A lot of planning went into the EIP program and I just wanted to share some of the highlights. Here's what the outline of the week looked like:
Sunday:
Students arrive and check-in to the hotel
Monday:
Orientation
Baseball English class
Extreme Sports English class
Urban dance / hip hop class
Pizza party
Tuesday:
Soccer English class
Belém city tour
Education U.S.A. Advising presentation
Watch U.S.A. soccer game
Boat trip on the river
Wednesday:
Basketball English class
American Football English class
Volunteer at Ronald McDonald house
Sports demonstrations (Baseball game, football game, parade with cheerleaders and marching band - it was amazing!)
Thursday:
Group presentations
Afternoon American BBQ (hamburgers, beans, potato salad, Coke, chips and s'mores)
Evening 4th of July musical celebration and closing ceremony
Friday:
Students depart
The coolest part of the week was getting to know all of the students. For many of them, this was their first time to travel away from home and to fly in a plane. The team leaders, who were previous participants, said that this program changed their lives completely and that the week would probably affect our students much more than we could understand. I was impressed at the students' maturity and gratitude - many of them thanked me after my classes and showed an incredible amount of emotion when the week was over.
The moments I remember were when students relayed their excitement about being able to talk with native speakers of English for the first time, about how they had never seen such technology like using keycards to open hotel doors before, that they wanted to be the kind of couple that Sean and I are and about how this was the coolest week they had ever had. At UFPA, one of my biggest problems is attendance and enthusiasm for optional English activities and classes. For me, it was incredible to have such an engaged, active, grateful and excited group of students to teach English to for an entire week.
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