REPORT Artmile International Collaborative Learning 2019
Country/Region [ Romania ]School[ Liceul de Arte Plastice Timișoara ] Teacher [ Anca Gyemant] Grade ( 5, 6, 7, 9) Members ( 46 )JP school [ Ritsumeikan Moriyama Junior & Senior High School ］ Teacher ［ Megumi Kikuchi ］# Subjects, Activities and Hours of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson
Visual Arts

Discussions, documentation, sharing of knowledge, drawing and painting,

Hours
35

# Theme and Message of the mural
Theme

Love our nature, love our Earth, love ourselves!

MessageThe message on our mural is “Love our nature, love our Earth, love ourselves!” We
developed with the students a work whose theme concerns our important connection as aspecies with all the other living organisms on Earth. The themes that we explored in thework included: climate change, the loss of biodiversity, pollution and also the love that weshare for nature in both our countries.

United thoughts toshare with the world

# Effects and Problems
Effects your students have gained
The students gained knowledge about the climate
emergency we are facing today. They practiced
researching the topic, discussing it, sharing
information in our internal whatsapp group and on theforum , transforming what they have learned in visual
images, working as a team.

Points for further improvement
What would necessitate an improvement would be
the rendering of an even more clear message
about the fact that the present paradigm of global
capitalism, that sees profit more important thanlife, should be changed. That the future of life on
Earth depends on changing this paradigm.

# How has your impression toward your partner’s country/region and the world changed?
Changes in the students
Changes in the teachers
The students are very interested in the Japanese The most important conclusion of the project
culture and it was good for them to have a more consisted in the renewed knowledge that no matter
personal connection through the messages they how different our contexts and cultures are, we arehave exchanged with their Japanese colleagues. sharing the same global condition:: the essential
Also, during the entire project, the students threat that global capitalism poses to the life on
researched about the climate emergency, a condition Earth and the importance of education of the futurethat it is common to us all, on the entire planet.
generations in challenging this threat.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthMEET
Selfintroduction

SHARE
Research onthe theme

UNITE
Message ofunited thoughts

JuneOct.

Sept.
Oct.

Oct.

What you did
The students wrote a few
things about themselves andattached some drawings andphotos. In October we met
on Skype.
We had discussions andresearch on the topic ofclimate emergency. The kids
researched what are theendangered species in ourcountry.
Our partners proposed themessage of our mural and wevery happily agreed to it.

Your students attitude/reflectionMy students were really happy to see thephotos, drawings and text of their
Japanese colleagues. Also, they werevery excited for the Skype meeting.
This topic is important for us and ourstudents were really involved in thediscussions. In the time of our research,some of the kids participated also in the
Fridays for Future activities and protests
too and they discussed and drew about
the urgent and critical times that we areliving today.
We discussed the meanings of themessage and we concluded that it is very
important to think of our species as anintegral part of nature. We discussed
about speciesism and the importance ofa change in the paradigm that sees Man
as the master of nature instead of seeing
humanity as part of nature itself.

Subject
VisualArt

VisualArt

VisualArt

CREATE
Mural paintingJan.

We have received the mural
painted by our partners andwe painted the other half ofit.

We looked at the finishedmural and had a discussion.
APPRECIATE
Reflection/
Appreciation

Feb.

The kids were very happy to open thepackage and see the painting that their
Japanese colleagues did. We prepared
for the mural by researching what arethe endangered species in our country
and also which animals would be themost representative for our area.
We concluded that what we like most in
the mural is the fact that in both halvesof it, it is made clear that humans are
intrinsically part of nature, that we areconnected to all the other species on
Earth and we need to constantly
remember the importance of thisconnection in these times when thefuture of life on our planet is in danger.

VisualArt

VisualArt# 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

Scenes / points teachers felt the effects

Understanding yourown cultures

5

Understanding yourpartner's cultures

5

The project was a good opportunity to discuss about the ecologicalchallenges that our country faces: deforestation, pollution, livestock
farming, etc.
Getting in touch with our Japan partners was a good occasion to see
how we are sharing the same global challenges.

5

The project involved a lot of research for the students and a lot of
discussing of the topic of endangered species, in Romania and globally.

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)

555

5

5

Appreciation ability(the mural, the wholecollaborative learning)5

We set up an whatsapp group where the Romanian students could
exchange the information they have found. Also we had face to facemeetings to discuss. All of these were a good occasion to practiceinformation dissemination abilities.
We discussed deeply about the causes of the climate emergency. We
learned and practiced how to see the connections between facts thatseem unrelated, but that are actually the result of the same global
condition- the exploitation of nature and of the majority of humans forthe benefit of the few.
The entire project was an active learning experience. Hopefully, thestudents learned that art can be a form of activism and that in the future
they would develop further their abilities in this sense
The students learned a lot about collaborative work in this project, about
taking decisions together, about sharing responsibilities, aboutcommunicating the results of their work.
The students were very interested in painting collaboratively the large
surface of the mural. It was very interesting for them to see the work of
the Japanese students and to create a visual dialogue in the ways theycontinued the mural.
In discussing the final results, the students expressed enthusiasticallytheir opinions about the entire experience of the project as a very
positive learning situation.