My Cultural Presentation Series at Miss Baxter’s Classroom

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My Cultural Presentation Series at Miss Baxter’s Classroom

ID # 3713

This is a reflection paper written on March 12th to reflect my volunteering experience at Miss Baxter’s classroom in Glenwood Elementary School as a Carolina Navigator.

Up to now , I have given four cultural presentations in Miss Baxter’s classroom at Glenwood Elementary School. In this first presentation, I used a stream of pictures to talk about the rituals and themes of Spring Festival. From the active participation, I can tell that the kids liked my presentation, one that combines visual, audial and kinetic learning styles. They asked many questions and shared their experiences about Chinese culture. One challenge, however, was that the kids started to get distracted after the first half an hour, and could not sit through the 90-minute presentation.

Upon the kids’ request, my second presentation talked about the major characters of authentic Chinese food as well as food philosophy in China. Also, I inserted a mind-mapping activity and an interactive game to break the presentation into three sections, so that the kids could better concentrate during my verbal explanation. Moreover, I played Chinese poetry recitation accompanied by Chinese music when the kids were doing mind mapping.

They were very enthusiastic about drawing their Chinese dishes, and copied many Chinese characters as I introduced the concepts of five basic elements and yin-yang. However, most students wrote sentences like “That fish looks yummy, I want to try it”, instead of an aesthetic understanding of Chinese food philosophy, which I hoped to see.

The third presentation was an actual practice of my first lesson plan: Yin Yang Balance and Food Choice, a topic aimed to enhance the students’ understanding of Chinese food philosophy and its inter connectedness with Traditional Chinese Medicine perspectives. My major intention was for kids to understand a perspective from a different culture, and to take that perspective into their daily life to live healthier. Five engaging activities divided the presentation into six sections, the length of each shorter than 15 minutes, which is the optimal attention span for 10-year-old kids.

Miss Baxter highly praised the activities that hooked kids’ interest and attention. However, It shocked me that the kids found it hard to understand that the “cold” and “warm” qualities of food had nothing to do with temperature. In contrast, as a Chinese, I have this notion imbedded in my sub-consciousness, and have a natural instinct to tell whether a dish displays “warm” or “cold” qualities. This experience helped me to see the huge cultural gap between the West and the East. I realized that before the kids learned about another culture, they first needed to recognize the existence of cultural differences and learn to cope up with them.

In class we played a cross-cultural simulation game in the week of February 27^th.  I then wanted to have the students play it, too. So I looked up more information about the cultural game online, and created my own version of the story. In class, the students role-played two groups of islanders, one called Avacadonians, the other named Coconutters, who developed different communication styles.

The effectiveness of that game was beyond expectation. The kids found the fairy-tale-like story fun, and the communication styles funny. Moreover, in the end of the class, they did serious contemplation and said that they had learned to “respect another culture’s traditions”.

Glenwood enjoys a rich global environment. It offers a bilingual program for Chinese descendants as well as other students who are interested in learning the language. Even more, the entrance of the school was decorated by red couplets and Oriental calligraphy to create an air of Chinese style.

The student population consists of diverse ethnicity groups. In Miss Baxter’s classroom, for example, there are Chinese, Korean, Anglo-Saxon, Russian, Middle Eastern, Latino and Black kids. Students who are new immigrants have a personal tutor to help them with the English Language. The school strives to create an atmosphere where everybody feels safe and accepted. Perspectives and practices from different cultures are not only accepted, but also embraced and admired.

Miss Baxter herself is a perfect demonstration of such global mindset, for she not only encourages students to curiously explore and learn from another culture, but also wants students to feel proud of their own cultural heritage. Miss Baxter said that a small influence in the childhood could last for a lifetime. I feel happy and lucky to volunteer in her classroom.

Picture from: http://chapelhillneighborhoods.com/chapel-hill-schools/