REPORT Artmile International Collaborative Learning 2021
Country/Region [ Taiwan ]School[ Wen Ya Elementary School ] Teacher [ Ruth Hou ] Grade ( 5 ) Member ( 50 )JP School [ Owada Minami Elementary School ]Teacher [ Ayaka Nakano ]# Subjects, Activities and Hours of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson

ScienceICT

EnglishIntegrativeActivities

ArtHours*the life and death of land animals in the world*the life and death of sea animals under the water*the definition of affordable and clean energy*the practice of sustainable energy in the world4*surfing on the Internet for any related references*creating the PowerPoint for group reports during the Skype

4*English words of animals on land and under water in Taiwan*English phrases of keeping the lives on land and under water safe
* short English passages for Skype talk4

*sharing of the research result*scheduled Skype talk*appreciation and reflection on AICL project in class4*creating drafts in groups*mural drafts discussion*a list of all good elements on the draft/mural*drawing and painting

12# Theme and Message of the muralThemeA Better World for Everyone

Message

Earth is not only a planet for human beings but also a planet for all the lives on land andunder water. We need to take all possible actions to protect the Earth so that everyone,including the plants and the animals in the world can have a place for better existence.

United thoughts toshare with the world

# Effects and Problems
Effects your students have gainedProtecting the lives under water and the lives on land
is a popular topic in Taiwan. We fully understand theimportance of doing so. After researching on theenvironment-related themes for our mural, ourstudents are more confident with the reason why thisis a life-threatening issue. Now, they are moredetermined to encourage themselves, their neighbors
and friends to work hard for a better living
environment.

Points for further improvement
The focus on SDGs this year is a very good point
for the younger generation to know more about theworld. Thanks to the collaboration from the partner
school and the homeroom teachers at Wen Ya ES,
the students have better understanding of thethemes this year. Next year, our teachers plan to
set up a clearer schedule for the Skype time so thatthe students can be better prepared in terms ofresearching and sharing on the theme.

# How has your impression toward your partner’s country/region and the world changed?
Changes in the students
Changes in the teachers
Taiwan and Japan are islands so we share most of the It is good to know that we, the teachers from bothsame difficulties when we talk about the lives on land Taiwan and Japan are leading the younger generationand lives under water. Our students feel supported to pay more attention to the world issue. To promotewhen we see our partner school taking the similar global awareness, we need to work together to callactions to protect the lives in the world. It is the most people’s attention. Hopefully, all kinds ofeveryone’s work to share the responsibility of taking misbehavior of hurting the world will be stopped.
care of the world.
Then, the world can be better in the future.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthMEET
Selfintroduction

SHARE
Research on
the theme

Sep.

Oct.

What you did
Each of us, including theprincipal and the homeroom
teachers, wrote a greeting
letter to our partners inJapan. We shared our
personal information withthem and posted somephotos of the interesting
school activities on theforum so that they could
know us better.

Your students’ attitude/reflection
Our students found it interesting andeasy to share the personal backgroundinformation with the friends from ourpartner school this year. All of thestudents could finish the task with thehelp of English and Art teachers. They
had strong motivation to make friends
with the students from Owada Minami
ES in Yachio City, Japan.

Science and Homeroom
teachers made extra learningmaterials to introduce thelearning contents to thestudents. Our students
formed in groups to figureout all the information about
the lives on land and lives
under water. Some
information about renewableenergy in Taiwan wasincluded to facilitate ourunderstanding of the reportfrom our partner school.

Students spent some time surfing on
the Internet and watched the videos on
YouTube to get a broad view of theissues about lives on land and lives
under water. They felt threatened if
these good neighbors on land andunder water disappear one day. We
believe all the lives need a good placein the world. They were determined totake some actions to create a friendly
environment for the lives on land andthose under water.

We had a Skype meeting
about the research, too.

SubjectArt,
EnglishIntegrative
Activities,

science,
ICT,
EnglishUNITE
Message ofNov.

united thoughts

CREATE
Mural painting

APPRECIATE
Reflection/
Appreciation

Dec.
Jan.

Feb.
Mar.

Students created their own
drafts first and chose thebest five versions to sharewith our partners during theSkype talk.

Students were interested in drafting
and they did a good job presenting
what they wanted to say on the drafts.
They were open-minded enough toread others’ drafts and made somechanges after negotiation.

Art-gifted students drew
the outline and the rest of
the students took turns tocome back to school andpaint during the wintervacation.

At the beginning, we had a keen
discussion about the focus of our halfpainted mural. Finally, we agreed to pay
more attention to the lives under water
because our partner has fully
illustrated their interpretation of lives
on land. We would be able to see thebalanced images of lives on land andlives under water in the mural.

We read the completedmural together and had adiscussion of what message
we would like to deliverfrom the mural.
We also took a group photowith our principal, and theteachers before we sent
the mural back to Japan.
Again, a copy of the muralthis year will be made andposted at the corridor for
all the school members topay some attention toglobal issue.

Artmile is a very good project for thestudents to broaden their world view. It
also encouraged the students to take a
deeper look at the global issues andeven take some actions to help solving
some problems.
Painting is fun and easy. What’s better,
painting helps deliver the message ofsaving the earth from the younger
generation.

Art,
ICT,
EnglishArt

SocialStudies,
ICT,
English,Chinese# Effect and evaluation gained through the collaborative learning
Evaluation: Rank 5 to 1 (5: very effective / 4: effective / 3: so- so / 2: not so effective / 1: not effective at all)

Expected effectCross-cultural
understanding

Evaluation

4

Scenes and reasons that teachers felt the effects
Since Taiwan and Japan are close to each other on the world map,
Japan is always an attractive and well-known country in our mind. As aresult, we have good impression toward this country before we started
the partnership with the Artmile partner school.
We felt very supported to know that the students in Japan takes thesimilar actions as we do to protect the living environment. Climate
action is surely the topic everyone needs to pay more attention to.

Critical thinking(objective, logical views)

Active learningand action

Collaborating withdifferent people

Expressing in words,in shape4

Critical thinking is a difficult issue for the elementary school students
in Taiwan because they are rarely encouraged to do so. However, withthe demand of the research task, the use of renewable energy and theprotection of sea lives and land lives animals lead us to take a look at
the good and the bad of keeping fruitful economic growth as well as
environmental protection at the same time. We were sure the students
have gained something different from the discussion and research
results. This is a good chance for them to start the habit of criticalthinking. We look forward to their stable development of critical thinking
in their minds.

4Thanks to the careful guidance from the teachers, the students spent
their time researching on the topics about environment protection,
renewable energy and the values of lives on land and lives under water.
They were more knowledgeable when they delivered their research
results about the themes and it is rewarding for the teachers to seethat they have acquired certain amount of knowledge from their
independent reading.

54

The fifth graders this year are easy going and gentle. They love toaccept the comments and suggestions from the peers and teachers.
They are also generous enough to accept any positive or negative
feedbacks. Therefore, the teachers believe they have good abilities tocollaborate with different people. They also had a good time working
with the Artmile partners in Japan this year.
Most of the students from Wen Ya E.S. and Owada Minami E.S. had
limited English to express themselves freely. However, with the great
efforts and extra work for preparation in advance, the students in bothschools were confident enough to try their best to say something inwords and drawings. The great performance is seen from the successful
smooth Skype talk and the mural painted this year.
Artmile Project is a very good start for the younger generations topresent their ideas in a clear and creative way without worrying about
the language barrier.