REPORT Artmile International Collaborative Learning 2019
Country/Region [ Malta ]School
[ St. Ignatius College Middle School, Handaq ] Teacher [ Elaine Bezzina ] Grade ( 7 & 8 ) Members ( 60 )JP school [ Tomigaya Elementary School ] Teacher [ Ayaka Sato ]# Subjects, Activities and Hours of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson

Social Studies

Through research, charts and power point presentations, students understood
the meaning of SDG 16. They learned about its importance and madecomparisons between countries where this SDG is lived up to and where it isnot. This was mainly carried out during lessons and breaks but students werealso responsible enough to continue their work at home in order to give thefinal products their personal touch. The latter part was carried out whilst
communicating with the Social Studies teacher Ms. V. Attard. During thisresearch, participating students had the opportunity to understand that what
is taken for granted in the Maltese Islands, unfortunately is not reality in othercountries. Some of the students also carried out case studies about SDG
16. This opportunity was given to a number of Year 7 and Year 8 students.

Hours8 hrs

PSCD

During this subject, a great variety of students participated in the ‘Peace
Footprint Activity’ during Ms. V. Attard’s lessons. Given that part of SDG
16 emphasizes peace, during this activity the students had the opportunity torealise that even in their own lives, they can make a difference. During thisApprox..
activity, the students were presented with 2 footprints. The left foot print
aroundrepresented past experiences, thus students had to write about situations in
2 hrs
which they collaborated to create peaceful situations. Whilst, in the rightwithfootprint they had to write down how they can contribute in producing
each
peaceful situations in the future. Needless to say that this activity madeclass (9students realise that peace is not only a matter of a nation’s government but,classes)
they could be bearers of peace themselves. This activity took more than 1
lesson because students needed time to think about their actions in order tobe as sincere as possible. This opportunity was given to students in both Year
7 and Year 8.

GeneralA speech delivered by a Kenyan social worker named Besh through the ‘GrandOak Association’ was carried out at our school for a group of Year 7 and Year
8 students. This was part of a project entitled ‘A Story of Rebirth’ where
Besh narrated his personal journey; from a homeless orphan to a social worker,
in schools of different countries. After this experience, the students involved
had the opportunity, during their PSCD lesson, to highlight what struck themthe most during Besh’s narrative. The most mentioned were; that until acertain age, he and his friends were not aware that shoes do exist and thatwhilst living on the streets, he only had the clothes he was wearing no matterthe weather or if he had eventually outgrown them. Students then wrote
down self-reflections which were very helpful for them to understand theextent of some peoples’ situations.

1.5 hrs

# Theme and Message of the mural
Theme

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

MessageBy learning about the culture of different countries, one can better understand andaccept each other.

United thoughts toshare with the world# Effects and Problems
Effects your students have gained
Points for further improvement
Students have learned about different aspects of There should have been more discussion between
Japan such as the Sakura Zensen and the Fuji partnered schools on how the mural was to beMountain.
divided so that it would have been more united as
an end product.

# How has your impression toward your partner’s country/region and the world changed?
Changes in the students
Changes in the teachers
Apart from the skills students acquired; like This was a great opportunity for the Social Studies
responsibility, team work and how to carry out and PSCD teacher involved as she could link theresearch, they realized through the various activities curriculum with SDGs, and also work hand in handmentioned above that although citizens in Malta do with a school from another country.
have human rights, unfortunately in other countries
this is not the case and so these should not be taken
for granted. They learned to be more appreciative
for what they have!

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthMEET
Selfintroduction

SHARE
Research on
the theme

UNITE
Message ofSeptOct

OctNov

NovDecunited thoughts

CREATEFeb

What you didYour students attitude/reflection

Emails and introductory
video was done.

Students were offered this opportunity
and the majority of the students took theplunge and looked forward for such a
once in a lifetime opportunity.

Students carried out theirresearch, did the final
product and also the casestudies under the guidanceof their teacher. Afterwards
they shared this material
with the partner school.

Apart from instilling certain skills in ourstudents,
andgetting
moreknowledgeable about the subject,
students were really eager to send theirwork to the partner school through theAssistant Head Ms. E. Bezzina and also
eager to receive their fellow students
work. The latter was shared during Social
Studies lessons by Ms.V. Attard.

The communication between
the two partnered schools
was not very smooth andalthough we sent material toeach other, there was not an
actual discussion to unite
the thoughts. The fact that
we could not video call due
to time difference was amajor hindrance in thisaspect.

Students were very eager to go throughthe material sent by the Japanesestudents. They were very eager to get
to know what these students, of theirsame age, were doing at school.

Painting was received andstudents each drew theirsection on the mural.

Students were very excited when wereceived the half completed muralespecially when they saw the signaturesof the Japanese students. They werealso very eager to paint their half of themural.

All the students who
happened to use theclassroom were the mural
was being painted have hadtheopportunity
toappreciate the work and beexplained
aboutit.
Unfortunately, we did nothave time to display themural in school due to thedeadline.

Students have learned a lot through thisproject. We have recorded a video withstudents explaining about the project but
unfortunately it has not yet been edited
due to the fact that schools have been
shut down. The students participationin this video, even by those who are very
shy showed how much they wanted to be
an integral part of the project.

Mural painting

APPRECIATE
Reflection/
Appreciation

Feb

Subject

SocialStudies

SocialStudies

PSCD

ArtArt /Video# 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

5

Understanding yourpartner's cultures

3

Information literacy(research, share)

Communication ability(interactive exchange)

Critical thinking(objective, logical views)

Active learningand action
Collaboration(in the class, with partners)

Expression ability(in words, in pictures)

5

2

45

3

5

Appreciation ability(the mural, the wholecollaborative learning)

4

Scenes / points teachers felt the effects
Students became aware of some of the privileges they have justbecause they live in Malta and how fortunate they are compared toother people.
Research conducted by students was not strictly about Japan.
However, we searched all the places pictured on the mural and about
the sakura zensen which we learned is of great importance to Japan.
Students gained a lot of skills on how to search and how to check that
information is correct.
Our students did a lot of PowerPoint presentations which we sharedwith our partner. Our partner also sent us a PowerPoint presentation,
however, even though it was discussed in class, a cross discussion withour partner did not take place.
A number of interesting discussions took place in class on what thestudents had researched and found. Some were even awestruck about
what they found about other cultures.
Students took it on themselves to continue their research at home,
without being asked to.
Some of the PowerPoint presentations and charts were done in groups.
However, not having the possible to carry out videoconferencing
hindered collaboration with our partners.
Students expressed themselves through what they decided to paint intheir section on the mural. It was beautiful to see how they tried tomerge symbols which relate to Malta and Japan together to form
something unique.
The students were very grateful for the opportunity they got throughthis project. This was especially felt when we asked the students ifthey wanted to take part in a video to explain the whole process andthey all wanted to collaborate. Unfortunately the video is still beingedited as it has been put on hold due to the fact that schools have been
shut down.