after lunch. It was basically just a wild Halloween party. They dressed up as princesses, superheroes, Jasmine, Woody, soccer players, hula girls, anything. Each kid got a GIANT bag of confetti to throw down in the cafeteria.

Brittany, Vivi, and I at the Carnaval Ball.

We marched on downstairs and into the cafeteria. They had a sound system hooked up and played music really loudly while everyone danced around and threw confetti. It was SO FUN! It's so awesome to see the kids out of their "typical" element, just letting loose and having fun. It's been moments like this that have really allowed me to connect with my students so well, so quickly.

That ended in a nice faceful of confetti. Thanks, love.

After the Carnaval Ball, we trekked back upstairs (bringing loads of confetti with us, which I'm sure the cleaning ladies loved) for Ms. Cruz's birthday. The kids all thought that it was a surprise, but Ms. Cruz actually knew it was happening and just acted surprised. Again, SOOO much food! More brigadero, cake, ice cream, cookies, chips, candy. A child's heaven.

Carnaval Ball.

This week was wild and crazy and hectic, but so much fun. It's been a good experience in how a change in the daily schedule can affect the students and what the teacher wants to teach. It's also been fantastic experiencing another culture and how to teach the students about their own culture-- especially when Carnaval is such a huge part of Brazilian culture.

Clip Up Or Down? YOU Choose!

I am getting so much more comfortable in my classroom, and in Brazil, every day! Time is FLYING by-- I cannot believe that it's been three weeks already! THREE!

This week I started taking over a little bit more in my classroom. I lead homeroom every morning as well as administering the dictation (which is their spelling test). We celebrated the 100th day of school on Tuesday, so they had a 100 day math packet to complete which included 100 spelling words. The students have completed between 10 and 20 words a day and have done fantastic with it. I am so impressed!!

Not only have I began teaching and working a little bit more in the classroom, but I also introduced a clip chart for behavior. I loved the color wheel at Crestview Elementary, but kind of wanted to be able to recognize the students who were going above and beyond my expectations. I saw the following clip chart on Pinterest and re-created it for my student teaching experience.

Each day the students start out on green (Ready to Learn). Throughout the day, based on their behavior, their clip can be moved up or down. The students all try SO hard to get their clip moved up and do NOT like it when they get their clip moved down. If Ms. Souza wasn't in the room or wasn't looking when I moved their clip, the students make sure to tell her right away. It's pretty adorable.

I explained to the students that they have all day to move their clip around. So if they get their clip moved down to "Consequences" or "Parent Contact" during homeroom, they should work harder throughout the day to get their clip up higher. The students here HATE getting notes written home to their parents, so I did not want them to freak out if they got on red. As a class, we decided that you would get an actual reward or punishment based on where your clip is when the agendas are placed on the floor at the end of the day.

I am so thankful that the students are responding so well to this behavior clip chart! They are so excited about it and it makes me excited about it as well!

One Zillion Valentines

As everyone knows, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Which means that preparations for the festivities began today.

My students made a valentine with Ms. Souza to exchange with anyone outside of school such as their mom, dad, grandparents, nanny, or maid. (Yes, that's right, I said nanny or maid. It's affordable and very common for the people of Brazil to have nannies and maids. It's actually strange to NOT have one, which is so different from how it is in the States.)

I worked with the students in making a valentine to exchange with their classmates. We traced their hands and used the sign language "I love you" as the idea. I had to explain what sign language was used for as many of them had never heard of it. When I showed the "I love you" sign, one boy goes "ROCK ON!" Close little buddy, close.

 I worked with the students four at a time and each student actually had time to make the valentine today. Ms. Souza said to just assign who they would be giving their valentines to or else some students would receive a lot and some would receive none at all. I had each student close their eyes and draw a name of one of their classmates as their recipient. Some were very happy with who they chose, others were less than pleased. It was a good lesson in being friends with everybody though.

