2012 IIME REPORTCountry [ Canada ]School [ Morrisburg Elementary School ] Teacher [ Jim Lamoureux ] grade (3/4 ) student number (20)
JP School [ Takasago Elementary School ] Teacher [ Masae Tadenuma ]# Subjects, Activities and Times of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson
Social Studies
Understanding differences in our countries, communities and cultures
IT
Visual Art
Language Arts

Times

Communicating on the forum and videoconference

5

Designing and painting the mural

10

Making introduction cards and New Years Cards

4# Theme and Message of the mural
Cultural and natural symbols of each of our countries
ThemeMessage

Our countries have very similar cultural and natural symbols, yet at the same time they arealso different.

# Effects and the Problems
Effects your students have gained
My students learned a little bit about the culture of ourpartner school in Japan. Our community is very rural,and they were so surprised to see many pictures of theirpartner’s school in a large city. They learned about
how far away the two countries are also. Finally, increating the mural, they researched Canada’s symbols
and natural environment.

Points for further improvement
Posting pictures on the forum is a little difficult. Itwould be nice if the pictures could be automatically
resized or compressed by the software that controls theforum.

# Have you made your activity open in your school or in your local area? How was their reaction or reputation?

PR you did inside/out of your school
Reaction/reputation from aroundWe contacted the local newspaper and we presented Students, parents and other teachers were very
the mural at a school assembly. We made a video impressed with the mural and everyone had many
about the mural and shared it with the Artmile mail list, positive comments about the video.
and it has been posted on the artmile facebook page.
We also posted many pictures on our school facebookpage.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthIntroduction

Research

Composition

Painting

Appreciation

Sept-Oct

What you did
Your students attitude/reflection
Subject
Completed introduction cards Students enjoyed making introduction cards. Socialand sent them to Japan.
They were excited to get started in the Studies,
We shared on the forum.
project.
LanguageNov

We started to decide what wewould like to put on the mural.
We shared on the forum manytimes.

Students received introduction cards fromJapan, and enjoyed the many gifts and little
horse statue that we received.

SocialStudies,ITDec

Sent New Years cards topartners.
Partner class started designingand painting their part.

Students enjoyed learning about Japanesetraditions, and they had fun writing theirpartner’s names in Japanese

IT,Language,
SocialStudies

They had a wonderful time, working together
and working with the paints.
Our
videoconference had many technicaldifficulties, but it did work out okay.

IT, VisualArtJan-Feb

Students received the half
painted mural. We painted ourpart and we also had avideoconference
We presented our mural to theschool. We were interviewed by
the local newspaper.

Everyone was very impressed with the muraland the video we made. Students reflectedon their learning in two writing assignments.

IT,LanguageMarch# Aim of the Lessons and Result
AimRankMark

How your students have reached it
They researched cultural symbols and natural symbols.

understanding
our own cultures45 ○4 3 2 1

Understanding
the other cultures

354 ○
3 2 1

Communication with partners and research on theinternet.

55 ○4 3 2 1

They used English skills and media skills in writing andmaking cards.

65 43 2 1○

They helped do shared writing on the forum and helped dovideoconference.

25 4 3 2 1○They enjoyed being partnered up with specific students.
They also had fun taking pictures with the mascot,
Takasago.

15 4 3 2 1○They worked in pairs while they designed and painted theirparts.

75 4 3 2 1○8595 4communication ability
interactively / in English

IT skills
forum / video conference

Creating friendshipin the class / with partners

Collaborationin the class / with partners

Keeping motivation highpositive attitude in learning

Expression ability
in painting

Appreciation ability
reading the painting

4 3 2 1○3 2 1○

They were highly motivated.
The students worked hard in painting the mural.
We displayed the mural at a school assembly and made avideo about the project.