Report on Japan/Alberta Summer 2010 Project
Project Description
In 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
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
Suggestions from our 2010 Pilot Project on Exchanges with Japan
See Report on Japan/Alberta Summer 2010 Project
- Welcome dinner a great idea, maybe monjya-yaki rather than sushi
- Visit to Edo-Tokyo Museum as an introduction to the culture, especially related to the Grade 8 curriculum
- Other places that were important to visit:
- School program went well, continue with the 2 components:
- English and Internet exchange,
- participating in cultural clubs
- Develop Internet connections using Skype, google, and other technologies
- Encourage families to be involved with Japanese people especially those who are visiting from Japan, as part of developing students as Global Citizens.
- Host Japanese students and introduce them to local heritage sites see St.Albert post.
- Network with Japanese/Canadian organizations. see Japan Today
- Look into options for visiting other Japanese centers that have connections with Alberta and/or the curriculum:
- Hokkaido: connections like Stony Plain. See Japan-Canada Twinnings in Consulate-General of Japan in Calgary website for more information
- Other ideas: Yokohama, Kyoto, Nagasaki
- Make contacts with schools in Alberta that teach Japanese
- Make contacts with exchange programs at Universities and Colleges like those at the UofA, for an example see The Hokkaido Teachers of English Program (HTEP)
- Make contacts with Alberta/Japan organizations like the Alberta Japan Twinned Municipalities Association see http://www.ajtma.com/about.php
- See LACOMBE & DISTRICT RIKUBETSU FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY, for a Junior High exchange program.
- Make contacts with other organizations see http://www.afscanada.org - http://www.interntraining.com/
An Introduction to Canadian Student Life 2010 pilot
This post will be a summary of comments made by Canadian students. Once we have two or three classes of students making comments, students will be assigned the task of summarizing the comments. The best summaries will be posted.
Instructions:
Read the comments of others and then add a unique comment of your own. You may comment on what others have said or disagree with what they have said. Remember this post is for Japanese students who are learning English so use simple English that does not have slang in it.
How to comment:
Use the Name/URL option to identify your comment. The name used for your comment should put your class code followed by a "-" then your first name and last initial (Anonymous comments may or may not be posted and if you are being marked, you will not get a mark).
Instructions:
Read the comments of others and then add a unique comment of your own. You may comment on what others have said or disagree with what they have said. Remember this post is for Japanese students who are learning English so use simple English that does not have slang in it.
How to comment:
Use the Name/URL option to identify your comment. The name used for your comment should put your class code followed by a "-" then your first name and last initial (Anonymous comments may or may not be posted and if you are being marked, you will not get a mark).
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