!!!!  LAST DAY OF TRAINING  !!!

Well..  it is over...  after 8 days, and 40 hours of training, meetings, discussions, debates, laughter, and tears, the end of our first training.

Many things discussed among them: methodoly, ways to lessen stress during class, new ways to approach stds needs, self evaluation, new ideas, and mainly: a better relation inside the group.

Here are the pics (some of them) we took during this final presentation.

The teachers had prepared a first presentation in the 3rd day of our training, to teach something to to the group in 10 minutes that could not have any relation to language teaching. 

Had to rpepare a full class plan with objectives, dynamics, inter-social abilities etc.  After they had presented the first classes, individually, we had a full discussion on the bad and good opints of each presentation.  Trying to understand the details hidden inside of everyone's presentation that could spoil a class (or motivate them), we debated about techniques , methods etc.  

As for todays task, they were told to present another class, no related to english or spanish classes, but this time, in pairs. and had to rpepare again a more detailed class plan and trying to avoid the bad points spoted in the first presentation. 

So good results from this experience!!  they could correct themselves and i didnt notice any recorrence of the mistakes and erros that were stated in the first attempt.

So, enjoy the pics, and take ur time to join us in this final day of training!
You are very much welcome!! :)



Smiling teachers....   finally!! they are smiling!!!! 



Juan, Marinês and Ana Paola



Anita.  A 25 year of experience in teaching teacher. and Ana Paola.



How to negociate before food, when ur starving.  An inteligent approach created by the teachers Marcia and Cynthia.



Setting purposes.
A new way to make things clear, instead of just throwing syllabus before stds eyes.



Look!! its me there!!!  Listening to the teachers explanation and speech! :)

As usual, i was either with the BIC pen in my mouth or the glasses. lol
Gosh, i hated the way my hair is looking in this pic.



Now, look again - that crazy woman in blue blouse is me, taking notes on the teachers performance.



Me and my books again,lol  This pic it looks as though as I am praying or something,lol 
But i was listening to Cynthia presentation very carefully!
:)

This guy in blue blouse is Michael, an american, married to a brazilian wife.  He is the newcommer in the gorou pf teachers and in this presentation i asked him to join the group , just to feel the warmth of the teachers.  He was a little shy, of course, but had a great time. :)

SPECIAL COFFEE MAKING - WHEN "UR MOTHER IN LAW DROPS AT UR HOUSE BY SURPRISE".
A way to prepare a creamy coffee in less than 1 min. 
TEACHERS: Juan and Franciane.



Teachers asking if we ever heard about a way to prepare a quick coffee but which could taste good. (cos instant coffee is really very badly accepted in Brazil society. It is horrendous.)



Everything prepared: the instant coffee, the sugar, tthe grain milk and hot water.



Interesting point in this class: one should play the guest's role and the other the host's.
So, one had to help the other. The host prepared the instant creamy (yummi) coffee and the other had to help.  They shared experiences and abilities during all the class.



Teachers are curious to find out what would come uot after allt hat "shaking" in the coffee and milk.



This is the cream pasta that is supposed to come from all that shaking.  Gosh, i feel like eating it the way it is now! lol



The result!! A very special strong tasted café!!!!  Gosh!! delicious!! thumbs upfor Juan and Franciane!!!





 

BOOKMARKER -  Teachers Cássia and Marinês

The duet of teachers taught how to make a bookmarker using paper, and coloured glue.
Good point as a stimulus for creativity.
Teachers developed a really good job.



This one standing is Marinês.



Cassia is the one in beige coat, next to Marinês. She is very much interested in hand craft.  Nice thing that poped up during our trainings was that they could realize they can use their own talents to turn their classes more interesting.  As they can find stds in their classes who share from the same interest.



Marinês monitoring the teachers.



Attention and concentration:  let ur imagination flow!



Can u lend me a red coloured glue stick?

LOLLYPOP - Teacher Raul and Maria Olivia

Teachers Raul and Maria Olivia showed us in their class how to produce a nice handcraft, with a lollypop and coloured paper.  This could be used with small kids for any occasion, mothers day, spring time, halloween etc.

The good part is that for the first time in a hand made stuff, the class could produce it correctly, without feeling frustrated.  That shows a great improvement in giving directions, by the teachers.

