A week at the World Innovative Teacher Finals in Salvador Brazil

Mrs Beal was very fortunate to be able to attend the World Finals of the Microsoft Innovative Teachers’ Forum in Salvador Brazil from 2 – 9 November. This is a post about this amazing experience.



Monday 2nd November
On Monday 2nd November, an excited and expectant group of five South African teachers as well as teachers from nine other African countries, met at Johannesburg airport and set off for Salvador in Brazil on a huge SA Airways plane to participate in the Microsoft Innovative Teachers World Finals conference. Can you find Salvador on a map of Brazil?

Our group from Africa comprises 25 people – teachers from Africa. a reporter from the Sunday Independent, one of the judges for the event, principals, observers from Namibia, and several Microsoft employees from Africa. Here are three of us at the airport. Can you guess what we are carrying?

After a nine hour trip we changed flights at an enormous international airport in Sao Paula (in another part of Brazil) and caught a connecting flight to Salvador. We arrived at our hotel at midnight. We are staying at the Pestana Bahai which is a 23-story five-star hotel. The sea is very loud - should sleep well tonight. Tomorrow we have a meeting all morning with our Africa team, and then the conference opens at 5pm. Do you know what the time difference is between South Africa and Salvador, Brazil?

Tuesday 3rd November

It’s a hot Brazilian day! I must say that to wake up to the sound of the swirling, thundering waves is quite a treat. I have just been to a Brazilian breakfast on the 23rd floor. What breathtaking views!

We are meeting such interesting teachers from other parts of the world. Apparently the Canadian team shared their flight with 17 people in wheelchairs who were taking part in the Brazilian Bocce Ball Para-Olympics. They also said that after they had been through customs at Sao Paula airport they were surrounded by screaming teenage fans who were welcoming the arrival of actors from Twilight. When the actors arrived with their bodyguards the crowd went wild with excitement. Do you know this acting pair's names?

12 noon: A trip to the Mall
After our meeting today we decided to catch a taxis to the biggest Mall in Salvador. It is a huge mall, much bigger than our Canal Walk in Cape Town.



One thing I discovered at the Mall – hardly anyone in Brazil speaks English. At school the children’s first language is Portuguese and their second language is Spanish. I went into a huge computer shop and not one of their many assistants could help me in English! What would you do in a situation like that?

5pm: Innovative schools diplay
Microsoft also has another conference happening here at the same time. It is called ‘Innovative Schools’. There were around 20 schools teams from around the world that were invited because of the exciting innovation they are introducing at their schools. (That is why, altogether, there are 400 people at this event). In SA Eunice School from Bloemfontein was invited. At 5pm we looked at their poster displays and PowerPoint presentations and asked them about their schools. What do you think an innovative school is like?



6pm: The Conference officially opens
We had an opening speech from the Governor of Bahia which is the province where Salvador is situated. (It would be like having a speech from our premier in the Western Cape). We were also addressed by the head of the education part of Microsoft, Mr Michael Golden. We all wear name tags from now on. It is such an honour to be associated with all these teachers from around the world.




7pm: An evening of dance
Have you ever listened to Brazilian music? Tonight we were treated to an evening of spectacular Brazilian song, dance, drumming and martial arts at our opening cocktail session. I tried to take photos as the people whirled and twirled around me.

9pm: We put up our displays

We put up our poster displays along with samples of work ready for tomorrow. Here are some of the South African teachers getting their stands ready.

Wednesday 4th November
Today is the day that we present our projects. There are 70 entries and around 36 judges from different parts of the world. (To be here you needed to have achieved a winning place at two other events) I had a lot of fun going around and asking teachers about their projects and about education and schooling in their countries. Here are some of the stands - I wish I could show them all.

We are really enjoying meeting all theses teachers from around the world. It would appear that Canada has the most people (17 teachers). with most other countries sending between 1 - 4 teachers. There are 26 countries represented. One of Canadian teachers, Nathan Tuft, made a sound recording of some of the different nationalities represented at the event Each person was asked to introduce themselves and select a snippet of music. Later that day, Mr. Toft edited the music and voices down to a two minute soundscape. Don't you think that was an innovative idea?
http://mrtoft.edublogs.org/files/2009/11/MSInnovativeTeachers2009.mp3

Here are Nathan Tuft and Jane Smith from Canada with Wellington from Nigeria just after he was recorded.



In the afternoon we were put into groups of five – eight teachers. In our team we have Canada, South Africa and Brazil…and oh dear, two of the three Brazilians don’t speak English. Tomorrow we are having a day of sightseeing in which we have to create a group project to present on Friday. How would you manage doing a group project when nearly half the group couldn't speak English?

