There’s got to be an intercultural learning activity in there somewhere...

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About a year ago this month CILMAR’s director Kris Acheson-Clair sent me a blog about a single tree that bears forty kinds of fruit and said, “There’s got to be an intercultural learning activity in there somewhere...”

Around that same time I had begun to highlight on CILMAR’s Facebook page a new HubICL activity each Tuesday, a collection each Wednesday, a publication each Thursday, a how-to video each Friday, and something for families on Saturday. With only Sundays and Mondays left unclaimed, I decided to dedicate Sunday’s posts to those resources that come our way that seem to be fodder for someone somewhere to make into an ICL activity.

I posted “Art professor grows trees that can bear 40 types of fruit” on October 25, 2020, with the opener “Welcome to There's Got to Be an Intercultural Learning Activity in There Somewhere Sunday, #TGTBAICLAITSS!” and waited to see what would happen. A year later, I can say that it wasn’t the best response we ever received from a Facebook post, but it wasn’t the worst either. In fact, of the 30 #TGTBAICLAITSS posts the CILMAR staff has created this year, the “40 types of fruit” remains the sixth most popular, based on Facebook reach and engagement analytics.

I bet you’re wondering what the top five most popular #TGTBAICLAITSS posts were now that I’ve told you about #6; right? Moving from #5 down to #1, Letterman-style, they were:

Popularity

Date

Post

Source

5

4/11/2021

Five maps that will change how you see the world

The Conversation

4

7/26/2021

Salmon for Norway, Chernobyl for Ukraine: Korean broadcaster apologizes for ‘inexcusable’ Olympics gaffe

The Washington Post

3

4/5/2021

The Four New Global Capitals of Music

Bloomberg

2

3/21/2021

Kamala Harris name sign

The Daily Moth

1

3/7/2021

On 'Time To Shine,' Black Violin Focuses On The Light

NPR's Morning Edition

After a year of doing this, I have a few questions for you: when you look at this list, are there any of the above that you would use as a centerpiece to start a conversation or spark an activity in your learning context? Would you use any of the resources above to engender intercultural learning in a group? Is there another article that you’ve been using as a conversation starter?

If so, the HubICL curation team would love to help you to begin to create a new activity or discussion guide in the HubICL Toolbox. To get started, you simply go to hubicl.org/toolbox/tools/new and fill out as many boxes as you know the answer for. The HubICL curation team will fill in the rest and then ask you for your approval before publishing. HubICL users who have tried it have been pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it is!

P.S. For those who are interested, you can find the complete list of all of the #TGTBAICLAITSS below—listed from most popular to least—or you can simply follow the hyperlinked hashtag #TGTBAICLAITSS directly to Facebook to see all of the posts in context.

Popularity

Date

Post

Source

1

3/7/2021

On 'Time To Shine,' Black Violin Focuses On The Light

NPR's Morning Edition

2

3/21/2021

Kamala Harris name sign

The Daily Moth

3

4/5/2021

The Four New Global Capitals of Music

Bloomberg

4

7/26/2021

Salmon for Norway, Chernobyl for Ukraine: Korean broadcaster apologizes for ‘inexcusable’ Olympics gaffe

The Washington Post

5

4/11/2021

Five maps that will change how you see the world

The Conversation

6

10/25/2020

Art professor grows trees that can bear 40 types of fruit

CNN

7

8/15/2021

Fashion And Tech Join Forces To Create A Dress That Signals When People Get Too Close

NPR

8

5/30/2021

How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

The New York Times

9

8/22/2021

Creativity And Diversity: How Exposure To Different People Affects Our Thinking

NPR's Hidden Brain

10

5/2/2021

Ken Burns' 'Hemingway' Docuseries Dives Into The Writer's Complicated Life

NPR

11

5/23/2021

Friends

T-The New York Times Style Magazine

12

9/12/2021

Around the World in 70 Maps

Internationale Jugendbibliothek

13

7/9/2021

How many triangles do you see?

[image]

14

11/15/2020

Dance moves inspired by 2020s chaos

The New Yorker

15

12/13/2020

Tone Is Hard to Grasp Online. Can Tone Indicators Help?

The New York Times

16

11/22/2020

All That We Share - Connected

TV 2

17

12/20/2020

Turns Out We Don’t Really Know How To Measure Happiness

Forbes

18

11/8/2020

'Purple Rain' — As Retold In A Language Without A Word For Purple

NPR

19

11/29/2020

All That We Share

TV 2

20

3/14/2021

In Other Words

[book]

21

4/18/2021

Cultural Atlas

Cultural Atlas

22

5/9/2021

Window Swap

Windows Swap

23

5/16/2021

Breakup Kit

We're Not Really Strangers

24

3/28/2021

National Recording Registry Adds 'Rhythm Nation' Among 25 New Selections

Library of Congress

25

4/25/2021

The Story of Stories

NPR's Hidden Brain

26

2/21/2021

After General Motors poked fun of Norway in Super Bowl ad, Norway painfully hits back

Daily Kos

27

9/5/2021

What the World Eats

Hungry Planet

28

2/7/2021

Bhangra dancing to Celtic music in the Yukon wilderness is the mash-up we didn't know we needed

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

29

11/1/2020

During Pandemic, MLB Baseball Announcer's Audience Grows

NPR

30

8/29/2021

How They See Us

NPR's Hidden Brain

31

9/26/2021

Star Wars "Visions"

Disney+

 

Comments on this entry

  1. Kris Acheson-Clair

    This makes me want to get in there and start creating! :-)

    Reply Report abuse

    Replying to Kris Acheson-Clair

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