Raul explains the class the procedures



The teachers copy the procedures, attentively



The lollypop in the cabbage.  Can u imagine that this big orange ball stuff is a cabbage? lol



Teacher Maria Olivia goes wild with the coloured cabagge!!lol



Teacher Raul teaching how to decorate the "head" of the lollypop.

 

Gosh

Wednesday.  finally.

Im bloddy tired.  These past 2 days were very busy.  yesterday was a very trouble some day.  I was informed that the ex-coordinator was calling the teachers at their homes saying bullshit about me.  Gosh. I am very pissed off with that guy.  He has travelled to the countryside for this week and even so, he keeps trying to screw my work!!

I told my director about this fact, and my director said he will fire him at once.  i dont think it is correct what he is doing.   He is seeing all the hard work we are developing to bring ppl together and minimize the effects of huis bad managing, and then, he comes and tries to screw everything!!! Grrrrr

I knew from the start that having him even being a teacher in the team could never work out well.

But, well, i think that now my director woke up and saw that he is harmfull for the team and for the school.   Also, yesterday, i had a burst of irritation in the middle of the training.  I said things very tough to the teachers.  Some attidtudes they are having that are not correct.  They stood there, looking at my face.  Gosh.  I really find it weasier if we all changed the whole team and put ppl i really trust and that i am sure do a good work..  But this is a sort of challenge.  i have to options: either i transform this team, or i fire them.  Or, i fire myself,lol]

Gosh.  Another thing is that i had a discussion by telephone with a person who takes the photo copies for us.  They had a delay of 5 hours to deliver some copies i had asked.  Gosh, i grabbed the phone and said really bad things.  And worst of all: the owner of the graphic house is the mother of one of our student.  lol

Hell with her. 

Im really irritated with all this that is happening.

This ex-coordinator and one of the teachers , a girl in there, who smiles at me and says bullshit by my back are the great source of my irritation these days.  Even my tooth is aching.  Gosh, i need to go to the dentist.  Shit.

Well...   to sum up, this challenge i had accepted (to work in this branch) is being the centre of all i have been developing in my life now.  Gosh.  Sometimes i think if i were with my brother in the USA things would be easier,lol

WEll..that is it.   Im at home, the secretary called me, tellling that the ppl from the head office were after me, i had to leave my dishes apart and call the head office.  Gosh!!!  I dont have a minute of time for myself during the week!!!  This shakes anyone 's nerves!!!

That is it.

Beijos 

SWEET KISSES

Oh

i wont say anything important now, and academic, or related to my workJust want to say that i am very happy that i feel i got a warm heart, and a very special person in it.

Christopher.

He is the guy i really have a crush on.
Gosh

A crazy thing that pops up in my mind is:  Sometimes i dont want to meet him, cos i know that when i meet him, i will have to say goodbye some days later.

as communards say: "I never want to say good-bye" :)

Crazy isnt it?

But it is true.   Gosh, i think that saying good-bye will be the most difficult thing in my life.
I can imagine the last night we spend together...gosh... that will be so sad.

Gosh, dont want to think about it.

About sex? well..  I will feel a bit shy at the start, obvious, cos it is a weird sensation... knowing the person from inside so well, but never experimenting having a "flesh and blood " relation with him.. and feeling his skin, and seein his eyes.  Gosh, i do miss our eyes contact.

it is weird we never got to have a webcam chat. he never puts it to me.  I think he is shy or maybe he feels uncomfortable.. I respect it very mush, although  i believe it is nonsense, as i really dont mind about his appearance, to me, he is the most beautiful man in the world.

I really liked it when he sent me a pic of himself showing his naked chest.  Gosh.  I really loved his chest.  My imagination flew away just picturing many naughty things a do with his chest,lol

Feeling like biting his nipples and scratching his back with my nails while he goes deep inside of me.  Gosh, hehe, what am i saying? lol

We are going to get along really well in bed as musch as outside bed.  We developed such a slid friendship that I feel completely comfortable to disagree with him, when i like, and also, he respects me a lot. 

Weird..

After I leave him... after being so close, spending 24 hours multiplyed by 15 together, it will be difficult to  be apart.  Gosh

Gosh.

