The Beaver Dam LXIII - It Happened at Thomas

It Happened at Thomas Volume LXIII 2013

Lucia Maria Martins dos Santos Executive Director

Isabela de Freitas Villas Boas Academic Superintendent

Katy Cox

Project Developer

Beaver Dam Production Staff: Ana Maria Assumpção Robson Moura Fabrício Freire Mariana Santiago

We would like to thank the following teachers for having helped us: Ana Maria de Paula Scandiuzzi Carla Arena de Aquino Carolina de Carvalho Piacenti Catherine Taliaferro Cox Clarice Araújo Pereira Clarissa Muniz F. Bezerra Claudio Carvalho de Azevedo Eliane Oliveira Gomes de Lima Elaine Soares Viegas Frank Lício Couto

Isabela de Freitas Villas Boas Katia Andréa da Silva Falcomer Lucia Maria Martins dos Santos Lueli Loivos de Azevedo Ceruti Márcia Helena Caixeta Ribeiro Maria Regina Lopes Meireles Marta Maria Franco D. de Rezende Paula Pacheco Costa Reis Ronaldo Mangueira Lima Júnior Vânia Maria de A. Rodrigues

Beaver Dam Volume LXIII 2013

3

It Happened at Thomas

I was twenty-two years old and had been at Casa Thomas Jefferson for three years when I was assigned to teach a 3B group – high intermediate – from 8:10 to 10:00 p.m., nothing unusual for me, as I was used to teaching adults in the evening. I had also taught the level more than once and was very familiar with the materials; it was really nothing out of the ordinary, or so I thought. What I didn’t know, though, was that my life was about to change completely and that it would happen at Thomas!

On the first day of class, I went into the classroom, anxious as I still am on every first day of class, and greeted the students. I can’t say I saw or felt anything different then. It was just a regular first day of class. The group was large, composed of only adults, with ages ranging from the twenties to the fifties.

Of course, I did notice a very handsome student in the group, but I had had handsome students before and it didn’t strike me as unusual or extraordinary. Besides, he was a bit older than the guys I was used to dating and I was sure he would be married or at least engaged. The class went well, as did the other classes in the following two weeks, when I got to know the students better and learned that the handsome student was neither married nor engaged. Still, business is business, so it didn’t cross my mind to flirt with him or anything of the sort.

However, as time went by, something unexpected happened. The handsome student – Rubens – was always the last one to leave the classroom. When the bell rang at 10 p.m., everyone rushed to the door, eager to go home, except for Rubens, who slowly closed his book and put it in his bag, and always found a way to make it to the door just as I was heading out, thus accompanying me down the school hall and, of course, chatting. I’m sort of distracted and have never been very good at flirting or noticing people flirting with me, so it didn’t seem unusual to me. It was just a coincidence, I thought. Just a student who likes chatting, as many I´d had.

This after-class “ritual” went on for maybe two or three weeks until one Friday in late August, when the unexpected occurred. The bell rang, all other students rushed out, Rubens stayed, with his small talk, and all of a sudden he asked me if I wanted to go out for a beer. I really didn’t see that coming and was completely disconcerted. I told him I had arranged to go out with my colleagues, as we usually did very Friday after class, but that I was going to check in the teachers’ room. I asked him to wait a bit and flashed upstairs, not really sure what to do. The first person I ran into, fortunately, was Marta Diniz, my dear colleague who had coached me when I started at CTJ and was a good friend. A bit startled, I told her that a student had asked me out and I didn’t know what to do. She immediately responded, unhesitatingly, “Is he cute?” I replied, “Yes!” Marta then commanded, “Then go for it!” And so I did. We went out for a beer, chatted for hours, and I went home.

The following Sunday, I went to the movies with my sister and another very dear CTJ friend, the late Luis Beze. Parkshopping was the place where everyone went to the movies on Sundays at that time, so it was packed, as usual. We were waiting in line to buy our tickets when I saw Rubens there, all by himself. He was going to see the same movie. Of course, he joined us and we went out after the movies.

Luis later teased me and said that he thought we had pre-arranged this encounter; we hadn’t, but it was indeed a very unusual coincidence!

Rubens and I started dating secretly, without letting anyone in class know. He didn’t stay after class anymore and I tried very hard not to focus my attention on him in class. We also avoided talking about the class when we were together, and I never helped him with anything related to class work. He actually didn’t need it, for he was a very good student, and I believe I ended up being stricter with him on his composition and oral participation grades. In short, everything was going just fine when something else unexpected happened!

4

The CTJ General Academic Coordinator, Katy Cox, had been my teacher in the Teacher Development Course, and as a unique storyteller, she had told us countless anecdotes about when she lived with a Brazilian family for three years, how the teenage children sometimes made fun of her Portuguese, etc. One day, Rubens told me he had run into Katy at school and I was surprised that he even knew her. It turned out that it had been in his home that Katy had lived many years before. What a coincidence! This also meant that our secret was soon out, for not much later than Katy’s and Rubens’ encounter, we all met at a teachers’ barbecue and Katy connected the dots and realized I was dating my student!

To cut a long story short, no one in the group ever knew Rubens and I were dating, Katy didn’t reprimand me for dating my student, the semester ended, we felt relieved, and soon after that, we got engaged. We married in July of the next year, 1990, only eleven months after we had started dating, and Luis was one of the best men. Guess who picked up my bouquet? Marta!!!

My story is only one among the so many that have happened at Thomas. Casa Thomas Jefferson is not just a place where people work or learn English. It’s a place where encounters, like mine, occur; where funny situations, pranks, happy and unhappy moments, pleasant surprises, long lasting friendships, and all sorts of other things happen. It’s a place full of life, full of feelings and emotions. In these fifty years of existence, a lot has happened at Thomas, and this Beaver Dam publication is dedicated to these exciting stories that come alive with the narration of their protagonists, who participated in the Writing Contest entitled “It happened at Thomas”.

Each of the pieces is unique in that it portrays an experience that the writer found significant enough to share with the Beaver Dam readers. In each category, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd texts were the winners of the writing contest.

We hope you enjoy reading the pieces as much as we did, and we hope many, many more fascinating stories happen at Thomas in the years to come!

Isabela de Freitas Villas Boas

5

INDEX Teens 6 & 7 Henrique Carvalho Wolski Giovanna Lia Iglesias Pedro Rezende Merheb Alex de Paula Teixeira Diego Campos Laboissiere Villela Érico Jun Hatano Kitahara Lara André Pereira Garcia João Vitor de Souza Durço Vinicius Rosa de La Plata Julia Batista Jensen Gustavo Araújo Lopes da Silva Laura Maria de Souza Pedrosa

8 10 11 12 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 15

Top Flex & Intermediate Raíssa Braga da Silva Cardoso 17 Alba Evangelista Ramos 18 Rosana Marques de Araújo 18 Yanca Santos Costa 18 Ingrid de Brito Góes 19 Luísa Pereira Vasconcelos 20 Helena de Andrade Damasceno 21 Rafael Pessoa Cavalcante Lucatelli 21 Carolina Tavares da Silva Bernando 21 Roberto Casali Junior 22 Glayciene Ferreira de Almeida 23 Rodrigo Santana 23 Advance, Thomas Prime & Special Courses Ludmilla Vale da Cruz 24 Maria Eduarda de Almeida Santos 26 Lorena Torres Timo 26 Bruna Alessandra C. Rossi de Sousa 27 Bianca de Rocha Aguiar 28 Rodrigo Silva Figueira 29 Luiza Tavares de O. Nepomuceno 29 Ana Maria Borges Tomé 30 Samuel Camilo Padilla Castro 31 Daniel Leite Flores 31 Gabriel Lopes Barbosa 32 Eduardo Duarte R. Coelho Matos 33 6

Angela Maria dos Santos Natália Faria Resende Castro Giuliana Abade Maximo Rodrigo Alvarenga de Albuquerque Yasmin de Brito Goés Letícia Yukari Okada Luisa Figuerôa Vizú Helena Ribero Lopes P. de Almeida Gabriel de Andrade Damasceno Victor Manuel Fidelis da Silva Luís Fernando Elias da Mata Juliana Figueiredo de O. Gomes Raquel Aziz Batista Olga Costa Alves Souza Nilson Vieira dos Santos Laura de Oliveira Coimbra Henrique Bisi Alvares Maria Regina Costa de Souza Rafael Pinto Vieira de Paula Taís Laurindo Pereira

34 35 35 36 36 37 38 38 39 40 41 41 43 43 43 44 45 45 46 47

Former Students Daniela Simão Chaves Carolina Silva Ramos de O. Pinto Isabela Silveira Baptista Isabella Sousa Brandão Renato Carvalho Taveira Daniella Meira Lima Bruno Meireles Leite Felipe Igreja do Prado Torres Gabriel Nóbrega Amaro Gabriela Machado de Carvalho Samantha Fonseca Andrade Leonardo Rodrigues da Costa Larissa Geovana M. Guimarães Lucas de Almeida Santos Luiz Nascimento Freitas Maíra Konrad Brito Ana Letícia Melo Viana Rafael Amaral Naves Rafaela Costa Camões Rabello Guilherme Lopes Guedes Brito Laura Pereira Nishioka Gabriel Castellano M. da Silva

48 50 50 51 53 53 55 55 56 57 57 59 60 61 63 63 65 65 67 68 69 69

Rafaela Soares Vannutelli Maria do Socorro L. Dib Amorim

70 71

Teachers Ana Carolina Tiveron Juliano Calil 73 Peter Michael Leamy 75 André Espíndula Albi Netto 75 Elide Pinheiro Gonçalves 76 André Affonso Marisca 77 Jorge Alexandre F. A. Sobrinho 79 Larissa Fauber Lima Amancio 81 Maria Tereza dos Reis Gomes 81 Adriana Félix de Sousa 82 Vinicius Vieira Lemos 83 Haline Neiva de A. Fernandes 83 Themer Bastos 84 Ricardo de Andrade Monteiro 85 Sinara Assunção Rodrigues Pedroza 86 Isabel Patrícia Mercado de Faustino 87 Regina Celia Scofano Maia Porto 87 Patrícia Villa da Costa F. Mendonça 88 Thelma Jonas Peres 89 General Staff Sidney Oliveira Cirqueira Maria Isabel P. de Lima Branquinho Altamir da Costa Gonçalves Maurício Rodrigues Peixoto Paulo Hernandes R. dos Santos

91 93 93 94 94

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1 It Happened at Thomas

In 2008, on my first day at Thomas, as it often happens to everyone on the first day of school, I was feeling a little nervous. However, different from my expectations, this day was really fantastic. First of all, before going to class, I met my teacher at the entrance. I tried to speak in English with her, but my fluency wasn’t good enough, so I spoke in “Portuglish”.

Anyway, she understood me and she made me feel better. After that, I walked into my room. There were a lot of classmates. And, for my exasperation, some of them were speaking in English! And we were only six years old! Well, finally the class started and I realized that I could go along with it.

At the break time, a very smart boy called Guilherme came and talked to me. We talked about a lot of things. I discovered that he liked Lego and I said that I had I big collection. Also, we talked about our regular school, and I discovered that we went to the same school, but in different classrooms. Nowadays he is my best friend, although we are studying in different classes at Thomas. Until now, we love to go to the library to seek some interesting super-hero magazines.

I think the batman stories are amazing. He prefers the superman stories. The bad side of going to the library is that we can´t speak loudly about our super-heroes.

But the most surprising day that I lived at Thomas with my friend was an afternoon of October.

After the class, Guilherme and I were waiting for our mothers near the snack bar. Quickly the sky was black and a very strong rain started to fall. As we were r eceiving the water that the strong wind was blowing, we decided to go into the facility with classrooms. All was ok until, a little after, the light went out and everything became dark. It was all very dark and, suddenly, a loudly thunder flashed the aisle and we saw, scared, a skull just in front of us. I ran in the opposite way as fast as I could.

Then, I listened to Guilherme saying to me, “Calm down; let´s get out”. It was a relief to be with him at this time. Just a few seconds after this terrible vision, the light switched on and we saw (very embarrassed) that it was just the trappings for the Halloween. Then, we laughed a lot about the situation.

My classmates and I have been living very great moments at Thomas. For me, Thomas is a very good English school where you can learn a lot, make good friends and have a lot of good memories.

Henrique Carvalho Wolski Asa Norte

8

Teens 6 & 7

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2 The Three Cats

I always wanted to have a cat, but I have never been able to have one. It’s a childhood dream.

But one day, I discovered that I could not only have one cat, but three!

It all began this month. My friend Diana and I were waiting for our mothers in the parking lot.

Meanwhile, we were talking. Suddenly, we heard a noise. It was a white cat running! And along with it, there were two more: a black and an orange.

The cats were hunting. Maybe they were hungry and wanted rats – but I doubt we have rats at CTJ. Or maybe they wanted insects like butterflies and grasshoppers. I don’t know what they wanted, but they seemed to be so inspiring and perseverant!

We were enchanted by them!

That day changed my life. I found out that the cats belonged to our school. Their mission? Bring joy to Casa Thomas Jefferson!

Giovanna Lia Iglesias Asa Norte

10

3 It Happened at Thomas

I was 10 years old when I joined Thomas in 2010. I was in Teens 1. My name is Pedro Merheb and this story happened at Thomas. Well, as I told you before I joined Thomas a bit young; I used to speak English very nicely. My first teacher was Renata, a short and funny teacher. Now, my teacher is Myrian Rodrigues and I am in Teens 6. And this is my bad week story.

This story begins at Thomas 26/3/11, I was eleven years old when it happened. It was 6:30pm when I was playing with my friend’s fingerboard in my seat, when my worst week began. I heard my friend asking me to give his fingerboard back, so when I stood up, I stepped on my other friend’s makeup mirror. The mirror belonged to Lorena.

I got really scared, because of two reasons: She would be very angry if she discovered It out, and I could get 7 bad luck years. I was scared and angry at the same time. I was thinking to myself, how could I not see a mirror laying on the classroom floor? I just picked the broken mirror and put it in my pocket. And then, in this moment the teacher got in the classroom with the rest of the classmates.

I gave the fingerboard to my friend and saw Lorena looking for something on the floor. She was missing her makeup mirror, and I was feeling very bad. I was thinking about fixing the mirror by gluing the broken parts. When the class was over, Lorena was still looking her makeup mirror, and then I told her: - Don’t worry Lorena, it’s just a makeup mirror…

- Pedro you don’t understand, my father is going to kill me.

- Keep Calm, I know you will find it.

It was Monday and my mom always drove me home on Mondays. When I got into the car she asked: - What have you done today?

- Nothing special.

Sometimes we must lie to avoid bad things, but I hate lying because one day the lie would turn into a snow ball, getting bigger and bigger, but it wasn’t a terrible lie.

I dreamed about the broken mirror. When I was eating my breakfast, I remembered that I had an appointment. It was on Tuesday 8:15am, and my appointment was at 8:30am.I was going to the doctor, so I put my clothes on the fastest I could, and I walked to the doctor’ office. So when I left home, a storm started. When I got to school, I saw that Lorena was absent. That night I dreamed about the broken mirror again…On Wednesday there wasn’t any abnormal thing until I got to Thomas. I lost all my English material . I got really, really scared. That night I dreamed again about the broken mirror…

I started trying to fix it in the next morning but I had no glue. I didn’t have any good luck that week. On that Thursday afternoon, there was a science test and I didn’t study anything. I got a really bad grade. That night I dreamed again about the mirror

On Friday my luck was changing, I did all the homework and I had great class. But at night

I forgot an appointment with my friends at Pier 21 at 8:00 pm It was 9:50 pm when I remembered about

that, and my friends were already home. I thought …All the week long I dreamed about that mirror.

And that night, I dreamed again about the broken mirror. So I spent all the weekend long gluing 5,000 mirror pieces. So on the 7th day, it was Monday again and Lorena was back. So I was going to give the mirror to her at Thomas.

- Hey, Lorena! I found your makeup mirror.

- Oh thanks Pedro. How did you find it?

- It was under my backpack.

During all last week, I had bad luck and I dreamed about that scary mirror. After I gave it back to Lorena, all come back to the normal Pedro Rezende Merheb

Leonardo Da Vinci - Asa Norte

11

It Happened at Thomas

It seems like the teacher knew we were exhausted by the weekend and many hours of play, but even so we arrived at 8 am for our Monday morning class. So, before the class, she suggested: let’s go for a walk and took us to the bleachers of Asa Sul branch. “You can climb up and down the stairs to be less sleepy!” we were joyful. Some of us played again and again. Back to the classroom, it was high time to start the lesson. We did this a few times and one day she impressed us even more.

On the way back to the classroom, we stopped in the cafeteria and she bought brigadeiros for us all. We were thrilled! This is not a fiction story, but I am not going to tell my teacher’s name. I don’t want her to be in trouble with Katy Cox. Alex de Paula Teixeira Asa Sul

It Happened at Thomas

I was taking Teens 4 and I asked the teacher if I could drink some water outside. He agreed. I was drinking some water, water spilled on my pants. When I came back to class, two girls were looking at me and laughing.

I didn’t understand at once. When I looked down, I saw my wet pants.

I tried to explain to them, but they didn’t want to listen to me.

I felt embarrassed and it made me blush.

When the bell rang, I ran to my mom’s car. It was an unforgettable day.

Diego Campos Laboissiere Villela Asa Norte

It Happened at Thomas

I like a girl, and I met her at Thomas.

At this school, I had the opportunity to know her better. She is the first girl whom I feel this way about.

And so, I started to like going to Thomas because I could see her every class at Thomas. She is very good at English and she is very beautiful girl. Her hair is like golden starlight in the darkest night, her eyes look like beautiful diamonds, and she has the most beautiful voice I`ve ever heard while singing.

Without Thomas, I wouldn`t be who I am today. Érico Jun Hatano Kitahara Galois

12

The Most Embarrassing Day of My Life!

It was my first class day, I was very excited! My father would leave me at Thomas, but it was already two o’clock, and I was late. I arrived at Thomas at 2:10, looked at the wall to see in what class I was in. I hurried, went upstairs, and searched for the classroom.

I entered the room, took a seat and introduced myself to the class. I didn’t have the book yet, but I was paying attention to the explanation. I thought the class was strange, because we were learning about colors and school materials. So I looked at the door and I realized that I was in the wrong class. I stood up and explained my situation to the teacher, she laughed at me, and then I left the classroom.

I was on the way to my correct class but everybody was looking and laughing at me. I kept walking, but nobody stopped laughing, so I realized that I had a big piece of toilet paper on my foot. So I ran away and called my mom. It was the most embarrassing day of my life!

Lara André Pereira Garcia Lago Sul

The Beaver Dam

I’ve had a lot of experience in my life, and I’m going to tell one story that happened at Casa Thomas Jefferson:

Last Monday, I was walking with my mother in front of Thomas when suddenly one person gave me a flying kick on the head. After that, I fell unconscious on the floor. I don’t know how much time I’ve stayed ‘’sleeping’’. Nevertheless, my mother told me that I was not breathing for fifteen minutes.

When I arrived, the doctor thought that I was dead because of those few minutes that I wasn’t breathing, but my mother told him that I wasn’t. One hour later, I woke up, but I didn’t remember anything that happened before. Then, my mother was taking me back home when I suddenly shouted, “OH MY HEAD!” My mother was scared and shouted back, “WHAT HAPPENED?” Then, I slept again all the rest of the day.

I just woke up on Tuesday.

Since that day, my mother has been trying to discover who gave me that flying kick.

João Vitor de Souza Durço Asa Norte

13

It Happened at Thomas

It Happened at Thomas

The craziest thing that has ever happened to me on Thomas was one day when I arrived at Thomas and an amazing storm was happening.

It was very cold and wet. I got inside my room and everybody was there, as usual. But the rain was getting stronger and stronger, it got to a point that the rain was so unbelievable that the cars were being taken by the water and giant hailstones started falling from the sky. Some girls started crying, then the light was over; we got out of the room and saw that the people from the other classes were getting out too. Suddenly someone shouted because he realized that the first floor was flooding.

Almost every person that was there panicked and started saying that it was the end of the world. I went to a corner and I tried to call my parents, but my mobile was not working. After that, I didn’t know what to do. Everybody started saying that there was no hope.

I started crying and screaming. Then my teacher woke me up and asked me why I was crying and sleeping in the middle of the class, so I realized it was only just a nightmare.

Vinicius Rosa de La Plata Sudoeste

I have a best friend named Gabriela at Thomas Jefferson. She is very cool, but we fight sometimes and she is very vindictive. One day she didn’t go to Thomas.

I was terefied!!

Just on the next day I found out that she wasn’t at Thomas Jefferson because she was in the mall. I fought with her, telling her that it wasn’t right and that she could at least have told me something. At the end, we were friends again. I told her that when she was at the mall, the teacher told us to study a lot, because there was going to be a test on the next class. On the same day, I found out that on the next class there wasn’t going to be a text. But I didn’t tell Gaby, because I didn’t find her anywhere.

On the “test day”, Gaby came just with a pen, a pencil and an eraser. Everybody was looking at her and laughing. She was pink and screaming at me, and she didn’t let me explain! I was feeling that the world was screaming at me. When she calmed down, I told her that I was sorry and that I couldn’t find her. She ignored me.

On the other day, Gabriela came running in my direction and told me that she excused me.I suspected, but then I remembered it was my best friend and I shouldn’t suspect of her. Then suddenly she screamed: -Julia, there is going to be this incredible Halloween party tomorrow and…

- But it isn’t even October, it’s April yet…

- I suspected.

- I know, but our class is going to have a Halloween party!!! It’s serious!!!

I decided not to start another fight. On the day of the party, bought my best Halloween costume and I wore it to Thomas Jefferson. I was late! I opened the door and looked at the class… I didn’t believe, Gaby had tricked me! Nobody had a Halloween costume on and they were looking at me strangely. I was very embarrassed. I explained everything to the teacher, that was trying not to laugh. I went to my house to put a regular outfit. When I enter the classroom again, everybody laughed at me and I just ignored them. Gaby told everyone to be quiet and said: - I am so sorry Julia…

- It’s okay.

And now we are best friends again, but that was the most embarrassing thing I have ever lived.

Julia Batista Jensen Sudoeste

14

The Most Romantic Thing Happened With Me at Thomas

It was on Monday and I was walking in the aisle with my friend when I saw a beautiful girl with blond hair, blue eyes and a pretty smile. I went near her and we talked a lot and we became friends.

Two weeks later, we went to the cinema and she said she was in love with me. I said the same and I kissed her.

This story occurred on March 20th and today we are flirting. Next Monday, she is going to my house to meet my parents and next Wednesday, I am going to her house meet her parents.

Gustavo AraĂşjo Lopes da Silva Sudoeste

It Happened at Thomas

Two years ago, in October, I was in my Teens 3 class at Casa Thomas Jefferson. It was raining a lot, it was as if the sky was falling and it was pretty cold. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a coat. But as we were in BrasĂ­lia and here the weather changes like a girl changes clothes, at the end of the class, I went out to wait for my mother and the rain had come to an end, the sun was shinning and the sky had the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen in my life. I still can remember how this pretty rainbow passed through the beautiful blue sky that afternoon.

Laura Maria de Souza Pedrosa Sudoeste

15

Intermediate & Top Flex

16

It Happened at Thomas

1

Dear mom,

I miss you. Since you traveled to Moscow, a lot of things have happened to me. The most incredible one is that I have fallen in love. He is the perfect boy and he was the cure for the scars in my heart. Yeah, can you believe it? I met him at CTJ and since then we have been dating. You sure might be curious about how this happened, am I right?

Well, first of all, his name is Dimitri. He doesn’t stay much at home and goes to Casa Thomas Jefferson almost every day. He says that he has good memories of it and likes being there. I started enjoying being there too, because now he is my good memory He has taken care of me like no one else has.

Anyway, I guess I should tell you the whole story.

It was a rainy day and I was going home. Dad was going to cook lasagna for us - we miss you on lasagna days. Please, come home soon. I saw this boy on his knees in the middle of the rain, right in front of CTJ. He was doing something on the floor, so I decided to see what it was.

You would never believe it. He was taking care of a little cat! I know you love cats, so I thought of you at that moment. Dimitri was trying to protect the kitty from the cold rain. He didn’t even mind if he could get a cold.

I put my umbrella near the cat to help Dimitri and he looked at me. “Oh, hi!” he said “I know you.

You are Samantha, right?” Dearest mom, he knew me.

He knew me! I didn’t know who he was, so I think it was love at first sight. “I’m Dimitri. Thanks for helping me to take care of this kitty” he said. At that moment, I was as wet as him, but I didn’t care because his smile was gorgeous. We were both wet like fish and we didn’t care at all.

We decided to let the cat somewhere safe and then, he walked home with me Can you imagine that?

It was like the movies! I got sick on the other day, but I went to Thomas anyway, and I saw him again. We talked, we laughed and we became friends. My heart used to be sad because of bad people (I’ll tell you that story when you come home), and he said things like “you must know that there are people who want you to be sad, but there are other people who get sad when you are down. Raise you head up”

Oh mom, my heart became full of happiness.

I fell for him. How does it sound to you? “Dimitri & Samantha”, I think It’s awesome.

Dad met him, by the way. He went home to have dinner with us and we ate pizza. He said he wants to meet you.

Dear mom, I’m only seventeen, but I think I have met the love of my life at CTJ. We saved a cat, we became friends, he became my boyfriend and I became his girlfriend. Now we are at CTJ and he is buying some brownies for us, so I will write to you later.

Now we are going to play poker with our friends. I’m in love, I’m happy, and I miss you.

Raíssa Braga da Silva Cardoso Asa Norte

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It Happened at Thomas!

2

I have twins and they have studied at Thomas.

One day I had the news that Thomas was promoting a “Talent Show” for Thomas community. They were very interested in participating, showing their talents.

