For the second week in a row we had a packed room.

A group of 20 students from peripheral areas of São Paulo filled a room with only 14 computers on a gloriously sunny Sunday, and in the middle of the World Cup - worth noting that Brazil wasn't playing, though.

We touched on quite a few topics on this second lesson. The kick-off, since we mentioned the World Cup, was a discussion on how to make local topics acquire a widespread appeal.

I gave a few examples seen in recent headlines, such as that of Paraisópolis, a poor borough that was hoping to undergo quite a few developments, had the Morumbi football stadium, located on its outskirts, been selected to host the 2014 World Cup, which will be held in Brazil.

The local inhabitants faced a major setback, though, when Brazil's ruling football body decided that the stadium did not meet Fifa's high standards.

In spite of that decision, local inhabitants organized and decided to publicize an open letter to the governor of São Paulo, in which they protested against the decision to cancel a metro stop in the area, which would hugely benefit the more than 300,000 people from the community.

Soon the letter was hitting newsrooms and Paraisópolis was in the headlines. A good example of how something once restricted to a specific community can have a far broader appeal.

In the afternoon, we took to the streets, with a video exercise.

The group was split in four teams and the task of each one was to create a news item capturing the day to day of the local trade in the area in downtown São Paulo where the newspaper where we are gathering is located.

One group went to a bakery, another to a car dealership, a third followed the activities of an arts and crafts fair in the Republic Square, and the last, recorded the delicate coexistence between the region's trade and the local homeless.

Back to the classroom, we had a look at some basic editing tools.

And the students also discussed the stories they pitched, each one involving a different public institution that works in their own borough.

We'll be back next weekend, but before that, I'll tell you soon about our other activities.