AP and Dual Credit English teacher Elise Song has been celebrating the Chinese New Year with her classes for four years now. In celebration of the new year, Song enjoys giving her students a chance to learn about their Chinese zodiac animals and what Chinese Lunar New Year is about. She also traditionally has her students wear red for extra credit.

“We match in red for a powerful movement towards good luck,” Song said. “We learn about our zodiac animals and compare to westernized zodiacs. And of course – food!”

Sponsor of the Asian Student Appreciation (ASA) club, Song introduces Asian culture to her classes during her Lunar New Year parties. She has her students take a test that determines their zodiac animal, and they spend the class period learning about their zodiac animal – while enjoying food and a movie.

“It is a day to stop, self-reflect and make wishes for another year,” Song said. “I hope they learn a bit about another culture if they didn’t know about Lunar New Year already. Hopefully, this opens up interest, understanding, and positivity for the many holidays we used to celebrate separately.”

This year was the year of the pig, and students watched “Wall-E” and ate a variety of different foods.

“I thought it was pretty cool to learn about another culture,” junior Wattin Ahasan said. “I had a lot of fun with my classmates at the party.”