Last week, I began work as a para-reserve. Some may be familiar with the term, para-educator. In my case, I’m a permanent sub, working as a contractor and on-call every day in the Lake Washington School District.

While I won’t be sharing all the time about this job, I thought it would be important to share about my first day, which included a music class!

Students entered the room to the sound of instrumental music. Once they sat down, the teacher invited them to sing one of their reviewed songs. Then, the teacher invited a parent up to the front of the room. As the theme was holidays, she wanted to introduce the students to as many as possible. In this scenario, she wanted to teach them about Nowruz, an Iranian holiday that marks the new year. While not celebrated in December, Nowruz is one of the most popular holidays in Iran.

The song she played and sang in Farsi talks about families gathering together, eating yummy traditional food, and telling stories. She played the song on the Tar, a three string instrument originating in Persia and played often in Iran.

I hope to attend another music class soon after the holiday break!