Things are tough

But im glad i found him.  Just hope we can carry out our relationship.  I consider him being my bf.  A bf i will meet in 4 months time. And I know that he will love me even more after meeting me.  :)  Thats for sure. 
I like being loved by him. 
It is so warm.

Gosh..

4 months...

gosh 

WEEK OVERVIEW - training session

 Wow
What a week!!  I didnt have time to update this blog til today. Gosh.
My routine was waking up, going to school, work, train, get back home at 22hs, talk on the phone with Orion about the next day planing and recovering facts about the current day, and writing reports to my director, and also preparing material for my next day.

So, no time to upload in flogs, talk to friends on MSN, - i even didnt open MSn some nights, respond to e-mails ( a friend from US who arrived in Sp this week is thinking i have died,lol - no news from me so far.  Gosh, have to catch up with my correspondence) Chris has some benefits as we have mobile contact.  Hehe. And also, i took all the time "free" to write for him.  So he was the one who received from me some feedback on how days were, how I was feeling and stuff, and even so, I think it wasnt enough. glad he waited for me last night and we could talk for 2 hours.  I was missing it very much.

I even didnt have time to go to the hairdresser, my nails look crap, and also my hair looks like if i had returned from a war.  I need urgently to buy some new clothes.  My trousers look ridiculous.  Also a new pair of winter shoes, as the ones I have look as though as I had been to a battle field - along with my crappy hair.  Gosh.  Have to take care of my appearance.

Well..  about my "debut" at my new school...

Thrilling.  You should have seen the eyes of the teachers looking at me from my feet to my head, measuring me.  And the presentation of my director in the begining was really cool. Very emotional.  He said things like:  "This is Cristiane Lobo.  (weird to be introduced by my full name) and she is the one I chose to be the new co-ordinator of this team, due to her well-succeeded job at another branch, and her experience in other schools, bringing new life, new breath for this school, etc etc etc " Gosh.. They all looked at me and smiled. AI was so nervous that i behaved as a stewardess, u know? like standing there, with my arms crossed behind my back, in a fixed position, looking at each one of them. I dont rememebr the rest of his words, as i was very nervous.



The first days of training had special moments.  I cried, some teachers cried, I spoke, teachers spoke, we laughed, we thought together, rich moments of union among them.
Some moments I had to be tougher: I was firm and straight to the point.  One of them was reluctant. I had to be cruel.  Other moments I was like a mother.  They behaved as pupils.
Things happening in the backstage: The ex- cordinator poured sanitary water into one of the teachers' vase, in order to kill her plant.  I had to be diplomatic.  Had to control the wish to kill him.  Crazy things going on:  Never ever had a team of teachers so immature.  Some of them behave more as students in high school than actually educators. 

Some assumptions from what i could observe in these 4 days of training: A teacher completely absent. FOr him, it doesnt matter what will happen: he doesnt give a shit.  he is probably out from my team , after this training. How weird how he still makes part of the board of teachers. He doesnt have a suitable profile.  Another girl that is the centre of gossips.  She is out too.  A 60 year old teacher who doesnt have any sense of what "let the student speak" means.  She teaches as she used to teach in the early 60's.  Out.  Another teacher whom i had fired in another school, and he is still working in there.  He is an undisciplined person.  Doesnt like to plan things: Out too.  A teacher who is afraid even to speak.  Never seen that.  She doesnt show any lidership.  She is like those nuns, speaks at a low pitch, shows herself afraid to state her opinions, I didnt like her body language.  I would never trust her classes.  She is way too much insecure.  She should work at a church councelling board.  Not with teenagers. Teenagers demand a person energic, active, full of life, and charismatic. 
And so on..   Many good ones though.  Teachers who only needs a "push" and then, they go on doing a great job.  Im afraid i will have to work on new personnel soon.  Ah! Good thing!! I hired Michael this week! He is a North American man, married to a brazilian woman, he speaks very good portuguese (have lived in here for 6 years in total) very nice and pleasant person.  (although he is american,lol) But this is to show you that i know how to separate my inner opinions from what i do in my working life.  hehe  But seriously, he seems to be a very nice person and patient, and also, ready to learn new things.  His New Jersey accent is very funny too! lol  he doesnt say "Mike" / M-A-IK /, he speaks: /M - EE- k/

hehe.  But that is very cool, as we will learn a lot with him.  I, myself caught him on thrusday and made a lot a of questions reggarding his experience by being a foreigner in here, and also, his feelings towards portuguese language : which he says that he finds it very beautiful and smooth. He confessed that he discovered many ways to express himself due to the unlimited range of words in portuguese language.  And also, funny as he says that he decided to move to brazil with his wife instead of living in the US, cos he was looking for "life quality", he means: human relation.  He said that the warmth he feels in here in relation to Us is uncomparable.  He wants to raise his kids in a plce where ppl are not paranoid,  - his words.

