INTERPERSONAL & INTERCULTURAL

DIVERSITY IS: the collective mix of similiarities and differences among people.

CULTURE IS learned from childhood and it's dynamic and changes with time!

Remember:

CULTURE SHOCK involves feeling of stress and anxiety one can experience when encountering a different culture.

(Probably when we arrived here, it was the feeling of the majority of the fellows, but now I think we are really adapted...)

CULTURAL COMPETENCE - being able to recognize and respond to similarities and differences and to make better decisions based on that understanding!!!

COMMUNICATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION!

Conflict is a part of life. It is inevitable. Conflict does not have to be bad if we manage it in the right way. The way conflict is handled can build unity among people or drive them further apart.

"The place to start in conflict management is with managing yourself". (Ron Kraybill)

"ANGER IS ONE LETTER SHORTER THAN DANGER"

Helpful Stress Reduction Strategies

- crying exercises

- intense work activity

- humor writing recreation

- relaxation strategies

- verbalizion pain

- problem-solving activities

- music

- problem-solving communication

- pillow beating

-resting

The following video is: WE ARE THE WORLD, in a new version. This is a video that will be in our hearts forever. It is about understanding and friendship... Enjoy it!!!

GOOD LUCK!

Randolph High School

Randolph High School is a Private and Independent school, it means that they have fredom in the curriculum, they don't do the Examination Exams...

WE LOVE PARTIES!!!

Yesterday we went to Julie's house to a casual dinner, but as usual the dinner became a party...
The food was delicious, Julie, her mother and Kathleen prepared the dinner...

It was really great, we were together...

We'd like to THANK OIPS, our good friends here!

We've been in the USA for 45 days, it means 1/3 of our journey!

CASA Garden

February, 20th, we went to CASA Graden, a Community Center, it is a non-profit agency located in Huntsville that provides services to individuals age 60 and older and to the homebound.

As a part of their programs, CASA maintains a community garden.

This is the place that we went and we could help with our job for 3 hours.

It's a hard work, that needs a lot of volunteers...

ARE YOU READY TO LEAD?

What is leadership?

"The art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared expectations".

We are called INTERNATIONAL LEADERS IN EDUCATION PROGRAM, but there is a queston that we must answer: ARE YOU/WE READY TO LEAD?

Sarah Savage in her seminar about leadership explained about leaders and leadership... How can we increase the services in our communities?

We had some good activities, warm up... we were supposed to discover what kind of leader we are...

"Each of us has within us a Mother Theresa and a Hitler. It is up t us to choose what we want to be". (Elisabeth Kubler-Ross)

" So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths... while just the art of being kind is all the world needs". (Ella Wilcox)

MEMORIAL SERVICE

UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville) lost three faculty members last friday in a tragic event and tomorrow (feb, 19th) will be the memorial service, at 7 pm in Spragins Halls...

A memorial service to celebrate the lives of Maria Davis, Adriel Johnson and Gopi Podila...

It's a difficult moment for all families, staff and students!

During feb,18th afternoon we made cards to build THE OFFERING TREES, that's a tribute to these great faculty members...

RELIGIONS...

Hello everybody...

I'll let you know that we're 16 ILEP fellows in Huntsville/Alabama, and about our religions, we're:

7 christians - 6 muslims - 3 hindus

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Curiosity:

For the catholics today is a special day, because it's Ash Wednesday... 40 days before Easter...
So, that's time to be better!
Look out for SOMETHING TO CHANGE IN YOR LIFE!!!

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15th Anniversary of Marriage...

A long time ago (fifteen years) I got married to Cesar Jose Moreira de Souza, my dear husband.

We had/have and I' m sure we'll have good and not too good moments...

I know that it's difficult for a man, when his wife has lots of dreams, and sometimes these dreams must be dreamed alone!!! That's my case in this program...

I'm living the American Dream, that I've been dreaming since I was 15 years old...

I'm not home sick, but of course I miss him, and I call him everyday (phone calls to Brazil are cheap hahahahaha).

I'll introduce my husband to you all:

Valentine's day!!!

For me Valentine's day (feb, 14th) was very interesting, because in Brazil we have something similar but in June, 12th. In USA they celebrate the date not only boyfriends/girlfriends but also friends give each other chocolates and other gifts!
I'm a bit late to write this... but just today I realize that it could be important, because a lot of people here remembered me...

A CHORUS LINE...

An excellent "MUSICAL" play...

We watched it at Von Braun Center, feb/13th. Lisa loves theater and I enjoyed with her this nice evening at the teather...

Ivy Green - BIRTHPLACE OF HELEN KELLER

WHO WAS HELEN KELLER?

Helen Keller was born, a normal child, on June 27, 1880. At the age of 19 months an illness left Helen blind and deaf... Her Teacher realized she would have to get Helen away from her parents in order to be able to control her tantrums and teach her, so a cottage in her house served as the school.