Guilherme was studying clarinet and Gustavo, piano. They decided to participate in the talent show.

Very courageous boys! They had decided to play together and chose the song. It was “Minuet” from Bach. Every day they played at home. All of us hearing and hearing … Ah!

My husband and I had a lot of trouble helping them. We had brought the keyboard, wires, sound box, seats from our house. Imagine that!

We also invited friends and family. When the show began, we were very anxious. Mothers’ hearts suffer a lot. Mothers always want the best for their sons.

I was worried if they would play well.

The auditorium was completely full. Too many people talking and laughing.

My sons were called to show their talent. They wanted to start playing, but there was too much noisy.

So, Guilherme got the microphone and talked to the people: “silence, please! We want to play”. People stopped talking to look at them! What was that boy saying? People started laughing for few seconds and then shut up. Everybody stopped talking and began to pay attention.

It was a beautiful song and they played marvelously.People became relaxed and enjoyed the nice song. When the boys stopped, all of them applauded a lot. They really liked the Minuet from Bach played by my sons.

It was a nice night. I was very proud of them!

Alba Evangelista Ramos Asa Norte

It Happened at Thomas

This semester at CTJ my class changed rooms on the first day of class. After the break, I completely forgot about that change! I was walking to my nightmare,I mean, my old classroom. When I opened the door, I saw that I was in the wrong class. I thought “Where is my teacher? Where are my classmates? Oh my Gosh! Where am I???” I wanted to go back, but I had already entered. In spite of the fact that everybody was looking at me, I didn’t do anything, I stayed there, waiting for something magic happen and my class come back, but it didn’t happen! Two minutes after this (I know that it was fast, but not for me) I just said “wrong class” and I went on a treasure hunt, to look for my class.

Thank God I saw one paper saying that Classroom 13 had changed to Classroom 19, and that was my class! When I opened the door, no surprises, I was in the right classroom with my teacher and my classmates. I know I was late, but I was really happy to find my class. Thus, I went to my place and I continued the class. It was so scary and it was also really funny. I’ll always remember what HAPPENED AT THOMAS.

Yanca Santos Costa Asa Sul

It Happened in April

My son and I are students at CTJ of Teens 4 and Top Flex 2 respectively. On April 12th, CTJ hosted a parent-teacher meeting. It was a great opportunity to meet and talk with my son’s teacher.

What a coincidence! His teacher was my teacher last semester! She told me that he is a good, smart and polite student.

I was very, very happy because she is a wonderful teacher and I learned a lot with her!

Rosana Marques de Araújo Taguatinga

18

3

“It Happened at Thomas” Unexpected Situation

It’s well-known that CTJ is the most famous English course in Brasília. It started 50 years ago, when the first Casa Thomas Jefferson was constructed.

Also, we know that every old building has got its history, and every history has got its mysteries.

The Casa in Asa Norte was scary, full of skulls, witches and pumpkins. It was Halloween time! It was around 10:30a.m. when I got out of the toilet and saw a weird man, wearing old-fashioned clothes. He made a gesture with his hands in order to make me follow him. And I did it. Then, I realized we were going to the library. I was trying to understand why he was taking me there. Actually, I was afraid of him, I had never seen that guy at Thomas before, but I thought it was just a teacher playing tricks. Moreover, I was curious to see what he was going to do next.

When we got there, he smiled at me and introduced himself as Thomas Jefferson. I was shocked and in the blink of an eye, he opened a book and we entered it. We went to a building and I noticed it was the Casa, but there was something strange. Everything was quite old. Thomas told me we had gone back in time; we were in 1983. After this, I asked him why he had taken me there, and he answered that he wanted to show me something about the place.

We started walking around the school and he showed me a hidden way, which was a door placed in the teachers’ room, under a big rug. The most amazing thing was that it could take us to his own library. At that moment, I discovered CTJ teachers’ biggest secret: they’ve gained knowledge from that library books, which explains the quality and efficiency of the Casa.

While I was distracted, the USA ex-President told me that the best way to success is reading a lot and learning from it. He told me, as well, that it was time to leave, because my mother was waiting for me to go home. I got back to the teachers’ room very quickly and, just like magic, I came back to the present. I know he’s gone, but my memories are still alive. I won’t be able to forget that experience.

Ingrid de Brito Góes Asa Norte

19

It Happened at Thomas

Since I started my English classes at Thomas, I had to study with students who were younger than me, including my brother. For this reason, it was boring sometimes. However, everything changed when I was finishing Teens 4 and I had to take a test to go to the Regular Course.

I was placed in the Intermediate Course, level 2B. I was anxious because I was going to be in another class with different students. When I arrived in the classroom, I saw two girls I had studied with before.

I also saw two girls from my new school, but I didn’t know them yet.

The class started and I met my new teacher, his name was Derrick. When he told us that he had lived almost his entire life in the USA, I was very excited! That is so cool! I wish I could travel to the USA, go to NY and LA. Actually I want to travel to many places around the world.

Everybody in the new class was more or less my age, so it was better to talk and find common likes and dislikes. In the course of time, I made friends, including the girls who study in the same school I go to.

Derrick is an excellent teacher; moreover, he is so funny. In every class, he used to tell us a funny situation here, in Brazil, because he doesn’t speak Portuguese very well yet. So we laughed every class, I loved that. Sometimes, in the break, he tried to speak with us in Portuguese, and we had to help him with some words.

I think the classes were so cool and amazing because we learned about English, but it wasn’t boring, like when we have to go to school and study math. We could learn and have fun. Then, some day after the class I realized how happy I was to be part of Intermediate 2B, Class: 257. I will never forget Derrick and my friends, we were a united group. This was what happened to me at Thomas: I found my place.

Unfortunately, in the end of last year, it was my brother’s to take his exam to change the Regular Course. The problem was that his new class was on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I had to change classes to study on these days. Now I’m in 3B and I miss my old class a lot. However, I can still know about them by some girls at my school or on Facebook.

Luísa Pereira Vasconcelos Águas Claras

20

The Dream

There I was, on the top of the building. I looked down and I could only see little points walking around the building. When I looked up, I saw a beautiful sunrise, the sky was all orange. I heard someone calling my name, but I ignored it. Then I heard someone’s footsteps, and got scared. Someone was trying to stop me, but I couldn’t let that happen. So I jumped and started to fall. Then, out of nowhere, two wings appeared on my back and I started to fly, like a bird. I felt free, I felt like nothing could stop me, but then a hand appeared on my shoulder and someone started to say my name again. I started to fall and the voice was getting louder and louder...

“Helena! Wake up! This class is important.

Everything is going to be on the test!”

“Sorry teacher, I didn’t mean to sleep...”

It Happened at Thomas

I’ll write about a true fact... I think after that I could see how cool my English classes at Thomas were going to be. I had a beautiful and very cool teacher!

But she was a different kind of teacher, she made all classes happen in a way that I felt good about. One day, she asked me what I wanted to be when I became an adult. I didn’t say that I wanted to be her husband, but I wanted to (laughing).

I can’t say her name, but she was special to me because she made the best semester ever in my course.

I can’t remember all the classes that I had because there were many, but I can say I paid attention to every class because I was interested in every second. That is what I want to say: the fact that my class and I had the greatest semester of all our life.

What happened at Thomas? This is the question that I will try to answer at the end of this writing. But first, let me tell you a story about a girl full of dreams and objectives in her life.

This girl always wanted to do something important and meaningful for the world and chose to be a scientist. Since she was a little girl, she was very curious about nature and the phenomenon of life. That is why she did her undergraduate studies in Biology and continues studying nowadays. But, one thing was missing in her life: learning English to conquer the world!

The first trial to study English was during her undergraduate studies, when she used her scholarship to pay her course. She studied for one year and half in a good school, but not in the best school in town. The girl learned a lot but it was not enough. She wanted more and more.

When she started her PhD studies, she made a list of really important things to do before she finished her PhD: the top of this list was to finish her English course at the best English school in town. At the end of the first PhD year, the girl applied to get a scholarship at “Casa Thomas Jefferson”. Big news came in the following year: she got the scholarship! It was one of the best moments in her life! She was so excited to start the beginning of the end of a great dream!

Then she started the classes and everything was fantastic, amazing and wonderful! The dream toenter into the school came true, with the excitement of the first lesson and acquiring brand new books, with that smell that only new books have, the fresh new start of going through the entrance gates, the “butterflies in the stomach” when you are going to meet new people and the funny part: having classes with one of the coolest teachers that she ever had!

So, answering the question above, for the girl and for me, everything good, exciting, funny, new, interesting, happened at Thomas! Congrats, Thomas, to provide the most amazing experience in these 50 years of existence.

Rafael Pessoa Cavalcante Lucatelli

Carolina Tavares da Silva Bernardo

Helena de Andrade Damasceno Marista - Asa Sul

It Happened at Thomas

Asa Norte

Sudoeste

21

It Happened at Thomas

“What happened at Thomas?” is the question we are being asked. Many things have happened at Thomas. After all, Casa Thomas Jefferson is as old as Brasilia. Many important people have a history at this school. What if I told you that Lars Grael, the Brazilian Olympic champion, is the son of Ingrid Grael, who was an English teacher and a director at Thomas Jefferson?

Does that surprise you?

The life of this woman has always been linked to sports. Ingrid loved tennis, a sport that she started practicing in adulthood, but that led her to winning the Foreign Ministry Cup in Brasilia. Also, her father, Preben Schmidt, was one of the first boatmen of the country and introduced all her children to the sport. The twins Erik and Axel, Ingrid’s brothers, were the first Brazilian sailing world champions.

Because of her children, she used to joke that she was “the greatest mother of Brazilian Olympic sport. Ingrid had three children: Axel and Olympic champions Lars and Torben Grael. Lars Grael won two Olympic bronze medals and worked at the Ministry of Sports in Brasilia. Torben Grael is the largest Olympic medalist and sailor of the country with the most medals in the planet. During parties in her home, trays used to serve drinks were actually trophies awarded in championships won by her children and their father.

But her life was not always involved with sports.

When she was young, she was Miss Niterói and was placed second in the Miss Brazil beauty pageant. In Brasilia, she taught English and was later a Director of Thomas Jefferson.

Because Thomas Jefferson started when Brasilia started, if we investigate a little, we will probably discover other famous names that had a little history here. Lars Grael and Torben Grael were students at Thomas. Their mother was a teacher and a director here. And, just like them, I am sure other important people spent some of their years here. Casa Thomas Jefferson is certainly an important part of the history of Brasilia.

Roberto Casali Junior Asa Sul

22

Casa Thomas Jefferson: Bridge to Success

Some years ago, I was just 13 years old, very humble, and was selling some candies on a street near Casa Thomas Jefferson to help my family.

A beautiful day, a man approached me and said, “Hey boy, I had been observing you and I liked the fact that you are a hard-working boy and so young.

Do you study?” Then I replied, “Yes sir, just at night.”

That man asked me another question, “What do you want to be?” And I replied, “I don’t know, but I’d like to be an intellectual and travel to many countries. Sometimes I see boys and girls leaving that school (Casa Thomas Jefferson) speaking English. I feel envious and I wish that could be me.”

After that, he said, “Your dream will come true now because I just approached you to do something for you. That one is the Casa Thomas Jefferson and I have good reference about it. You can register today and I will pay a course for you.”

I was very grateful and I did what he told me to do.

It’s been five years and I never saw him again.

But one day I was leaving Casa Thomas Jefferson, as always I was practicing English with my classmate, then a foreign guy approached me and said, “I can see that you both can speak English very well. I need some help because I have a negotiation with a business executive of this country and I need an interpreter.” So I said that I could help him.

That same day I went to the company with him.

We arrived at an important company. When I got in the business executive’s office, I was so surprised and almost fainted because that businessman was the same man that had helped me when I was selling candies.

He didn’t remember me, but I hug him and said, “I am that boy that you helped some years ago.

And now I am here to be your interpreter. What a coincidence! And this is a great opportunity to say thank you so much!!!”

It Happened at Thomas

I would like to write about something curious, but at the same time very common among adults that decide to study English. It is about perseverance.

Some years ago, I started my English course at Thomas Jefferson. At that time, I had never studied English in a regular course. I had just finished University and I was beginning my professional career. I knew that this lack of knowledge could harm my plans, not only in terms of professional life, but also in my own personal development. After two modules at Thomas Flex course, I did not see a good improvement. Despite the fact that one teacher told me that I would need to persevere, I decided to quit. I thought I could learn English quickly.

Therefore, I started my peregrination in many “magic” courses. As the solution did not come as fast as I hoped, my persistence was going down. Suddenly, I remembered the tip that my teacher had given me once, in the beginning of my course at Thomas. There is no miracle to learn English, but one thing is necessary: to be persistent.

For this reason, I decided to come back to CTJ, to Top Flex course and I will remain in my English studies until I finish Thomas Prime course.

Rodrigo Santana Asa Norte

Glayciene Ferreira de Almeida Taguatinga

23

It Happened at Thomas

1

Once upon a time... wait, I guess that’s not the best way to start the story I’m about to tell you, since it isn’t exactly a fairytale. Well, I am 15 years old and I have spent almost half of my life going to Casa Thomas Jefferson twice a week. During those 7 years, I’ve had a lot of experiences, including a really terrifying one.

It was a stormy day in October of 2008 and my English class had just started when the lights went out.

My teacher said that since we were close to the Halloween, she’d let us go out of the classroom to ask for candies. At that time, I used to be really afraid of the dark, so I decided to stay very close to our teacher all the time.

At one point of our journey around Thomas, I told the teacher I had to go to the bathroom. Since she couldn’t leave the other students alone, she asked some older girls to make me company and gave us a flashlight. What the teacher didn’t know is that those girls, for some reason I still don’t understand, were very, very mean.

We entered the bathroom and the girls told me they would wait for me with the flashlight on. I was opening the zipper of my pants when I heard a loud noise, some people screaming and then the light disappeared. I called the girls, but no one answered me. Everything was dark. I got desperate. I tried to get out of the bathroom, but I couldn’t unlock the door.

At that point, I decided that the best thing I could do was to try not to panic and wait for someone to come in and help me. I was controlling my breath and waiting for my heart to slow down when something happened: I felt a hand grabbing my leg very tight.

I didn’t know where it was coming from, so I started screaming and shaking my leg. All I wanted was to get rid of it. However, it didn’t matter how much I tried, the hand wouldn’t go away. After almost 15 seconds of that torture, which felt like hours, it just disappeared.

I was in shock, but at the same time all I wanted was to get out of that place. I was crying very loud when I heard some people laughing. I asked who was there, and one of the girls replied, “How come you don’t know who’s here? We’ve been here all this time...

The flashlight isn’t working anymore, but it’s not our fault. Why are you crying? Don’t be such a baby.”

24

After the girl said that, she and her friends left the bathroom. I realized everything I had experienced that day had been a prank and I got so relieved. I tried to open the door again and it was unlocked, so I ran to my classroom, packed my things and waited for my mom, acting as nothing had happened.

Nowadays I laugh every time I remember this episode and how desperate I got. I don’t blame those girls for what they did because after some time I realized they were just trying to experience a real Halloween, part of the American culture. And that, ladies and gentleman, could only happen at Thomas.

Ludmilla Vale da Cruz Asa Sul

Advanced, Thomas prime & Special courses

25

Spelling Brother

2

One of the most exciting experiences I have ever had while studying at Casa Thomas Jefferson was when my brother Lucas won the Spelling Bee contest in 2010. At the time, I was only 10 years old and a Teens 4 student. Despite my age, I helped my brother by asking him vocabulary questions and giving him moral support.

This is how Spelling Bee at CTJ works: the teacher pulls a random piece of paper with a word written on it out of a bag, and one of the contestants spells it. If the spelling is wrong, a red light goes on and beeps, almost like a siren, and the contestant is eliminated from the competition.

On the day of the finals, I brought a homemade banner which said “We Love U!” to encourage him during the contest, because I knew he was very anxious. Even though he was worried, he walked up on stage overly confident, almost like he knew he was going to be the champion. People could tell he was the most charismatic contestant. Every time he spelled a word right, he would raise his hands up and smile at the audience in a form of celebration.

Several folks and even teachers told my family they were cheering for my brother. He was also the fastest of the competitors to say the letters, and even my dad was afraid he would miss one and spell the word incorrectly.

After a long time, almost all the words in the bag were gone, and he and a girl were left competing. None of those two seemed to misspell a single word, and both of them didn’t appear to be tired at all, though most of the audience seemingly did. About two hours had already passed by when the words ended, and both of them were declared winners.

Because of that, they split the prizes corresponding to the first and second places, ending up with R$ 300 in FNAC gift certificates. Lucas was extremely happy.

This experience moved me to keep studying and enhancing my English. As I saw my brother practicing nonstop, it also made me see that hard work always pays off in the end. Nowadays, even though my brother has already finished the Advanced course, his studies at Casa Thomas Jefferson have helped him become fluent in the English language, bringing him various opportunities.

Maria Eduarda de Almeida Santos Asa Sul

26

It Happened at Thomas

3

Once upon a time, in the far, far away Kingdom of Brazil, there was an average-girl called Lorena. Lorena was known for her dreamy personality, for she always trusted in the power of the dreams and always used to say to everyone that better days would come if we believed. And so she lived her life. Proving her own theory, Lorena passed the exams to study in the University of Brasilia, which meant a dream fulfilled for her. But she did not know that something terrible was about to happen.

On her very first day at the University, Lorena had to face a very grumpy professor from the Nordic lands. He was a very strict professor and his classes were taught in English. Lorena thought she could get it with her self-taught English, but she was completely mistaken. As the days went by, the classes were getting harder and harder, and our heroine was falling even more behind her classmates.

Sad, disappointed and frustrated, Lorena thought it was the end of the line, even though she had barely started the journey. But, once again, our heroine was mistaken. One day her Fairy Godmother came by and saw her sorrow and concerns about her future in the University. She said, “Don’t worry, my dear. This is not the end. I’ll show you a place that will change your life forever.” As our heroine had nothing to lose, she accepted the invitation and was taken by her Godmother to a beautiful castle nearby called Casa Thomas Jefferson. “Here,” her Godmother said, “all your problems with the English language will be solved, I assure you.”

Finally, Lorena started her English classes at Casa Thomas Jefferson, and with great determination and will-power, as the days went by, all that professor’s classes were nothing but a piece of cake. All her classmates started looking at her differently, with admiration and respect. Lorena was so excited and so in love with the English language that all she was longing for was to be the best she could.

But it was not enough for our heroine. She still believed in her dream to reach greater heights. So there came the day when she saw an ad about a great contest sparkling on the front door of Thomas’ castle.

The participant was supposed to write a sentence, and the best one would win as a prize a ticket to the Kingdom of the United States of America. Very confident, Lorena accepted the challenge and on the very deadline she submitted her sentence to the contest.

Do you know what happened then? Yes, our dreamy heroine was the greater winner of the contest!

She was so happy that she could barely speak with her folks to spread the news. She was right, though.

Her approach to the English language was not perfect enough. She had to experience something more real,

more practical. That is why Lorena chose to visit the County of Boston, a place known for its great Universities, such as Harvard and MIT. So she enrolled in an English conversation course, right at Harvard Square, and she had classmates from all over the world. In her daily life over there, she could improve her English even more and she finished the course as one of the best students of the class.

Now she is back, and with an enhanced vocabulary and pronunciation, she is very glad and grateful for having always believed in her dreams and for having someone as her Fairy Godmother to help her take the first step. And we cannot forget to mention that everything was possible because… it happened at Thomas!

Lorena Torres Timo Asa Norte

The Day I Almost Died of Shame?

My first day at CTJ was crazy; it was an unforgettable day because I had been through something really embarrassing. I asked my teacher if I could go to the restroom. She allowed and I did. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I was very distracted. I was walking towards the restroom, looking around, and I didn’t see that I had passed by the ladies restroom. A boy opened the door of the other restroom and I got in. When I got in there, a boy looked at me as if I were crazy and asked me what I was doing in the men’s restroom. When he asked me I realized I was in the wrong place. I looked at him very ashamed of myself and I explained that I was very distracted. He said that it was all right because I had made a mistake. He was saying this to make me feel better but, even so, I was blushing.

After that, I started thinking that I knew that boy from somewhere. A few seconds later, I remembered that I really knew him. He studied in my school. He was my friend’s friend, I knew his name. And, the worst part was that he knew my name too. I wanted to hide somewhere because I was very embarrassed; it was one of the most embarrassing situations that I had ever been through.

To feel better, I started thinking that it could have been worse. At least no one was in the restroom, only the boy who was getting out of it. Thank God there wasn’t anyone in there. I tried to forget what happened and leave behind the day I almost died of shame.

Bruna Alessandra Costa Rossi de Sousa Asa Sul

27

It Happened at Thomas

When you decide to start a language course, you can’t imagine this will teach you more than grammar rules or vocabulary. I got into Casa Thomas Jefferson as an immature and noisy child, and will leave it as a responsible and mature girl. More than once I’ve seen my teachers from Teens after a long time and they told me how much I’ve grown as a person.

However, what CTJ has given me and I’ll take with me forever is real friends. People I see just two times a week and that have the power to make me feel better just in this short time together. Since 2B we’ve been a group of eighteen; some people said ‘goodbye’ and others said ‘hello’ in the course of time, but in general we have been the same group for two years.

And we laugh every class, mainly with a boy who insists on mixing up Portuguese and English words in the same sentence. Nobody will forget the time when teacher Andrea was telling us about her travel to Maragogi, Alagoas, and this guy decided to tell us about the time he had gone there. He wanted to say that there are a lot of little colorful fish in the reefs and you can feed then; but, instead, he said ‘There are a lot of fishinhos restart and you do that’ –he mimed like he was throwing the food- ‘and they do this’ –and he showed with his hands how the fish came to the surface to eat.

Until now, we laugh when we remember the fishinhos restart. And when we decided to make a little party in class and asked for eight big pizzas? Eight! Of course we couldn’t eat everything, so we had to call the other classes, teachers and students to help us. Never again will we ask for so many pizzas like that. And more recently, the teacher asked us to design a logo which represented ourselves, and one of our friends drew a paçoca. How did he explain that? “Cause I like paçoca”. Since this day, he has been called Mateus Paçoca. But the ironic part of it is that, in the middle of all this fun, we learn English. This kind of good relationship between teachers and students makes the learning process nicer, more pleasant; not an obligation. That’s something we can just find at CTJ.

I love those guys. More than I think they know.

I thank God every day for the moment He put me in this group, because it is where I can be myself and I know they will like me anyway. And, of course, I thank Casa Thomas Jefferson for all the things I’ve learned, which are not limited to English, but practical lessons of friendship, respect and responsibility. Every word, every laugh, every face will stay forever in my mind.

Bianca Rocha de Aguiar Taguatinga

28

It Happened at Thomas

Until today I couldn’t fully return to being who I am, but I’m looking for it every day. Thomas helped me to get back to socializing, mainly because the classes are small, and of course, for Lúcia, who always talked with me and my parents trying to solve problems in the best way.

I know that anyone who is reading this text will think that I’m a toady, but only those who have been through similar situations know how hard it’s to find places and people who are sensible, who care about other people’s problems and who take something so difficult to deal seriously.

Thanks!

Rodrigo Silva Figueira

I have been studying at Thomas for almost five years. But not five consecutive years. In the middle there was a pause, a long and sad pause. Not only in Thomas but in all my life. At the end of 2009, I became depressed and I was moved away, by doctors, from all my activities. Not only by sadness, but also by the constant panic attacks.

I really regretted not being able to study English, but I couldn’t get close to other people and the school ambience, for me, was a nightmare. From late 2009 to early 2011, the time that I was stopped, I cared a lot about going back to Thomas, which ended up causing new OCD’s (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I watched movies without subtitles or with subtitles in English and I tried to translate everything, as much as I could, into Portuguese.

After some time, when I felt ready to go back to school, I found out that I would have to do the placement test because of the time that I had stopped stopped. For me it was the end of the world. And what if I had regressed? And if the test was too difficult? Just being in the midst of new people, for me, was a real challenge.

I scheduled the test several times and I never appeared. I was very scared. One of the times that I managed to enter in the testing room, I ran down the aisle looking like a madman. And another time, I ran to the DETRAN, crying desperately. Finally, I managed to take the test. But do you know where? In Lúcia’s room, along with her. She already knew me and always knew about my problems. She was the only one I could trust, but even so it was not easy.

When I saw the test result I got very happy because I had not regressed. I went back to school where I had stopped. But that didn’t matter anymore. I was aiming at my new challenge: the first day of class.

Because facing the first, the others would be easier.

I missed the first two days of school because of the fear, but on the third day I had no choice. I was cold sweating. When I arrived in front of the door, I took a deep breath and said to myself: “Come on Rodrigo! You can!” It was the beginning of a new phase in my life. Trying to be the old Rodrigo again. And fortunately everything went well.

Asa Sul

Nice to Meet You?

In 2009, it was my first day in the second semester of the year, and the same people of the last semester where in the classroom, or almost, because it seemed that we would have a new student with us. Then, my new teacher started explaining the game we would play. He said that we should pick a question in a little box and if we answered it right we could catch some jellybeans named ‘‘nerds’’.

So we started the game. The entire class was going really well on the first round and the teacher commented that we should continue with this good performance during the next five rounds. However, every time that the new student answered a question correctly, he took more than just some ‘’nerds’’, and the teacher never saw it, because he was always writing information of the last answer on the board, while the other students and I were too embarrassed to say something.

Therefore, our question game finished way before we completed the five rounds. On the other hand, we all got really relieved when the teacher checked the names and we discovered that the new student wouldn’t stay with us because he had gotten into the wrong class.

