We are hugely excited to announce that conversation classes will be starting this week! We decided to launch four classes with schedules during the day. However, we know that not everyone can participate at the available times (largely due to work commitments).
We are currently talking to the João Goulart Municipal School, which is located in Brizolão, to see about creating new opportunities. Last week, we presented our project to the school’s teaching staff, and we have had some very productive meetings with coordinators and teachers. We are discussing the possibility of offering conversation classes to some students at the school.
The school board showed great enthusiasm for the idea behind the classes and recommended that we start our pilot project with their sixth-year students, which covers students between the ages of 10 and 12 years. Our biggest challenge will be dealing with large classes of potentially around 21-25 students. We are organizing the schedules and planning the next steps, including publicity at the school, creating personalized posters, and distributing registration forms to the parents/guardians.
Even without financial support, we strongly believe that this could be a valuable opportunity to support a school that is open to collaborations that enrich students’ learning.
As for the school itself, we will be including some statistics in the next blog.
We have a strong vision that, in the future, we might be able to offer new opportunities for people interested in making a difference, including getting involved to help with classes and creating learning materials.
Furthermore, we think this could be an excellent opportunity for professors and university students to get involved in developing research. We will continue to offer separate classes for the community, covering children, teenagers, and adults. Even if we can’t start our school classes now, we are certain that there will be opportunities for others to get involved. As such, we are excited to launch our volunteer program and hope that we will be able to garner the support we need.
Stay tuned for future blogs for more information about this exciting project at João Goulart School!
Furthermore, we also produced a video showing how to get to our space from the streets of Ipanema. This idea came about as part of our goal to make the visit as comfortable as possible, especially for those who have never been to Brizolão. Based on our previous experience and conversations with people who live outside the community, we understand that some people are afraid and uncertain when considering participating in an activity in the favela, whether for safety reasons, access difficulties, or fear of getting lost. Hence, with the video, we hope to help these people feel more comfortable, knowing the exact route to our space and realizing that it is a vibrant place frequented by people from many different parts of Rio and the world.
Curious about how to get to our space? Check out the video here:
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