I met with the coordinators at the NGO Arte e Vida again today and things went well. They would like me to write up a more formal proposal of what I intend to do there, to be turned in by Thursday. It was good to feel like communication with them was a little smoother than in our previous meeting and that everyone´s on the same page. My classes will begin next week and continue through the first week in August every Tuesday and Thursday. I will have three classes of about 10 teenage students on those mornings (the first class beginning pretty early...on the other side of town, woohoo!) I will then have at my disposal a glorious 2-hour lunch/preparation/recovery break before having just one class with younger students. Then I will either go home or head straight to the Catholic University for a small break and then a class with adults. I found out today that there´s a computer I can use during my lessons at Arte e Vida. And the internet works--I checked youtube! It´s dial-up, so some mornings I may need to arrive early to load a video for my first class, but I´m so stoked! This will really help my class and give my students more authentic samples of the English language and American culture.
I went to bed last night feeling pretty overwhelmed and defeated in my attempt to design a good curriculum for this class, but today I´ve been blessed with a lot of good ideas. A couple of months ago, during a long car trip by myself, I went through my iPod and made a special playlist of songs I thought had good, understandable lyrics, some meritable features of the English language and a message worth discussing. This afternoon I just relaxed and went through those songs. I will have to narrow things down a bit, but I think I can make a pretty awesome curriculum based on music (that I like :D)! My ultimate dream as expressed a couple months ago was to legitimize the use of Beyoncé´s All the Single Ladies in my Brazilian classroom; I don´t think that´s going to work out. :( Perhaps we can have a dance party on the last day of class and I can sneak it in or something...I think Rhianna´s Umbrella might make the cut, though! One of the songs that I think might really cool for the students is a song called Forced to Sin, by Emmanuel Jal, a Sudanese hip hop artist and former child soldier. The song is an account of his experiences as a child ´forced to sin to make a living.´ Jal presents his struggles in a very redemptive light; he encourages his listeners ´never give up, never give in´ and at one point he claims that Jesus heard his cry and rescued him before he was forced by hunger to eat a dead comrade. I think this subject could really engage my students--way beyond the English classroom. I think they will in many ways identify with the hard life of child soldiers. I also think that this could be an excellent opportunity to get them to look beyond their own circumstances and reach out to help some people in even greater need than themselves. We could do some kind of project where we try to raise some money for one of the NGOs giving assistance to refugees and rehabilitating former child soldiers. I don´t know...am I biting off way more than I can chew here?
Another thought that came to mind was doing a ´key pal´ (internet pen pal) project with the youth group back at my church in Tallahassee. I know the youth at Centerpoint get ridiculously bored during the summer, maybe bored enough to want to write emails back and forth with my classes. It would also help them work on writing in standard English since these Brazilian students aren´t going to be able to make sense out of slang or alternative spelling. It would put names and faces to Americans and Brazilians, respectively. The idea came to mind as I was watching one of the classes of Arte e Vida kids rehearsing for a drumline performance. Their drums are each a little different, none of them being quite the same size, made out of painted wood, canvas and rope. They don´t shine or produce the same high, metallic tones as the youth group drum set. Nevertheless I thought, This is familiar...
Any ideas here? I´d love some input!
Also, is this video too trippy and strange to show little Brazilian kids? Clearly, the Beatles are awesome, but I´m on the fence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBZ8ulc5NTg
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Those are some great ideas-especially the pen pal thing- do many of the kids have Internet access?
ReplyDeleteHave you talked to your church about it? I'd say go for it if both sides have Internet access!
And the Beatles, well I am not sure what Brazilian kids would think about their awesomeness. They might get some good laughs, like me :)