Liz: Spanish Community Service Learning Students Get to See ESL Students' Accomplishments Outside Regular Classroom

Here are a few of the pictures I took at the international fair this week at Central High School. It was so much fun to see all of the kid’s projects! They were all so happy that we came in to see them and they gave us montones of food to try. Everything tasted great! It was very interesting to see the differences between the projects of the students that were born in other countries and the students born here in the United States. The booths that the students from our ESL class made were very bright and colorful. Their posters were covered in pictures and they printed out lots of interesting facts about their native countries. Most of them had a large variety of traditional food that they had made with their families. One of the most interesting things I had was a dessert from Viet Nam. It was sort of like a Jell-O dish, but the flavor was stronger and the texture was thicker. Over all, the international students did a wonderful job! On the other hand, the American born students did not put nearly as much effort into their booths. There were quite a few students that did not make posters and on top of that, the food was simple and stereotypical. For instance, the Polish table had polish sausage and the French table had croissants. The table for Ireland was simply handing out green Kool-Aid. But then again, it makes a lot of sense. I’m sure that the American students wanted to participate in the fair even though they don’t have a strong connection to the culture like the students in the ESL class do. I know the foreign born students were so enthusiastic about sharing their cultural identities with other students and staff at school. Although there were many differences in the ways the immigrant students and the American students presented their projects, I still felt as though everyone had a really great time!