REPORT Artmile International Collaborative Learning 2019
Country/Region [Taiwan/Chiayi City ]School[ Wen Ya Elementary School ] Teacher [ Ruth Hou ]JP school [ Nakai Elementary School ] Teacher [ Miho Araki ]Grade (5) Members (48)

# Subjects, Activities and Hours of the lessons
SubjectConception of the lesson*the definition of eco-system and sustainable energy
Science*the practice of sustainable energy in the world*the practice of 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in everyday life
*Learning English key words about eco-system and sustainable energy
English*Reading English passages for Skype talk with the partner school*Creating possible drafts
Art*Combining good elements on the mural together*Drawing and painting
Integrative*Skype talking timeActivities*Appreciation and reflection on AICL project*Surfing on the Internet for sustainability-related references
ICT*Creating the PowerPoint for group reports

Hours

2312
3
2

# Theme and Message of the mural
ThemeMessage
United thoughts toshare with the world

Mother Earth and the Guardians (SDGs Goals 6 & 11)
With the danger of increasing global warming, our Mother Earth is facing tremendous
threat nowadays. In order to save the Earth as well as all the citizen in the global village,
taking appropriate actions to protect the Earth is the first priority. We start from focusing
on sustainable use of energy, including water, solar and wind power. We also emphasize on
the possible actions that we can take to protect the Earth. Namely, the 3 Rs (Reduce,Reuse, Recycle) are put into practice in our daily lives.

# Effects and Problems
Effects your students have gained
Recycling work is seriously promoted in Taiwan but
we did not really see the importance of doing this.
After researching on the environment-related
themes for our mural, our students fully realize theemergency and necessity of protecting ourenvironment. Now, they are more willing to encouragethemselves, 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. However, due to the limited school time andless guidance from teachers, the students may findthe theme difficult. Next year, our teachers plan tooffer a clearer framework for the students earlier sothat they can have a much longer time researchingon the theme.

# How has your impression toward your partner’s country/region and the world changed?
Changes in the students
Changes in the teachers
Our students are used to doing the recycling work at Our teachers are very surprised to know that thehome and at school because they are asked to do so. Japanese partner school tried to add the elements ofHowever, after researching on the theme of the year Chinese Geomancy on the design of the mural thisfor the mural, the students got to know the value and year. To promote global culture exchanges, we need
importance of the recycling work. They are more to be more aware of the values of our own culture soenthusiastic to make an effort to protect the Earth. that the beauty of different cultures can co-exist fora long time.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthMEET
Selfintroduction

SHARE
Research onthe theme

Sep.

Oct.

What you did

Your students attitude/reflection

Subject

We created a video tointroduce
ourbeautiful
campus to our partners.

Our students found it interesting to make avideo to introduce our beautiful campus.
Although they tried so many times to get
the videos done, they felt proud ofthemselves.
The self-introduction sheets included very
basic background information about thestudents at Wen Ya ES. Most students
finished it with the help of English and Art
teachers. They had strong motivation to
make friends with the students from Nakai
ES in Japan.

Art+English+ICT

Students spent some time surfing on theInternet and watched the video on
YouTube to get a broad view of thepractice of eco-friendly actions in Taiwan.
They finally understood why thegovernments in Taiwan forced us to takeserious actions for recycling works. They
were proud of what they have been doing
for such a long time.

Integrative

We sent the self-introduction
sheets to say hello to ourpartners and we also had aclass-to-classSkypemeeting.

ScienceandHomeroom
teachers made extra learningmaterials to introduce thelearning contents to thestudents.
Our
students
formed in groups to figure out
all the information aboutwater and renewable energy inTaiwan.
We had a class-to-classSkype meeting about theresearch.

Activities+Science+ICT+EnglishUNITEMessage ofNov.

united thoughts

CREATE
Mural painting

APPRECIATE
Reflection/Appreciation

Students created their own
drafts and explained theirideas to our partners in theclass-to-classSkypemeeting.