Luiza Tavares de Oliveira Nepomuceno Asa Sul

29

It Happened at Thomas

It was the day of the written test and I had studied a week for that important test, I did not, actually could not miss it. So, my brother, who studied English in Thomas Asa Sul with me, and I caught the bus to go to the test. After waiting for the bus for a long time, I desperately even thought about going running for the written test, since the bus was taking so long and like I said, I had studied a lot, I could not miss the time.

And finally the bus arrived ...

We were only two blocks away from Thomas, when a terrible rain began falling. When the bus stopped, my brother and I looked at each other and thought: we have to get off the bus anyway.

However, the bus stop was crowded and besides there was no place to stand under it without getting wet.

So we got off the bus and we ran, faster than a bullet. There was so much rain that I did not see where my brother went, and I thought he had gone to Thomas, so I followed him toward Thomas. I did not think I’d be so wet, that was a mistake ... I was completely wet. And I thought: “wow, my brother was an athlete, he ran so much that I have lost any sight of him, I really need to improve my conditioning”.

In fact, I arrived for the test just in time, though completely wet. I realized that I really wanted to do this test when I saw that while I was sitting in the chair the water was dripping through my hair until my feet to the point of wetting the whole chair and the floor around it, making a small pool, and yet I did and ended my test. The teacher did not say anything, but he must have thought that was at least very funny.

And my brother ... he ran to a magazine store near the bus stop and waited for about 15 minutes until the rain subsided. The smart guy arrived 15 minutes late, did the test and was incredibly dry. How could I not think about it!!!

But anyway, it happened at Thomas, taking a test completely wet.

Ana Maria Borges Tomé Asa Sul

30

It Happened at Thomas

Complaining or Having Fun, What is Your Choice?

It is unbelievable how many teenagers waste a great opportunity to learn English. I actually don’t know the number of times that I saw people, most of the times teenagers, complaining about going to Thomas, saying that they only go because they have to, but, in fact, they don’t realize that they are wasting a great opportunity in their lives.

During classes, they don’t pay attention to the teacher, they prefer to sleep, play with their cell phones, use Facebook and stuff like that, and don’t realize that, each topic and each class may be one of the reasons for them to lose an important job or opportunity in the future.

We should write about something that hapened at Casa Thomas Jefferson. I’ve been studying here for about 5 years, so I guess I have some stories to tell… like the number of times I was transferred to another branch and the reasons why, or maybe about the time that my father forgot to pick me up and I stayed at Thomas until 8 p.m, or talk about the time that I fall asleep at the library and almost missed the class but, what I’m actually trying to do is to call the attention of every teenager who sees himself/herselfs on this text and tell them: don’t you see how useful CTJ could be? I’m not saying that it isn’t kind of hard and tiring sometimes but come on!... you are studying in one of the best English schools in Brasilia, with a great teacher most of the times. Make it worth little bit at least. It Is not that hard to learn English and have fun at the same time!

Samuel Camilo Padilla Castro Asa Norte

I was looking at the sky, waiting for something amazing to happen. Nothing happened. “To get lost is also the way”, I remembered; I’d never been so confused before, I was lost in my feelings – and, as usual, I was trying to find my own way out of them. I wasn’t feeling sad, but also I wasn’t feeling happy - I was feeling unsettled.

The bell rang.

It was like the sunbeams were invisible against the grey of the environment or as if I tried to look at the clouds looking for animals and all I could find was just a big storm. “Gosh”, I thought; I was looking for something and I didn’t know what it was.

I had had a busy day. I was newly graduated from high school, and my life was just about studying.

So, my mind was tired, mainly because I had eight hours of class and I was studying for four hours. To make matters worse, it was test day. There was no point in the sacrifice I was making lately; I was feeling like I was in a desert looking for a stone to rest… But I couldn’t find anything. I was on the edge of desperation, tired, alone. “When will this end?”, I asked myself.

I climbed the stairs in a huge distress, each step as if it were a thorn in my feet. I arrived in my classroom and sat down, waiting for the exam to begin “Why those feelings?”. I couldn’t understand. I wanted to give up on everything… my dreams, my plans, my worries… The neutral feeling began, little by little, to turn into sadness.

“Hello, students!”. I didn’t notice that the teacher was already there. My test was on the table, waiting to be opened. I started to read it without much interest. But something happened…

I read the first text. “You should search for happiness…”; “The search for happiness could be what is missing for you to be happy... sometimes, the search for happiness could be more satisfying than the achievement of your wishes”. I had my moment of epiphany. I was missing the pleasure of trying to achieve something in my life, the pleasure of looking for something bigger, something amazing.

After the test, my heart was happy and peaceful. “Search for happiness”, I thought. I looked back and faced the inscription amid the blue: “Casa Thomas Jefferson”. It had never been so bright. I smiled and I felt she smiled back. It was all meant to happen that way. “I will always look for happiness,” I said, “even if it means never to stop looking for it”. I looked to the sky, and something amazing happened.

I could see animals in clouds again.

Daniel Leite Flores Asa Norte

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My Spelling Bee Experience

When I was at Teens 7, Spelling Bee competitions started, and I wanted to participate just for fun to see what would happen. However, I was really good, and my teacher, Márcia, told me that I should participate in the contest, and I agreed. She enrolled me in the competition. The next class, she told me to study a lot, because I had potential to win it, but I didn’t care at all. When I got home, I said that I was going to participate in the Spelling Bee, and if I won the competition, I would earn a prize. My dad got very enthusiastic and said that I should study, but I didn’t care at all again. At the night before the day of the contest, I realized that it was important and decided to go over some words that I didn’t know.

Then the contest day came. I wasn’t nervous at all, and I knew some words. The semifinals were divided into four groups, chosen randomly, and a special final turn in which losers had a second chance.

The winners of each group were going to compete against each other to see who was going to be the Asa Sul finalist. I was in group 2 and waited anxiously for my turn. In the first group, there was a little boy from the military school who was pretty smart and got to the semifinal’s ‘final’. And then the group 2 was called to start spelling. I received 2 words, ‘shining’ and ‘possessive’. Since I spelled them right, I was going to the “finals” too.

Because I knew that the other 3 groups were going to take too long, I asked my mom to buy me a snack. I was very hungry. My classmate was the winner in group 3 and another student of the Military School was the winner in group 4. Although the final turn took a long time to come to its winner, who was a Moraes Rêgo student, my mom didn’t arrive in time and the ‘finals’ started. My classmate was the first. He got ‘airplane’ to spell, and he did it right. And then it was me. My first word was ‘baggy’, and I spelled it extremely fast. The people who were watching became very surprised, and the other contestants, very scared.

The three other contestants made a mistake in spelling and were disqualified. Only the two of us left, and it was very exciting, but he got the word ‘independence’, and was disqualified too. At the end, I was the Asa Sul finalist.

The teachers congratulated me and said that the finals were going to be at the Teens course graduation day. At this time, my mom arrived. I told her all that had happened, and she said that she was very disappointed because she could not see her son winning a competition. The following day, a Moraes Rêgo student talked to me on Facebook, saying that I was really good, and that my new nickname was going to be baggy. I laughed a lot. After about a month, the prom day arrived, and I was very prepared for the Spelling Bee finals. And the time came, the 5 finalists

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sat on chairs on a big stage, got their respective microphones, and stared at a hundred students watching the competition.A big white spotlight was aiming at us, it was a bit blinding. Then, the order of spelling was chosen. Asa Sul was the first. After hearing it, I became desperate, I was really nervous, just looking at all those people, imagining my being the first. After me, it was Lago Sul, Taguatinga, Sudoeste, and then, Asa Norte. I was trembling with nervousness at that time, and I heard the word I had to spell. It was ‘disappointed’. I don’t know what was going through my head at that time, but I started spelling and spelled it wrong. I knew that I was spelling it wrong, but I was so nervous that I just continued spelling. After that, I was disqualified. The other contestants got easy words like ‘pajamas’, ‘rhyme’ and ‘dolphin’, but only the Asa Norte and Sudoeste finalists spelled their words correctly. At the end, the Asa Norte contestant won the competition and received the acclaimed R$500,00 gift card to spend at Fnac.

After the competition, I went home, lay on my bed, and started thinking about the contest. I was very disappointed at myself because I had let nervousness take control over me and lost the competition. I suffer until today because of it. In conclusion, I learned that sometimes, we can’t let our emotions take control of our minds.

Gabriel Lopes Barbosa Asa Sul

It Happened at Thomas

By far, the most memorable thing that happened to me at CTJ was when I started to search more about songs and their lyrics. Reading them always made me feel good, like saying to myself: “I can read it, Eduardo”. This feeling is pretty awesome. There’s nothing like it. Absolutely nothing. Stealing a poet’s words, when I read the first one I felt like “every one of the words rang true and glowed like burning coal”.

Well, like everything else, it has a unique feeling when it’s done for the very first time. It’s not that I don’t like Brazilian poetry and music, it’s just that, with English, a second world of possibilities is open. And I take poetry and music as my part of it.

Nothing else describes so perfectly what I feel every time. When I read a T.S. Elliot poem for the first time, my jaw dropped. “The winter evening settles down with smell of steaks in passageways”. I mean, I would never discover such a huge universe of great lines of poetry without learning English.

My favorite artist, Bob Dylan (whose lyrics I also mentioned), is also another poet that I admire a lot.

Showing some stuff that you cannot help but wonder “how could a human mind come up with that?”. Some memorable stuff, showing poetry that you can’t find in normal pieces of music, or even poetry. Some of my favorite metaphors and comparisons come from him, actually. I mean… Some of the stuff I learned with Dylan about Shakespeare? He’s a raving queen with a cosmic amphetamine brain.

And there are many other artists. Paul Simon, Mark Knopfler, Amy Winehouse, Bruce Springsteen…

All of those terrific songwriters showed some of their masterpieces to me just after I learned English at Thomas. And all of their work, so many songs, so many albums.

What about interviews that I can now understand, after learning English, and know more and more about artists. And for that, I am thankful to Thomas. It wasn’t only a single moment that was interesting and important. It was a whole set of happenings, consequences and experiences that I could only live because of learning English, in CTJ.

These are some of the things that I would never have known without having classes in Thomas, with every single one of my teachers (until now): Rosângela, Regina, Nadja, Fábio, Mariana, Ana, Patrícia and Daniel.

Eduardo Duarte Ramos Coelho Matos Asa Norte

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Sextas Musicais – It Happens at Thomas!

Beavers remind me of some American and Canadian National Parks I visited some years ago… but you can see them in many parks around the cities too. They are very cute, just like in cartoons. Speaking another language allows us to discover other cultures, and to have more opportunities to learn with them.

One of the most interesting things I found in Thomas is the appreciation for culture. I’ve attended some amazing presentations there, like a concert with a very special organ restored by a Brazilian musician.

There was a special scenery and costume to complement the atmosphere, as one of the presentations to celebrate the 25 years of the Cultural Program Sextas Musicais.

The best one for me was a Piano Solo presentation by André Mehmari last November. André is a great musician and a very friendly guy. He is very good in creating arrangements and improvisations. He asked the public to suggest some songs to be played, and tried to play most of those mixing everything in a very special and creative way, including different styles such as rock, jazz, bossa, samba, metal…awesome! I really enjoyed it!!

Furthermore, the program is a good opportunity to meet your friends, discover nice musicians, and begin the weekend in great style. Next Friday, April 26th, we’ll have some Hawaiian guitars and Hula dance. I hope there’s a big full moon in Brasília. Then, I can invite some friends to join me and after the concert, with a light soul, find a special place to have a good time.

Nice things that always happens at Thomas!

Angela Maria dos Santos Asa Sul

It Happened at Thomas

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As I waited in line to buy the books of this semester, I remembered my first day at Thomas in 2009, when I was in this exact same position to buy my Elementary 4 book. I was very insecure about everything, basically. I didn’t know anyone in my class, it was the first time I would have English classes outside my regular school and I was afraid I wouldn’t understand the teachers or, even worse, they wouldn’t understand me. I was so lost in my own head that I almost didn’t notice when the sales assistant asked me my level.

- Elementary 4. - I said louder than I wanted to.

Right after that, the man behind me said:

- Oh, that’s great! My daughter Mariana is on

Elementary 4, too. You two could be friends!

What’s your name?

I’m really shy so I probably took some time to answer that. I was confused, surprised and disconcerted, all at the same time. I had a “friend”. All I needed was to get to know her.

- My name’s Natália. - I answered in a low voice, hoping he’d heard it so I wouldn’t have to say it one more time.

The girl I assumed to be Mariana was hidden behind her father’s legs and seemed to be just as embarrassed as I was, which made me feel a little better somehow. We seemed to be in the same situation: first day and lots of insecurities. Who would have ever thought I would meet my best friend in such an awkward way at Casa Thomas Jefferson?

After we had bought our books, her father left us and we went to the classroom together, neither of us saying a word, both of us with a lot going on our heads. A nice employee greeted us with a “what’s up”.

At that time, I didn’t know this “what’s up” would be a routine. We were 5 minutes late and just when we got in front of the door, she broke the silence.

- I hope the teacher is nice. - she said quietly.

- Yeah, me too. - I answered smiling a little to hide the enormous nervousness I was feeling inside.

And those were the first words of many: the beginning of a never-ending story. By the way, the teacher was very nice.

Days went by and she turned out to be Mari, my best friend, and not Mariana, That-Girl-From-MyEnglish-Class-Who-Happens-To-Be-My-Friend. I was not Natália, I was Nat. More years went by and other teachers came. We watched The Vampire Diaries with Magda, ate brownies and candy (lots of candy) with Tim and had a video singing Healthy Food uploaded on Youtube by Vinicius. We did the homework 5 minutes before class, recorded a “horror” movie in the bathroom of the second floor, got late because we had lost track of time just chatting. The replacement test set us at different levels, but this didn’t really change anything on our friendship.

- Excuse me, what’s your level? - the sales assistant asks in a loud voice. To keep the tradition alive, I was too busy thinking to hear when it was my turn to buy this semester’s book.

- 4B - I say, thinking of how fast time goes by and how it seems to me that only yesterday it was my first day here at Thomas.

The bell rings and as I walk up the stairs, I hear that familiar voice calling my name.

- NAT WAIT! - Mariana says running at my direction.

We talk for a while and discover her classroom is next to mine.

- We’d better get in, the bell has rung already!

- I tell her.

She nods and just before I open the door, she says:

- I hope the teacher is nice!

I laugh to myself as the story repeats itself, and answer with a big, big smile: - Yeah, me too.

Natália Faria Resende Castro Asa Sul

It Happened at Thomas

CTJ´s Halloween Party is very famous in Brasília. Almost all of the students buy tickets for them and for their friends because it´s a really great party. People should buy them when the sale begins, but there are always those lazy ones who buy the tickets one week before the event. Last semester I was at CTJ, and during the break, a girl got my attention. Not only mine, but all the students´ too. She was screaming and begging everyone that was passing by for a ticket. She was so desperate that she started to offer three hundred bucks for a ticket. I was ashamed for her. She was crying like a fool. I had never seen such a funny scene in my whole life! Then her mother called her and she screamed back, “Are you serious? Are you saying that there are remaining tickets at CTJ in Águas Claras? Come pick me now!” At this time, I couldn´t stop laughing. Neither could all of the students that were seeing that! I just know that she got the tickets and went to the party. Every time I see this girl, I remember that scene and start being grateful for buying the tickets some weeks before. This year, I am not following her example! Let´s see if she will repeat this scene in the years to come.

Giuliana Abade Maximo Asa Norte

35

Who Would Have Believed?

Sometimes we think that something can’t happen to us, until we gothrough it. So, we must be prepared for anything that could occur. Also, just like Maquiavel said in ‘’Speeches over the first decade of Tito Livio’’, the meaning of fortune in our live is to enjoy every moment and opportunity, whether it’s a good or bad one, in order to make it profitable. In sum, that’s what I did when I went through a different situation at CTJ.

It’s true that I haven’t been sleeping well for days and nights. But, I never thought that kind of thing could happen. I slept in the library and then, the security woke me up. He told me the Casa Thomas Jefferson had already closed and it was midnight. I freaked out when he said that. ‘’I must be the unluckiest person in the world’’, I thought. Besides that, the security pulled me out of the place and suggested me to go home. Said and not done. I didn’t have a car to go home, I still hadn’t got my driver’s license, my parents were travelling and I hadn’t called my ride to pick me up there, so it was impossible to go home.

Fourtunately, the man understood what was happening to me. He accepted the fact that he would have a company that night.

As soon as he accepted that, the light was turned off. Minutes later, it turned on, but the man wasn’t there anymore. I was totally alone. ‘’What am I going to do now?’’, I asked myself. ‘’No”, I said again to my mind. “I won’t cry. Let me just find someone or a safe place to stay until the sun rises’’. And that’s what I did. Then I started screaming to seek CTJ’s security guard. No answers, just the sound of my heartbeat. I guess he was trying to make fun of me face although the situation wasn’t funny.

By that time, I had already opened all the downstairs’ doors and found nothing. For this reason, I decided to go upstairs. When I got there, I heard someone mumbling. Trying to find a person at Casa Thomas Jefferson, I ran to the place where the sound was louder. To my surprise, the sound was coming from behind a door. I gathered all the courage I had and opened it. “WOW’’. Who would have ever thought that I could find koreans having class at that time at night? I apologized to the teacher for disrupting the class, but not before I explained what had happened to me and asked about the security guard.

Everyone from that class laughed at me, but, at least, they said the security was in the toilet. I didn’t know why many koreans were at CTJ, at that hour at night. Therefore, I asked them. The teacher told me his students weren’t used to Brazilian time zone. In order to teach them, the director of Casa Thomas Jefferson from Asa Norte, created a special class.

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Finally, I could go home when their class was over. A korean called Dae Hyun, gave me a ride. He was such a gentleman. Thus, at 5 a.m I arrived at home, safe and happy. I will never forget what I went through that night. I guess Maquiavel was right, I changed a bad and scary situation into a good memory and experience. Moreover, now I have good korean friend, who I can always count on.

Yasmin de Brito Góes Asa Norte

It Happened at Thomas

Well, I can’t remember the day accurately; however; I am sure that it was during my time as a 4B student. It was the last class and we were having a pizza party, one of the greatest ceremonies in modern society.

We ordered some of the most unusual flavors

for this party. Like bacon, chocolate and much more (you know, very special ceremonies need very special things). Our teacher put some music videos and we bought some soda while we were waiting for the pizzas to arrive.

When they came, before we started eating, each one of us decided to make a speech.

It was quite beautiful. Everybody said something with joy and emotion. Then, when it was my turn to speak, I started with some old movies quotes, like “What We Do in Life Echoes in Eternity” from Gladiator and “I’m finished” from “There will be blood”. But also, I made a whole speech, saying how awesome that trimester had been.

After that, we started eating pizza and singing pop music without knowing the lyrics.

I loved that day, and I’m sure I’ll never forget it.

Some of the best people I have ever met were there and we knew that after that we were going to go through different ways because some of the students were going to another CTJ institution, in another area. So, it was totally worth it.

Rodrigo Alvarenga de Albuquerque Asa Sul

It Happened at Thomas

Casa Thomas Jefferson is not only a common English school. The word casa in English means house and, like a real house, Thomas welcomes all students, assistants and teachers that are there. Because of the hospitality and the quality of the school, Casa Thomas Jefferson has made fifty years of history and, of course, many things have happened during this time.

In the same year that Thomas completed fifty years, one extraordinary thing happened: a class with girls only. Twenty girls between fifteen and twenty-five years old were taught by the male teacher who loves coffee and rock music. At the beginning, almost no one believed that there was a class with no boys. So, many people, usually boys, started to pass in front of the classroom to check if that was true. People were surprised when they saw all types of girls talking and laughing with the teacher. Some boys told him that he was lucky and said that they would like to be in his place.

Moreover, when the class started to discuss about something and the teacher’s opinion was different from the girls’, sometimes he had to agree with them because if he didn’t say that the girls were right, the discussion would never finish. On the day that the group had to take the graduation photo, after insisting a lot, the twenty girls convinced the teacher to wear a cute kitten beanie to take the picture. Therefore, the twenty girls took a beautiful photo around their cute kitten, as they called him.

Boys spying, kitten beanie and other funny things that happened in that class won’t be forgotten.

The group of twenty girls and the relationship that they built with their teacher won’t be forgotten by everyone who stayed with them either. Casa Thomas Jefferson is a special school where many unforgettable things happen just like the things that happen with families.

And lots of memories will still be made at Thomas.

Letícia Yukari Okada Asa Sul

37

Hidden Cellphone

The girl just wouldn’t leave her cellphone.

From minute to minute, she shifted her gaze to the device, and the teacher was already getting tired from asking her to put it away. It hadn’t been the first class she had done so, even though she and everybody else knew it’s not allowed to use cellphones during the class.

“Listen, I already asked you to put it away once today. I’ll ask you for the second time now, and the third time I’ll take it away from you. Please put it in your bag.”

She seemed to agree, and for some good five minutes the cellphone stayed out of sight. Then, the third time happened – very quickly, she picked it up to look at something. A message, perhaps, it didn’t really matter. As fast as she could, she tried to hide it somewhere. But it was too late.

The teacher stood up and sat by her side.

“Where is your cellphone? Is it in your bag?”

“Yes, teacher, of course”, she lied. At the given moment I wasn’t sure whether the girl actually wanted the teacher to believe her or if she was just joking around – most of the class had seen her using the cellphone.

“Then stand up”, the teacher ordered. Probably not even he expected it, but as the girl reluctantly stood up, the cellphone hit the ground. She was sitting on it.

She flustered red as the cellphone fell down, trying to reach it before the teacher. He was faster than her, though. The class stood amazed as the man held her by one of the legs as she fought back upside down, still trying to get her cellphone.

“Teacher!” she complained, pouting. The whole class was in silent, watching the weird spectacle of the girl trying to get away. The teacher eventually released her, and she finally grabbed her precious phone.

He was clearly angry. He had told her not to do it countless times every class, and she still didn’t obey him. “I can’t believe you can’t even put that thing away for a minute! It’s not like you are going to die if you spend the rest of the class without it either way! It’s a big lack of respect of you to use this while I explain, don’t you understand?”

After the sermon that had seemed to last forever, the girl was really embarrassed. She said she was sorry and it wouldn’t happen again, and

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the teacher took her cellphone for the rest of the time the class had.

Then, a phone rang. Some confused students discretely checked their cellphones, but the ring tone didn’t belong to any of them. It belonged to the teacher’s cellphone. He showed a smile, embarrassed, and shrugged. “I’m sorry guys, I have to get this. It’s my mom...” And then the adult left the classroom for a moment to get the call.

Note: This is based on a true story. Some facts were altered and no names were mentioned in order not to harm anyone with it, though.

Luisa Figuerôa Vizú Asa Norte

Special Day

When I was in Teens 7, I knew we would have the Teens Graduation Ceremony, and I thought it would be very nice. One day, my teacher told me that he wanted me to be the student speaker in the Graduation. I felt very honored! He asked me to write a speech and show it to him. That was what I did. I didn’t know what he would think about it, but he liked it!

Although there was a long time until the Graduation day, I started practicing. Once a week, I went to the supervisors’ room, and the Teens Supervisor helped me, telling me how the best way to say things was, that I should speak slower... I also remember that, every single day, I looked into the mirror and repeated my speech. That’s why, when the Graduation day came, I didn’t feel so nervous (just a little bit!).

I will never forget that night, the feeling of getting on stage, saying once again what I had told my mirror so many times, but this time with all those people looking at me! I knew I was prepared for that, but I couldn`t keep my hands from shaking a little...

However, as I talked, I became more and more self-confident. I appreciated when people laughed in at a funny part and gave me all their attention. And... when the applauses came at the end, I felt completely happy!

Helena Ribeiro Lopes Pinto de Almeida Lago Sul

It Happened at Thomas

Last class, I arrived early with my friend to choose our sits. We chose the ones in the middle as always. The class started and we were following the same routine as we do every day - start the class, check the students present, check homework, etc - but the teacher was absent, and a substitute took her place.

Half an hour had passed, and I was almost sleeping because it had been a long and rough day, and the substitute’s voice made me want to sleep. The teacher decided to play a game, tic tac toe. He divided us in two groups, seven students in each, and the game started.

The teacher said that the winning group would win a box of chocolates, so everyone was very inspired to win. The other group started; they chose the red box in the middle. But there was something strange, something unusual.

The question showing on the screen wasn’t like the ones we are used to answering. “What has roots and nobody sees, is taller than trees, up, up it goes, but yet never grows?” The group didn’t know what to say, they had never faced a question like that. A person in the group tried to answer, but he was wrong. Suddenly, a hole opened on the floor and he fell into it.

Everyone was scared at that moment, and the teacher was different. He looked like a maniac; he turned to us and said, “I wanna play a game”, and then pointed at me. He chose another question for me to answer. It was too much pressure; I couldn’t think right. I shouted something, trying to answer, but I was wrong. It all went black, and when I realized, the teacher was looking angrily at me, and the others were laughing because I was sleeping in class. Since that day, I have never slept in any classes again.

Gabriel de Andrade Damasceno Marista - Asa Sul

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Being Unfaithful in the English Course: Myth or Truth?

I have been studying English at Thomas Jefferson since February 2011. This story did not happen to me directly, but it was told by my teacher in one of my classes. I don’t remember which semester and his name. But anyway, the story is extremely funny and educational.

According to my teacher’s report, he was teaching a class only for adults,but there was one student who was almost always absent. But as a general rule at Thomas Jefferson, absences are not often controlled for adult students. So this way, the classes were usually given and the semester went on smoothly without any interference in the students’ absences. But this student was not an ordinary student.

He thought that he was very smart and clever. He was married and used English lessons to deceive his sweet and loving wife.

She pretended she was foolish and asked questions to her husband as if she wanted to learn English also. But as he didn’t attend classes and knew only the basics of English such as “The Book is On The Table”, his wife began to get suspicious.

