Besides all the traveling I have been doing, a lot has been going on each week at school. The highly anticipated Peace Day arrived on January 30th. Leading up to the day in my English classes we had been talking about Peace in the United States. I decided to focus our studying on Martin Luther King because I considered Martin Luther King Day to be our equivalent in the US to Peace Day. In my older classes we read his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and parts of the speech were read at the school assembly, in English of course.
With my younger students we worked on constructing sentences about peace and we read peaceful quotes. These sentences were written on slips of paper and passed around to family members and people in the community on Peace Day. Some examples were: Peace begins with a smile. Peace is a two-way street. Peace be with you.
Also it was my responsibility to teach all my English classes the same song in English that would be sung at the all school assembly. Guadalupe and I listened to many songs trying to decide which one would be best for the students to learn and also that we could discuss and translate in class. At the top of the list was Imagine by John Lennon and Heal the World by Michael Jackson. Turns out Heal the World was chosen and ended up being a very good selection.
On the afternoon of Peace Day the sun was shining after a week of rain and the assembly was held outside. The entire school was lined up around the soccer field. Everyone sang a popular peace song in Spanish and then did a dance around the outline of the field. After we sang Heal the World. So many students were belting out the words and became very passionate about what they were singing. I think it really helped that we chose a song they could understand and relate to. I expected the whole day to be a little corny and over the top but I found that it was actually really beautiful. I was happy to be a part of the whole thing and I think everyday should be Peace Day! (they are wearing doves on their head).
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