Brazil....

The new Michael Palin series starts tomorrow (Wednesday 24th October). He is exploring BRAZIL, a country he hasn't previously visited, and one which is about to come under the spotlight of the world's attention as we move towards the World Cup and the Olympics.
It's a country I taught for a good many years, mainly as it featured in the textbook series that were prevalent in the late 1980s and followed by the Brazil 2000 series and also several videos on the Amazon rainforest. This was not perhaps the best teaching ever I'd be the first to admit. It omitted much that is interesting about the country, although given the scale of it it's hardly surprising.

Palin has 4 programmes, which have been organised by region, starting with the NE where the country first began to take its modern form with the arrival of the European settlers - not the best news for the indigenous peoples it could be argued, or for the millions of African slaves who were transported there to transform the area.

There is plenty of scope for extending the experience beyond watching the show.

This article explores the possible gentrification of the favelas by arrivals from Portugal.

The Guardian at the weekend had a travel feature.
The article features a rough itinerary of some of the places that Palin visited, and also has some details on how to visit them. This could become the basis for a Google Earth tour of locations which ties in with environmental change, or the rapid rate of change in the country's economy.

Image courtesy of the CC licensed image gallery kindly shared here

In what ways are you planning to use Palin's new series in the classroom ?

Update
Got a ticket in the post this morning for Michael's December lecture at the RGS-IBG - which is nice :)