It was then that his wife phoned the office of Thomas Jefferson and asked the clerk what was her husband’s classroom. The attendant, without knowing anything about the situation, gave all the information.

That’s when the husband got into trouble.

In an ordinary class in the, the wife went to the classroom, knocked on the door and asked the teacher for a certain student (of course she didn’t say that he was her husband). As the teacher didn’t know anything, and in a transparent and honest way, he informed the wife that the student had hardly ever appeared in class.

Unexpectedly, the wife then said her husband was the student and he had stated that the English classes were all excellent. It was totally awkward!

All in favor of the wife, the indignant female students said that the husband was a nasty and lying villain. In contrast, the male students pondered that nobody can be judged prematurely. Obviously, the class was over! We don’t know the end of this story.

But, certainly, it is a story whose moral is: If you want to betray someone, you must learn English!

Victor Manuel Fidelis da Silva Asa Sul

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It Happened at Thomas...

It hasn’t been a long time since I joined the Thomas family, but in such a little time some mornings spent in school have made me laugh alone about different situations lived in class. Knowing different people with different experiences makes our classes richer due to the fact that we talk about our daily life in the most various aspects.

In my class there is a doctor. Actually, he is the funniest doctor that I have ever met. He is a real joker and loves playing jokes on others. Back in Prime 7 we were having a class about riddle and jokes. It looked like that class was made for him. He spent the whole class telling us about some pranks that he had played on his friends at work.

Another classmate that I couldn’t forget is one that usually sat next to me. He was a really smart guy and worked with computers in the chamber of deputies here in Brasília. He had a great joy in disagreeing with other classmate’s opinion. Every time that someone expressed an opinion, he always came up with something to argue about in order to convince the person that his idea was the correct one.

It was really fun to discuss with him because he always had a lot of interesting arguments that ended up making us see things from another point of view.

Happenings like these make moments lived in Thomas unforgettable. I’m sure we became friends for a lifetime even knowing that we may not ever meet again. We are now finishing this English course and each one is taking different paths in life but surely none of us will forget our fun mornings that happened at Thomas.

Luís Fernando Elias da Mata Sudoeste

It Happened at Thomas

If you think that Casa Thomas Jefferson is just an English school, you certainly don’t know it well. It is a piece of the United States in Brazil where we learn more than grammar and vocabulary. It teaches us important values and life lessons.

I remember my first day at CTJ. I was a little scared and very shy. It was a different reality, and I was afraid of not fitting in. However, when I got in class, all of my fears were gone. I entered at this new world and loved it!

Learning English in a funny and dynamic way is a priority of CTJ. Also, it opens many doors in life. I became an open-minded person able to go on exchange programs and travel abroad. The good thing is that I know I can communicate with people all around the world because I have learned the global language. As a consequence, I might be approved easily in a future job and get better salaries.

At CTJ I have made friends for a lifetime and learned that I can’t be so shy. I must express myself.

Moreover, I was taught that I can’t be embarrassed when I do something wrong. Now is the time to make some mistakes. So, in the future, I will do things correctly and be successful.

It’s really hard to say goodbye to this school, which has made quite a difference in my life. I will always recall my teachers and how each one of them helped me to become who I am now. I am, at this moment, a better citizen willing to change the world.

Since my first class here, I have been learning more and more. There are still a few months before I graduate, but I already miss CTJ. A transformation has occurred in my life. And it happened at Thomas.

Juliana Figueiredo de Oliveira Gomes Lago Sul

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It Happened at Thomas

Casa Thomas Jefferson was founded in 1963, and in 1981 a teenage girl, named Patricia, joined the Advanced Course where she met some of the most amazing people she would meet in her entire life.

She had an awesome teacher: Clara. She was a young woman with a huge heart and an irrepressible spirit. At that time, Patricia was facing some family issues and ended up failing an exam.

Clara helped her by giving her short lessons at the end of each class. After a while, they became friends. Some of the support classes were just like comfy girl talk with a cherished friend.

At the end of the semester, Clara decided to introduce Patricia to her nephew Francisco. He was two years older and as they were taking the same course.

Clara asked him to give Patricia support classes as doing a favor for her since she could not keep helping Patricia after each class.

Francisco was transferred to Patricia’s class and they started to take classes together. Every day after the class, they went to the library and they studied a lot. He started helping her with school subjects like history and biology. At that time, he was studying for the university entrance exam, and she also helped him with the school subjects that he was good at, like math and physics. They were used to stay late at night, studying together.

Francisco was a responsible guy although he always came across as a laid-back person. He was outgoing and really handsome, which was a detail that did not go unnoticed by Patricia. And she was a pretty curly brown haired girl that was creative and self-disciplined. Inevitably, they fell in love with each other, but they were too shy to admit it.

Then, on a rainy Friday, Francisco received the result of the university entrance exam. He had passed it!

He called Patricia and asked her out to celebrate. They went to a sushi restaurant and, with all the courage he had, he asked her to date him. She was really glad to say “yes”.

After five years dating, he proposed her and again she said yes. They got married and after seven years of marriage, they decided to have children.

Unfortunately, Patricia could not get pregnant. So they tried to have kids through a procedure called invitro fertilization.

Patricia got pregnant and triplets were born: Raquel, Mateus and Filipe. Sadly, Mateus was too weak and he could not resist. Raquel and Filipe could make it and they grew healthy. They entered at school and, when they were eight-years-old, Francisco and Patricia enrolled them at Casa Thomas Jefferson.

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And now I, Raquel, am here. Thirty two years later, I am at the advanced course at CTJ, just like my mother was when she first met my father. My mother always says that I could bump into the love of my life at any moment. I just have to look around and pay attention.

The Right Spell

I was in the middle of my first semester on juvenile, at the Thomas Jefferson at Leonardo da Vinci school. My class started at the end of the day, but I always arrived early. Besides me, there were six other students in that class. We almost never talked to each other, so before starting, it was really quiet.

It was rainy and the teacher hadn’t arrived yet. One girl had a glass pot, which she accidentally dropped. It made a loud noise and there were pieces of glass everywhere. Fortunately, nobody got hurt, and we all began helping her clean the room. A boy came with a floor squeegee that he found in the bathroom, we tidied it up really quick, and the teacher finally came.

We began opening our books and started to read a text, but suddenly there was a blackout and we couldn’t continue. Then the teacher had an idea: telling horror stories or real experiences so that we could practice our English. We couldn’t see much, but all of us started to talk about something, like a funny or weird experience. We laughed a lot and got to know everyone a little better. The lights came back on, but we turned them off and continued talking. We all lost our shyness and it united our class.

I didn’t like those English classes at first, but after this day, I began to enjoy it. We didn’t use to talk very much, but we all became friends and even if we are not in the same class, I still talk to them at school.

After that experience, I learned that friendship makes everything better and easier. So I always try to help or be friends with everyone, especially in my class. I will definitely miss it. That´s it. And it happened at Thomas.

I had one of the milestones of my life at Casa Thomas Jefferson. It happened during the Spelling Bee contest on 2010.

All of it began when my family moved from Recife to Brasília in 2008. I was very concerned about my children’s education. Despite that, it was very easy for me to find a good English school, because many people had recommended CTJ.

When my son was studying in Teens 7, he signed up for a competition known as “Spelling Bee”, in which you must spell a series of given words correctly. Even though I had high expectations for my son, I was also apprehensive because I hadn’t seen him studying much. When the day of the semifinals competition arrived, my wife, my daughter and I were at the audience supporting my son Lucas. He aced the semifinals, showing me he had actually studied hard, and went to the final.

During the finals, Lucas was surprisingly outstanding, not only because of what he knew but also for his attitude and posture. I even told my wife that he wasn’t supposed to be answering that fast, because he could give a wrong answer. He seemed so stress-free to me! As time went by, the words started to come to an end, and he was still there, competing with a girl. His friendly position and excitement brought him many supporters. The words died out and the competition ended in a draw. The award was split in half and both of them received the prize.

Two years later, I lived the same situation once again when my daughter participated in a different edition of the contest, she was a finalist at the Asa Sul Branch, but misspelled a word. Like her brother, she was brilliant as well.

After those episodes, I learned to trust my children’s abilities, as well as their growing, alluring personality. Although their hard work was necessary for their performance in this contest, none of this would be possible without the amazing teachers of Casa Thomas Jefferson.

Olga Costa Alves Souza

Nilson Vieira dos Santos

Raquel Aziz Batista Asa Sul

It Happened at Thomas

Leonardo Da Vinci - Asa Norte

Asa Sul

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What Happened At Thomas

If I were to write about each and every funny, happy, sad, romantic or weird story that happened to me at Thomas, I’d probably need more than only one composition to do it. But since I have to tell only one of them, I’ll choose the day of one of my best friends’ birthday.

We had had only two or three classes that year at Thomas before my friend’s birthday, so the class (including our teacher) wasn’t really united yet. I’d seen my friend at school that morning and she had told me she was going to a fine restaurant at lunch to celebrate her sweet sixteen. I thought it was a great idea, especially because the restaurant is incredible. The thing is, on her way there, her car broke. Just like that.

And with a broken car and little time, she didn’t even get the chance to eat.

When she got at Thomas and told me what had happened, I joked with my friend and with my teacher, “Hey, it’s her birthday today and she couldn’t even have lunch to celebrate it!” In less than a minute, the teacher was already calling someone and, even though we didn’t quite believe it, he was ordering pizza. Everyone laughed about it in disbelief, so the class continued.

More or less half an hour later, the teacher received a call saying his order had arrived. He asked me to help but I was still having a hard time trying to believe it wasn’t a joke. When we got downstairs, he asked me to get knives to cut the pizza and I asked him, “Is this for real? Why are you doing this?” He just smiled and told me in a natural voice, “It’s her birthday; everyone has the right to have a special day at least on their birthdays.”

He may not know, but we really admired him for what he did. Attitudes like that, with no expectations of having something in return, just for the pleasure of making others happy, is what makes life worth living.

And that day, with an unexpected pizza party, really did turn out to be a quite special day after all.

Laura de Oliveira Coimbra Lago Sul

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It Happened at Thomas

Once upon a time, on a sunny day at Casa Thomas Jefferson, my friends and I were playing in front of the door of our classroom when the bell rang.

We entered our class, sat on the chairs and the class started. I think I was in Intermediate 3B.

Most of the people in the class hadn’t arrived at that moment; it was just me, three friends and the teacher. People started arriving, and in the middle of the class, we started complaining because of the unbearable smell that was in the class.

The teacher asked us what was happening and nobody knew what was really happening, so she turned off the air conditioner and waited some minutes, but the smell didn’t disappear. Then our friend, who had arrived a little bit late, said he had a dead bird inside his bag. Immediately everybody started to laugh, thinking that it was a joke, but it wasn’t. He took the bird out of his bag and the terrible smell spread out around the entire class.

People could not believe what was happening, and every single student was laughing a lot.

So the teacher had an insight. The student should throw the bird outside the window; otherwise, if the bird was in the trash can, nobody would stay inside of the class. So he did! And everything happened at Thomas.

Henrique Bisi Alvares Lago Sul

It Happened at Thomas

I usually have a tiresome routine. I have classes at school in the morning, I study a lot on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the afternoon, I have guitar lessons on Tuesdays and I go to CTJ on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Learning another language is an experience that makes me feel very accomplished, and I think that’s why I love this part of the day! There I have a lot of friends and being able to speak a different language is wonderful!

Once, when I was in Teens 7, at the end of the semester, our lesson finished so fast! And then, we started a conversation among us, the students.

Suddenly, our teacher took a chair and sat near us. It was a little confusing, because before he has leafing through some papers and was correcting something, and then he was there, talking to us. He told us a lot of jokes and we laughed so much together! It was really fun! We asked him his favorite things, what his type of music was, of movies and books. I remember when he said that he loved Madonna! When he said that, he got up and showed us a video of a show of the Queen of Pop! The students were surprised and shocked! He was a tall man singing

Madonna! It was one of the best moments!

Afterwards, we continued our chat and he gave us some advice about our small “problems” of life and this showed us that he was one of the most special teachers.

Now, every time I see him in the hallways, I stop and talk to him and tell him the news! Today I realize that this day was very productive because students and teacher came to know each other in a formidable way!

Maria Regina Costa de Souza Asa Norte

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An Extraordinary Day

There is a day that I will never forget, one day... which was unusual. I never thought I would watch such strange scenes, neither feel so strange in my life in such a small period of time. There were mysterious incidents that I witnessed this day, and, of course, it happened at Thomas.

It was a normal day; at least that was what I expected it to be. An ordinary Tuesday and I was on my way to Thomas. I arrived at 5:50 pm, twenty minutes earlier, as usual. Almost all of my classmates were already inside classroom, and, suddenly, another colleague entered the class and asked everyone to follow him. I wondered what had happened, but since he was in a hurry, I decided to follow him without questions. We were all too curious at the time to deny the request.

The reason why he called us was clear when we went to the snack bar downstairs.. There, we could see a broken coffee machine. At first, that was nothing serious, but more and more coffee started to come out of the broken machine. We tried to help, but there was no way to stop it. In a minute, an employee fixed the machine, but we all got soaked, and the snack bar was covered with coffee.

I already considered the day strange, but it got worse. Only about thirty seconds after this episode, we heard screams coming from the streets. Of course no one stood still. After we reached the person who shouted several times, I understood the reason: a car crash. Not any car, a Lamborghini. The other vehicle in the accident was a sixteen feet tall truck.

The guy who was driving the fancy car got out outside of the vehicle and shouted at the truck driver to pay for the car. Indeed, the accident crumpled pretty much the car, and the person who was in the Lamborghini was bleeding a little, but it seemed as he didn’t feel a thing, he was just worried about the car. Lots of people came to see the scene, and when everything seemed to be even worse, and airplane appeared.

The plane was from TAM, it was flying a bit too low, but no one thought it could be a danger to the streets where we were located. We were wrong. It was falling, and directly to our location. I ran until I was inside Thomas, but even there I was still truly scared.

No one knew what was going to happen, and in the last second, the plane took over the control and avoided crashing. Maybe luck? Not so much… When I got inside the classroom again, my backpack had been stolen!

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I tried to find the thief, and there he was, running away from the school. I don’t know any possible reason why a person would want to steal my backpack with only books inside it, but I couldn’t think about it, I just ran after him.

The people were yelling at me, but I shouted back telling that the other person who was running had my backpack. After twenty seconds, I screamed at him asking why he was doing that, and who he was, but he still kept running.

After about a minute, I reached him and I knocked him down on the floor, and when I saw his face, I recognized he was my best friend! I yelled at him asking why in the world he had done it. He said he was going home and asked me why I hit him and what was I talking about. Suddenly, I understood the event: he bought a backpack just the same as mine in the previous day, and I forgot it! But where was my backpack then?

I went back to the classroom, I was soaked with coffee, impressed with the Lamborghini crash, scared because of the plane crash that almost happened and dirty because I fell on the ground along with my best friend when I hit him, and when I got there, I found out that my backpack was under the chair. It was there probably because someone put it there when everyone went out of the classroom in a hurry, at the time of the first strange event of that day.

The teacher came ten seconds after my arrival in class, and he asked why everyone was soaked with coffee and why I, particularly, was so dirty. I just told him it was a long story, even though the event only lasted twenty minutes.

Rafael Pinto Vieira de Paula Sigma Asa Sul

Tires, Mud and Toefl Test

The funny thing starts with none of us knowing that we were going to meet each other at the Pre-Toelf Class. All of us are in the same semester of Electrical Engineering at the University of Brasilia. Because of the “Science Without Borders program”, Daniel, João, Leonardo , Gabriel and I decided to take it. On the first day, teacher asked us to introduce ourselves, and she was surprised about the fact that there were a lot of future engineers in the same class. Actually, there are more than just us, the majority of the students are studying engineering.

We have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, after the Digital System course at the University of Brasilia. Last Tuesday something really unexpected occurred: Gabriel got one of his car tire punctured, on his way to Thomas. It was the Speaking Test Simulation Day and we were all late. When I arrived in the alternative parking lot, outside Thomas (full of sand and bush), they were already trying everything to change it. Don’t ask me why, but I guess that engineers don’t know how to do things like that. I was ten minutes late and I told them that I was going to come in. Leonardo asked me to hold the class back in order to delay the test time somehow, so they would be able to attend this after having changed the tire.

I started to ask questions to the teacher that I already knew the answer, but it didn’t work out. She noticed someone was missing and asked me where they were and I explained the situation. They had been outside for thirty minutes, and I was starting to wonder if changing a tire is this hard at all, considering four men were trying involved. Finally, when the teacher decided to give the test, they came in muddy and sweaty and all the class started to laugh. The teacher tried not to do so, but she couldn’t help herself.

We started the test anyway, and I avoided looking at them in order not to laugh and lose focus, but I couldn’t help myself either. They were so puffy and answering the questions faster than necessary that I believe not even ETS people would understand anything. The worst thing was that, after this entire odyssey, they noticed, after the class, the tire was not well placed and had to call a mechanic to do the work.

Taís Laurindo Pereira Asa Norte

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The Beaver Dam Writing Contest: It Happened at Thomas

1

As a former student, many things happened to me at CTJ, but now, what should I choose to tell you?

Something interesting, unexpected, embarrassing, unforgettable, weird, funny, cool or romantic? I am totally sure I have one different story to tell for each of those items, and I am thinking of them all right now to select the best one and... I got it.

I am going to choose my own adjective for my story. The most amazing thing that ever happened to me at Thomas, I can’t remember the year, but since I graduated in 2008 and I was in Basic 2B on the occasion, I can say it has been a while. I was really shy back then and the class was really small, about 10 people or less, and we had the best teacher of the whole school (forever), teacher Andre.

He was a lot of fun, and his classes were always full of laughing. I just kept quiet, tried not to speak very much, but even for me this teacher could make anybodyfeel comfortable and relaxed; we all loved him very much and I am sure that all of us that had classes with him won’t ever forget him, or what happened that day...

It was a totally ordinary afternoon. We were correcting our homework, and teacher Andre was explaining something we did wrong. All of a sudden, it appeared -- a fly. That’s it, just a fly. A little, tiny and insignificant fly. Andre waggled his hands at the fly, trying to make it go away but the fly kept coming back at him several times, interrupting his explanations.

Whenever he started talking, the fly got back, pissing him off.

I can’t put that scene into words, I can’t describe his faces when the fly touched Andre, although I can picture it in my mind. He would just stop talking and sigh at it. And that happened for, like, a minute or so and then it made him so angry that when the fly came towards him one more time, in an act of rage, he threw a piece of white chalk in the air...

We all stayed quiet for a moment. He kept his pose of chalk-thrower very still and my classmates and I stared at him very shocked. We weren’t all shocked or frozen because of him, but because of what he had done. Believe it or not, he had hit that fly with the piece of chalk and we watched the chalk hit the fly in slow motion and go down in the opposite direction the fly went.

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After that frozen moment, teacher Andre turned at us and said, “did you see that? Am I crazy?”, and we couldn’t respond, we just kept looking at him, trying to assimilate what we had just seen. Then everyone bursted into mad laughter and stood up screaming, “OH MY GOD! HE KILLED THE FLY!” Of course the class was over, everyone was laughing too hard to do anything but keep laughing. We went after the fly and it was there, with a little white spot in it -where the chalk had hit it- dead, the real proof that everything had happened.

A couple of other teachers came to our room to ask what was going on because they heard our screams and laughs all the way down the hallway. When we told them the story, they couldn´t believe it, so we showed them the dead fly. Everybody would just sit there and laugh until they had lost their breath. The left and told the story to their students. For the rest of the day, we received visitors from all other classes to see “The Fly” and “The Killer”.

Teacher Andre said he would keep that piece of chalk forever as a proof of his prowess. I don’t know if he really did, but even if he didn’t, I will always be there to tell the story of my hero-teacher who managed to hit and kill an annoying bug with his piece of chalk at Thomas.

Daniela Simão Chaves

Former Students

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3 It Happened at Thomas... My First Love

My First kiss: It Happened at Thomas!

2

The year was 2004. I was fourteen and about to graduate from CTJ. As it had always been, I was deeply shy when it came to boys. I mean, I had boyfriends, but the idea of having a boyfriend existed only in my mind.

One afternoon before class (can’t say for sure whether it was a Monday or a Wednesday), I ran into this boy in the hall. I had had a secret crush on him for months by then. I said an awkward “hello” and he just stood there and smiled at me. I felt as embarrassed as any naive teenage girl would and quickly made my way to my classroom, which, by the way, was right next to his. During break time, my friends insisted I came with them to the cafeteria, but I refused at all costs. There was no way I was taking the chance of running into that boy again.

When class ended, I didn’t leave immediately, as usual. I decided to stick around a little longer, until everyone had left, thus diminishing any possibility of seeing my crush again (at least for the day). A few minutes later, the building was empty and I couldn’t hear people chatting in the hall, so I picked up my books and left the classroom. But, to my deepest surprise, there he was, standing by the door, waiting for me. I was speechless. He smiled at me once again and kissed me on the lips. Then he said “bye” and started walking towards the stairway. And I just stayed there, speechless and embarassed as I had never been before.

Carolina Silva Ramos de Oliveira Pinto

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It was the beginning of the first semester of 2007 and I was going to my classroom, which I had just located on the list. I remember, very clearly, that on every first day of school at Thomas all students gathered around that board to find out in which class they were and where it was. I was very excited, as usual, for I enjoyed studying at Thomas and every new semester I had a feeling that I was about to experience great new things during the next few months. Little did I know that those next few months would change my life forever.

I remember well the first time I saw him; I had just come into the classroom and was waiting for the teacher. As I looked at the door, he walked in and sat next to me. It didn’t take too long for me to enjoy being around that boy during our classes at Thomas.

We would always chat about general things during the breaks with other friends and we would always be in the same group for reading, writing or oral exercises, which our teacher Pedro frequently assigned.

As time went by, I began to realize I was always very happy to go to my classes at Thomas, more than I ever used to. It took me a while to realize the reason for all that happiness. However, I remember that one day he told me he was going to travel and, because of that, he was going to miss some days of class; during those days I felt really sad and had this strange feeling that I was just too blind to realize what it was. So I just assumed I missed him and that he had become a dear friend to me.

And so, our time at Thomas was coming to an end. In the year of 2008 we were 5B students and were about to graduate in the Advanced Course. Those were awkward days for me because I knew that after our graduation we would rarely see each other. As I felt really sad about our not-being-together-anymore prospect, I decided to go after him and wish all the best in his future despite the fact that we weren’t going to spend more time together.

And then everything changed. When I went to him to talk about all of these things mentioned above, he took me by surprise and revealed he liked me very much and wished for us to be together as a couple!

At first I didn’t know what to think, even less what to say. After a long deliberation on my part, thanks to my being so annoyingly indecisive, we both decided that the feeling we had for each other should be cherished and taken care of. Therefore, we finally became a couple.

We graduated together and took our first pictures as a couple in our Thomas Graduation Ceremony. Every time I look at the Thomas building in Asa Norte, all these memories come back to me and I feel very happy and grateful for those moments. This year we are going to celebrate our 5th anniversary together and it pleased me greatly that I was able to write this wonderful story about us as part of the celebration of Casa Thomas Jefferson’s 50th anniversary. Thank you for all the great times.

Isabela Silveira Baptista

A Great Friendship

I studied at Casa Thomas Jefferson for 4 years.

I started Juvenile 1 when I was 12, in 2003 and graduated when I was 16.

It happened when I was 15, in 2006, and I had passed to the Advanced Course at Casa Thomas Jefferson. I had finished Juvenile 6 and taken the replacement test to change my level, so I was in a new class and I didn’t know anybody. As the days passed, I got to know some people in my class and we became friends. One of these people was Lais Turra and we studied together for 2 years. She lived near me and we had some friends in common so we started to go places together besides Thomas. I never thought I would become so close to somebody who I just studied with in an English course, twice a week but that was what happened to us.

The teachers always separated us in class because we talked too much. The break was never enough to tell each other the news.

Nowadays we are best friends, we know each other’s families, boyfriends, and we go out together and share a lot of great memories of those days when we were at Casa Thomas Jefferson. So, never despise the opportunity to meet someone. You never know where you can find a great friend!

Isabella Sousa Brandão

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A Friends for Life

It happened at Thomas… Which year? It was probably in 1978. I should have been 12 or 13 years old. I was a student at Thomas, but not at Asa Sul Branch. I was studying at the new unit at Lago Sul. It was at QI 9, but not at the beautiful CTJ Branch of today. It was on the top floor of a set of stores, close to where Oba, the fruit market, is today. My teacher,Mrs. Santana, Norma Santana. Yes, “Mrs.”, we never called her by her first name.

That year I made a great friend: Alexandre. Our lives were very similar, we studied in catholic schools, our parents were employees at Banco do Brasil, we had many brothers and we both lived in the same neighborhood at Lago Sul. We were good students.

Well… We? Not exactly, I was a good student.

Alexander was an excellent student.

To achieve 100 on one of the tests or essays that Mrs. Santana gave us was kind of a miracle. Yes, a miracle, but Alexandre was able to do it, though he was a very discreet boy. He received his grades and, almost without looking at them, he put them in his backpack. I was always asking him, “Alexandre, let me see your test grade, please?”. Invariably, he denied. “Daniella, what do you want to know it for?”. I always found a way to check them, and they were: 100, 99 and rarely did he get a 95.

We always did the oral tests together. He used to practice with me before entering the test room. We usually repeated the dialogues infinite times. He gently and repeatedly corrected the words I was speaking wrong, until I “naturally” spoke them.

I will never forget the final oral exam at that semester. It was a test that, in general, we were used to doing with a different teacher, which for me was a relief, not a difficulty. Mrs. Santana was very demanding and she knew me very well. Alexandre and I were practicing downstairs. At that time, there was a snack bar downstairs - Giraffa’s. We were practicing very hard, until a colleague warned us, “You are the next!”.

