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2012 J-LEAP REPORTDECEMBER, 2012: BREEZE ISSUE #62
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESEKATSURA SHIMANO
Kennedy High School
Bloomington, MN
Hi. My name is Katsura Shimano and I am currently
working as a Japanese teaching assistant at Kennedy
High School in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Kennedy High School was established in 1965 as a public
senior high school in the Bloomington school district andstudents attend grades 9 through 12 here. This school iswell loved by their students and some have even returned
as teachers and staff members after graduating from college. The students here are very diverse and you
can often hear different language in the hallway including Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hmong, etc.
Japanese language class is an elective at Kennedy and there are also Spanish, French and Germanclasses. Although Spanish is the most popular language, Japanese is also popular with three classes.
Students also have varying language abilities and we often combine students from different grade levelsin the same class. For example, the J1 class has students who are freshman, sophomore, junior, andseniors who work together to learn the language.
We have two J1 level classes for the beginner students and one combined class for more advanced
students in the J2, J3 and J4 levels. I help out with the J1 classes as a teaching assistant and I do most of
the teaching for the J3 students in the combined class. They study not only the language but also theculture in our class.
My supervisor lived in Japan for three years and has taught Japanese since 1993. Her major is in history,
Asian studies and Education and she also teaches World History. She liked to teach by sharing her
knowledge and experience with the students.
I also teach at Jefferson High School, which is in the same district as Kennedy High School. There is one
combined Japanese class for J2 and J3 students and I work with another supervisor to teach the class.
The school environments are different so I have an opportunity to have many experiences here.

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Besides Japanese classes, Bloomington is the sister city of Izumi in Osaka, Japan. One of our students is aboard member of this sister city program and he is working on it earnestly. This past summer, Bloomington
hosted Japanese high school and college students from Izumi, and next summer, students in Bloomington
will visit Izumi! It’s a wonderful opportunity for the students to use their Japanese language skills and also
a good incentive to study hard.
Minnesota is famous for its cold weather, but because I am originally from Yokohama and lived in Thailand
for several years, I don’t like the cold. The people I’ve met here have provided me with lots of support andthanks to them; I was able to adjust to my new home. I hope that I can help them as much as possible andalso improve my teaching skills for the future of Japanese language education. Lastly, I would like to say
Thank You to everyone who has supported me during my time here so far and I truly appreciate theexperiences that J-LEAP provides!

Breeze #62

2012 JET-MIP Report 5/8

2012 J-LEAP Report: Chigusa Izumi

2012 J-LEAP Report: Katsura Shimano

2012 JET-MIP Essay: Hillary Nguyen

2012 JET-MIP Essay: Indica Sur

2012 JET-MIP Essay: Jennie Ju

2012 JET-MIP Essay: Jenny Trieu

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