Event Blog: Ethnic Arts Festival

The Ethnic Arts Festival was an incredible presentation of diversity, culture, and life. Since the cultural tables in the CFL were set up by people who were either from other countries or had recently visited those countries, they were very well informed on the place they represented and did a wonderful job with presenting and answering questions. They had artifacts on the tables, flags, photos and maps to help one better understand the culture.

Many of the tools the presenters used in teaching about their country could be applied to the classroom. First of all, it was very obvious that the presenters were passionate about their topic/country. They got excited about answering questions and had a big smiles on their faces. I helped work the Mexico table, and between being there for a month and loving every minute of it, I found it was extremely easy and fun to answer the questions people had for me. I found that being well informed and excited about a topic makes presenting come almost naturally. Teachers should use a number of tools in their teaching, which could include: visual aids, power points, shapes or symbols, just to name a few. Lastly, the importance of diversity and the acceptance of other cultures should also be present in the classroom as well.