Model School

This week and next, for the conclusion of our training, is Model School in which we get the opportunity to actually teach some real students.  We are divided into groups of about 3-5 people based on our subjects and alternate teaching lessons to either 8^th, 9^th, or 10^th grade classes of about 10-20 students (depending on the grade and whether students decide to attend that day).  The students volunteer to come to our model lessons as this is currently their summer vacation period. 

Today I taught 8^th grade Biology to two different turmas (classes) and it went really well!  My group is doing a unit on the Nervous System and so I taught about overall brain anatomy and the functions of the different regions of the brain, yes all in Portuguese.  During my 45 minute lesson, I did an activity with an egg in a jar full of water to demonstrate how CSF protects the brain (by the way, CSF in Portuguese is o liquido cefalorraquidiano in case you were wondering…just the beginning of the fun science vocab I get to attempt to pronounce correctly), and I had a drawing of the brain that I used in explaining the functions of each lobe and the cerebellum and brain stem. 

I had a lot of fun standing in front of the class and I think the students did too!  Other volunteers watch while we teach and I got some really positive feedback!  It got me really excited about having my own class of students in a couple months, though it is going to be very different teaching potentially 60-80 students per class versus just 10, but I am ready for the challenge!

I only teach one more review lesson next week, so now, I am basically done with training and am sort of just waiting out these next two weeks before we head to site!