We climbed the stairs, I opened the door room and let out a, “Can we come in?” Surprise! Mrs. Santana was right there. She lifted her head and replied, “Yes, you may!”. I got red like a tomato. Alexandre stared at me angrily. From then on, I was not able to say a single sentence. I mixed up all the sentences that he should say with the ones that I should say. I really messed up.

Alexandre, as always, succeeded. Mrs. Santana gave him a 95 and I happily left with my 85. However, I swore to myself that the next semester everything would be different.

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The next semester, our teacher was lovely. She had blond hair and blue eyes. She was Brazilian, but had lived abroad for many years. Her English was much better than her Portuguese. But, just like Mrs. Santana, she was very demanding. She gave us lots and lots of homework. She started to do them in the classroom with us. We usually did two or three exercises together, and then she said that the twenty others were to “our delight at home”. Probably because of that, my grades improved greatly. I started taking 93, 94 instead of 85 or 87.

Alexandre continued to be the same student, with his 98, 99, 100. This time I knew because our teacher once and a while told us our grades out loud.

That semester, when we received our tests, Alexandre looked at the results and happily said, “Congratulations!” It was sincere, but I admit it, I got furious! His grades were always higher.

Then, I decided, “I need a 100.” Studying for the final exam, I did all the exercises in our “grammar book” twice. I got to the exam fully concentrated, focused. I reread each answer, I reviewed the spelling of the more difficult words, I checked if the words should be capitalized, and even checked the periods.

This time, it would be a 100, I was sure!

On the day that our teacher was going to tell us our grades, I was anxious. The teacher did not tell the grades out loud, but I realized that she was distributing the tests, probably from the lowest to the highest. She kept going and I didn´t hear my name, which, for me, was a good sign. Finally she said Alexandre’s name, and then, mine. I thought, “Well done girl! Your grade might have been greater than his!” I took my test and I could not believe it: I got 99!

Alexander saw that I was happy, and quickly put his text in the backpack. I jumped on him, “Please, please let me see your grade!” He replied, “No way!”

He got up and left the classroom very quickly. I went out after him, “Alexandre, please just this once!” He started to walk faster. I could not resist, I pulled his backpack and opened it. I took the test and saw 100!

Not only this, but the teacher had drawn a happy face next to his grade.

I ran after Alexandre as Monica ran after Cebolinha and Cascão. I was sorry I did not have a bunny! The urge to hit him was huge. I ran until he stopped and started laughing at me.

Our friendship lasted for years, he was never my boyfriend, we were both sure we liked each other as brother and sister. As he did not have a girlfriend at the time of his prom, he asked me to dance with him. When we went to college, we always got together at the campus.

The last time I saw him, it was on a sad day. I went to his father’s funeral. I looked at that man, nowadays he is 45 years old, and I could only see the boy after whom I had run one day.

Today, Alexandre and I work for the same institution. We work at the Tribunal Regional Federal. I am a psychologist and Alexandre is ... a Federal Judge.

My son is now a student at Thomas at Asa Norte Branch. When I see him there, among a group of friends, I always think, “Is he going to make good friends here? Friends for life?”

Daniella Meira Lima

It Happened at Thomas

It began in 1977 and lasted exactly six years and a half.

During that time, two or three times a week, I left my school (Dom Bosco) and went on foot to Thomas.It was a long way for a child, almost adolescent, with a heavy backpack. Hunger was always there. I studied at lunchtime (1 p.m.).

At the time, Thomas was one of the few language schools, but considered the best.

To enter, it was necessary to present the famous student ID. I forgot about it many times, so it was necessary to have a good and long conversation with the security guard, or try to present an old one.

I still remember several teachers... Lelé Farani, Aubrey Sue, Paul with his eye patch, and many others.

I also remember Moreira, an employee who was always available to help and who was also my classmate once.

There were many books – Intercom (I still have it!) - to finish the basic level and start the advanced one. After all, I had Conversation Classes. Every semester I learned even more.

Thomas was a different place with different culture, almost magical.

I learned a lot and today I use English in my profession and personal life. It is the legacy that my father will leave for me.

Because life does not stop, my six year old daughter started her studies at Thomas this year, continuing the cycle of life.

It happened, and continues happening, at Thomas.

Renato Carvalho Taveira

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It Happened at Thomas

54

As soon as I moved to Brasilia, I started to look for English classes. After all, there were almost five years that I hadn’t practiced English, and my new job would demand fluency in a foreign language. My preference was for an English school that was near my house or my work.

Fortunately, there was a Casa Thomas Jefferson Branch in my block. I didn’t waste time and on my second week in Brasilia I was already attending classes at Thomas.

On the first week of class, I arrived a little bit early and sat on a corner to relax and wait to the beginning of the class. As soon as I sat, I heard a big noise coming from outside. Everybody ran to the gate and windows to see what was going on. It was a big protest coming from the avenue. There were a lot of people and Casa Thomas Jefferson had to lock the gates to avoid any trouble.

Suddenly, I got stuck inside the school surrounded by the crowd outside. The police arrived and tried to organize the protesters. It was an interesting scene, homeless people side by side with men in suits and women in high heels. They were hanging posters complaining about the price of the land and houses in Brasilia. I asked a man by my side what was happening and he explained that Brasilia still had some kind of landlords. It was a group of a few people, politicians and businessmen ,that owned most part of the land available to construct buildings. Because of that, they could manipulate the prices. As this group belonged to the local government, it was very difficult to change the law and give the same rights to everyone. The population got tired of it and went to the streets to fight for their rights. It was amazing! In the 21st century I was witnessing a struggle for the land, for independence quite similar to those which took place in Brazil almost 300 years ago!

But the negotiation wasn’t pacific. The government refused to negotiate and the crowd got angry. The police became more aggressive and everybody at Thomas was worried. The sounds of bombs and screams, and the smell of smoke filled the air.

In the middle of this chaos, one of the leaders of the protest raised with a letter in his hand.

Because of the distance, I wasn’t able to see his face in detail, but I could see that it was a serious men, gray-haired and very well-dressed. That man, although he was the leader of the protest, was also part of the current local government.

He asked the crowd to listen to him and be calm. He told the people that the he and the governor had signed a new land law for the city!

The crowd got crazy! He asked for silence to continue with his speech. Little by little people calmed down and began to listen to his speech.

I couldn’t listen everything, but silence was increasing as he progressed. Suddenly, these words stood out:

“We hold these truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

Those words caused a deep impact on me. For a while I forgot everything, the crowd, the noise, the smoke. Somehow I knew that I had already listened to those words. But when? Where?

I couldn’t think of anything else. All my thoughts were on that speech. And I couldn’t find an answer.

So I turned around to come back inside when I got face to face with man who had just said those words. He was right in front of me, staring at me.

I got dizzy. My heart reached a thousand beats at least. It took some seconds until I realized that I was in front of Thomas Jefferson. He looked deep in my eyes and with the same eloquence he did that speech, he told me, “Wake up, guy!

Otherwise you’ll be late for your class.”

I opened my eyes and he was right: everybody was already in class. I was late.

Bruno Meireles Leite And Yet Not Brilliant

There was once a great teacher who wasn’t just a terrific mentor, but also an awesome person.

She used to be tough in her classes, not only to improve her students’ skills so as to give them that little extra experience to help them through their upcoming lives. The one thing which used to keep us glued to our chairs was the love she could put in her words and the effort to show us that everything you do should be done with love.

So, in one of her years as a teacher ‘it” happened. The “it” was a student who was reckless, irresponsible and yet brilliant, or so he used to think. He didn’t show up in her second class, or the third, or the fourth… He was going towards failure because of his fouls and yet he kept playing the cool guy.

I bet every teacher had one of those or will have. But, on the fifth class (the one before the test), he wasn’t interested on the review lessons they were having. Nevertheless, his chatting was way more important, and disturbing the tempo of the class was, of course, irrelevant.

“I wish you were in my spot”, said the teacher to the class. And she kept on going,”you know… Once I had a student that used to talk in class, skip the other ones and cheat to pass in Thomas. He wasn’t just throwing away his parents’ money, but also his life. He had no respect, no character and no collective consciousness. I wish I weren’t saying (now looking at me) that some of you are walking to the same path. However, people change. After many years, he met me and came to say thanks for all of my effort to help him through that time because now he had a job and knew he had to respect everyone in there. He was responsible for his work and if he didn’t work, he was fired.”

At the moment she was finished, I realized all the things she was doing to me. I was ashamed of myself and wished I had neither parents nor Thomas. I couldn’t face her. Until the end of the semester, I studied and passed. And on the last day my voice was mute after receiving the report card.

Those eyes full of guilt were saying the sentence I was thinking, “I didn’t deserve that”.

We moved on. I was sure that next semester she would completely forget about me, and I didn’t care. Who is a teacher after all? I can tell you a teacher is someone who can change your life.

Everything he says is kept in you and, when you’re ready, you learn it and grow with it. All I wanted was not to go blank.

After all of these years, I just can’t describe how amazing this thought is still within me or how it echoed during that time. The attitude in life towards the other is something that must be kept and taught. I surely learned a lot with this experience and wanted to dedicate this text to this teacher I struggled to love.

Felipe Igreja do Prado Torres

55

It Happend at Thomas

Casa Thomas Jefferson is, certainly, a place that holds lots of stories. When I was a student, I lived many funny, interesting, embarrassing, and even romantic moments. If I had to comment on every single one of them, I would end up writing a book. To choose a few of these many moments is truly hard, for each of them was special in its own way. But if I had to choose the one that felt most special, I would definitely choose my Teens 7 Graduation Party.

When I entered CTJ, I was 8. I must admit I was quite nervous at the time, because I was going to study a whole new language, and I wasn’t so sure I would learn English properly. Some years later, came my Teens 7 Graduation. I had proved to myself that I could do it, my efforts had not been in vain, and for that, I was really happy. My excitement grew even bigger when I met my old teachers and friends, talked to them, remembered the past years. Then, the hosts started handing out the diplomas. As I saw people coming up and down the stage, I could only think of how time had flown by; it felt as if I had started the course yesterday and now I was almost at the end of it. When I got my diploma, I could get a glimpse of the school. Those people, that environment, someday I would have to leave it all behind… But then again, I would still have the good old memories, memories to hold and keep forever. I may be leaving CTJ, but CTJ was not leaving me.

Years passed, I continued living my normal life at the school. New friends and teachers came, we lived many funny moments, faced many challenges. Saying goodbye wasn’t easy, of course, but now, every time I walk past CTJ and I see smiling children running up and down, I remember those good times I had, and I feel glad that the next generation will be able to feel like I felt, learning English with a marvelous teaching staff and coordinators. They’ll study hard, finish the course and make room for another generation that will also live wonderful moments.

Not only did CTJ give me good memories as a reward, but it also gave me fluency in English as well as my friends, whom I will keep forever. My CTJ experience is something that I have to thank for every day, for new frontiers are now open in my path.

Gabriel Nóbrega Amaro

56

It Happened at Thomas

I was eight years old when my mother decided, on a cloudy afternoon, to enroll me at Thomas. It seemed that many mothers had had the same idea. You could see an impatient Fernanda, a girl with curly hair and blue eyes looking at me as if something was wrong with my multicolored dress and huge coat. I think she realized that my mother still chose my clothes. Our mothers started talking to each other. After a friendly and fun talk, my mother left Thomas with my enrollment done and a smile on her face.

A few weeks later, it was my first day at Thomas.

There were anxiety and fear of meeting new people, and worse, a new language. When I entered that room, with chairs placed in a way that all students could interact, I realized Fernanda was there, she and her beautiful blue eyes that could make anyone envious.

At that moment I didn´t know, but Thomas had just given me my best friend, who would be part of my life from that cloudy afternoon on.The fact that we were both enjoying studying English so much developed our riendship even more. Sometimes, during the break time, we were caught by surprise, speaking in English, and then we would start laughing once we realized that.

Fernanda and I went to different regular schools; therefore, we only met twice a week, sometimes three, when Thomas thought it was better for our friendship, or maybe Thomas only thought our English deserved more attention.

A few years later, Fernanda transferred to my school, so once again fate joined us, and she was in my class. From that day, I was Fernanda´s friend full time. I used to have lunch at her house and after lunch we would go to Thomas together.

And so this went on for seven years. It was seven years learning English and seeing a friendship grow. Finally, our graduation at Thomas came. I had the opportunity to share this special moment with my best friend, celebrating our first achievement.

Today, I can see how Thomas had a great impact on me, giving me a friend for life, and helping me with my first job - since English is an essential tool these days. And when I received the news that I would be hired, there was Fernanda to celebrate another achievement.

At eight years of age, I could never imagine that Thomas would give me not only English knowledge, but also a true friend for life.

It Happened at Thomas

It was the end of the 90’s, 1997 or 1998, when a teacher, in an afternoon classroom at Taguatinga’s CTJ, came up with a game to socialize the class and to improve our knowledge of dates, months and years.

To do so, he asked the students to pin on their backs a piece of paper with a date of birth and each student should search for his own birthday on the back of the others.

The game started!

All the students began to look for their birthdays in the back of each other.

However, one student didn’t find a colleague with her birthday. And one student left with a birthday in the back that nobody picked.

Despite of that, the student affirmed that the date left wasn’t her birthday. But the teacher insisted that the date was correct according to the school’s file.

What was the date left? February, 29th. What was the girl’s birthday? August, 29th.

So, what happened???

After one hour trying to figure out what caused the wrong date of birth, the student revealed that her mother lied about her date of birth so she could be six months older and start the English course at the juvenil level!!!

That’s what Brazilians call “lies have short legs”…. What a shame!!!

Even years later, I remember the February, 29th as this girl’s birthday and although it happens only in bissextile years I call her to take some nice laughs.

Samantha Fonseca Andrade

Gabriela Machado de Carvalho

57

Raise it High

And there they were, the three of them: Green, Eye Bags and Milk. Green was just returning to the table. “You won’t guess the people I just met.”

“The who!?” said Milk, always impatient.

“Two ex- teachers of mine, they are married.”

“Wow, yeah... I see, the bald dude with a beard and the woman with short hair. They are from CTJ, right?” said Eye Bags.

“How do you kn…” Green didn’t finish the question: the answer was way too obvious.

Of course! How could he have missed it?

Almost every person their age or from their neighborhood has passed there: CTJ, an institution that permeates the city. There is always an ex-student around, a sleeper agent; an army of infiltrates, the day would come when they all would be summoned to defend the honor and values of that place, to march and protect one of its many branches against a legion of competitors. Most likely not, anyway. Not in the real world.

He changed the question as it came out:

“When did you study there?”

“For a few years, ages 13-15, I didn’t finish the course, though.”

“Do you know them?” asked Green, nodding to his old scholars.

“Well, kind of…I never had classes with them, just used to see them in the hallway.”

”They are the best! That bald guy and I go way back, he was my first English teacher, and he gave classes later on too… In a way, we kind of saw each other grow, me from childhood to young adult age, and him from young adult age to becoming a real, responsible adult”. At that second, it all came back, all memories about those people, in a flash of savant behavior.

“That’s funny. Looking back, I know a lot about their lives: I know he has an identical twin and a great density of tattoos in his spine, he lived in Europe for a while, toured in Germany with his band a little, spent some time as a construction worker somewhere out there too.” (Right there, Milk started humming “In the Navy”, from Village People, in a really low voice).“Then he came back and decided that teaching was something that really gave him pleasure. Once, he told us something about the first class he gave, he was so nervous that he had to hold himself not to go to the bathroom every five minutes.

“That woman was my very last teacher at CTJ. Also a remarkable person, a lot of lady moxie going on. She was one of the few people who were able to make me write my own things.”

“They have three cats, and one of them is a self-mutilating psycho. They used to be best friends, and then they both divorced from their first marriages and started dating after a while.”

58

(The “In the navy” ceased) “You creep! Are you their stalker or something?” exclaimed Milk.

“C’mon! Don’t you guys know anything about your teachers?” cried Green.

With great effort, Eye bags started “Well…

The coolest I had was the metal guy. I’m sure you met him. The man walked around with his black, long-sleeved Ts, and that long, and maybe unwashed, hair. But he was more of a mysterious guy, the type that doesn’t share his life that easily. Actually most things we knew about him were misty legends, like he went to work and back home by bike every day – some kid once said his house was 40Km away.”

“Why would anyone give himself that amount of trouble? Every day?”

“Every day,” his friend replied, solemnly. “Also, he had a great taste for music, movies, that stuff.”

“Don’t they all? I mean, I’ve always felt they’d seen the stuff I liked, and that I could communicate, classes ran smoothly,” said Green.

(Then, sound waves of “In the Navy” found their rightful place in the air again, from the full mouth that produced them.)

“Not all of them. There was this time when we were so bored that some colleagues and I conspired to make a practical joke: we would all fall from our desks in chain, like dominoes, and a girl would record it,” corrected Eye Bags.

(Humming stops) “Sounds stupid!” said Milk, and humming resumes.

“We got two thousand views on YouTube,” Eye Bags pointed out. ”But anyway, Green, your classes might have been more interesting, the way you are a grammar freak! That just reminds me of something about your girl…”

Meanwhile, a sipping Green had reverted to his reminiscences of other teachers. It wasn’t only that couple. He carried them all in his thoughts, and not only teachers, but his classmates as well.

Memories of a village called Tabatinga, deep in the Amazon rainforest, silly songs from someone else’s childhood, tidbits of neuroscience, the voices of people (a boy with a tone as low as a president’s and a girl’s delightful falsetto), the overly tender kids who kept showing their affection for each other constantly. He had shared, in a comparatively much shorter period of time, a lot of personal information about the people who surrounded him in that place. Those weren’t single memories, they were more of an irreducible mosaic, and one couldn’t gaze at it if not in its wholeness. Not what had happened there; instead, what it had been.

He felt he knew about the people he had met back there, as much as he remembered these years-long friendships shared at the table, despite the ridiculously small break times.

That was a place that gets into your bones.

And more important, it was a place people could fit in.

One who graduated there, embracing its philosophy, would be indulged in a different way of seeing things.

It didn’t matter if you were a rocker, a playboy, a geek, a plain freak (an unintended paraphrase of the movie “The Breakfast Club”, I promise) or an unusual combination of those things. There were no boundaries, no closed groups. A class was made of individuals, not a collective, indistinct mass. Perhaps the goal of the course was achieved through the subconscious, overlapping the textbook, the board, the projector, and the never-ending small talk that filled the gaps in between.

Back on the tracks, he acknowledged his friend was still talking. “…Kale’s aunt worked there too, but one can never know everything there is about her…

Wow! What about pizza parties, dude, did you have them too?”

He enjoyed the commentary as much as he did enjoy the care Eye Bags had to changing topics so quickly. “Yeah! Those were quite the phenomena, right?

My classes always had musical people-musicians! We filled our stomachs and spent the rest of the class singing songs, with instruments they brought.

Sometimes, even the teacher would join us and play!”

As he said those words, that unique couple passed by the table giving him a long, warm and caring look.

Right then, he wanted to raise his glass as high as he could, Everest high, as a salutation to those masters who had taught him, as their equal. ”Dude, why ‘In the Navy’?”

“‘Dun know … Hmm I think it was that construction worker deal, maybe it triggers Village People in my head!”

“You know how everyone turns so dull and goes saying I’m crazy, a pervert, and maybe autistic.”

“You also went to CTJ for a while, didn’t you, Milk?”

“Yeah!”

“What about it, then?”

“Well… I didn’t mind it much. People there wouldn’t like me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“OK…” True, indeed, in his case.

Done chewing, Milk spoke “Now you brought it up, I recall: I did strike them back, at one of those pizza parties…

” through a malicious unclean grimace.

“Are you gonna tell us how?”

And he did tell them how, the image would be stuck in their heads for the rest of their lives, as the grossest and most inhumane account they have ever heard.

Leonardo Rodrigues da Costa

59

It Happened at Thomas

I started my journey accompanied by my mummy-made sandwich and my orange juice. It was the week of Saint Patrick’s Day and there was an unbelievable number of children crawling under tables and jumping behind trees and doors in the endless task of counting the clovers, which were all over the red and blue walls of Thomas. The journey was in order for the little leprechauns to get the pot of... chocolate. I was one of these children, but I had a double responsibility of getting that prize.

In the previous class, the competition had been announced and it was an earthquake in class. Even the teacher was excited about it. A blonde girl wanted the chocolates for her mother’s birthday. There was a boy named Lorenzo, and he was saying he wanted to eat them all in a record speed, although I knew this record speed speech was only a disguise for his competitive spirit. He was always eager to win - the spelling competitions, the stickers for the ones who did not speak Portuguese in class. I was also thinking how cool it would be to win the chocolates, but I had one single objective - give them to Lorenzo. Although his competition vein for everything drove me nuts sometimes, I was a child, and when we are children, for some reason, we fall in love with the ones who drive us mad, and young Lorenzo was one of those.

Therefore, following the children’s philosophy for love, I have to admit that I used to be such a troublemaker when it came to Lorenzo. I loved opposing any of his opinions and suggestions. Thus, when he assertively said he would be the winner of the counting competition, I raised my voice just to say he wouldn’t because I would be the one to tell the right number of clovers. From this little sparkle bursted, then, the mighty flame, and the battle was declared. The teacher had to intervene in the argument that started when it got to its climax - I showed Lorenzo my tongue - and at that age that was a big deal.

Class continued and when it was over, the tongue episode had been forgotten already. I was already talking to Lorenzo when we got out. We went to buy popcorn at the entrance of Thomas and then, Lorenzo, his friends, and I sat at the curb, waiting for our parents. I went to the trash can to dump the rest of popcorn, and when I was coming back, my sweetheart and his friends were making a bet - if Lorenzo didn’t win the competition for Saint Patrick’s day, he would have to kiss me. And if I won it then there would be two kisses.

60

In Saint Patrick’s Day week, I was focused on counting those clovers. I was out of classes and I barely stopped to talk to Lorenzo, for if I won the thing, not only would I talk to but also kiss him. Therefore, eating my sandwich and drinking my orange juice, I counted clovers, and clovers, and more clovers. I looked into every room I could, behind and under each chair at Casa Thomas Jefferson, and there were loads.

While counting, I sometimes looked around and my eyes met Lorenzo’s. It was a competitive hate-loving look. I finished my counting after around forty minutes, and called mom to go home. Even though my classes were on Mondays and Wednesdays, on that Friday I would come back to Thomas only in order to follow the results announcement. I did not know if Lorenzo would be there.

When Friday came, I had lunch at school and went straight to Thomas. There was some movement near the library, where the results were being announced. I sat on the floor and was looking for a pen in my bag when Lorenzo sat by my side. We said ‘hello’ and then we were silent until the Library Lady announced the name of the winner. It was not Lorenzo’s, and neither was me, and the sum remained one kiss at the end. Well, it was one kiss.

We stood up and while going to buy popcorn once again, I couldn’t resist and then I told Lorenzo I knew about the bet and asked for my kiss. He was astonished, and I was impatient. I had never kissed.

And there - on the way to the popcorn stand at the entrance of Thomas, I had my first (and one-secondlasting) kiss.

I was shocked. I pretended I knew nothing about it when we came back, and thinking about it I remained until my mother came to pick me up.

Larissa Geovana Mendes Guimarães

Spelling A+

The most thrilling and amazing moment I’ve ever had at Casa Thomas Jefferson happened on 2010, when I won its Spelling Bee contest. When I first heard about it I was very excited, and signed up immediately. The Spelling Bee is a competition where you are given a random word and requested to spell it correctly; if not, you are eliminated.

I went through the semifinals and won them at the Asa Sul branch, so I moved on to the finals, which were held at the Asa Norte branch. I remember walking up onto a huge stage that night, and despite appearing extremely self-confident, my hands were shaking and I was very, very nervous, for I had never been in front of such a big audience before. I had butterflies in my stomach. My mother, father and sister were there and were so very supportive, even before the contest. Their constant nagging, as much as I hate to admit, was vital for my victory, because it made me study even more.

My sister even made a banner to show her support, and her arms must have gotten really sore, because she was holding it up during the whole challenge.

I was extremely excited during the competition and, as it proceeded, I began feeling more and more relaxed and confident. I spelled all the words really quickly and accurately, and every time I got one of them right, I would smile and raise my hands in celebration. People in the audience would always smile and clap back.

By the end, of the five kids that had started competing, a girl named Rafaela, if I recall correctly, and I were left standing. The competition didn’t seem to end! The audience was starting to get tired, and finally, the words were over and a draw was declared. We split the prize, and each one of us got what we deserved.

Even though the Spelling Bee ended in a tie, many people told me and my family I was the true winner, and most of them were rooting for me the whole time. It’s nice to see that I was so captivating! I received many compliments, either because I was the fastest to spell or because I was always smiling. Either way, it was extremely overwhelming and made me feel very proud of myself.

Lucas de Almeida Santos

61

It Happend at Thomas South Wing and North Wing Branches

62

Although I should say that it happened quite a while ago, I still have fond memories of those three unforgettable moments. They happened while I was teaching at the South Wing and North Wing branches respectively. At the North Wing, sitting down with other colleagues in the teacher’s room, early afternoon, at the top of my silence as an observer (because I have always been a silent observer), a group of English teachers were sitting at the same table where I was, and they started talking. Funny thing is that, when they started, everyone was talking to each other in English. All of a sudden, some of them started answering one another’s questions in Portuguese, then the conversation went on bilingually (guess I have just created a new word). Not happy with that, the teachers kept changing languages, but always talking in two languages. Sometimes the conversation went on Portuguese-Portuguese, other times English-Portuguese, then English-English, and the conversation went on and on for one hour. That made me think of those teachers´ ability to organize their messy world and mind (English teachers are like that) to keep everything organized in there, and still be able to teach people how to be organized. Second event happened while I was a teacher at the North Wing. To help improve my students´ vocabulary, I had invited Katy Cox for a visit, to talk about American habits, culture, food and all, so my students could feel that their vocabulary was worth it and that they would be able to understand a native speaker of the language (and Katy Cox is such an outstanding speaker of English). Little did I know how nervous they would be at that event. They were supposed to ask her some questions that they had prepared during former classes, questions we had already discussed, but their minds went blank at the moment of the interview.

