Final School Visit

Our final school visit took us to a very impoverished area.  The school was a middle school (grades 7-9).  The school had a very different structure.  The students were put into family groups of eight.  Three of these groups were assigned to a teacher and the students engaged in self-paced learning.  The students used technology, books and virtual instructors to assist with their learning.  The model is somewhat similar to the i-learn at Cold Spring Elementary, but the staff ratio was much smaller.  Here are some pictures from the school.  It is a renovated sport stadium.  It is decorated with very bright colors.  We had a guided tour of the facility, but kept our distance as not to interfere with the students' learning.

This picture shows the favelas up the hill from the school.  The favelas are extremely poor neighborhoods.

Copacabana Beach

The beach was beautiful.  The view was incredible!  The water was surprisingly warm for the middle of winter.  We walked along the shore a few times, but did not swim as the waves were very high and rough.  A few members of our group got some pretty good bruises.

Sand Castles

We only needed to cross the road to be on Copacabana beach.  There were some very talented sand sculpture makers.

School Visit #3

We traveled to the GENTE project school. This is a high school with a technology focus.  There is a highly competitive admission process.  The school has a traditional high school curriculum that is infused with technology.  The students use technology throughout the core curriculum and the also take separate technology classes.

The entrance to the school.

The high school shares a building with the "oi" phone company.  Here you can see the phone company wires.

The students greeted us upon our arrival.

Stanley made friends immediately!

The school is very bright.  There is technology everywhere!

Students show games they made using technology to learn certain subjects.

Technology assisted artwork.

There is a recording studio. 

Alex tried out the recording studio.

A game the students made to help children learn about shapes.

Saying goodbye.

Carnival

Although we were not in Rio at the proper time to celebrate Carnival, we still got to see the beautiful costumes. 

 

Some members of our group paid to try on the costumes.

This picture shows the "street" the city constructed for the Carnival parade.

In Rio

We arrived in Rio and traveled to our hotel.  When we got to our hotel, there was a reception for us on the rooftop of our hotel.  The view was incredible.

And of course, there was plenty to eat at this hotel!

Christ the Redeemer

A trip to Brazil would not be complete without a visit to the iconic Christ the Redeemer statute.  Stanley and I had no concept how large the statue was until we saw it in person.  We traveled to the top of the mountain in a train.  The statue is inlaid with small pieces of soap stone.  The people who worked on it have their names inscribed in the heart on the statue.  Here are some pictures taken on the mountain.

The view from the top of the mountain was spectacular!

While we were on the mountain, there was a group making a music video for World Youth Day that will be celebrated in Rio.