Critical Thinking/Final Thoughts

Hey MIMU, 

Really enjoyed reading your blog. Quick question, though; do you have any final thoughts on the idea of Heritage Fairs? Can you think of any draw backs of taking on such a huge project?

Signed, 

Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

Thanks for your quick question, SNOFHYP. Our answer isn't really as quick, but we think it's pretty thorough! Have a read....

Critical Thinking/Insight

We spent the last three weeks exploring this idea of Heritage Fairs in great detail. It is evident that this is a theme that could be carried out at any grade level with any number of students. My high school was very culturally diverse and we had what we called a Mini Folklorama, which was essentially a Heritage Fair. It was a really memorable experience, but you could also do a Heritage Fair in a school with less cultually diversity. Students could pick a culture that interested them and do some kind of inquiry project about it.

The only obstacle I can see is that in order for the Heritage Fair to run smoothly, teachers would have to dedicate an afternoon to celebrating and participating in the actual fair. Not all teachers are comfortable giving up class time for activities that are not directly related to their courses, so it would be a matter of getting everyone to see the value in this event.

Besides that, we could not really see any other challenges associate with an activity like this. It is one that everyone in the school would contribute to, so there would not be a whole lot of extra work put on to one person. We are confident that this theme is innovative and meaningful to all Manitoba schools.

I think for me, personally, I am not really in a position to do a Heritage Fair with my entire school any time soon. My administration is really supportive of all the ideas I've brought to my classroom thus far, but to put on a Heritage Fair in a school with nearly two thousand students on a semester system might be tricky. That being said, I think that I could encorporate elements of this theme into my Social Studies and French courses and then have the kids do a mini Heritage Fair to present to the other French students and maybe some of the middle years French Immersion students. That is what I am planning to do to start and then maybe move on to incorporate all the French students and then perhaps branch out to the rest of the school. The grade 9 Science Fair that my school puts on each year is an enormous undertaking and not one that started out as big as it is in its infancy, so I think I will look at their model and see how I can apply what they learned along the way to this theme.