2015 IIME REPORTCountrySchoolPartner[ Taiwan ][ Guei-ren Junior High School ] Teacher [ Ting-chiao Yang ] grade (8) student number (29)
[ (JP) Momoyama JHS of Kyoto Education Univ. ] Teacher [ Aiko Kurokawa/ Yuko Kanzaki ]# Subjects, Activities and Times of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson
Learn how to use English as a communication tool with the partner school.
*Introduce the mural-exchange activity
English*Learn how to make self-introduction cards, including writing and drawing*Learn how to make Chinese New Year cards

Hours3Study the local culture and the Japanese Culture and learn to introduce them in English.

EnglishLearn how to collaborate with students from other country and also how toexpress their ideas during the video conferences.

4

EnglishDraw and paint the mural.

5# Theme and Message of the mural
Theme

Message

CultureWe aim to let the students exchange the ideas about their own cultures and the culture of
their partner country. Students find out the representatives in their own culture andshare them with the partner school.

# Effects and the Problems
Effects your students have gained
1. Communication: Thanks to this project, students
learn how to communicate with each otherbetter, expressing their own ideas and respectthat of other ones.
2. Cooperation: Students learn how to cooperatewith each other to complete this project while
gaining the skill of solving the problem.
3. Globalization: Definitely, this cross-nation
project help students to think globally.

Points for further improvement
Cooperation: We should strengthen our relationshipwith the partner by having more sharing on theforum. Furthermore, we should enhance thecooperation between the students by showing them
how the other school have done successfully.

# How has your impression toward your partner country and/or the world changed?
Change in student’s impression
Change in teacher’s impression
Students start to care about the world around them. The teaching experience is different compared with
Students learn to understand people from other the in-class teaching. Students gained thecountries.
opportunity to express their ideas in aStudents learn to communicate with other students more-organized way. The role for the teacher is tofrom other countries.
guide them, not to teach them.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthIntroduction

ResearchComposition

Painting

Appreciation
Reflection

Sep.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.
Jan.

Feb.

What you did
We made theself-introduction by making
cards.

Your students attitude/reflection
Students are all excited to introduce
themselves and want to have further
contact with the students in Japan.

Students research theinformation they want toshare on the Internet andthen discuss with each otheras to what to convey andhow to present. Students
then present their research
result via the videoconference.

Unavoidably, there will be conflict andconfrontation during the discussion,
which the teachers think is a precious
opportunity for the students to learn how
to solve the conflict and move forward.
When they finally see eye to eye, they
think it is really a wonderful experience
to better understand other groupmembers’ idea.

Since what to be painted isdecided, all that remains is
how to arrange the images
on the canvas and this stepis relatively easy comparedto the last one.

The blueprint of what’s going to be
painted allows the students to imagine
the final product in their minds, thereby
motivating them to work harder toaccomplish the mural. Students are allvery eager to be heard and paid attention
to. Therefore, when their suggestion istaken, they are all very happy.
During this process, students showed
their talents and characters by what
they did and how they did it. They
learned how to show the best ofthemselves and assign tasks
appropriately to group members whose
painting skills might not be very good.
Students are glad to share their pleasure
they gained from the whole process andthe sense of accomplishment with theothers. When other students looked at
the mural, our students would feel asense of achievement and cannot wait to
introduce the work and how theycollaborate together with Japanese
students to other students.

Students collaborate witheach other put the blueprint
into the reality on thecanvas.

After completing the murals,
students appreciated theiraccomplishment byintroducing their works tothe others.

Subject
EnglishEnglishEnglishEnglishEnglish# Aim of the Lessons and Result
Aim: Rank A to C in order you put emphasis on (A: very much/ B: much / C: not so much)
Result: Rank 5 to 1 (5: very effective / 4: effective / 3: so- so / 2: not so effective / 1: not effective at all)

Expected Effect

AimResult

Understanding our owncultures

B

4

Understanding theother’s cultures

A5

B

4Communication ability
in the class/with partners

IT skills

B4A5

A

4

Attitude in learning

A

4

Expression ability

A

4

Appreciation ability

B

4

Creating friendshipin the class/with partners

Collaborationin the class/with partners

How your students have reached it
We had the students research the needed information on theInternet and took them to certain sites to have a realexperience.
Students have done this mainly by the sharing from the partners
in Japan and the information on the internet.
The communication in the class and with partners gradually
improved with more chances to discuss with each other.
Students were given more chances to finish their assigned tasks
with the help of the Internet though the IT skills should be honedby having more practice.
The friendship in the class and with partners is graduallystrengthened by going through all the presentations andactivities together. Student were very excited before each videoconference and cannot wait to have another video conference.
Undeniably, the collaboration was not so smooth at thebeginning, but as time went, the students learned better how tocollaborate with each other.
The attitude of some of the students was getting better andbetter under the influence of the teachers and other students.
Also they will be encouraged to be better when they saw what
Japanese students have done.
Indeed, the expression ability of the students are sharpened by
the trial and error they made to convey what they want andpresent their work.
We firmly believe that the goal of education is to allow thestudents to appreciate the world. Therefore, we asked thestudents to plan the exhibition to appreciate their work and also
allow the other students to appreciate what they did. They acted
as a guide to introduce their mural to other students who don’t
have the chance to participate in this activity.