Helen Keller's house is still very beautiful, the house was built in 1820 and contains much of the original furniture of the Keller Family and hundreds of mementos of Miss Keller's life including her library of Braile books and old Braille typewriter...

It was a great experience, and we need to thank Gena (Mona's family in USA) that drove us to this place, so we could enjoy!!!

Plays

Louis, Adriana, the character, Chan, Alix

These days a lot of plays took place in UAH and in other places here in Huntsville...

Shakespeare's plays were presented in UAH (feb,11th), and I watched Romeo and Juliet... It was very good!!!

Chan, the character, Adriana, Alix

Today I went with Fredy and Florentino to Columbia High School, and we watched a nice dinner/play. The characters were the students, so, it's was very good to see young and talentous people... The play was "Death by Dessert" - a murder-mystery-comedy!

Pre-Valentine's day...

WEAR RED!!!



Our cocktail's party was very good...

We had snacks, dips, juice, ham, chicken, turkey, potatoes!!!

Music, Karaoke (we tried, but it was BAD).

We also had the famous brazilian BRIGADEIROS:



1 can of sweetened condensed milk;

4 spoons of chocolate;

1 spoon of butter.



Cook all in a pan, until you can see the pan (must be sticky).
When they are cold, make smalls balls and EAT them... they 're really delicious!


Next week be prepared... CARNIVAL PARTY - Tuesday - Feb, 16th -DRESS UP!!!

The National Children's Advocacy Center

February, 9th we went to NCAC, it is a huge building in Huntsville/AL, this place provides assistance to abused chidren... It's really high the number of abused children, and 96% is sexual abuse...

Fortunatelly there are some places like this that take care of this chlidren , and the treatment is as long as it is necessary.

They also work with prevention...because the cases (unfortunatelly) are in large number, 1500 cases in 2009.

The most important is FREE and VOLUNTEER!

Chris Newlin

Executive Director

Friend Family...

That's an excellent idea... a friend family in USA!!!

In UAH all ILEPers have a friend family. This friend family can drive us to different parts of the city, churches, turistic places, some restaurants, malls, theater, some sports matches and also invite us to a dinner in their homes or some short trips!

My friend family is Lisa Brunegraff, she is very nice and since I arrived here we went to good places such as: HAVOC ice hockey game, UAH ice hockey game, Cathedral Caverns, Guntersville, Fly Monkey, Restaurants, Catholic Churches... Today we went to Florence, it is a pretty beautiful town, far 60 miles from Huntsville and we could visit The University of North Alabama, Indians Mound and Museum, and the most beautiful: a tower in Marriot's Hotel that you are able to see all around with the "highest view"... Ah!!! I can not forget the delicious "catfish" that we ate...

I'm glad to have Lisa as my "family" here and I can enjoy much more the city and the neighboorhood...

Huntsville City Board of Education

This morning we met Dr Ann Roy Moore, she is the Superintendent of HCME...

We asked many questions about the Education System, The Teacher of the Year, No Child Left Behind, Curriculum, Work Force X College, Meetings, Prizes, Competitions, Teacher Certifications...

It was very good for all of us, because we can know a bit more about Education in US!

Lasagna's party!!!

Do you know how to prepare a lazagna?

It's easy:

* 1 package of lazagna macaroni/pasta/nuddle (cook them in salt water);

* a medium pan with tomato sauce (1 can) and 1 pound of granted beef (prepare the sauce as you like);

* a small pan with four cheese sauce;

* 1 pound of sliced muzzarella;

* 1 pound of sliced cheddar.

Take a big baking and put inside it: a part of tomato sauce/beef, another the macaroni, another the cheese and the four cheese sauce, repeat these as many times as it'll be possible!

Bake and ENJOY!!!

Today we had a lazagna's party in CCRH kitchen, Adriana prepared the lazagnas and the rice, Florentino prepared the salad and the fruit(s) salad, Julie brought some desserts, and everybody gives some money to buy juice and the ingredients for the salads...

It was very nice, everybody was happy and enjoyed!!!

Thanks for coming...

Problems with the ENGLISH LANGUAGE...

As usual we were talking (Florentino, Louis, Novi, Kawthar and me) and a question about plural almost had a tragical end...hahahahahahah

I need to buy some fruits said Florentino...

Adriana (sure of her anwer) replied... FRUIT!

Kathar, Novi and Louis said that maybe could be the two answers.

Adriana said I bet that you are wrong Florentino...

Florentino quickly solved the question: I'll take my wonderful dictionary and I'll show you!

And he was as right as me, but I need to pay him (2 pieces of lazagna and some FRUITS!!!)



So, if you have some problems with the English Language ask Florentino and his magic dictionary!!!

INTERNSHIP

Today was a busy day for all of us... We went to our first "full" day in our internship!!!

Now, we can see the differences and similiarities between USA and our home country...

The partner teacher was nice, he/she opened her/his classroom for us, we could ask, observe... It was just the first day...

There are so many things to learn and to share and we must pay attention in all details, all the best practices and methodologies, they will be great!