World Plaza

Well, we held the first World Plaza event last week. I heard the idea mentioned in brief on a website for an SALC in Asia, and decided to flesh it out a bit and make it into a reality here in our SALC.

I organized it for the first time with my students in drama class, since I had a captive audience there who would need to participate for a grade. We made our first travel destination "The United States", which we thought made sense for a variety of reasons, not the least of which that it is their host country.

The students created skits based on certain areas of the U.S. For example, the students who chose Orlando wrote a skit in which Mickey and Minnie from California's Disneyland came to visit Florida. The students who chose Hawaii had a honeymooning couple being taken on a tour of the island by a guide. Overall, they were very creative and gave great performances as well as lots of information on their destination of choice.

Before the event, to publicize, I passed out airline tickets with the date and time of the event. We also had passports available for all students who attended - those who watched received one stamp and those who presented received three. A full passport will get them prized (gift cards and the like).

After the event, quite a few students said that they would like to present about their home country with their friends, so I am hoping this is an idea that moves forward of its own accord. If not, I will plan another event with my drama class next session and carry it forward that way. It may take awhile to get this to become an integral part of the SALC and the ELI, but I think it could definitely happen.