Students were interested in drafting andthey did a good job presenting what theywanted to say on the drafts. They wereopen-minded enough to read others’
drafts and made some changes afternegotiation.

Art+ICT+English

Art-gifted students drew theoutline and the rest of thestudents painted during thewinter break.

At the beginning, we had a hard time
deciding what and how we could present
the well-balanced images on the mural
because our partners seemed to havefinished painting all the background for us.
We tried to go through the picture banks
on the Internet to get some more ideas.
Finally, we used the idea of Mother Earth,standing in the center of the mural tosymbolize the values and importance ofprotecting the Earth. Later, students tookturns to do the painting.

ArtOur City Mayor had a very good time while
she stayed with us to listen to our reportabout the mural this year. She was sopleased that we have tried our best todeliver our ideas of protecting the world by
the way of art. Our partners also enjoyed
the presentation of our art work. Ourstudents felt so proud of themselves andtheir partners.

Chinese+Social
Studies+ICT+English

Dec.
Jan.

Feb.
Mar.

We invited our City Mayor to
our school and reported toher what we have painted on
the mural. Due to Coronavirus
outbreak, we had a very quickclass-toclassSkype
meeting to share what we had
painted on the mural.

# 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 effectEvaluation

Understanding yourown cultures

4

Understanding yourpartner's cultures

4

Information literacy(research, share)

4

Scenes / points teachers felt the effects
Since we were 5th graders, our students did not have any ideas about thedangers and difficulties the Earth is facing. Our teachers spent sometime creating and editing the key concepts for them so that the students
could understand how great we could be if we could do something
constructive to the Earth.
Our students were so surprised to know that Nakai ES in Fukuoka alsouses solar panels to collect solar energy for their school. In ourhometown, Chia Yi City, the use of solar panels is easily seen because
the tropic of cancer passes by here. We were excited to find somethingin common in these two different countries.
Due to the younger age of our students, the concept of eco-system is
not fully talked about in the textbooks. Our teachers spent extra time toget the related information done so that they could generate more ideas
while they made drafts.

Communication ability(interactive exchange)

Critical thinking(objective, logical views)

Active learningand action

Collaboration(in the class, with partners)

Expression ability(in words, in pictures)

4

3

4

5

Our students were so willing to collaborate with one another when they wereinvited to make drafts and do the painting. Thanks to our partners’ kindness,
we were encouraged to express ourselves freely. We had a good timeworking with our partners this year.

4

We were more keen to post our messages or photos on the forum because
reading the forum is easier and more comprehensible to understand eachother. Both students from Wen Ya and Nakai had limited English and thequality of Internet connection may hinder the quality of expression. However,if the two schools can send the speech content to each other in advance,
the goal of more efficient communication can be achieved, too.

4

In the last Skype meeting on February 25, our partners from Nakai kindly told
us their positive comments on the mural we have painted together this year.
Later, from the video clip of opening the parcel at Nakai, we saw the happy
faces, smiles and praise coming from the students at Nakai ES. We could feelthey liked the mural, too. If there is no outbreak of coronavirus, we may havea better and longer time appreciating the mural and the learning process.
Both of the two schools have done a wonderful job this year.

Appreciation ability(the mural, the wholecollaborative learning)

Our students are hard-working enough to express their ideas in classand with their Japanese partners. However, due to the limited Englishability, the students may not be able to communicate fluently and freely.
We hope there is more focus on the use of English so that thecommunication ability can be better and better.
Since the theme of the mural this year focuses on SDGs, it is a little bit
difficult for the elementary school students to catch the main ideas. As
a results, providing logical views as well as promoting critical thinking
seems to be beyond the ability of the students at this age. But still, it isa good chance to start talking about the global issues. Teachers
appreciated the opportunity to broaden the global views for the students
this year.
Because of the careful guidance from the teachers, the students took
their time investigating all the possible facts about water and sustainablecommunities. After their investigation, they felt the necessity of doing all
the recycling works at home and at school to protect the world.