REPORT Artmile International Collaborative Learning 2020
Country/Region [ Taiwan ]School[ Wen Ya Elementary School ] Teacher [ Ruth Hou ] Grade ( 5 ) Member ( 50 )JP School [ Kuzumaki Elementary School ] Teacher [ Mikako Saito ]# Subjects, Activities and Hours of the lessons
SubjectConception of the lesson*surfing on the Internet for any related references
ICT*creating the PowerPoint for group reports during the Skype

Hours4Science*the definition of affordable and clean energy*the practice of sustainable energy in the world*the life and death of land animals in our community

3Health*the cause and effect of COVID-19*the issue of personal/group hygiene

1EnglishArt
IntegrativeActivities*English key words about symptoms of COVID-19, sustainable energy and land
animals in the community* short English passages for Skype talk*creating drafts in groups*a list of all good elements on the draft/mural*drawing and painting*scheduled Skype talk*appreciation and reflection on AICL project in class4124# Theme and Message of the mural
Theme

Let’s Save the EarthMessage

Human beings play important roles in the world. So does everything on the earth. To keepthe world moving as safely as usual, let’s take more actions to protect the earth.

United thoughts toshare with the world# Effects and Problems
Effects your students have gained
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, all the Wen Ya
students witnessed the importance of personal
hygiene. We seriously followed the instructions andregulations of the government so that our daily lives
can go on as usual. The students are sure that they
have taken the correct actions to help the world.
In addition, the shortage of water and energy caused
a lot of debate in Taiwan, which inspired the students
to make a deeper research to investigate the pros
and cons of energy issues.

Points for further improvement
The elements of local culture impressed thestudents in both Taiwan and Japan. However, thelimited English ability hinders the fluent
communication during the monthly Skype talk. The
homeroom teachers and English teachers have madethe plan to implement some culture issues into theEnglish class. Hopefully, the quality of cross culturecommunity can be better next year.

# How has your impression toward your partner’s country/region and the world changed?
Changes in the students
Changes in the teachers
The students always took turns to give a short talk It was said that Japanese people were very picky andduring the Skype. They were encouraged to use hard to please. However, we found the stereotype
English, the difficult foreign language to share their might not be true because our Japanese partner
ideas in public. They were brave enough to conquer teachers were very friendly and cooperative. Thethe possible challenges.
homeroom teachers, who joined Wen Ya in August2020 found the Artmile project inspiring, innovativeand creative to cultivate the global citizens in thefuture.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthMEET
Selfintroduction

SHARE
Research onthe theme

Sep.

Oct.

What you did
We worked on a group work
to create a campus video tointroduce the 10 mostbeautiful corners at Wen Ya
to our partners.

Your students’ attitude/reflection
Subject
Our students found it interesting andchallenging to make a campus video tointroduce the 10 most beautiful corners
at Wen Ya. They were so highly
motivated that they kept on practicing
and practicing during the nap time. They
We wrote the individual thewanted to present the best parts ofself-introduction sheets toWen Ya in the most understandable
Englishsay hello to our partners and English.
mailed them to our partners. The self-introduction sheets included
ICTvery basic background information
about the students at Wen Ya ES. Moststudents finished it with the help of
English teachers. They were excited tomake friends with the studentsin
Kuzumaki ES this year.

Teachers of science andhealth presented different
reading material tointroduce the land animals
around Wen Ya E.S. andCOVID-19. The students
took their time researchingon the two themes.
We planned to share theresearch results with ourJapanese partners during
the Skype talk later.

With the guidance of teachers in
different subjects, the students found
the features of special land animals
around Wen Ya Community. They also
understood the necessity of renewableenergy in Taiwan.
They were so proud that they’d foundsomething that their parents did notknow. The research stage helped themto get closer to appreciate the thebeauty of local issues. In the meantime,they were encouraged to keep taking
the correct actions to protect theearth.

Sciencehealth
ICT
IntegrativeActivities

EnglishUNITE
Message ofNov.

united thoughts

CREATE
Mural painting

APPRECIATE
Reflection/Appreciation

Dec.
Jan.

Feb.
Mar.

Students took a look at theWen Ya Artmile handbook tohave a quick view of what’s
supposed to present on themural. Then, they createdtheir own drafts andexplained their ideas to ourpartners during the Skype
meeting.

Students were interested in creating
their own drafts. However, with thereference from the Wen Ya Artmile
Handbook, their creativity seems to belimited. By watching the draft design of
the Japanese partners during theSkype, they learned to see morecreative possibilities.

Our students formed into
groups and attending thepainting meeting during theirwinter vacation. The
so-called Art Directors
drew the outline first andasked the rest of thestudents to paint on themural. They collaborated
with one another andfinished the painting work in
4 days.

The painting for this year wascomparatively easy because there werelots of big images and color blocks on
the mural. Namely, we need not focus
on the very detailed parts. Audience
could read the mural from a broader
perspective.

We read the completedmural in class with the hopethat we could share somesuggestions with ourpartners during the Skype.
We also took a group photowith our principal, chairladyof PTA and teachers before
we sent the mural back toJapan.

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 not hard.
What’s better, painting helps deliver themessage of saving the earth from theyounger generation.

ArtICT
EnglishArt

IntegrativeActivities
English

# 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

Critical thinking(objective, logical views)

Active learningand action

Collaborating withdifferent people

Expressing in words,
in shape

Evaluation

434

54

Scenes and reasons that teachers felt the effects
Japan is a popular country in our mind so we have had good impression
toward this country before we started the partnership with the Artmile
partner school. We were very surprised to know that the big snow in
Kuzumaki E.S. did not stop the studnets from going to school. On thecontrary, Japanese students were encouraged to play with the snow ifthey were qell-equipped. They were we—trained people and they
expected the kids to take challenges under safe circumstances. That’s
impressive, too.
Critical thinking is a big issue in Taiwanese elementary school system
and it is hard to see the result in a short time.
We have called the students’ attention to COVID-19, renewableenergy and land animals through the Artmile project this year. We weresure the students have gained something different from the discussion
and research results. However, we were not sure if the habit of criticalthinking grew stably in their minds. It surely takes time and more efforts
to make critical thinking possible for elementary school students.
Thanks to the careful guidance from the teachers, the students spent
their time researching on the topics about COVID 19, renewable energy
and important land animals in the community. The more they knew
about the themes, the better awareness they would have to take better
actions to tackle the challenge.
The fifth graders this year are easy going and gentle. They love to follow
the suggestions from the peers and teachers. They are also generous
enough to accept any positive or negative comments. Therefore, theteachers believe they have good abilities to collaborate with different
people. They also had a good time working with the Artmile partners inJapan this year.
Most of the students from Wen Ya E.S. and Kuzumaki E.S. had limited
English to express themselves freely. However, with the great efforts paid
beforehand, the students in both schools were fully encouraged to try theirbest and they did a good job during the monthly Skype talk. If possible, theteachers had better send the scripts to each other so that the messages
could be discussed in depth.