The Multicultural Minute

This year I started something at our elementary school called the "Multicultural Minute", celebrating the cultural diversity within our own school.  I've had a lot of people ask me what it is and how it works, so here are the answers to some frequently asked questions!

1.  What is the Multicultural Minute?

It is a short segment during our Friday morning school assembly where we feature a child whose parents were born in another country or whose family speaks another language at home.  The child comes on stage, says "Good Morning Bledsoe (Elementary), my name is ____" in their language, counts to 10, and teaches us how to say "hello" and "goodbye".  The child and his family are also featured on the bulletin board in the main hallway which includes a large map of the world; this helps the student body learn their geography as well as get to know their multicultural peers.

To get a quick overview of how we implemented the Multicultural Minute at Bledsoe Elementary in Frisco, TX this year, here's a video featured by Frisco ISD-TV: Multicultural Minute

2.  How did the Multicultural Minute get started?

It literally came from a lunch conversation I had during a PTA conference in Austin last summer.  After attending a few Diversity/Inclusiveness breakout sessions, I heard a lot of interesting facts about the changing demographic of our schools in TX, and I realized that we didn't have a consistent way to highlight these different cultures.  I shared with our PTA president my idea about featuring a student/family during the morning assembly and calling it the "Multicultural Minute."  She loved it and we shared it with our principal, who was also totally on board.  I wasn't sure if we would have a lot of participation in our first year, but we ended up having 21 countries represented, 24 languages, and 43 student speakers!

3.  What is the purpose of the Multicultural Minute?

The mission and purpose of the Multicultural Minute is to celebrate the diversity at our school, help kids feel proud of their heritage, and open the minds of the entire student body to the value of each person regardless of racial differences.  Personally, this is such a stark contrast from how I felt growing up as a 2nd-generation Korean-American; I was embarrassed by my race, hated speaking a different language at home, and was ridiculed by others for being different.  The Multicultural Minute does the opposite and allows kids to see that being different is not bad- it's actually special and should be celebrated!

4.  What's the process to implement this at my school?

I recommend the first thing to do is talk with your PTA president and your principal to make sure you have their support.  After that, you can follow some of these processes I used this year.  Feel free to change and modify anything to best fit your school!

A.  FLYER

Create a flyer describing the Multicultural Minute and ask people to sign up if they are interested in participating in the program.  Ask for the child's name, grade, teacher, parents' email, country of origin, and language to be spoken.  We sent out the flyer during the first 2 weeks of school and I collected them throughout the year.  I also passed out the flyers during Meet-the-Teacher Night later in the fall.

B.  SCHEDULE

Based on your responses from the flyer, organize a schedule of speakers.  We started out with a speaker every other week at the morning assembly and that worked well.

C.  BULLETIN BOARD

Using a map of the world (I purchased one at the local teacher's store), create a bulletin board that displays the following:

- Continents and Countries

- Speaker's family picture

- Name and grade of speaker

- Name of Country and Language featured

- "Hello" and "Goodbye" written phonetically in their language

-  Arrow pointing to the country featured

- Gold star placed on the country featured

Having a bulletin board displayed through the week helps the student body (as well as visitors) learn about the program, speak a new language, and get to know the participating students and their families.

D. QUESTIONNAIRE

Send out an email questionnaire to the speaker's parents 2 weeks before they are up for the Multicultural Minute.  Ask for the following information:

- Birthplace of the parents

- Birthplace of children

- When the family moved to the US

- Name of the country and language featured

- Written words for "hello" and "goodbye" in their language

- 1-2 interesting facts about their country

- Ask for a family picture (or an email with an attachment which I then printed out for the bulletin board)

- Ask students to wear any traditional clothing for the assembly. (One little girl wanted to keep wearing her traditional outfit from Pakistan all day long!)

- Ask students to practice saying "Good Morning, my name is _____", counting from 1-10, and saying "hello" and "goodbye" in their language.

Note: Some of the families did not use email.  In those cases, I sent a hard copy home with the teacher.  Also, there were times throughout the year where I had 2-3 different speakers for the same language, so I would combine and have them come on stage together.

E.  SCRIPT

Once you obtain the information from the questionnaire, write out a complete script of what you will say during the assembly and who will say what.  This should include everything in the questionnaire that you think is relevant and can fit within 1-2 minutes.  Send this to the parents a week before their turn so they can practice it with their children before the kids come up on stage.  In some cases, parents also wanted to come on stage and participate with their children, which was really special.  (We had a mom from Ghana sing their national anthem, and a mom from Australia help teach the Aussie war cry!)

