By Lidia Cordoba
The seminar for Marca Robinson, on Intercultural Awareness, was very fascinating. Although it is a subject that has been discussed frequently, she brought some new insight to the seminar. Ms Robinson introduced some great activities for the classroom. The Iceberg Theory was discussed and we engaged in an activity involving pictures from the website Humans of New York. This website posts candid photographs of individuals in their everyday life. We were asked to make judgments about the individuals based on the photographs. In other words, we were “judging a book by its cover”. You could use this activity with your students and then reveal the real story behind the photographs. It’s a great way to get your students talking and voicing their opinions in the classroom. Of course, good judgment is necessary when using this activity and teachers should be sensitive to individual students’ culture and background. All in all, the seminar was thought-provoking.