So, Katy generously stayed with us for 30 minutes, talking, while everyone listened attentively. I guess they all came back to their feet from that moment only a few minutes after she had left. Oh, well! But the speech was really great. And finally, I remember one of those In-services, teachers were giving speeches, and one that particularly attracted my attention was the one presented by teacher Aldenir (or was it Aldenice? I have a hard time telling them apart), talking about the choice of grammar or vocabulary. It comes fresh to my mind that she gave the audience the following choice: “If you were to travel to China and you knew nothing of the language spoken there, and if you had the choice between two pills – vocabulary or grammar – which one would you choose?” Most of the audience chose the vocabulary pill, but she eloquently explained why we should have chosen the grammar pill, arguing that with the grammar comes the structure, along which comes the vocabulary, which, in turn, would enable the

person to speak better there. I don´t know if she still thinks that way, but it´s one of the moments I just can´t let go, along with many others I had at Casa Thomas Jefferson in that one year and a half of pure learning.

Thank you all for being there. Thank you all for having had me there. Luv U all.

Luiz Nascimento Freitas

It Happened at Thomas Halloween’s Week

The “Casa Thomas Jefferson” is always promoting different events and parties at their headquarters. They make sure to celebrate all of the main holidays as well as any major cultural festivities.

In this way, they are able to provide a good learning experience to their students and keep them motivated.

The students really like it. I wasn’t different!

During the month of October is when one of the biggest celebrations of the year takes place: Halloween. The Institution plans a full week of activities and events that ends with the famous Halloween Costume Party.

In the year of 2001, like any other year, our teacher informed us about all of the events that were going to occur during Halloween’s week, but she also told us that this year was going to be a little bit more special than the others. She stated that the students were going to have to wear different specific outfits each day of the week: all black Monday, pajama’s Tuesday, 80’s Wednesday, and so on. The teacher explained how everything was supposed to work and added that she was going to give extra credit to the students that actually followed the dress code instated.

Feeling excited about the new idea and also about getting extra credit, I got ready for pajama’s Tuesday. I was wearing my most colorful nightwear, cartoony slippers and a small pillow (to complete the look). I was kind of embarrassed of actually going to my English class wearing nightwear, even though everything already embarrasses you when you are 14 years old. Anyway, I decided to go dressed like that.

I was wearing my outfit when I arrived at “Casa Thomas Jefferson” on that Tuesday. At first, I thought it was kind of strange that no one else was wearing their pajamas, but that didn’t worry me that much, because many of my classmates had assured me that they would come to class wearing their PJs. I started to move quickly in order to get to my class, which was located on the 2nd floor, and meet my friends as soon as possible. I wanted to stop feeling so awkward alone.

When I reached the door to my class, I saw a classmate of mine, who had promised me to wear his pajamas, without them. He looked at me and asked if that was the day when we were all supposed to come dressed up. At that moment I was already furious. I answered affirmatively and also told him that I couldn’t believe that he had forgotten all about it. He said that he could swear it was only in the following week. I replied, saying that he needed to pay more attention to life.

After that frustrating conversation, I got into my classroom, but only to find out that none of my peers were wearing any type of night clothes. Just when I was about to start an argument with everyone in there, my teacher came into the classroom and asked if I was feeling well. I told her I was, even though nobody had followed the instated dress code of the day, except me.

My teacher then told me: “Of course, Maíra, the celebrations for Halloween’s week only start next week, not in this one. I only told you guys ahead of time so you could prepare for it.”

That was it! Everyone started laughing and making fun of me. I didn’t really care about their jokes (they were all my friends), but I still had to go through the entrance lobby once more. I couldn’t stop thinking about how embarrassing that would be again.

The teacher felt so sorry for me and, just to cheer me up, she ended up giving me twice as much extra credit. On that day, when I was 14 years old, I almost died of shame, even though I got the extra credit; but, today, I’m 25, and that story makes me laugh and it also reminds me of an incredible phase of my life, during which I had lived unforgettable moments, many of them during my English classes at the Casa Thomas Jefferson.

Maíra Konrad de Brito

63

The Teacher Beyond the Classroom

Casa Thomas Jefferson has always been a cool and modern environment because of its teaching staff that has made great career in art and culture. During the time I studied there, I happened to meet some of these artistic teachers. At the time I met them, I never imagined that they would end up being a great professional influence and that they had so much more to teach me beyond the classroom.

André and Pedro, were – or still are, I don’t know - great English teachers, loved by all of their students. Outside the classroom, they were known as “Isn’t & The Six”, two of the most important DJs that Brasilia has had. Besides the research in contemporary music, they are famous for bringing together visual arts, happenings and live performances. What makes them so special is that they did what they did in the mid-90’s, which makes them ‘vanguardists’ in contemporary art in our city. I had the chance to get closer to them, for I’ve always been interested and curious about music and visual arts. André would give me his recordings and would also say: “listen to it with your eyes closed and with your earphones on”, so I did. They became part of an important turning point in my professional life, as many otherteachers also did, without even knowing it.

Whoever saw teacher Uver Cabral walking around in beautiful suits wouldn’t imagine how he dressed up when he was rocking and rolling in the majors’ electronic music festivals around the globe. He was another great teacher who had a parallel life in art and culture. Prejudice,sometimes, makes people think that the electronic music environment is full of irresponsible youngsters, with no hope in the future, taking drugs and spending their parents’ money. Uver is a great example of how DJs can dress the way they want and have colorful psychedelic parties, and, even so, be great and responsible fathers and mothers as well as successful professionals.

Besides that, I had a great number of experiences with some other teachers that would sum up to make the person I am now. I remember listening to very good music during the classes, such as Neil Young, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen... They were great artists who I came to know while I learned English due to great teachers. I remember having my first theater experience at Thomas, as well. No one would imagine that, in the future, I would be a theater student at the University of Brasilia. I had everything at CTJ - music, theater, visual arts, and literature - without knowing that I was learning much more than English.

Today I’m a well-known DJ and musician, and have presented my work in many countries, such as England, Portugal, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, and Australia, carrying with me the influence I had at Thomas. More interesting than that is to think that, in all those countries I’ve been to, I met so many people, made many contacts, saw so

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many beautiful things, and all of that was possible because of one simple asset: I knew how to speak English! That means that the same people who influenced me and were my idols, somehow, where the same people who taught me how to communicate around the world. Isn’t that amazing? It happened at Thomas.

There is not enough space here to mention all their names, but I can say that the teachers I had at Thomas taught me much more than what they were supposed to. Of course I had to grow up a little to see that. The teachers themselves may not even know that they would be part of my life, but they were, and some of them still are. I’m thankful for that. I learned that this is what makes a difference in education: when a teacher is a human being with experiences to share and not a robot machine that spends his/her time with students repeating rules and doing what any computer can do. I learned that a teacher can and should teach much more than the subject they are teaching, simply by being themselves.

Rafael Amaral Naves

When I got to the door, I realized something was wrong: IT WAS LOCKED! That noise I’d heard before was someone locking it. I tried to keep it rational and went to the other door, just to discover that it was also locked. I called my mother on the cell phone, but she didn’t answer me. At this point, I could not keep it so rational anymore. So I started thinking, “OMG, OMG what am I going to do?!”

After thinking for a while, I had an idea. I turned on one of the computers they had in the library, I got into CTJ´s website and tried to search for Águas Claras branch phone, which I found. I called CTJ, and when the nice girl answered, I said, “Hi, my name is Ana. I’m here, upstairs, locked at the library. Would you please send someone to open the door?”

Thank God she didn`t think I was kidding and sent the janitor there. He opened the door and laughed at me (I would have done the same thing). I got my water and went back to my studies.

I Almost forgot: while I was waiting for the janitor with the computer on, I thought it would be nice to tweet about it. So I did it, and had plenty of replies.

So, that`s the real story of how I got locked at Thomas´s library. Although it has never happened again, I can assure you that many other weird and funny things enriched my days at Thomas.

Ana Letícia Melo Viana

The Day I Get Locked at the Library

I graduated at Thomas in 2008 and took a pre-Michigan (ECPE) course in 2009. Even after the conclusion of those courses, I kept going to CTJ, especially the Library.

So, in a random day during the year of 2011, after classes at Universidade de Brasília – UnB, I went to Águas Claras branch to use the library because I had to study for an International Relations Theory test. When I got there, I entered the place, said a nice “good afternoon” to the receptionist, got up the stairs and went to the library.

When I opened the door, I realized that Lúcia, the nice lady who is usually there, wasn’t there this time.

I thought she might have been somewhere else and would arrive soon, so I closed the door after me and sat in my favorite table.

I cannot really quantify how much time elapsed, but I remember hearing a noise at the door at a certain moment in that afternoon. It didn’t bother me because, since it is a public library, anyone can go in and out, and, besides, I was used to hearing some noises around. Shortly after, I decided to fill my glass with water and take a walk before I continued my studies.

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It Happened at Thomas

See, I have a two-month-old baby and the words ‘private life’ have been somehow blurred of my dictionary. So, today, in an act of courage, I dare say, I finally decided I would delight myself with some ‘quality time’. I courageously left the baby with the nanny – something I hardly ever do – and went jogging.

I know… I know… I should be doing this more often - I still have some extra pounds to get rid of. When I got back home from jogging, a miracle had happened – the baby was sleeping. So, I thought to myself… why not? You, reader, must be wondering – why not…, WHAT? Don’t worry, one step at a time. I will satisfy your curiosity in a while. In response to this thought, I turned my computer on and there was an e-mail I managed to save for when I allowed myself some wildly self-indulgence. A bit dramatic - I know – but realistic.

I never thought raising a baby would be delightful, yet, so time-consuming. Well, getting back to my being self-indulgent, yum… - the abovementioned e-mail was about a writing context. But not only that, it was a writing context whose topic was “It happened at Thomas”.

Let me contextualize why this e-mail represents such a luxury – because it all happened at Thomas!

You must be wondering – “it all”, WHAT? Sorry if I am getting on your nerves with many question marks.

It will all be clarified soon. Just chill out and enjoy the reading…

Recapturing the “why not?”, why not writing about it? Why not diving in this journey about my life and Thomas? Revisiting so many stories will definitely be joyful and undoubtedly therapeutic! Thomas and I share a lifetime of good memories, so let me start from the beginning. I know it sounds redundant, but trust me - it is not. The beginning, my beginning, starts in the late 80s, in the very first kids’ pilot course. The teacher was Bené (she did not allow us calling her ‘Tia Bené’) and I was one of her students. I remember the desks being massive for us (the students) and, therefore, our feet not reaching the floor. The games were extremely hard to be played since we all had a hard time standing after sitting down. However, we had so much fun with Bené and a Michael Jackson key chain she had.

Later on, there was the Sunrise course. I remember I felt so excited about taking the course the oldest ones were taking. Besides, there were Timmy and Tessie, the books’ characters. And I was deeply in love with Timmy! I remember my friends always mocking me because of this crush.Now I understand why. My mother got, without any doubt, sick of hearing the wishing well song. My siblings and I used to sing it all the time around the house. Can you believe I still remember the song? - “One day I went to the wishing well. Along the road through the wishing well. fell…”

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I threw my money in the wishing well. And wished, and wished as the money

‘Tia Sonia’ was my teacher for about three times during the ‘sunrise time’ and I just cherished being her student. She was so thoughtful and we all played tons of games in her class. ‘Tia Martinha’ was also one of my sunrise teachers. She was very funny!

She made the funniest faces and voices in class. Miss Aguiar was the ‘clubinho’ and cooking class teacher.

I did not understand a word she spoke, but I definitely understood the skeleton toy she gave us when we were being disruptive. Additionally, I enjoyed listening to her playing the ‘sanfona’.

At the age of twelve, if I am not mistaken, my hormones and I initiated the Juvenile course. I remember I wanted to be super sexy for the boys and Thomas was the place I would meet them. For my mother’s despair, I wore the most dreadful clothes ever.

Good for her it did not last too long, for soon after I adopted a hippie style. The Juvenile time was fine, but hard. I had a tricky time with spelling and tests. My grades in the juvenile course were appalling and I felt equally awful. My mother was a teacher at the Casa and I was ashamed for not acing the quizzes and tests.

Compositions were likewise extremely hard to be dealt with. Katy Cox, who I still admire the most, was my savior. She saw something in me nobody could see (besides my mother, of course). For a while, I went to her office every afternoon, after class, to hand in a summary of a text she gave me to read beforehand.

The texts were about pets, and that was when I started raising a genuine affection for pets.

At the age of fourteen, I embarked in the Advanced Course. The book was called ‘focus on grammar’ and we, the students, called it fu@#$ us on grammar. This book was damn hard and we had to digest so much syntax. I knew the language rules for English better than for Portuguese (my native language).

Hermes, Ilá, Margarete and Cassio were my advanced teachers. Remarkable teachers indeed!

During this time, I participated in two talent shows, two rock concerts and a pet show. I remember the first talent show was awesome. Unfortunately, I could not participate because I was not old enough.

The core of the event was a band stroking up for students to sing along as if in a karaoke, just like American idol, but even cooler. See, Thomas was the precursor of this kind of talent shows. American idol should be paying royalties for the Casa!

Near my graduation, I and other students were invited to participate in the then new North Branch building inauguration. We were to welcome the guests.

Can you believe it has been more than fifteen years since then? I feel I am getting old! After the graduation, I sought to earn some pocket money and speaking English was the only skill I had to fulfill the purpose.

As a result, I looked for a job in local English schools.

It took me a couple of years to be finally accepted in one. Meanwhile, my staying far from Thomas felt somehow awkward; so I signed up for a few refreshing courses, such as the theater, business, pre-test, writing and conversation courses.

I remember my first time in a classroom as a teacher. I was around seventeen years old and I remember a guy calling me, saying – remember a job you signed up for as an English teacher? ... Well, guess what? You got the job! Can you start tonight?

– I almost freaked out, but I faced the challenge. And there I was, all frightened, in an adult class, without any grounding. I must confess teaching was definitely not one of my natural assets! That was when I decided to join the Teacher Development Course (TDC). There I met great teachers and my mother was the very best!

She taught the methodology term. The only problem about having classes with her was when I accidentally said – Ô maiê! For my misery, I used to do this a lot.

Taking TDC made me realize I was in love with English.

Back then, I thought teaching was my call. So, I signed up for the teaching selection at Thomas and I got the job. Teaching at Thomas was a dream coming true. The ones who were once my teachers became my working fellows. I got much support from my former teachers, who mirrored their success as teachers by seeing one of their students following their chosen careers.

Unfortunately, not all fellows felt the same, but the important ones did. I steadily grew as a professional and as a person at Thomas.

Anyway, the baby just woke up and it is screaming. I’d better check her out. It felt great conversing with you and sharing such wonderful memories.

Sadly, I could not write them all; otherwise, I would write a whole book just about ‘What happened at Thomas’ and spend an entire year doing so.

Idefinitely made true friends and shared much happiness along the way. Now I do not work or study at Thomas anymore. I found another call for my life, and I no longer live in Brasilia, but Thomas and all the memories and friendsI have made will live ceaselessly in my heart. In a way, Thomas made me who I am as a student, a teacher, a daughter, a mother, a professional, a woman and a friend, and I am very grateful for that. I hope you have had as much fun reading this conversation as I had writing it.

Greetings to you all,

Rafaela Costa Camões Rabello

67

It Happened at Thomas

There is nothing like remembering your old schooldays. Although English courses aren’t usually placed in our memories as regular schools – I mean the one that you have a closer relation with – Casa Thomas Jefferson, or Thomas, as I used to call it, has a very important place in my memories.

At the age of 10, I started Thomas and I spent 6 years of my life in that school. I couldn’t put into words how I felt in my first days in that huge school with so many students. I felt I was in an American university or in a traditional American high school. It was a different experience, at least for 2 hours twice a week I could travel somewhere that wasn’t exactly my English course in Brasilia. I would probably imagine I was a foreign student studying abroad.

Every semester I used to get new classmates, because I always had to change my schedule.

However, it wasn’t that good because I was always the new student in the group. However, I met so many people and made so many friends through all these years that even nowadays I see my old classmates.

I also remember that every traditional American or Anglo-Saxon holyday, Thomas was all decorated for that. The coordination was so creative doing stuff for the students and making us feel as if we were having a foreign experience in our own country.I guess I developed that feeling of global citizen because of this willingness to know about what’s different from me, exploring the world, meeting people that have different cultures from mine… and Thomas is totally responsible for that!

One of the big events in the year was the Halloween party. At the age of 12, I went to my first one and was one of the best parties I’ve gone in my life – maybe because I was young and it was one of the first times that I went to a big party. It was in Palazzo, a very big party house near the Paranoá Lake. It was amazing; I got back home at 3 a.m. and had fun until the last minute.

Nowadays, I am a university student and I miss those school times. Throughout those 6 years I studied at Thomas, I wanted to quit a few times, but, as my parents used to tell me, keep on doing it, it will be important for the rest of your life, they were right. To communicate in this globalized world is priceless. If you don’t have a basic knowledge of English, you wouldn’t be able to grow in your career, or even ask for help if you were in a country whose language you don’t speak (when I was in Germany, my English saved my life, and I couldn’t speak a word in German). I just have to say thanks for preparing me for the world!

Guilherme Lopes Guedes Brito 68

It Happened at Thomas

I have always been a shy and socially awkward person. Of course, I was also like that, back at the time I went to Thomas Jefferson. It was the year of 2004, and I had just moved to Brasilia. New in town, I had very few friends and barely kept in touch with the ones from my hometown since, in those days, we would still exchange letters instead of e-mails. I was still in my teens, at an age in which people would already have formed groups based on their similarities or ideals. I suppose that’s why I was afraid it would be too hard for me to be accepted, both at school and at Thomas.

Fortunately, in the latter, I was enrolled in the class I was. It has been so long I can’t really remember how it happened but, by the end of the first day, I had made a really good friend. She lived near Thomas, and our schools were next to one another, so we spent a lot of time together. I introduced her to the friends I made at school, and she introduced me to hers, and we all would hang out together. Some people in our little group even started to date and, even though that didn’t work out quite so well in the end, it strengthened our bonds. But, after some time, she and I went separate ways: changed schools, graduated from Thomas, started to hang out with other people.

Right now, I am visiting Brasilia. I moved back to my hometown, and still am a shy and socially awkward person, even though I am getting better. She still lives here, and yet, despite the convenience of e-mail and social networks, I’ve barely kept in touch with her or the friends I made. Still, yesterday, we went out after almost a year to talk about how we have been doing, like we were never apart. And I know that friendship happened because of Thomas.

Laura Pereira Nishioka

It Happened at Thomas

It is funny how bad situations may become such good stories after some time. Or how you may even receive prizes because one of them. This story is one of those and happened to me at the Asa Sul Branch, about ten years ago.

At that time, I was a 9-year-old boy who really enjoyed going to Thomas. I used to see learning English more as a hobby than as an obligation.

However, one of my favorite things about going to Thomas was break time, when I could, although I shouldn’t, spend all my energy running and playing games with other kids at those huge stairs on the second floor.

That day, at one of those break time, we were, as usual, playing ‘tag’, and, as smart kids as we were, we started the game at the top of the stairs. How could anything go wrong? Obviously, it went wrong for me.

The other kid was chasing me, so I decided to run down the stairs at top speed. There was no way he could catch me. I was fast, I was agile, I could jump the steps faster than anyone else…All of a sudden, I was with my face in the ground at the bottom of the stairs.

It was a huge fall. I tripped over, reached the third floor and landed right with the side of my face on the ground. It was a great pain. I could feel my skin burning and aching as I stood.I could see the other children and everyone around coming to see what was going on. And, of course, the adults too. The guards, the Director. Of course they would tell my mother. Yes, that was my biggest preoccupation. When they took me to the direction and asked for my home number all I could think was, “I’m screwed.” I could see that my mother answered the phone, and when the woman told her what happened she immediately got in the car and drove to Thomas. I was waiting for her, but I didn’t know exactly how bad the situation was. I asked the secretary if I could go to the restroom, and so I did.

There was a big bruise on my face, with some raw wound in the middle. It was really ugly. I thought, “there’s no way I can hide this. I’m definitely screwed”.

I came back to the Director´s room, as I noticed my shoulder and my hands were wounded too, although nothing compared to the face. After some more minutes waiting, my mother arrived, talked for a while to the woman and took me to the hospital to see if it was something serious.

At the hospital, I went through a series of exams, but the doctors found no greater problem. After that, I had to use a big and blue bandaid for a couple of weeks and to use a special sunscreen lotion to prevent an ugly scar. However, even at that time, it was funny to go around showing how I survived and telling everyone my story. I felt like a war hero, and I could tell everyone, “It happened at Thomas.”

Gabriel Castellano Marques da Silva

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Success at Thomas

Michael Jordan once said, “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed”. At the time I was twelve years old and, up to that point, I had never faced failure. My father and I were on the way to Casa Thomas Jefferson, as it was the day that I would find out about the level I was going to be placed based on the replacement test taken a few days back. For me, any level less than what I expected was a failure. This expectation of myself led me to have feelings of anxiety and fear. As a twelve year old girl, I did not understand that in order for one to succeed, one must first fail.

Arriving at Casa Thomas Jefferson, I found out about what I was most scared of, failure. Most of my classmates had been placed higher than me on the replacement test, which meant that I would no longer be in the same class as all of them. Despite of that, what really hit me was the fact that I thought as myself as simply not good enough. When I had learned about my results, I started crying my eyes out, and only stopped when one of the teachers approached me. I don’t quite remember her name, but I do remember that she was from the state of Tennessee. She was really important to me at that point, mainly due to the fact that my father had only dropped me off at Casa Thomas Jefferson while he went to the grocery store, so, technically, I was alone. This Tennessean teacher talked to me about several subjects to get me feeling fine again. The one thing that I still remember today was when she said that success does not come wrapped as a gift and that if I wanted to get my English speaking level up, I should study harder, much harder than before.

Thereafter, I took this teacher’s advice, and worked much harder than before with the goal of, one day, becoming a fluent English speaker. I graduated from Casa Thomas Jefferson, passed the Michigan English test, and recently received an acceptable grade on the TOEFL exam. I now plan to attend an American university in the near future, to work on my Master’s degree. I cannot thank this teacher enough for opening my eyes to the real world. This lesson that I learned did not only help me evolve my English skills, but everything else that I know. Today, as a twenty four year old, I finally understand that failure is a crucial part of the pathway to success.

Rafaela Soares Vannutelli

70

It Happened at Thomas

It was around 1985 when I studied at Casa Thomas Jefferson, at the Asa Sul Branch. At that time, I used to work full time and, at night, I loved to study English. It was raining that night and I didn´t have time to eat anything before going to my English class. I was in a hurry because it was almost time to start the class.

Since I was very hungry, I decided to go to the cafeteria, which is located at Casa Thomas Jefferson, to have a soft drink and something to eat.

My lunch was delicious, especially my very cold soft drink, in its small glass bottle which the attendant had opened in front of me, so that I could see it being opened. When I finished drinking it… What a big surprise! There was a rusty cap inside the bottle! Can you believe it?! A folded rusty cap! And it was not possible to take it out of the bottle unless it was broken!

I couldn’t believe that! I had already drunk that beverage! I was very nervous, so I called the attendant and other students, who were around the cafeteria, to show them what I had found! It was incredible! People didn’t believe it! Many opinions were expressed about the event. As the bell rang, I decided to take the bottle to my home to think about what should be done. But when I arrived home, I dropped the bottle and… It broke in very small pieces. Oh, no! I didn’t have a way to prove what had occurred anymore…

Maria do Socorro Lima Dib Amorim

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How Casa Became my Home

1

Seize the day; a perfectly reasonable way good-willed people find to cope with the surprises and frustrations of our lonely existence. I, on the other hand, a control-freak by nature, have always felt the need to plan ahead and, from a very early age, had a well-thought-out plan of what my life would be like.

According to my plan, and that included all possible detours my naive mind could come up with, by the age of thirty I would have achieved professional stability, found a husband and bought a house. Little did I know that, in the same year I would have finally accomplished all that, I would face the first of many surprises life had in store for me.

It all started when a financial advisor told me the dreaded truth: my language school, a lifelong dream in which I had invested most of my time and money for the past four years had gone under and, in order to make ends meet, I would have to get another job. Simple as it may seem, getting a job in the beginning of the semester is not an easy task; most schools hire before summer vacations and that meant I was three months too late. On top of that, finding a new job that could provide for my needs and help pay off the debt meant leaving the small town I grew up in and moving to a big city to start life over from scratch.

So, with no more time to waste and bills pilling up in my mailbox, I went on a job hunt. To make a long story short, after emailing résumés to virtually every school in São Paulo, and receiving countless emails with variations of the message: “Dear Ana, we loved your résumé, but we are no longer hiring for the current semester...”, I was finally able to get a last-minute interview for a part time job to substitute for a teacher who had left without prior notice. And, after a week of great despair, my life seemed to have regained a sense of normality.

I had never fancied living in São Paulo. Don’t take me wrong, I love spending a week in São Paulo, but the sheer idea of having to wake up in that concrete jungle every day gave me the creeps. So, one Sunday evening when a friend at church mentioned her sister, who was a coordinator at a school in Brasília, and said that there were better opportunities for teachers in Brasília than in São Paulo, I didn’t think twice. After the service, her sister emailed me a list of schools I should send my résumé to and told me to call if I needed anything. So, that’s how it started. I emailed Thomas on Sunday evening, went to sleep, and let God do his thing. And He always does.