Note: Our first few times, I did not write out a script and several of the kids froze once they got on stage.  It's difficult to get up and speak when you have 500 eyes staring at you!  I found that once I wrote out a script and asked parents to practice it with their kids at home, the stage fright greatly decreased and kids were more prepared for what was going to happen.

F.  PRESENTATION

The most visible part of the Multicultural Minute is coming up on stage with your speakers and presenting them to the assembly.  In my script, I wrote out exactly what I'd say so that I could memorize the interesting facts about each country, introduce the student by name/grade/teacher, and make the "interview" feel really personal.  I don't think it's necessary to memorize the script, but it certainly made it easier for me to be more comfortable on stage.  It also helped to practice saying "hello" and "goodbye" in all the different languages beforehand!

G.  FOLDER

After the Multicultural Minute was complete, I would put everything back into a folder that had a file for each country.  The file includes the printed words for "hello" and "goodbye" in their language that I used for the bulletin board, name of country/language, and the script used for the presentation.  This helped organize the countries/languages we featured this year in order to prevent overlap and repetition.  I would ideally like to see new countries and new speakers in the next year!

5.  Is there anything you would change for next year?

Yes.  I need help!!  It was a lot of work to undertake this on my own, and I would recommend having a team of people to help you with the flyers, the bulletin board, gathering information from parents, printing pictures, writing the script, and presenting at the assembly.  I am hoping to divide up the responsibilities next year so we can have a rotation of people who will present at the assembly.  Right now I have one other volunteer to present, but I could definitely use more!

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Hope that helps!  If you have any other questions, feel free to comment and let me know how I can assist you.  I think you will find that this program will bring your school's community together and create a very welcoming and inviting culture!

Does playing metal mean I'm losing my religion?

I've recently purchased an electric violin.  It's something I never thought I'd play, but I borrowed one over Christmas break, and the sounds that came through my amplifier made me feel like I was playing an electric guitar!  It has catapulted me into wanting to hear and play the craziest guitar-driven songs, primarily. . . metal.

I wasn't allowed to listen to pop music growing up, let alone metal!  My days were filled with Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, as well as some Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Debussy.  I was trained classically on the piano and violin, and with all of the practicing required of me, I didn't have a chance to explore any other types of music unless I stealthily changed the channel on my radio while I was studying late at night.  That's when I was introduced to bands like Depeche Mode, Erasure, New Order, and also Chicago,  Cheap Trick, U2, and of course, George Michael.  "Got to have faith. . . yeah, yeah. . . got to have faith, faith, faith!"

Interesting point George.  I do have faith in God and a personal relationship with Jesus, but now that I am listening to Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, Baroness, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Guns 'n Roses, etc., does that mean I've lost the faith?  Can I listen to some of their dark lyrics yet still call myself a Christian?

Here's my answer: Yes.

Why?  Well first, I'm actually not listening to any lyrics, so I'm not looking to change my life philosophy.  I'm only interested in the music, and can I say, these metal guitarists are mad talented!!  It's not easy to play their riffs, and they have created some very innovative melodies that when stripped from high-octane lyrics and performance antics, are incredibly beautiful and technically challenging.  Dare I say that some riffs are practically on par with Paganini and Mendelssohn as far as level of difficulty?

I'm also finding that when I take the skeleton of the song and put flesh on it with the electric violin, it becomes a completely different animal.  Is there a name for it?  Violinist David Garrett calls it "Rock Symphony," pianist Scott Davis refers to it as "Rockfluence," my name for it is. . . "Metalin."  I never dreamed I'd listen to metal and then want to play it on the violin, but it is my newest hobby and has completely taken over the hours of 10:30pm-1:00am almost every night.  I just plug in my headset on the electric violin, and my family doesn't have to be bothered while they sleep and I practice!

But the other thing about my faith is this: I believe that God loves me, and because He loves me, He takes joy in my joy.  Just as I take great delight in my children's delight of something I've given them, I believe He delights in my love of music.  He's the Creator of music, and when I play, I play for Him, regardless of what genre the song comes from.  Colossians 3:17a says, "And whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord."  That means that everything counts; everything I do can be an opportunity to give God glory, whether it's washing the dishes, making a meal, teaching lessons, or practicing metal on the electric violin!  God desires to be at the center of everything I'm doing, and when I give Him the best in every aspect of my life, it's all about Him and not about me.

So no, I don't think playing metal means that I'm losing my religion.  In fact, I lost my "religion" a long time ago- I don't like that word anyway!  Playing "metalin" allows me to spend time enjoying the gift of music that God created, and there's nothing I love more than being in His presence, playing for Him.