The students had a close to impossible time keeping their valentines a secret. Whether they were telling the person directly or sneaking a peak at other students valentines and going to that person, they could NOT keep it a secret. I had to tell multiple students that it's a really big secret that we want to be a surprise tomorrow. It wasn't that it really was a huge secret, but some students who were upset about who they had chosen were quite obviously more upset when their classmates laughed at them or rubbed in it. This is what I was trying to curb, hopefully it worked.

It was a good self-esteem boost to see the students all so excited about what I was doing with them. They all responded pretty well and kept asking if they were next to come work with me. Some of them enjoyed it a little too much and kept standing near the table as their classmates were working. That'll have to be something to work on for my next lesson.

Checking Things Off Our Bucket List!

As you may or may not know, the police in Rio are on strike. They get paid incredibly low wages each month and are sick and tired of it. So they're striking for higher wages and using the upcoming Carnaval as leverage. I'm not good at summarzing details, but you can easily Google it and find out the information for yourself.

[By suggestion of the wonderful Mrs. Kasych, I would like to add that there ARE national police here in Rio to keep the peace and keep up with general police duties. There are just less national police than there are local police. The local police have also worked out some sort of agreement where some of them are still going in to work to protect the city. I think that's how it's working out. So the city isn't completely police-less.]

Due to the strike, many people in Rio think that it is too dangerous to go outside and way too dangerous for us to go outside. We stayed in Friday night, but then decided that we absolutely could not sit in the house any longer. We've played it very safe the past couple of days while going out to explore the city. [Again, the city has police here. We aren't going out into the snarling teeth of hoodlums. We're sticking to safe, well-policed areas and avoiding sketchy areas. If anything ever felt unsafe, we'd hightail it back to our little apartment, pronto.]

Saturday afternoon-ish Amanda, Brittany, and I hopped in a cab down to Hotel Sofitel in Copacabana. Melania had mentioned that there was an antique fair there every Saturday and that it might be something to check out. We wanted something safe and something cheap, so it seemed like a good bet. It was interesting enough to look at, but antiques aren't really my thing, so it wasn't necessarily something that I would be dying to do again.

The antique fair-- so many floors!

The best part was when we stopped at the souvenir shop right outside the antique fair. We said hello to the person working in Portuguese and then continued talking to each other in English. After a few minutes, the man asks us where we are from. We said Ohio, of course, and he goes "Really?! I'm from Ohio, too! A little town called Painesville, you've probably never heard of it." As a matter of fact, sir,  I HAVE heard of it. Such a small world.

After going to the antique fair, we crossed the street to go to Forte de Copacabana, or the military fort at Copacabana. We paid R$4 to get in and spent a couple of HOURS walking around. The views were gorgeous and the whole place was very educational. There was a little cafe and a restaurant inside the fort that overlooks the Sugarloaf and Copacabana, so we're hoping to go back soon.

Forte de Copacabana.

Notice the flowers made out of bullets.

Later that night, Amanda, Brittany, and I went to this little store called "Americano Express" that sells DVDs for cheap. I know, I know, why spend my money on American DVDs? But we were cooped up inside and Claire didn't feel well, so we had to get something. I ended up buying 'Transformers 3' for only $7.50. Which is a huge steal, if you ask me. Sure, the menu screen is all in Portuguese, but I can figure out how to change the language, no problem.

We had a lazy morning this morning, just hanging around the house working on lesson plans. I was flipping through one of the thousand travel books that we have sitting around the house when I landed on the page about the Jardim Botânico. It was 2:30pm when I was reading the book and the garden closed at 5pm. I gave everyone half an hour and told them to hurry up and get ready because we were leaving at 3pm. And we did.

Claire and I by the incredible trees.

The gardens were breath-taking! We could see the Christ Statue every time we turned around, the plants were incredible, and the weather turned out to be fantastic. We left before seeing the whole thing, but agreed that we will definitely be coming back!

Christ Statue.