Well, tomorrow i write more about this week..  plenty of news to tell
Goodbye for today. 

TRAINING DAY!!!!

Today it is the first day of the training!!!  OMG !!!  I am so anxious!

To tell u the truth, im scared to death.  Gosh, it is first time I am going to train a bunch of teachers who I have never worked with.
It is weird cos when u select the teachers, evaluate them and then train them, it is one thing.  Now, it is completely out of my experience.  I have NO IDEA of what i will face this afternoon.  They can be either very open to me or very restrictive.

The thing is: I believe that both me and Orion are very well prepared to start training them.  We spent about 3 weeks already working on this training.  He had gone to SKILL, we had met for discussions, I have read many books on the theme, and also, we spent Saturday night by the kitchen table, studying the program and rehearsing all what we are going to do and speak.

We spent about 4 hours (from 23hs to 3am) just discussing 3 days of training!!!  And the training lasts for 8 days!!!

I am going to arrive at SKILL today at 13:30.  I will prepare the classroom where I will give the training.  I asked my director to buy transparent papers to fix in the window so that i can control the colour of the room while i go on the seesion.  I planned to start the first half of training with the colour blue. Of course not that the room will be in blue colour, but will have blue shades.  This is to lower my anxiety and also Orion's and the team of teachers. Also, I will have a "fragrance oil" thing that will leave in the room a discreet scent of herbs, special ones to relax ppl. 

Another thing I asked my boss was to buy some small vases with flowers.  These vases will be given to each teacher at the end of this first day. This is to enhance the sense of commitment and also to bring "life"  to our working place.  Each teacher will be responsible for his own vase, and each vase will carry a label with his/her name.  They shall keep the vases in a common place and he will be the responsible for the maintenance of the plant.



Gosh.  Im so nervous.

It is sort of an adrenalin running inside my body.  I have no idea of what i will dress. Gosh.

I like it when i feel this thing inside of me.  It is good to be able to feel "butterflies in the stomach" when u are working.  I like my job because of that.  I can have plenty of emotions during my day,lol I feel like if I was about to ride in a rollercoaster!

Gosh...  Gosh

I hope everything turns out fine and that the teachers like me.
I am already prepared for all the questions they are going to ask me, investigating about my background and my knowledgement.  This is silly.

Oh! As the group is a mixed team of portuguese and spanish teachers, I will held the training in portuguese language.  I think it is better when i can express myself in English as I am used to talk about methodology mostly in english language.  But, anyway, I hope i dont make any mistakes in portuguese language!!  lol



Ok, now I have to have lunch and prepare myself, concentrate for the unusual day I will have ahead.  :)

Good luck for me!!!
Good luck for Orion!!

Later on I write about this first day. :)
Bye

HELLO !!!!

This is a screen print stuff of my ORKUT stuff.  I was invited to join ORKUT through Fernando, who is the Green Peace guy, and with whom i went on a parade, protest agains the cutting of trees in the neighbourhood.  When he first invited me to join this stuff, i went there and registered , glanced at the things in there, communities and stuff, but never more, after that day i went back there.

I thought that was too much for only a single human being: Two run 2 fotologs, a fotoblog, a private blog, also taking part of a community blog, and also being a member of a group of discussion in the net on Language...  Gosh.. I would need to be 24 hours in front of a Pc screen to be able to handle all this stuff!!!

But little by little Orkut started to be a new "hit" over the cyber mass population and soo, it was on Tv's, papers and radios.

And it is funny, cos when everybody starts talking about a certain thing, it is natural that u become curious and start to get familiar with that and moreover, u start to feel like joining it.

