Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Fulbright Cultural Event

Last week, I had my college lecturing debut during a cultural event as part of my Fulbright grant. I talked about two American holidays that we celebrate at this time of year, Memorial Day and the 4th of July, and as many tidbits of American culture and history that I could squeeze in. I gave them summaries of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars (so they now know as much as the average American), talked about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the American flag, the food we eat when we grill out, the games we play on the lake, and other patriotic topics. At the end of the presentation, I asked them what the most foreign thing I talked about was, and one guy said the lightning bugs. Somehow I managed to present for an hour and twenty minutes, by far the longest I have ever spoken in my life, and overall I think it went really well. Oh, and I inserted trivia questions into the presentation and threw candy for correct answers (and to wake them up). 
Poised to throw chocolate
Finger en pointe
They are totally paying attention, right?
You deserve a chocolate
Hey look, I survived!
Another part of this week as a wrapup to my grant was the presentation of the projects I had been working with the students on. We had decided to have a student film festival, and each of the five levels made a video in which all of the students participated. They are creative and comedic geniuses and they worked so hard on these videos. I highly suggest you watch at the links below:

Cycle 1 https://youtu.be/kFhIkFoYD1M (Spanglish)

 
youtu.be
UNL English Department Final Videos 2017
 

 

Cycle 2 https://youtu.be/uhaUvK8HUXw

 
youtu.be
UNL English Department Final Videos 2017
 

 

Cycle 3 https://youtu.be/E1Kng1ASd20

 
youtu.be
UNL English Department Final Videos 2017
 

 

Cycle 4 https://youtu.be/IRZ88G5zxeM

 

 

Cycle 5 https://youtu.be/LKmhf6FXe9c

 
youtu.be
UNL English Department Final Videos 2017
 
Students watching their film premiers
  The last component of this week were a basketball and indoor futbol tournament amongst the English classes. I got drafted to play basketball with the girls, and we ended up winning the tournament. Luckily, everyone I played against were my students and so they knew me really well. It was a great bonding experience with the students and a really fun way to wrap up my time here. 
Representatives from each class competing for la Madrina
Futbol
Futbol and basketball
Tug-of-war
Women's basketball champs
Most of the department after the final games
 

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