Obama in Yangon

President Obama came to visit Myanmar on November 19th, 2012! 

What a day it was for the Burmese... there had been weeks of preparation:

This is some street art around the corner from my flat.. and believe it or not, this is not the only welcome sign we had for Obama!

On Monday, I tutored my little french students and they greeted me with a "Teacher, Teacher! Obama is here!" After I asked them who Obama was, they responded with, "YOUR president!" 

I had no idea they had the made the connection that I was American and that he was my president...

He gave an inspiring speech at the university, of which you can listen to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-3659BsDA

Thanksgiving in 5L

One aspect of Grade 5's curriculum is to talk about migration. Naturally, I cannot help but bring up the fact that pilgrims migrated over to North America and ultimately established the holiday that Americans all over the world celebrate today- Thanksgiving.  After hearing about the fact that it is a time for people to gather, give thanks and eat food, my kids immediately begged me if we could have a Thanksgiving in our little classroom community. Why not?

So after teaching my students how to set the table, politely pass the bread and use a fork and knife, they were able to enjoy a feast. Only this feast included fried chicken, not turkey :)

Kathein Visit

What is Kathein, you may ask? It is the time of the year where Burmese people collect robes, fans, umbrellas and other necessities for the monks. 

This week the Student Council and I dressed up and went to the local monastery  where we delivered donations from our students and shared a meal with the monks. It was an amazing opportunity for the kids to  get together with all of ISM's student council (ES, MS and HS) and see where the donations they had been collecting for the monks were going. 

Here are some classroom reps heading out!

We paraded about 10 minutes through the neighborhood, following an obnoxious truck with music blaring (typical of any parading in Myanmar) and all of our donations!

One of the Kathein trees with donations attached to it

This monk spoke for 40 minutes straight, pausing every once in a while to spit in a jar :)

Elementary Stu Co!