Promising Practices :)

When I first heard that we were required to go to a seminar (Promising Practices), I was very unhappy about it, especially because I had to be there for 7:30 am! I also was very upset that after I spent $15 and registered very early, they didn't have any information on me and didn't have a folder as well. Luckily, after I talked to Dr. Bogad, she gave me a ticket for lunch and a copy of the schedule and told me to go to which ever session I wanted to.


Speaking of the sessions, I seriously loved my session. I chose to go to The session with Brazil and Military Children. First off, I loved that fact that Heather was in my session and I wasn't alone. The first part was with a Brazil Speaking presenter and her topic was Brazil. I really enjoyed the way she opened the presentation. She started talking in Brazil while holding a piece of green construction paper and no one in the class understood one word she was saying (it reminded me of when we played the card game and Dr. Bogad started talking in Hebrew and most of the students didn't know anything she was saying). Then she passed out the paper and told us (in English) to shape it the way that we think Brazil is shaped. This was very difficult for me in particular because 1) I honestly didn't know what Brazil looked like and 2) it was hard ripping a paper and trying to shape it in a certain way, rather than with scissors. Then she began to talk about her experiences with Brazil and all of the things she learned. SOme of the things that I learned were Portuguese is the Brazil speaking language, it has the 5th largest economy in the world, it has 26 states not including the federal district, and 60-70% of slaves that came to America came from Brazil. She was also talking a lot about "indigenous heritage", and 40-50% of Brazilian people are indigenous, but I have no idea what that means. She also showed us a really neat video about Brazil and what the people are trying to do to the Belo Monte Dam.

Some people want to build a dam but it will ruin other peoples lives that use the river for everyday life and have been there for hundreds of years. They want the people who use the river to move to the city which will make it harder for people to find jobs and homes etc. and it can cause over population.


In the next session, i was seriously moved. One of the presenters knew a lot about the Military and how it affects people because she is a Military Wife. This touched me tremendously because  it was about children in Military Families and how it affects them. I learned a lot of information that I didn't already know like about how some military parents get divorced after he/she comes back from deployment. I thought that since the parents got married, they love each other and they couldn't wait for their spouse to come home. That is seriously the opposite of what I thought. Some other things that I learned from this presentation was that a military wife or husband is called "military dependent", which means he or she is dependent on the service member and a military B.R.A.T. is a British Regiment Attached Traveler or in other words, "when one person joins the military, the whole family serves". They also showed a video that definitely brought tears to my eyes and many others in the room.

I was more intrigued by this presentation than by the Brazil one in many ways. One reason is they gave us a lot of information and I felt that they went out of the box when presenting. They also gave us resource sheets so if we know anyone that needs help we could help them and also use them for when we become teachers.

Next, the Teen Empowerment part of the seminar was one of my least favorites of the day. I honestly felt like I was back at my high school in an assembly that you enjoy just because you get to get out of class. I felt this way because the presenters were 2 high school students and 2 older women. Then they started playing ice breaker games on stage with like 7 people from the audience. This made me become very bored. Some information that I thought was important was it was a belief system and the tools they use empower people to work together. Within the belief system:

• Analysis & Decision- Making + Action+ Success = Power 
• Connection between feeling powerless and an increased risk of engaging in dysfunctional behavior
• YOU have the ability to make real and meaningful changes in their schools
• To make change, youth need access to resources to implement their ideas
• Most effective forms of youth and adult leadership are facilitative rather than command in nature

All in all I had a great time at the Expo, the lunch and my sessions. Like I said above, I didn't enjoy the Teen Empowerment part. I don't think that there were many connections to the readings we have read in class, but I can relate my session with the Military Children to that and teacher could have a Military Child in their classroom and the teacher must know how to deal with the child and try and help him/her as much as he/she can be helped.