I don’t think anything in my life has gone by as fast as my experience in Rio. It seriously felt like just yesterday I arrived and was trying to make sense of this new place. With that also being said I feel like I was able to do so much while I was here and it is a very bittersweet feeling to be leaving on Saturday night.

EARJ taught me about many things, but love, compassion and the joy of being a teacher is what I am mostly taking away from here. Maybe it was because I wasn’t under as much pressure with completing lesson plans, creating units, and meeting deadlines. I was able to enjoy every day with my students. Being in first grade was a big adjustment for me because I prefer to work with the older grades, and I have had little experience prior to this with first grade. It ended up being such a positive experience for me and I learned a lot about classroom management strategies. More structure is not always the most effective way for students to be taught or the best environment for them to learn in. When students aren’t being micromanaged and make their own decisions they are learning to take accountability for their learning which also translates into better problem solving skills, and solving their own playground/personal issues on their own as well. That will be the biggest thing I take away from here is that here I am seeing a lot more kids acting like kids and learning through experience, making their own decisions, utilizing choice, expressing themselves through song, movement and creativity.

Where I see myself in 5-10 years is now very different after having had this experience. I am more open to traveling and getting out of my comfort zone. I would love to be able to teach internationally in Brazil or in another country in a few years. Before coming here this semester I did not even know opportunities like this existed and that you could be a teacher anywhere in the world at these international schools. I met so many expat teachers with incredibly stories of where they have been and where they are moving onto next, and I am so thankful I was able to see another side of teaching.

-Michayla Berthiaume

In my first grade class, where all instruction is in English, I had 15 students from Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. Yes, the American School is indeed an international school, not one of the students spoke English as their first language, that said, only two are receiving ELL instruction. Eight students speak 2 languages, six students speak 3 languages, and one student speaks 4 languages. They were an amazing and a very intelligent group of kids that I will miss so much!

Hello to all the fellow student teachers! Tomorrow is our last day of teaching here in Rio and we are leaving Saturday night. My time here has gone by so fast and I cannot believe tomorrow is my last day. These 8 weeks in Rio have flown by much faster than my weeks student teaching in the United States did. I can’t help but feel overwhelming grateful to have had the chance to experience not only living in another country, but teaching in another country. It has been amazing to teach at an international school with students and teachers from all over the world. It has been very humbling and inspiring to see how education connects this entire world. I am also grateful to have gained the experience of seeing how a private school runs. I cannot thank the administration here at EARJ, my teachers Ms. Cecilia and Ms. Anna, my 19 Kindergarteners, and all of the other kind people I have met at this school for all that they have done to contribute to my experience here in Rio. I will truly miss them all and will think about them often. Just like at Central School, I am going to miss my students dearly. It is different this time around though. I have learned that many of these students move around quite often and I know that they will all go off in their own directions across this world. I am truly excited for them and for the opportunities they will have because of this education here at EARJ. Although I am shocked that my time at EARJ is over, I am more shocked that this means that I have finished student teaching and am graduating Bridgewater in just one short week.

Attached below is my teaching video for Spring 2017. Here is a little bit of background context for my video.

I visited Michayla and Ashley these past few days. On Sunday night, we all met for dinner at Garota de Ipanema. Garota de Ipanema (Girl From Ipanema) is the spot where the legendary bossa nova song of the same name was penned. The songwriters Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes were inspired by a beautiful girl who passed by the window of the bar as they… We had a great dinner with excellent conversation.

On Monday, I observe Ashley read Dr. Suess’ “One fish, two fish” to her kindergartners. Excellent reading and relating the story to her students. On Tuesday I observed Michayla teach a lesson on “shortest”. Michayla used a very fun video to engage her students and teach her lesson.

I truly enjoyed my dinner with Michayla and Ashley. Given their thoughtfulness and enthusiasm in embracing their time in Rio, I believe they have had a life changing experience. Well done ladies.

Hello to all!

This week is our 7th week here at EARJ and it is hard to believe that next week will be our last week in Rio. On Sunday, Michayla and I had dinner with Professor MacMillan at a restaurant in Ipanema called Garota de Ipanema, and we enjoyed talking about our experience here and the benefit of traveling and studying abroad. On Monday, Professor MacMillan was able to see me teach my Kindergartners a reading lesson. They enjoyed meeting our visitor, “Mr. Bob!” To Professor MacMillan, we wish you safe travels home and to all the other student teachers, live it up for your remaining time abroad!

Hello from Rio!

