Life and Work in Bangladesh: UN Day

Today was United Nations Day and school! Everyone dresses up in their national dress or cultural clothing. There's a parade of nations, kind of like entering for the Olympics, where you march around the futbol (soccer) field behind your flag and banner. After that, there was a performance with singing and dancing from different countries. Even the new US Ambassador to Bangladesh came to speak! It's always so great to see everyone dressed up. AISD is SO diverse and that's hard to forget when you see over 60 countries represented! It's a beautiful thing! I was a little upset though because the US walks in second to last, with Bangladesh being the final country, so we don't get to watch everyone else! Haha, luckily my co-teacher is Canadian so she got lots of good pictures I hope!

After the official UN Day festivities, grade 5 went to one classroom where we had cupcakes and a sing-a-long! One of the other grade 5 teachers, Lloyd played guitar and we sang "Wave Your Flag" from the world cup, and "We are the World." We also watched this amazing speech a 12 year old girl gave to the United Nations about 15 years ago, and talked about ways we can make a difference. She was amazing. You should definitely watch. Powerful stuff. 6 minutes of your life NOT wasted:

Each student and teacher made their own flag to add, so this represents grade 5's diversity!

It was also really interesting to see how students identify themselves. So many students have two nationalities, or their parents are different nationalities, or they've lived in a third country for most of their life, or they were born in a certain country. They have such a different view of their nationality, heritage, culture, than I've ever understood. Even their definition, understanding of "home" is so different. Interesting to see and talk to students about things like this.

One event really upset me however. On the way to find where the United States group was gathering, I found one of my Kindergarten students in tears. He was crying because he's Palestinian and he couldn't find the Palestine group. I grabbed his hand and told him I'd help him find it. We walked around for a while before I realized that there was no Palestine group, no flag. The UN doesn't recognize it as a country. Mohammed was so sad and just didn't understand. "But where's the Palestine flag? Why isn't there one? Everyone else has their flag and gets to walk with their country!..." I told him he could just hold my hand and walk with me and the United States. We also found his sister in third grade and she joined us. I told him everyone would still see his flag and outfit, he would still be able to be proud of himself and get to march and see all the other flags. He cheered up a bit and was back to his smiley self pretty quickly... but wow, what a harsh reality for a 5 year-old.

Yay My grade 5 class! We were representing Norway, S. Korea, Greenland, Denmark, UK (and Scotland obviously), America, Morroco, Philippines, Canada, India, Switzerland, France, and Bangladesh.

Nathan, one of my 5th graders, wore his UVA shirt! He's from NOVA!

Aren't they beautiful?

Brother and sister! They have a brand new baby brother too!

Farthest on the left is one of the boys I tutor and that's his little brother in the matching outfit. Natasha is one of my kindergartners and that's her big brother. Representing Pakistan!