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On Monday morning, there was light at the end of the tunnel. I received an email inviting me over for an interview and, this time, to save money, I decided to pull an all-nighter, which included dealing with the fact that, differently from São Paulo, Brasília only has one subway line. With that in mind, I would travel on Tuesday evening, spend the night on the bus, debus at six in the morning, take the subway, get off, wait for a cab and arrive at Thomas just in time for my interview with nothing on me but a small handbag with essential toiletries. Once again, my plan was about to be frustrated, not because the bus broke on the road and I had to beg the driver to let me hop on a second bus that was passing by, or even because the recruiter hadn’t received the email confirming my appointment, but because I had not anticipated all the steps involved in becoming a Casa teacher. With thirteen years of experience at the time, I was no stranger to job interviews, but I would soon find out that one day wouldn’t be enough for an interview, a written test, a sample lesson and a visit to the doctor for a video laryngoscopy. The all-nighter plan was down the drain.

One might say that every rose has its thorns, but my roses were turning out to be a cacti bouquet. I had only been to Brasília twice before that: on a field trip with my high school Geography teacher and for a visa interview at the American Embassy with my mom.

And, although I liked the concept of the city with no corners, its whereabouts were completely strange to me. I passed the interview and managed to take the test on the same day, but that still meant that I had to stay an extra day for the sample class. So, there I was, with nowhere to go, no clothes to spare, no extra cash, and no phone to contact my friend’s sister; had I been the panicky type, I would have cried for sure. But, instead of crying, I went outside for some air, that’s when I saw the sign. Not the kind of sign you are thinking of, there was nothing mystical about it, it was an actual sign for the school my friend’s sister worked at, right there, across the street.

Teachers

Never in my life had I been so happy to see a school gate. I crossed the street, went to the secretary’s desk and confirmed that Cida worked there. Hadn’t it been for her, this story might not have existed. She was a good friend of my mom’s when I was a kid and promptly helped me with my predicament. She took me to the bus station to change my ticket and to the mall to buy new underwear. Since her clothes didn’t fit me and I couldn’t splurge on new ones, I hoped no one attending the sample class would notice I was wearing the exact same clothes I was the day before. . Then, she took me to her house where I borrowed some colored pencils, paper and a memory game to prepare a sample class. There was nothing fancy about the lesson, I even wrote the lesson plan by hand, but I knew I would have to make do with that. I had no other option. I still remember every detail of my sample class: the room, the people, the questions and how much I longed for a change of clothes. All in all, they must have liked it, for they asked me to wait after the class.

It’s amazing how time seems to stop when you are waiting. I could see my life flashing in front of me: the day I held the keys to my school for the first time, the flowers I carefully chose for the house I no longer had, the phone call saying my dad had been in an accident, my wedding day, how I barely recognized the stranger who slept next to me and my plans to have children being postponed year after year.

My reverie was interrupted and reality kicked in again. I walked outside once again, but this time with a job at one of the most respectful language institutes in the country and a slight problem in hands. I had nowhere to live and I only had three days, including Sunday to: go back home (500 km away), pack my things, close a business deal in order to minimize the loss, tell the husband who thought we were moving to São Paulo that I had changed my mind, move into a new apartment and prepare my classes for the following week; not to mention that I had to learn how to get to the places I was going to teach at if I had any hope of getting there on time. As you can see, it was chaotic, and I had very little sleep from the time I got home until the time I got in the car to come to Brasília on Saturday afternoon. Had the police decided to stop us on the road, we would have had big problems, for we managed to fit everything we needed in a small car, dog included. I couldn’t have done it without my family and, apart from some minor setbacks, like having to spend another night at Cida’s because we weren’t allowed to unpack the car in the evening or being late for the first class because I ended up in Catetinho trying to find the Lake Branch, everything was fine.

Life is full of new beginnings and this one started at Thomas. I learned many lessons in the past year and one of them is that life doesn’t always go according to plan. To be honest, I’m glad it doesn’t.

At Thomas I made true friends, I found love again after the divorce and I have always found a friendly shoulder to cry on in times of need. In a sense, this incredible group of people has become my second family and Casa is a place I now proudly call home.

Ana Carolina Tiveron Juliano Calil 73

It Happened at Thomas

2

It’s not easy moving cities. Adapting to the new culture and learning the places, layout, systems and conventions of a new city can be difficult. Couple this with a new job, working environment with different expectations and standards and it can be a real challenge.

These were the thoughts running through my head as I was helplessly sitting on the bus as it meandered along the W3, although the words I used were perhaps slightly more profane. Barely several weeks into my new life and I was already proving how a lack of knowledge about the city can jeopardise you with a new employer.

There are 3 slow bus drivers in Brazil, and one of them happened to be driving the 151 on that sunny Tuesday afternoon. He had taken us down around the Octogonal, done a tour of Old Cruzeiro, and gently guided us along the Eixo Monumental slow enough for us to count each leaf on the trees before we stopped in front of Pátio Brasil. “Now we’re on the home stretch,” I thought to myself. But the W3 had other plans.

Brasília is an urban planner’s dream with its wide avenues and specific sectors. But maybe urban planners didn’t foresee that by stretching an educational sector along an avenue, when school finishes it creates a gauntlet for traffic of lights, lane-changers and pedestrians. With each crawl to the next stop, the pauses for passengers increased to the extent that I found myself cursing the poor woman who made us wait while she put each of her four children over the turnstile, paid the ticket collector, and then proceeded to escort her brood off the rear of the bus. I cursed the innocent people who simply were inquiring whether ours was the route that would take them to their destination, occupying the time of the driver while he could be moving me closer to my destination.

And I cursed the driver for trying to change the great Brazilian tradition of getting from A to B in the shortest time possible, whatever the risks. With no one left to curse, I decided to end my torment, get off a stop early and try to make up time using leg power.

Tucking my heavy bag full of materials and books under my arm like a rugby ball, I started running along the side-streets towards the W4. When I reached it, I was glad to receive a call from our secretary Getúlio, asking me where I was. “I’m (breath) on (breath) my (breath) way,” I replied, while also observing how unfit I am compared to the days I played rugby. After a bit of walking to allow my lungs to recover, I reached the W5 and saw Sigma ahead.

Summoning the last of my will I started to run, hoping my strides would get me there before the black marks against my name began to be pencilled in.

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It Happened at Thomas

As I was crossing the road, I saw a car entering Sigma. “At last, a lucky break!” I thought, as the distance and angle across the car park was much shorter than the usual way, and it would save me precious seconds. I tore through the opening, waving my ID badge to the attendant on duty. “Hey, you’re not authorised to come in here!” he shouted at me as I made my way along. “It’s OK, I’m a teacher at Thomas!” I replied. “No, you have to go back and go through the main entrance.” By now I was half way across the car park, back-pedalling as I was having this conversation with the attendant running after me, time running out, panting and sweating in the heat and with no intention of retracing my steps to go round the long way. “Dude, I’m sorry. But I’m a teacher from Thomas and I’m running late. Let me go in this time and it won’t happen again!” “You have to go back!” “Dude, I’m late! Let it go!” “You need to go back.”

I’d covered three-quarters of the car park and had reached my breaking point. I’d used up all my curses, all my desperate mind-control efforts to make people hurry up, and now I was so close but this guy was being pedantically unreasonable. I’d had enough.

With a final defiance I turned proudly and mustered all my strength to cover the final distance in ten long strides. I entered the classroom with my game face on to find the class and Lueli calmly checking homework.

“Sorry I’m late guys (breath). How are you today (breath)?”

Then the door opened behind me. It was the attendant, looking mightily aggrieved. The students looked up, wondering why the intrusion. I turned around, praying he wouldn’t ask me to leave and come back again. But the boss stepped in to save my bacon, taking him outside and managing to calm him down, throwing in the age-old excuse Gringos have for making cultural faux pas: he doesn’t speak Portuguese.

And whenever I see that attendant, it’s true.

Although I smile pleasantly as if nothing happened, I don’t speak Portuguese.

Peter Michael Leamy

3

The Casa Thomas Jefferson is not only an English school. If one were to consider the number of hours spent at the Casa, be it by teachers, employees, or students, the meaning of “Casa” would be promptly understood. It is indeed our second home and many would argue that they spend more time there than at their actual homes. Besides that, just like any home in the world, CTJ has had its share of happy and sad moments, some of which will remain in our memories forever. I could write about the time a student thought I was his friend and looked over the cubicle where I was quietly answering the call of nature, or about our funny karaoke night at the Main Branch, when the Frozen Margarita machine did not work, and the female teachers swooned at a male teacher with a soft voice and no hair who shall remain nameless. I could write about difficult moments when we had to deal with the death of a friend, someone who was part of our CTJ family. I could even write about the fact that I recovered the love of my life, whom I had met many years earlier and had completely lost touch with, at Casa Thomas Jefferson. However, since CTJ is all about the students, I will write about an episode that happened with a Teens group.

It was a rainy Thursday afternoon, the end of a particularly exhausting week, since I had been substituting for a few of my colleagues who had gone to the annual TESOL convention in the United States. Everyone has had days like this. You are so tired that you are counting the minutes left before you can hang your coat, take off your shoes, and just relax in front of the TV with a cold beer staring you in the eye. Well, there I was trying to conduct a group-work activity, kids jumping and screaming, when a short, skinny, black-haired boy raised his hand quietly in the corner of the room. When I got there, he asked me, “Teacher, what does ‘run away’ mean?” After I had explained, he said, “Yesterday, he ran away.” Any other teacher at the Casa might panic, call his parents, and find out what had happened. Maybe his brother had run away or something. That sentence, however, made me smile.

I must add some vital background information at this point. Besides being an English teacher for over twenty years, I have been a musician and a singer/ songwriter since I was in my early teens. I have played with several bands and countless musicians around the globe. Also, more importantly, I have written a good number of songs. Back to the story, when the boy said that sentence, I smiled because I had a song whose

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lyrics were exactly those. Of course, I had no expectations that this kid was singing my song. I believed him and I had all the intention of getting to the bottom of that story. I was going to ask him who had run away, and tell him that running away was not the solution, and that he should tell his parents how he felt, yada yada yada. Nevertheless, before I did all that, I completed the sentence, “Yesterday, he ran away.

Where he would go, he didn’t say.” With wide eyes and a facial expression of someone who had seen a ghost, the kid asked me if I knew that song. By this time, the whole class was already paying attention to our conversation. I answered, “Not only do I know the song, but I wrote it.”

The next thing I knew, the kid had taken out my CD from his backpack and was looking at the pictures.

We were both speechless. When he recognized me in the pictures, he asked me to give him an autograph.

His mother had picked up the CD at a show a few years earlier, and my band was his favorite band. Then he started singing the other songs on the CD. I could not say who was happier. I myself felt like a little kid who had gotten what he had wished for at Christmas time. The following week, his mom came to meet me and told me how happy he was to be having classes with me. At the end of the semester, I gave him a copy of the book I had written about the years I had lived as a musician in London. It felt wonderful to be able to touch that boy’s life both as a teacher and as a musician.

So, what is the point of all this? Coincidences happen, and dreams come true. A boy met one of his idols, while an aging musician realized that his music, in fact, touched some people out there. Besides that, teachers married teachers. Teachers married ex-students. Ex-students became teachers. Some people left us and others stayed. Whole families have been our students. There have been numerous unforgettable situations in the fifty years that CTJ has existed, and I am sure there will be many more. The stories are endless. And it all happened at Thomas.

André Espíndula Albi Netto

76

It Happened at Thomas

Kids are the spice of life. I guess you can say they are life. They keep us on our toes and breathe excitement into our routines. And of course, Thomas is full of them: running to class, then out to their break, waiting for the elevator to take them up just one floor, then, bouncing back down the stairs for no reason at all. Can they ever sit still? What would we do if they did? We find them sharing secrets by the stairs, eating chips while sipping juice from a box, peeking through the glass into their classrooms. They are forever curious and, most of all, in constant motion.

They have loads of stories to tell us, whether we ask for them or not. We are informed about what happened with their best friends at school, what they did over the weekend, how their uncle bought a new cell phone, and that they once again lost their eraser, book, pen, pencil or forgot their cookies in the car.

Children surprise us every day and all the time, especially with their spontaneous truthful comments.

A few weeks ago, as I was leaving a class, tired but pleased, I wanted to let one of the little boys know that I thought his English was really great. He was only eight but had spoken English the whole class! I exclaimed to him, as he stuffed his exercises into his backpack, “Your English is really good!” - to which he modestly answered, as he zipped up the much too large bag, “I know.” He then just ran off to meet his mother somewhere, without even looking back. I, of course, couldn’t help but smile and I did so every time I remembered how innocently he had accepted and acknowledged my compliment.

It’s these little things that make a difference and keep us going. It was just one more ordinary day to thank the heavens for but with a touch of fresh air. Kids!

They truly are what brings Thomas to life.

Elide Pinheiro Gonçalves

A Human Tale

Right after I got into UNB, I decided to give myself a reward. For various reasons, I only use a bicycle to commute - from visiting friends to going shopping. So what better present than a cool brand new bicycle? I had been saving money for ten months for that purpose, and the time just came to make it happen.

Try to imagine a human-powered Harley Davidson. Have you? Good. Because that was the present I gave myself. One month later, there I was, riding through Brasília, happy as it gets towards my new University. After two hours listening that Plato wanted to banish the poets from the city, I was ready to leave. But to my immense surprise, my recently bought vehicle had vanished. The psychological five phases of loss and grief can explain what happened next.

1) DENIAL: I wandered around the place where I had parked my bike, with tears running down my face, trying to convince myself that I had parked somewhere else on that day.

2) ANGER: I cursed at the skies for my divine unfairness.

3) BARGAINING: I apologized to the skies and promised them to be a good boy if they gave back my bicycle.

4) DEPRESSION: I visited several slums in Brasília, hopelessly in pursuit of my bicycle, which made me even sadder.

5) ACCEPTANCE: unfortunately, robbery is quite common in Brazil, and everybody is subject to it.

The following Saturday, I was going to my morning class at Casa Thomas Jefferson Sudoeste, with a face which looked as if I was chewing lime, when some former students of mine spotted me, and seeing my condition, asked me what had happened, so I told them my unfortunate story.

A few weeks later, there I was again, on a

Saturday, going to Sudoeste riding my old bicycle. While I was in the teachers’ room getting ready for my class, the same students mentioned above showed up and delivered me an envelope full of money. During the subsequent weeks, to my mishap, they organized a bicycle pool among my ex-students to collect money enough for me to buy a new bicycle.

Life was great again.

André Affonso Mariscal

77

There and Back Again

The title of a piece of writing can go a long way when it comes to conveying meaning, intention and the author’s background. According to my trusty and nerdy credentials, it was directly taken from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Written by a university professor, this book established the basic framework of the sword and sorcery genre. I am not one to expand the professor’s legacy or provide a follow-up to his work. However, I can relate to many of the book’s topics, especially when they concern the journeys in which we participate and how they change us.

Allow me to rewind time and visit the year of 1990. The Berlin Wall had fallen, but the Soviet Union was still standing. Nelson Mandela was released from prison after spending almost 30 years behind bars. East and West Germany were finally reunified. Boris Yeltsin succeeded Mikhail Gorbachev. Iraq invaded Kuwait, leading to the beginning of the Gulf War. Richard Gere romanced Julia Roberts (or was it the other way around?) in Pretty Woman. All around the world, people were dancing to one of pop music’s greatest hits ever: Madonna’s Vogue. Meanwhile, as Fernando Collor was just about to take seat as the new Brazilian president, this teacher, then a young boy, took his first English lessons.

Back in those days, CTJ’s Asa Norte branch was located at 710/711, across the street from Casa do Ceará. My memories of this period are quite a bit blurred, but as beacons of light that signal the land to the passing ships, some episodes are quite vivid. I clearly remember the Sunrise series of books and my favorite activity: Picture Dictionary. I’d spend entire afternoons coloring, cutting and pasting those pictures in their correct places. Despite my teacher’s best efforts, the temptation to skip ahead to the next chapter and complete its own Picture Dictionary was too great to resist.

Some other events have become long-term memories. I remember being very anxious about a Sunrise lesson called “Men on the Moon”. As a young boy who dreamed about becoming an astronaut, I couldn’t be more anxious. Everything was fine until the night before the class. However, as we all know it, life has a weird tendency of throwing us curve balls when we least expect them. I came down with something – one of those big flus from out of nowhere – and missed the classes during the entire week.

A while later, or maybe during the same semester, teacher and student negotiations would reach an all-time high. We had been allowed to wear the robot helmets we had designed. They were not much more than cardboard, aluminum foil and crayon drawings, but watching my friends walking, talking and acting like robots is something I’ll never forget. Not only 78

that, but I’ve been actively looking for the opportunity to provide my students with that same sense of awe, that perfect moment when everything clicks and they realize that studying English goes beyond what they learn inside a given classroom. In a nutshell, it’s about human relations, establishing meaningful connections and taking something with you for the rest of your life.

Anyways, it would not be long before the Casa outgrew its location and had to be moved to 708/709, occupying almost an entire building. I loved its library on the top floor at the end of the hall, where I could read tons of things and watch people and the traffic down below. Since the breaktime was over too soon – isn’t it always? – I’d often read something short.

My favorites were the Mad Magazine, cartoon strips such as Peanuts and Garfield and the Guinness Book of Records. Those crazy statistics – the longest paper airplane flight, the world’s biggest avocado, the fastest man on stilts, among others – would spread like wildfire among classmates. We have actually put some of those to the test, much to the dismay of the hall monitors and security guards. Paper airplane flights would have their distance recorded by the students, pencils would be balanced on fingertips for the duration of the break as if we were preparing ourselves for some insane sports competition.

After Sunrise I proudly entered the Juvenile course. By the time it was over, I had already studied at Asa Norte’s Telebrasília building –because this was before the multitude of phone service providers we have today – and at the main branch. This is also where my first tenure at the Casa ended. By the time I finished the Juvenile course and took the replacement test, there were no classes compatible with my skill level and age.

The only option was taking classes at night with – ahem – adults. I actually attended a few lessons and remember being well treated by both the teacher and the classmates. But things quickly came apart when we had pair work and group work activities. I simply couldn’t bring myself to talking to someone who was old enough to be my father or mother. Looking back, it seems absolutely silly, but I just couldn’t make it through the semester.

I decided to quit CTJ and this piece of news was surprisingly well received by my mother. We reached a deal that worked out for us both. I could stay home as long as I continued studying by myself.

Knowing about my unrivaled passion for games, music and comic books, my mom and I would always be on the lookout for the latest magazines, CDs, comics and games. I would translate songs and articles for her and then I was free to play games all weekend long.

The years passed and saw the unruly kid – ask my former teachers! – become an introvert teenager.

This pushed me in the direction of Information Technology in college, which proved to be an all-out failure. It would not be two years before I decided to switch to another course. This one was even more appropriate to my shy nature, requiring me to dive deep into archives, mountains of documents, books and papers covered by dust and mould. Out of all jobs, I wanted to become a Historian.

After graduating in History and a few years of teaching all over the place – public and private schools, prep courses, private lessons and so on – I found myself driving by CTJ’s Lake branch. My wife was in the car and, in a mix of suggestion and request, asked me when I would have the decency of coming back to the Casa to finish my course. On a whim, I performed a U-turn towards the parking lot, rushing to the registrar’s office and taking a placement test almost on the spot. I was a CTJ student again. And a good one! I came back straight to Prime 4 and was lucky enough to have Rick and Ortiz as my teachers.

What I did not remember, and certainly couldn’t expect, is that some twenty years after my Sunrise days a fellow student would be my Prime 8 teacher. I’m talking about none other than Roberto Arruda, better known as Beto. We had been in the same class together but had absolutely no recollection of each other. We were exposed to this fact because our teacher’s memory was, and still is, much better than ours. Her name? Thelma Peres, currently the deputy coordinator at the Lake branch. According to her, I was quite the rascal during class, speaking out of turn and always sporting a magazine, portable gaming device or comic book up my sleeves.

A while later I found myself as a Prime graduate taking the Michigan and TOEFL tests and applying for a job as a teacher. Now a part of the staff, I walk around the halls and gardens and get the feeling that I have never actually left. I have sat on those desks many times as a student, trembling under the pressure of oral and written tests. Now on the other side, sitting behind the teacher’s table, I have taught kids who are my friends’ children. I have taught adults that were my dentists and pediatricians. I have taught teens in the afternoons only to discover that I was also teaching their parents at night in the Flex course. Somehow, things have come full circle. The personal tales of students, families and teachers, spanning multiple generations, are intertwined with the larger CTJ history. It may not mean much if taken at face value, but in its heart, it’s about how the Casa outgrows its purpose as a language teaching institution and becomes something much bigger. All in all, it is about people and the many things they share.

Jorge Alexandre F. Anselmo Sobrinho 79

How Far Would You Go To Teach?

How far would you go to teach English? How can a common class become something interesting and creative? I am under no illusion that I am suspicious to answer these questions. However, it happened at Thomas.

It is Wednesday afternoon and you have an intermediate-level group and your lesson has an appealing topic - King Henry VIII. Nothing could attract me more but Royalty. Yet, maybe my students do not have the same opinion. It takes more than a simple class preparation to read a text about the king and how his 6 wives end up.

Then, this idea crossed my mind: let us dress like a Queen and show them a bit about this king. I have had the opportunity of visiting the castle he lived in England. The place is amazing (no need to have an adjective here). To help me even more, there are wax sculptures of Henry VIII and his wives in the castle. The words from the student’s book would jump out of the pages and become reality by looking at the photos.

Therefore, a brave heart (not the film) was what I needed. The crown? Checked! The eye-catching dress? Checked! Jewelry? (OVER)checked! I dressed up like a Queen and walked the corridors of a school just… to… teach. No one knows my aim, no one knows the book, and no one knows it is really necessary.

I could read people’s minds and listen to the whispers. Receptionists, students, other teachers and even the janitors were intrigued. A student asked, “Who is she?” I would not bother at all. I believe that teaching is much more than what a book can offer. And I would go that far to teach.

I was already in my room before the class started. Anyone would be anxious to see my students’ faces. The reaction was unanimous and curiosity raised questions. Why? Why? Why? And I could finish my students’ questions, “Why are you dressed like this?”

Well, I do not need to say much about how the class was. I cannot describe their eyes before the photos of the castle. I also played a game with them related to each wife. We really had fun and I could even strike a pose for pictures once the class was over.

They wanted to show their friends and relatives that their teacher was a queen. Nevertheless, the most important part was to listen to them saying that it was the best class from that term with me. Mission accomplished! The teacher always makes the difference.

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To sum up, let us all dress like clowns, heroes, kings, queens, and whatever it is you need to teach.

You may feel that it is too much or not necessary. But students enjoy creativity. English is fun. English is attracting. And it happened at Thomas!

Larissa Fauber Lima Amancio

It Happened at Thomas

The bell had just rung in that hot afternoon of September; I grabbed my folder and bag and walked out of the teacher’s room in the CTJ Lago Sul branch.

As I was walking down the hallway along with all those noisy and lively young students, I could not avoid thinking on the last episodes of my weekend – I was sure I had met someone special, someone different and according to my friend and co-worker Gabriela, he was a keeper.

When I entered classroom 12, my Elementary 2 group had already organized their desks in an almost-perfect semi-circle, but they were so proud of themselves that I could feel their anxious eyes and I gave them the most warming compliment. While darting at their true smiles, my eyes stopped at Bruno.

Yes, he was at the right place – first desk on the right side of my table. Bruno was the sweetest student in that group but he was easily distracted by anything or anybody, so having him near me was the smoothest way to get him back to his activity by touching his hair or quietly calling his name and looking at him.

After checking their homework, we started studying personal descriptions and as I was showing them flashcards with different colors of hair, Victor raised his hand and asked – “Teacher, no me?” and he pointed to his red hair. I immediately smiled at him and assured him that his hair was beautiful and we all together drew in our books a boy with red hair named Victor. However, as I was coloring the red hair in my book, I sighed and frowned my forehead thinking about Arthur. My new boyfriend was a widower and had three boys – Arthur was the oldest one. And I had one son and one daughter. My children were more open to accept my boyfriend; nevertheless, Arthur was not happy at all with the idea of his father having a date and we were all waiting for the right time to introduce ourselves and to tell our kids what they already knew – that their parents were differently happy because they were dating.

My week went fast as it usually happens when we are in love and see beauty everywhere. On Friday evening, Jeronimo and I decided to eat at Crepe Au Chocolat because they were having a special musical program for their anniversary. We sat at an outdoor table, since it was too hot and the first September showers hadn’t arrived yet. There were a lot of families and couples and the music was great, a mixture of jazz and pop. We were sharing the dessert, a strawberry with bitter chocolate crepe when a little boy ran to me with a flower and hugged me. “Teacher, for you”, he said in Portuguese. I looked at Bruno and kissed him.

When I was going to introduce him to Jeronimo, Bruno shouted, “Tio Jeronimo!” and ran to hug him. I was puzzled until the moment Bruno started to tell Jeronimo how many points he and Arthur had scored at their school games. When Bruno ran back to his parents’ table, I waved to his mother and heard from Jeronimo that Bruno and Arthur were best friends.

Another week started and the school bell announced that it was time to work. Once again I met my Elementary-2 group and there was Bruno smiling at me, but this time with the face of a bratty boy who has a secret. The students had brought photos of their parents and described them to the others. Of course, Victor was the top attraction because everybody wanted to see his mother’s red hair. Once again the bell rang and the kids ran out for their break time. I stayed in the classroom organizing and correcting some exercises.

