Springtime Traditions: ELL Students Illuminate the Significance of Nowruz

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By Harjit Chauhan, Kawaldeep Ghuman, and Sukhdeep Birdi

The three of us are ELL teachers from the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows school district in British Columbia. A few years ago, we created a series of educational videos to highlight important holidays like Ramadan and Eid that are celebrated by our ELL students. Now, as we approach the season of spring festivals, we’re excited to share our latest video collaboration, continuing our mission to raise awareness of the diverse traditions within our school community.

Cultures around the world celebrate the arrival of spring in unique and meaningful ways—Easter, Songkran, Vaisakhi, and many others. Over the years, our ELL students have eagerly shared stories about one particularly beautiful festival that falls over spring break: Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Inspired by our previous cultural videos, many of these students expressed a desire to create their own, so they could educate their peers about this significant celebration.

In response to their enthusiasm and the growing Persian community in our district, we decided to create another video that would highlight this important holiday. This new video would feature ELL students from our three schools, along with Shabnam Momtahen, our Settlement Worker in Schools (SWIS) worker.

After two months of planning and scriptwriting, and working closely with our district communications specialist, Jasmine Bala, we are excited to share the final result: “SD42 students explain how they celebrate Nowruz.” 

What is Nowruz?

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Harjit Chauhan’s teaching career began over eighteen years ago. She discovered that teaching English was her passion when she moved overseas to South Korea to teach. Upon her return, she often spoke her first language—Punjabi—to work closely with families. This led her to pursue a TESL certificate and eventually make the leap to an English Language Learner specialist. Harjit currently works in the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows School District in British Columbia (District #42).

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Kawaldeep Ghuman started her teaching career at a private school before moving to the Maple Ridge School District in BC (SD42), where she began TTOCing in both elementary and secondary schools. During this time, she found herself drawn to ELL teaching, feeling a natural connection with the ELL students and families because she also speaks another language and has been in their shoes. For the past seven years, Kawaldeep has been working with English language learners and it remains her passion to this day.

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Sukhdeep Birdi’s teaching career began in Winnipeg, MB. She taught many different grades within the private and public-school sector for over 17 years, before transitioning to the English language learning field in 2013. Sukhdeep has always had a strong interest in teaching English and supporting newcomer students with their personal and academic areas. Presently, she works as an ELL specialist at an elementary school in Maple Ridge, BC.

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