This summer's pilot project was focused on developing relationships between St. Albert, Alberta and Tokyo, Japan, as well as developing a structure to facilitate provincewide participation. During May and June, we developed a blog and got feedback from teachers, students and others on the usefulness of the blog in establishing long-term relationships between Alberta and Japan. Using the blog, grade 8 students can learn about the history of Japan as it relates to the grade 8 curriculum and help Japanese students with their English. The project also involved evaluating resources that could be used in the grade 8 Social Studies and/or the Japanese Language and Cultural studies curriculum.
Blogs Related to the ProjectIn preparation for a visit to Japan, we created two blogs: the Japan History and Culture Network blog, and the Alberta Information for International Students blog. This blog, the Alberta Cultural Exchange blog, and the Japan Values Network blog were created after the trip had been completed. The latter is for high school students and others interested in learning more about Japan, but it is still in development.
What happened in Japan
A Canadian high school student and her parents visited Japan. The student stayed in two Japanese homes for 10 days. The Canadian group arrived on Friday night and was treated to a welcome dinner at a sushi bar by their Japanese hosts. The next three days were spent with their Japanese hosts visiting some of the historical sites recommended in the blogs. See suggestions for the most important sites to visit. Tuesday was a day off, going to Disneyland with one of the Japanese hosts for the high school student and her parents visiting contacts.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent at a Japanese High School in Tokyo. At the school the team from Canada held classes in the morning about Canada and participated in Japanese cultural classes in the afternoon such as the tea ceremony, Kendo, Japanese archery, yukata class, and various other clubs. In the morning classes there were four groups of students with native Canadian speakers in each group. Two of the Canadians helping were former citizens living in Tokyo. The Canadian high school student also experienced a Japanese festival held in a community by a local junior high school on Saturday. On Monday the Canadians did a final extra class and returned home, ending the 10-day trip to Japan.
Click here to start reading the student's journal, which describes her experiences during the trip.
See suggestions for future Alberta/Japan Exchanges
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