Suddenly, I saw two boys at the door looking at me. It was Bruno and Arthur. Bruno came with a suspicious smile and introduced me to Arthur. Well, what Bruno told my twenty-two –year-old stepson I will leave to your imagination. All I can tell you is that this true love story was made possible at CTJ.

Maria Tereza dos Reis Gomes

81

It Happened at Thomas

Being aware that your words and attitudes might influence the course of someone’s life is quite scary at first. Not only because you become part of this someone’s hopes and fears, but also because you establish a connection of trust and admiration with your students that will always exist. You must have courage to assume this position, and it did happen to me as an EFL teacher.

Gandhi once said that we should be the change we want to see in the world. I should say that the classroom happens to be a wonderful laboratory to try it. It is in the classroom that teachers and students build a bridge of mutual understanding. Every class is an opportunity for us to discover the potentiality of human beings that certainly go beyond their successful learning process. Each and every student brings their hopes and fears to the classroom and we, teachers, will certainly find ways to deal with them in a healthy and harmonious manner.

The more you learn about your students’ needs, the more you become aware of your own responsibility as someone who will bring light to all the knowledge they have inside, which needs to be encouraged to be born and develop. Therefore, the words, the gestures, the body language you use in class will determine how this learning process will thrive.

Being an EFL teacher is teaching verb forms, tenses, complex structures, etc., indeed. But more than that, it is a lot of hard work, dedication, and above all, a privilege to get to know ourselves and the others better, helping human beings become more respectful towards their fellows, be them from the same or different nationalities; it is being resolutely minded in a just cause.

This deep awareness of my role as an EFL teacher happened at Thomas.

Adriana Félix de Sousa

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At Thomas - A day that changed my life I have a story to tell. A true story that happened 25 years ago:

The bell rang. Eight o` clock: time for one more class at Thomas. Juvenile 2. The door opened and the teacher came in. Differently from other days, she was carrying a large bag. Surprisingly, it was not full of books but food. How did I know that? I couldn`t see inside it but the smell of fresh bread and cheese took over the classroom the moment she stepped in.

“What is going on? ” I wondered. I stared at that bag with a very puzzled look on my face and so did the other students. The teacher, probably amused at our reaction, smiled and said: “Today we are going to have a special class.” She asked us to open our books and there it was: a lesson on how to make a cheese sandwich. I was about to learn the Imperative Form in a very meaningful and unforgettable way. “Slice the bread, spread the butter, put some cheese, ...” We crafted some sandwiches while practicing the new vocabulary and grammar and , in the end, each student could eat one. Well, except for me. “Vinicius, would you like another sandwich?” With a sudden gleam in my eyes and an unmistakable grin on my face I said “Yes!” And from that day on, I started enjoying learning English at Thomas.

Was it a story about the day I luckily ate two sandwiches in class while learning a new lesson? Or was it, perhaps, a story about the day I truly started enjoying learning a foreign language? Both hypotheses apply, but, honestly speaking, that was a story about the day a teacher made the difference in a student`s life. During my first year studying at Thomas, I was not very enthusiastic about the journey I had embarked on, especially because for me, at age 11, learning another language didn`t really make much sense. But fortunately, that teacher managed to get on my way and showed me a different route to travel by. And now, 25 years later, here I am: an English teacher! How unlikely could that be? On that day, my teacher taught the lesson in a way in which my interest was instantly sparked and she took advantage of that to build up rapport and engage me in ways I had not thought of before. Sometimes, while teaching my lessons, I come across students who are a bit unwilling to learn. I look at them and I see myself 25 years ago. Every time that happens, I think about that lesson I learned the Imperative Form and work hard to find ways to change my students’ attitude towards learning English.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but whenever I notice a different glow in their eyes or a broader smile on their faces, I feel my journey as a teacher has been worthwhile and I thank my Juvenile 2 teacher for that lesson of inestimable worth.

It Happened at Thomas

Embarrassing and funny things happen to me all the time. I’m always changing people’s names, accidently calling people from my cell phone, forgetting friends’ birthdays and even dropping all my books on the way to the classroom. However, I can’t think of any other embarrassing moment I had but the 2004 Halloween costume week at CTJ.

It’s been a tradition at CTJ for teachers and students to dress up during Halloween week. Every year, we select our best costumes, pajamas, hats, wigs, and masks to bring the spirit of Halloween into our school.

About ten years ago, in one of such events, I chose to wear my dad’s pajamas and flip flops. I used to work at two branches, and the Taguatinga staff was all dressed up on pajamas on that day. At 6 p.m. I had to go to Asa Sul to teach a class at 8. Because of the traffic, I decided not to go home and head straight to the Main Branch.

Arriving there, I could feel there was something in the air. It was too quiet and the few people who were there were wearing their regular clothes. As time went by, I noticed that for some reason nobody was wearing a costume on that day. And there I was in my father’s pajamas in the middle of the teachers’ room. I was going to teach an adult group at 8. I had no way of going back home and I didn’t know what to do.

Fortunately, a colleague realized how embarrassed I was and lent me her own clothes. Obviously, she had to wear my dad’s pajamas, but she was going home anyway.

From that day on, I’ve always kept some clothes in the car trunk in case I need them. I confess that I ended up laughing at myself, but that Halloween day will certainly remain in my memories. After all, it happened at Thomas.

Haline Neiva de Andrade Fernandes

Vinicius Vieira Lemos 83

It Happened at Thomas

In my first semester at CTJ, some of my groups were in Taguatinga. One of them was a Teens 3. There I was freshly out of Brasas, where my experience was basically in teaching adults, and having to deal with this very special group of teenagers. Ups and downs here and there, we got to our first written test. By then, I had moved out of my parents’ place into a studio in Sudoeste. So, I decided to take this test home to be corrected. Properly sat in my bean, I was a cross-legged teacher bound to whatever opposite of Nirvana there is. Most of my students got low grades on the test.

Facing the tough reality that I was a failure and was surely going to be fired from CTJ, I couldn’t sleep that night. When I finally had a chance, I told my workmates about the teens’ grades and they said it was common for them to get low grades on the first test of the semester and then get over.

But that wasn’t enough for me. I was having serious issues concerning my teaching skills. As the semester unfolded, they would beg for games. So I decided to give them one. Directions given, all set, go!

Barely two minutes into it, there was a student on my table, two under it and one attempting to climb out of the window. Game over. After that, they started whining for a chance to go to our MALL, which is the computer room. Alright. Soon after instructions were given on the exercise to be done, they were racing around the room in their chairs. End of activity. Lots of phone calls, some parents contacted, some invited to the Open House. I’ll never forget one of the parents told me he believed his kid had learning disabilities, but I told him the boy “woke up” at 9 and he had registered him for a class at 8. Basically, what I had to do was reteach him the material of the first part of class when he was only physically present.Instead of games and MALL, I gave them exercises. They complained about the workload, we talked, I got to know them better. I showed them my books and they got to know me better. One of the students’ father was super busy and could never come to meetings, so I just waited for him and we talked right there in front of the school. I told them about life and the different tastes for music we had. And said that I preferred to give them extra exercises, for they would do better on their tests and would be allowed time to do whatever they liked.

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Some would use the internet, others would play games, or play with friends, but it surely would be something of their liking. On my part, I would be safe and would certainly celebrate the easier moment.

I taught them English but also responsibility, and told them “welcome to the jungle!”

In hindsight, I believe this was the welcome to the jungle for me at Thomas. Even after teaching for 27 years, teen groups are still a challenge for me. And the most interesting is that it is not their English that gets in the way of my teaching. It is the struggle to build the basis of mutual respect that should be the root of our job, the rapport that turns the brick and mortar of the classroom into a special venue for learning to take place. And once it starts, only God knows where it will take us all. For me, it is and always will be interesting to look back on this event and see how much we all have progressed. And it will always be a pleasure to remember that it all happened at Thomas.

Themer Bastos

It Happened at Thomas

Hi, I’ve been a teacher for over 32 years, 12 of which here at the Casa. I’ve had my fair share of memorable experiences during my career, but there’s one that I will certainly never forget.

The year was 2005. Classes were about to begin, adrenalin building up with the beginning of a new term. New groups, new students, new books. Yes, dear reader, believe it or not, even after more than three decades on the job, I still get butterflies in my tummy before a new semester!

First two weeks of class. Crucial period. Getting to know your students, establishing rapport, deciphering personalities and needs, controlling your own anxiety, hoping the intricate process of teaching and learning will take place efficiently.

Approximately three weeks into the semester, I started to notice Jarbas, one of my 5A students. Not only was he an extremely agreeable 16-year-old lad, but he also had a very good command of English. Best of all, he never complained about anything, not even when awfully arid lessons came his way. I immediately fell in love with him.

It turned out that Jarbas had special needs. He suffered from severe attention deficit disorder and he was also hyperactive. At the time, nearly 10 years ago, ADDH was not given as much attention as today, I believe. He had a physiological difficulty to follow simple directions, was practically “unable” to work in pairs or groups, his concentration span was that of a 5-year-old, just to mention a few of the obstacles he had to overcome to be considered “normal” by his “normal” teachers, such as me.

It’s cliché to say that teaching is also about learning. Jarbas showed me, however, that clichés have their value. When I decided to take him under my wings, he resented it at first. He didn’t want to be seen as “different” by his peers. To be very honest, I thought I was going that extra mile that everybody says a conscientious teacher should go. I was wrong.

He was the one who made me see teaching and living under a completely different perspective. He was the one who helped me think outside the box. He was the one that showed me that for every inadequate and misplaced question a teacher might ask, a student might give a right and appropriate answer. He was the one that really taught me - who’s the teacher here?

- that “different” is good, that diversity is rich. He was the one that made crystal clear to me that if you are a know-it-all, you don’t belong to the teaching profession. He was the one that forced me into rethinking my teaching practices. He was the one who made me feel alive, both as a teacher and as an individual. He was the one. I am a better teacher, undoubtedly, because of Jarbas.

P.S. I couldn’t let this testimonial be published without mentioning that, without the aid I received from Thomas, namely Conceição, our Educational Psychologist, Jarbas and I wouldn’t have helped each other so much. Thanks Conception!

Ricardo de Andrade Monteiro

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It Happened at Thomas

I have been working at the Casa Thomas Jefferson for almost 18 years. It´s a great place to work and, as a teacher, you get to meet many interesting people. Also, I have had the opportunity to witness a lot of things that happened at the school. However, the most remarkable one is the fact that I met my husband there.

Eduardo started working at the Casa in 1998 as a receptionist. As he worked at the lobby of the school, he would always greet us in a very polite and friendly way. Besides being a teacher, I sell Natura products and since I´m a very good salesclerk, I tried to sell something to Eduardo too. Of course I got one more customer. After that, we started talking about other topics besides Natura and CTJ. One day he invited me to go out. Actually, we went out about three or four times before starting dating.

In the beginning we hid it from everyone. My friends knew I had a boyfriend named Luis, but nobody knew it was Luis Eduardo, who worked at the reception desk. He was called Dudu by everybody. Later, people at work got to know about us. It was funny to see people finding out that Luis was actually Dudu.

After a year and a half, we got married. It was a great wedding; almost fifty percent of the guests were friends from work. Even though we worked together for a long time, many coworkers took years to know we were a married couple. Now we work at different places, but we have been married since then. I´m really happy and thankful for having met this wonderful person at the Casa.

Sinara Assunção Rodrigues Pedroza

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It Happened at Thomas - The Dangerous Gust of Wind

Help, help was the faint distant call that I heard as I started to walk up the staircase to the teachers’ room. At every step that I climbed, I could hear the voice louder and along with the cries for help, nervous giggles and laughter. As soon as I reached the last step, I saw “M” giggling and looking desperately out on the roof of the resource center. On the roof top, several papers blew out further from her as she nervously giggled not knowing what to do. Not very long ago, the teachers’ room gave way to a terrace from where we could practically touch the resource center’s roof top. It was maybe at a meter’s or so distance from the terrace. Many times, teachers would sit out on the terrace to smoke or to work in order not to be disturbed by the friendly chit chat in the teachers’ room. This had been the case with “M”. We had given our first-term tests of the semester, at that time all classes were given the tests on the same days, so we ended up with piles of tests to be corrected for the next class.

“M” had taken all her piles of tests to the terrace and while she puffed on her cigarette, she corrected her tests, sitting next to the railing; there was no time to lose. It was the beginning of the second semester of that year and we were in the month of September when there are still gusts of wind, reminiscent from the windy period of August, in the city.

Suddenly as she pushed in a puff of her cigarette, a gust of wind blew her tests off the table on to the floor of the terrace, down next to the resource center, and worst of all, on to the roof top! She had leaped up as fast as she could to catch the tests that were on the floor next to her, and with her cry of help, a couple of students had gotten those that had blown practically on their feet. But what to do with those that had landed on the roof top? Although the roof top was not far away, it was not at an arm´s reach either, and still another gust of wind could come and blow them farther away or even to the street, on the other side. All of us, who work at Thomas, know how disastrous such an unlucky event can be.

“M”, good-humored as she was, just couldn´t stop laughing at her misery, as she stretched her body over the railing, knowing she could not even come close to her flying tests. Of course, several other teachers and staff had come out upon hearing her cries of help, giggles and laughter as she begged God not to send another gust of wind! All of us just couldn´t stop laughing at the scene! Someone had the brilliant idea of bringing a broom and one by one of the tests were brushed down to the floor next to the Resource Center as M picked them up lovingly and absolutely relieved. That had been a close call! And it happened at Thomas!

Isabel Patrícia Mercado de Faustino

It Happened Thomas

So many stories, so many reminiscences, so much to tell, so many good friends, so much learning and sweat AND hardwork AND fun AND information AND training AND... Where to start from?

Well, it has been over thirty years and things have changed so much… I have seen people come and go, die, unfortunately, but I have also seen people stay and certain things never change. “Why are you still here?” people ask me. Why? Well, I give it a deep thought and I find no specific answers, but I find some drive inside me that keeps me going, keeps me there as if I were rooted. Am I rooted? Why?

For one thing, I love people, love students, love exchanging life experiences, love being on the spot. It is a two-way road although they think only they learn from me. However, I, myself learn with them too.

With kids, I have learned that innocence and spontaneity are priceless. With teens, I have learned to be forever young. I have learned to be argumentative without being pushy. I learned to be a better mother, a better friend, a better teacher. I learned to be more understanding and compassionate. With adults, I learned to be more cautious so as not to hurt anybody’s feelings for whatever hidden reasons (who knows you remind them of their fiercest enemy?).

Anyway, things can always be soothed down with a broad, heartfelt smile.

My friends, yes, my friends – I can call them this way – are something else. With all my bosses, I learned discipline, mutual respect and found out that the employer-employee relationship can be more than just restricted to job description and deadlines to be met. It can also be the road that leads us to mutual admiration and a sense that there is always a silver lining when help is needed. With the lovely secretaries, I learned to value their constant good mood and sunny smiles that help us make it through the day. And with the teachers, my dearest fellow teachers, I have learned I am loved and I learned to be my own self at all times.

They let me be me – that crazy psycho that can sing to them, make them laugh, cheer them way too much at 7:00 a.m., almost terrorizing them. They are always there for me, they make me feel beautiful, elegant, and above all, loved, really loved.

Therefore, there is no need to ask twice why I am still there....and it all happened, and still happens, at Thomas.

Regina Celia Scofano Maia Porto

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It Happened at Thomas

I have been a teacher for a long time now, and I pride myself in my ability to teach and facilitate learning. At Thomas alone, I have been around for 14 years and for sure there are many stories to tell. Most of them are quite funny and interesting, like the one I am about to reveal.

Well, this episode dates back to my first years as a teacher at CTJ. I was given this very nice group of adult-beginner students at Asa Sul. I felt the great responsibility of going back to teaching, which I had stopped for a year, and Casa Thomas Jefferson, with its solid and well-known reputation, meant a new challenge for me. The group was just perfect. As expected, there were lots of very interesting adults, from different places and jobs, who were eager to learn and acquire knowledge.

A very important aspect I have not mentioned yet is the fact the class was in the evenings, after students had already been at work, sometimes for more than 8 hours. Due to that fact, I would try to apply all the motivating skills I could remember, and lessons were filled with games, action and fun. In addition, I would sometimes play cupid and sit a nice guy next to a very nice looking young lady. To my mind, that could certainly work as a motivator for any pair work proposed.

Well, at the time there was this soap opera on television, called “Esperança”, if I am not mistaken. In class, there were these two very nice students; a handsome young man and a lovely young lady, both in their early twenties, who looked like the main characters of the soap opera. Of course I loved calling them by their artistic names and I would sit them together. There is only one crucial detail I have yet to mention. The guy was engaged and soon to marry and the girl had a long and steady relationship with someone else.

Finally, the semester ended well, the students exchanged phone numbers and emails. It would all end that way if it weren´t for something that happened two years later. I was jogging at the City Park when I was stopped by that lady student, who happened to be at the Park as well. She told me that one semester after our classes had been over, she was at a friend´s party and that young classmate from Thomas, who I had mentioned before, was also there. She told me that they started talking about English classes, the jokes and insinuations I once made, and laughed a lot. To make the story short, then they arranged to meet once again and again and again. Finally, for my surprise, she told me they had recently gotten married and that they would never forget the fact that I had brought them together. I had been their cupid!

Patrícia Villa da Costa F. Mendonça 88

It Happened at Thomas

A long, long time ago, when I was a full-time teacher, I usually had around 110 students in my six groups of different ages and proficiency levels.

Once a semester, we had our parent-teacher meeting, the Open House, and it was a chance for all parents to check on their children’s performance. It was common to have many people waiting outside the classrooms to talk to teachers, and equally usual to have mostly the parents of good students showing up.

Who wouldn’t like to hear lots of praise for their kids, right?

Well, there I was, with my grade book at hand, doing my best to give parents very precise information that could help my students achieve better results in their course. I remember that, on that particular day, I had several parents waiting outside to talk to me, and one of them was a very severe-looking gentleman in an Army uniform. When his turn came, he sat across from me at the table and said, in a deep, loud, commanderlike voice, “Professora, eu quero saber como vai o Felipe”.

Oh!!! Unbelievable! I would finally be able to talk to someone who could help me with my student!

Felipe was in my Teens 6 group (Juvenile 6, at that time), and he was one of those brats who drove teachers crazy because he never did his homework, never remembered to bring his books, and spoke Portuguese all the time, so I had called his parents and kindly invited them to come talk to me on that day.

Very hastily, I started telling the father all the problems I had taken note of, and as I progressed, I noticed that he was getting angrier and angrier. When I said that Felipe had missed five classes in a row, he blew up! He rose from the chair, pounded on the table and said, “Eu vou acabar com aquele rapaz!!! Ele pode dizer adeus ao carro que ele ia ganhar!”

OOOOOPS!!!! Something is wrong here!

Car??? What car??? Felipe was only 13 years old!!!! I swallowed determinedly, managed to calm the Colonel down, and asked him for his son’s full name.

Only then did I find out that “his” Felipe was another student, one in my 5B group! And the car was going to be his 18th birthday present! I apologized a thousand times, explained the misunderstanding, and told him his son was one of my best students, thus deserving the car he had almost lost because of me! The man just looked at me and said, in an amused tone, “Professora, você é muito mais louca que o Felipe!”

Thelma Jonas Peres

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General staff

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My Journey at Casa Thomas Jefferson

1

Two years ago, I was working in the call center of a publishing company. However, the salary I earned could pay only for my degree in information technology. One day, the union decided to go on strike to demand labor rights for the company employees.

One thing I couldn’t do was to go on strike, but that was the job which paid for my studies, so I decided not to join the strike.

After two weeks and all the noise coming from the strikers, it was decided that the strike would end. I was relieved, because I did not participate on it.

However, on the following week, during the first business hours, the entire team, strikers and non strikers, was called to the HR office. The situation was horrible for me. I worked hard while some people were participating on the strike. Nevertheless I ended up being fired. It was such a bad feeling.

On the same day though, when I was coming home I got a call from CTJ inviting me for an interview.

Wow, that was great! So, the following week I went to the interview and ended up being selected for an internship. Also, I found out that CTJ offered much better benefits than the other company. So, at CTJ I would be an intern in the area that I like, would get a great salary, would have meal vouchers and would even have the right to study English at Thomas, which was a unique opportunity.

During one year as an intern at the Asa Norte Branch, with much dedication and effort, I made great friends and gained enormous experience. That’s when another opportunity arose and I was invited to continue the internship at the Main Branch. Then, after only 2 months of learning at the Main Branch CPD, I was admitted as part of the CTJ staff. This day was happier than any other, as my efforts and hard work were recognized. As part of my new job at CTJ, I got the responsibility to take care of the Taguatinga Branch, where I have been working for nearly one year and, during this time, I could make some dreams come true.

I have a property and now I own my first new car.

Right now, I’m writing this story and on top of my desk there are some of the CPD handouts and a notebook that I have to study for a reason that I’m very proud to tell anyone: I was selected, due to my dedication to work, to deliver a training course next May. The course will be about our new tool for information security which is already installed in all units of CTJ, a task that I want to perform really carefully.

Time passes very fast, so next July, I will graduate from the school of technology in computer networks, I will have been working at Thomas for two years and I will also have finished Thomas flex. But, as you can see, I am truly satisfied with my life. I really love my profession, my work environment and the company that gave me unique opportunities to grow.

This is the interesting story that happened at Casa Thomas Jefferson.

Sidney Oliveira Cirqueira 91

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2 “It Happened at Thomas”

Thomas Jefferson is not Dead

I started to work at Casa Thomas Jefferson last year and started to study there soon after. Studying English at Thomas was always a dream of mine. A lot of my friends studied at Thomas when I was a child, but I had never had the opportunity before. I was very excited when I finally became a student.

Working and studying at Thomas has been a blast. I have great teachers that are also my co-workers. I have made new friends in class and became friends with the people that work with me everyday. I’ve heard a lot of stories, and realized that for most people, the Casa Thomas Jefferson is like a second home. Many interesting things have happened there. One day, I even met a friend that I haven’t seen for a very long time.

Elo and I studied together when we were 11 years old. For the entire year she was my best friend.

We were always together, in and out of school. She threw a surprise birthday party for me, the first and only I have ever had. We had so much fun. But the next year she moved away and I never saw her again.

Until one day, while I was at Thomas. She passed by me and recognized me right away. I couldn’t believe that after 15 years I had run into my childhood friend. She has been a student at Thomas since those days. After a while out of the city, she came back to Brasilia, and to Casa Thomas Jefferson, taking the pre-test TOEFL course. We exchanged phone numbers and now we are best friends again, just like when we were kids. It happened at Thomas.

There was a student here at South Lake. He was really energetic and I had to keep an eye on him during break time. One day, he escaped from my attention during the break time. I remember someone calling me on the radio and when I came, another student told me “My friend (my nickname at Thomas) there is a student that twisted his foot”, he was on the first floor, and who was he? The energetic boy! I asked him what has happened and he said he didn’t know, but I knew him and I investigated the case and found out what had happened. But, what surprised me was that when his mother was here he was really calm! His mom commented that he was an angel at home and that someone had pushed him to hurt him, because he was a really calm boy. I said “He might be quiet at home but here he is really energetic and I always keep an eye on him.” She said that she wanted to talk to the director, Mr. Thomas Jefferson! I said “Mr. Thomas Jefferson died a long time ago.” She said: “Oh, yes!

And went back home.

Altamir da Costa Gonçalves

Maria Isabel P. de Lima Branquinho

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Writing Contest: It Happened at Thomas

Groans in the Bathroom

Do you think it is possible to have an interesting, funny or unforgettable story in a place that you have worked for a little bit more than two weeks?

I’d say that it is possible.

Since I was a kid, I have heard about Casa Thomas Jefferson and it was a dream to me the possibility to study here someday and in a very distant desire to work here. Now my dream came true, although I’m not a teacher here yet. However, I’m part of this family.

My unforgettable story here began at the day I started working. As I said, I’m part of a family and I was welcomed as a member of it. I had a very warm reception. I don’t mean a reception with hugs, cake and a party, but one with empathy. I knew nobody when I arrived here, that’s why I was shy. But Vânia, the Branch Coordinator, introduced all the school and the others employees to me. Since my first day of work, I feel that I have known my co-workers for years. All of them are very nice and of course it was remarkable.

It is possible to have unforgettable moments and stories in two weeks. However, I’m sure I’m going to have a variety of interesting, funny, unexpected, and even weird and embarrassing moments. But I’m not worried at all. Now, I have a big family to pass by those mean moments and share the good ones with.

Maurício Rodrigues Peixoto

I have worked as a security guard at the South Lake branch of Casa Thomas Jefferson for more than thirteen years and, during this time, I have seen a lot of things happen. However, there is an event that is unforgettable.

It was a sunny afternoon. Everything seemed to be as usual: the bell rang at exactly two o’clock and the teachers went to their classrooms, followed by many noisy children. I sat down on my chair in the corridor and watched. The school was completely silent after a few minutes.

After a while, I saw a man come out of the bathroom saying something like ‘it can’t happen here, it’s a school, what shameful thing!’ Then, he walked towards me and said ‘you must stop this shameful thing right now’. At the beginning I didn’t understand a thing, so I asked him what was going on. He told me there was a guy in the bathroom making a disgusting thing and that I had to go there and see it myself. I stood up and went into the bathroom.

I heard a noise that sounded like a person rubbing a part of his body with little pauses, followed by a deep groan. It happened two or three times, then I shouted out ‘Who is there?’. The door opened slowly and I saw an old lady who worked as a cleaner, covered in sweat, with a piece of cloth in her hand. She was just trying to clean up the marble wall of the bathroom that was graffitied.

When I came out of the bathroom and told the man what was really happening, he simply didn’t want to believe it. For a moment, he seemed very embarrassed, so he exclaimed ‘how silly I am!’ Then, he laughed out loud, apologized a lot and left.

Paulo Hernandes Ribeiro dos Santos

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