World Cultures Exploratory (by Mrs. Rosa Avalos-Lopez)

I read somewhere that we have close to 4,000 different cultures around the world.  In reality, I think there are definitely more!   Culture has been called “the way of life for an entire society”.  Culture is food, music, dance, traditions, religion, education, celebrations, and rituals (just to name a few).  Cultures are not defined by a country or region, or state, or city...  One state/region alone can have many communities that make-up their unique culture. 

In our World Cultures exploratory class, 7th graders learn about the basic geography of our world and all of the characteristics that make up a culture.  We explore the differences and similarities of many cultures around the world, including our own, and travel to many different countries (virtually) to learn about what makes that culture unique.  

Each student has the opportunity to do their own research and teach the rest of the class about a country that they are interested in learning.  Some are curious to learn more about and share where their parents or grandparents came from.  In our class, we have families that came from Bolivia, England, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, Cuba and Germany.  Others want to learn about a country they read about in a book or heard about on social media, or a movie.  Technology has allowed us to reach many different parts of the world and share the information we learned with our classmates. The research, communication, curiosity, and use of technology all exemplify what it means to be engaged learners! 

We have learned that we have more similarities than differences.  All of our differences and similarities make up our wonderful world!