LTI Brazil, Day 5 - Susan

Ola a todos. Today I am going to talk about the adventures of day 5 in Brazil. I can't stress how much I am enjoying Belo Horizonte and how excited I am about the students. We are working really hard towards establishing a new sustainable LTI chapter in Brazil, but we are also playing hard.

Michaela started the day with ASA, one of my favorites energizers. It was a lot of fun and students came up with different actions associated with a word. Mine was "pao de queijo," a delicious Brazilian treat made of cheese. I got so excited with this activity that later I realized I had hit my legs so hard that I was full of bruises!

Then, we followed with Emergency Simulation. I told students that they were survivors of a plane crash in the northern part of Canada in the middle of the winter, and that they had to survive with a limited set of materials they managed to get. I posted a list of 12 items and they had to individually rank them in order of importance for their survival. Later, they were divided in groups of six people and had to rank again the items. Eventually, they got together in a group of 20 and had to rank the items one more time. It was really hard for them to do so in a large group, but they were able to achieve a consensus and, when compared to the actual answer list, they all did much better in a large group than in the smaller group or individually.

We stopped for break and everyone attacked the food because they were afraid we would deprive them from eating - see Dave's post for hunger lunch. We continued with an interesting discussion about emergency situation and followed with Chocolate River. Because it was drizzling outside, students had a hard time trying to cross the wet floor through stepping and moving wet paper. They failed many times and had to start all over again, but they were persistent and finally one group was able to successfully cross the river. We then reflected about their strategies, persistence, and the relationship between the two groups that were crossing the river. Michaela took the lead with the Internal Relations presentation followed by questions. Amanda gave an overview of the following week and told them that on week two they would be working in committees.

I can't believe that we are half-way done! I have seen so much progress from the students and their commitment and willpower to teach leadership to high school students is exhilarating. I can't wait for the barbecue tomorrow and to be able to spend time with the students outside session hours.

Don't go away, and look forward for the second week of LTI Brazil!

Tchau!

- Susan