In the evening our Africa team went out for dinner. The food is very different here but at least we recognised some of the meat! What sort of meat do you think this is?


Thursday 5th: Sightseeing
Today is our sightseeing day. We are visiting three places in Salvador and will be doing lot of walking. We are not able to drink the tap water in Brazil, so I have been spending a lot of money on bottled water. In Brazil they work in Reals and 1 Real = around R5. (Don't you wish the South African rand wasn’t so weak!)

Churches
We started by visiting churches that were built in the 1700s. Brazil is mainly Roman Catholic in religion. The old cathedrals are beautiful. What metal stands out in one of these photos?

The Colonial District
After that we went to the Colonial Historic District of Salvador known as Pelourinho. We learned about the times of slavery in Brazil. The Central Plaza, the old churches and buildings were extremely interesting to look at. Michael Jackson made a wonderful music video in this cobbled section of the city. Have you perhaps seen it? There was beautiful colourful art displayed everywhere.

Policeman could be seen everywhere. They were probably trying to protect tourists by chasing away people begging and making a bad impression on their city. We saw some street children who were begging for money, and we also noticed prisoners who were cleaning up the area under supervision. Have you ever come across street children where you live?


The Elevator
Our second sight seeing spot was The Elevator! We went up in the large elevator which takes you from the historic city to the market.



The Market
Here we learned how to bargain. The food on sale was difficut to recognise! Which words do you recognise?

In Salvador you can see a huge contrast between rich and poor. There are some modern-looking hotels and houses, and in between them are large run-down areas where they just build on top of other dwellings. There are many, many huge apartments blocks to house all the people.

When we got back we had to work on our projects and also attend meetings. We were shown many of the new free Microsoft products that are available to teachers ssuch as Songsmith and Deep Zoom Composer. (We have also had amazing presentations by key speakers about the many problems the world is facing; and although many of these problems seem impossible to solve, one of the important steps to solving them revolves around education and technology.)

One of our group members made an autocollage of our group using Microsoft Autocollage.


Friday 6th November

9am: Showing our competition projects
On Friday first thing we had to present our projects again at our display tables, and each country had to pick a "teachers’ favourite". The judges also went around to make a final decision on who should win the category awards!

1pm: Presenting our group projects to the others
On Friday late morning we had to present our group projects to the others. This is the end product of the project that we created. Don't you think we did quite well seeing that half the group could not speak any English!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

7pm: Awards ceremony
This was a spectacular event held in another part of Salvador where we all wore white. We were in an incredible venue with a Brazilian brass band in the grounds, and a fascinating photographic exhibition in the art gallery. We enjoyed Brazilian food, listened to a huge youth orchestra and then found out which teachers had won. South Africa didn’t get any places this year unfortunately. The main three countries that won 1st places were England, Australia and the US. We were very thrilled that the teachers’ favourite came from Lesotho in Africa where the teacher was from a very disadvantaged school with only two computers and had got her students to take pictures of local plant life and finding medicinal value in them. She recorded this on a blog.

And guess what – next year the World Finals are taking place in…. Cape Town! Everyone went wild with excitement at the announcement. This brought to an end the conference.

Saturday 7th November
Yippee! It is our day off today. (We have had such a busy week). Some people just wanted to laze around at the hotel, but four of us decided to take a taxi and explore for the day. Have you ever tried using a taxi driver that can’t speak a word of English? We sometimes had to involve all the passers by to try to explain where we wanted to go.

The taxi ride was interesting and a bit frightening. The traffic is busy – three lanes filled with taxis cars, buses, and motor cycles. Everyone seems fearless. People drive on the right hand side of the road and they are worse than Cape Town taxi drivers at changing lanes without warning, and squeezing into tiny places without considering other drivers! Motorcycle drivers weave their way through the traffic as well. On our way we see many panel beating shops…now I understand!


We visited the Rodin Art Exhibition. Then we went to a beach along the coast and enjoyed the sand and the ocean. It was a day to remember.

Sunday 9th November

It is time to go home to South Africa after a wonderful, life-changing week. We left the hotel at 9am ...tired but happy and excited about all the new ideas and friends made in Salvador - with lasting memories embedded in our hearts. I think the two countries that impacted me the most were Canada and Singapore. The Canadians are very friendly and hospitable among other things. The Singaporeans are very high- tech, innovative and focused. Apparently they have no natural resources in Singapore so the government sees its people as resources and pours money into education.

Thank you to Microsoft for this totally enriching experience.