Time is flying by here in Brazil. I cannot believe we are coming home in just a little over two weeks. This past weekend we had a long weekend because of the Easter holiday. Michayla and I went on a weekend trip to Buzios, Brazil. Buzios is a beach area that is around 3 hours from Rio de Janeiro. The area has beautiful beaches and ocean views along with tons of cool restaurants, bars, and shops. It was nice to see a vacation destination outside of the city and a more natural part of Brazil while we were here. I have attached a few pictures from our weekend in this post!

Professor MacMillan is coming to Rio this Sunday and to EARJ on Monday so we are awaiting his arrival and a chance to show him our EARJ classes.

We have planned our last couple of weeks here and are already getting sad about leaving. I’m sure all of the student teachers abroad are feeling the same way. I hope everyone is enjoying their experience and continue to have a great last few weeks in whichever country you are teaching in!

Hello all,

We have just entered into our fourth week here in Rio and I am amazed with how much I have already learned, seen, and adjusted to in such a different, crazy and beautiful city. There really is nothing like it and I never imagined working in a school that was in the middle of a jungle, seeing monkeys on busy streets and green everywhere. The city itself has been a big adjustment for myself, especially the driving! I think it is safe to say if you can drive in Rio you can drive everywhere… and even though I don’t actually drive sitting in the passenger seat is a adventure in itself.

So far we have visited some popular tourist locations, Christ the Redeemer Statue (Cristo Redentor), Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açucar), Rio Scenarium (a popular samba bar in Lapa located inside of a museum), as well as the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. We have also already eaten our weight in feijoada (traditional Brazilian dish), dessert, and all of the other variety Rio has to offer.

My experience at the school so far has opened my eyes up to a whole new teaching style. The school day is longer but I feel there is more time for kids to be kids. Compared to America, there is much less structure to the class, as well as walking down the halls, out at recess and cafeteria behavior. This has taken some getting used to, but because kids are not as structured I see it having a positive impact on them that they are more independent and don’t try to act out on purpose because they are being told for no reason. This also translates into the classroom and the curriculum. All of our lessons for reading, writing, and math are taught by doing one mini lesson per day where the teacher either teaches a new skill or reviews, models, and students will go back to their tables and work. Small groups are done every so often when it is needed, but for the most part students are very independent. This school also pays a lot of attention to brain breaks, movement and mindfulness. Built into our daily schedule we have time for brain breaks where students typically watch and follow along to go noodle or just dance, recess twice a day and every morning we start our day with some yoga, meditation or stretching. Another thing that is brought into the week whenever it is needed is brain gym, which is a program of exercises that stimulates both sides of the brain through stretches and crossing body parts, and mindfulness exercises which is like meditation but it grounds you in the moment you are currently in. I hope to take all of these strategies back to my own classroom when I get a job because I can really see the benefits from it!

-Michayla

Happy Saturday from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! Today marks 3 weeks since we have been in Brazil and we are finally adjusted, comfortable, and have lots of fun here! This past week at school was a short week (ending on Wednesday) due to the 2017 Association of American Schools in South America (AASSA) Conference being held at the Barra Campus of EARJ.

This was a very exciting opportunity for Michayla and I to be able to attend. At this conference we heard the keynote speaker, Craig Johnson, talk about how to rethink international education and what we need to do better. He made interesting metaphors for readapting education, comparing it to how the military is always adapting quickly and efficiently because they have to. He was saying that education should be the same way, we should be constantly pushing for better and better success, but sometimes education falls to the side because in all honesty, it is working good as it is. He wanted the conference to be about how we can go from good to great.

In addition to this eyeopening and interesting speech, we attended a practitioner workshop that we selected for our schedule. The workshop we chose was Bringing Differentiation to Assessment. We were able to learn about different ideas for how we can assess students other than typical pen and paper. I took notes on many strategies and got to see examples from the presenters from their students who have done some of these new assessment ideas. At the end of the workshop, we were also able to share any ideas of unique assessment that we have used and had success at with other educators from all across South America.

Another session we attended was divided up according to grade levels so I attended the Pre-K and Kindergarten session.Here, we were able to get into groups and discuss successes, failures, curriculum, strategies, classroom management, and anything about education that we wanted to with Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers from across South America which was an amazing experience.

To end the conference, we heard from student presenters who had prepared presentations to show us how they want to learn. It was interesting to hear suggestions on how to teach from the students point of view. It was a nice way to end the experience and leave me with an open mind.

Hope all is going well with all the other student teachers at home and abroad!

I have completed my first week at the American International School of Rio! On Friday the students celebrated the end of their Kindness Week and the school’s anniversary by wearing red for a big heart picture on the school field, followed by a pep rally to end the day. I thought I would share the link to this post by the EARJ facebook page to this to show a little bit of what is going on at EARJ!

EARJ Kindess Week