celebrating the green in DR.

one of the aspects of my job in the university that i really love is the cultural awareness that can be built into my classes. i think that as an american, i tend to forget that most societies are fairly homogeneous (at least compared to the united states). i catch myself getting frustrated when my students don't know about others. they own their own people but forget about understanding anyone else. which is fine in most cases - but the world is shrinking, and i am a firm believer that we need to understand our neighbors - and our neighbors are no longer just dominicans.

i probably don't take advantage of the situation as much as i should - or could. but it's nice to work in themes that can impact students more than, say.... "what i like to eat for lunch" or "space tourism" (no joke, it's in our books). we can pull them through immigration debates, poverty, the effects of technology, humility, war.

but, like i said. i probably don't do as much as i could. however, i love holidays so i always try to pawn my favorites off on my students as well. on friday we celebrated saint patricks day but wearing the green and sending the students on a hunt to find a pot of gold. childish? maybe. but it was good fun, and a nice break in the day-in-day-out of the school life.