After some months apart, i started to receive many invitations in my mail box from friends to join this community.  I denied at forst, saying that i didnt have the time to run one more thing in the net and so on. But soon, i got tempted and here i am. :)

Let me show u some of the other things i run (or at least, try to ) in the internet.

My favourite one is Fotolog., and my address goes: http://www.fotolog.net/crissy

Fotolog has to do with photo sharing.  U upload a photo and then u have a network of frineds who go to ur page and post comments on ur pics.  Pics can be about urself or anything u come up with!:)  One thing i adore in fotolog is that the community (at least the brazilian one) is very much attached to one another. We make from our flogs, a kind of diary, but using images, and also, we get into many protests all together, lol
This last one is about a banner that the american administration is putting in all flogs from Brazil and Argentina And we definately hated that.  So, some ppl are protesting int ehir flogs, as they have been banned (yes, them americans bann the ones who try to protest) and the battles get really hot and funny, with our latin soul, full of energy to fight against those who want to underestimate us and also to shut up our mouths (i mean, fingers,lol) I think we get  crazy about it cos we had lived a dictatorship, when speaking agaisnt the commanders were totally prohibited..  So, anything that ppl make to make us be quiet, any kind of censorship, is a reason to a lot of trouble and noise that we make. lol

In the fotolog, I got to meet a very nice bunch of friends, some i got to meet in person as (Orion (/orionfalcone) - who i later found out that we had studied at the same university - today we develop a very nice work together, in real life.  We are spending the whole week together in my school making the whole training i am about to launch next week. - He is a psychologist, Ricardo (/skullptor) - who lives in another state, but he moved to sao paulo last week. I met Ricardo once only, in a meeting I had of some other friends, and as he wanted to meet me in person, and orion (they both are friends aswell) Then, we arranged to have some beer, and he is a cool guy!  And tall too!lol  He is about 1,88cm! lol Anyway, another friend i got to meet through fotolog was Rodrigo (/internetmen), we arranged to meet up in the ocasion of a celebration and then, we could talk and laugh! He is a nice guy too, although we never more spoke in the msn as we are kind of comming online in different times and stuff, but once in a while he pops up in my Fotolog page and leaves a message.  But we lost the everyday contact. Diego - /digs, with whom i attended university and we were never friends too close at that time, we belonged to different groups in "university society", and funny that through fotolog, we could get closer to each other, and also, by the blogs, i could get more intimate about his life, and nowadays, we are very, very, very good friends!  

Some friends I made in Fotolog I have never met, and some of them are: /buzzlancaster - He lives in the south of the country and seems to be a nice person, very young at heart.  /double_x - who lives in sao paulo but we never met up, as we lead very different lives, she is one of those girls who likes to go to fashion stuff and always participating in parties - fashion ones, of course , and wears those modern glasses and stuff.  We belong to different worlds, but yet, we can have good talks aswell.  And many others.  (I wont mention Chris in this list as he is not considered just a "friend" anymore, although he is the best friend i have ever had in my whole life!! Gosh!! Sometimes i think about the crazy idea of making love with my best friend,lol But he is more than a friend, thank god.  He is someone i learned to respect, I admire a lot, and is my great company.  This all before i actually meet him, cos  am sure i will have many more things to tell about this loving person that he is.)

Well.. this is another thing I have in the net, although I dont run it, I participate in it. It is called "Clube da Linguagem", it is a selected club of those who like to discuss about liguistics, theories, and being updated.  Not a "fun" thing, but to me, it is very useful as i can express my points of views and also, mainly, to talk about things 99% of ppl find boring, but we, the ppl from the Club of Langauge, find fascinating!! :D



This is the pic taken from the site "Clube da Linguagem" (Club of Languages). And some things we discuss, that u may find boring,lol  hehe

Well, also my community Blog, where some friends write about whatever they like, Its been a while since I last wrote anything there, and the discussions in tehre used to be very high-taken and hot.

In this article I sent to the Blog, I was writing about the "Social marketing" that The Globo Tv wa trying to make , as a way to get credit and approval from the federal bank to ask for a loan... hehehe... I am always protesting,lol

Well, tomorrow I try to show u more of my "insights" into the internet world:)

It s getting late in here:)

Beijos!