REPORT Artmile International Collaborative Learning 2021
Country/Region [ India ]School[ Suncity School ] Teacher [ Kalyani Voleti ] Grade ( 5-7 ) Member ( 25 )JP School [ Anjo Chubu Elementary School, 6-2 ] Teacher [ Akihisa Nimura ]# Subjects, Activities and Hours of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson
EnglishHours

Introduction of self, school, city, country

3

Research on river Yamuna, its pollution, solutions to combat pollution

4

Scientific reasons for pollution, scientific solutions,

5

ICT

PPTs, videos on Introduction, our culture, SDGs in focus

4

Art

Practice of drawing the chosen elements, painting

15

Social Studies
Science# Theme and Message of the mural
Theme

Sustainable solutions to protect our water bodies
The combined message of Suncity School and Anjo Chubu Elementary School, to theworld:‘Connect to the future, our planet and our smiles.’Message
United thoughts toshare with the world

Dear World,
We share our heartfelt wish for the future of our beautiful planet with our friends fromacross the world.
We pledge to act responsibly as citizens of our planet.
No action is too small to save our Mother Earth.
We pledge to protect Mother Earth’s resources and make her healthy.

# Effects and Problems
Effects your students have gainedStudents’ eyes were opened to the reality of severe
water pollution in the river Yamuna. They shared andlearnt from their Japanese friends, a very big lesson, that
it is the responsibility of each individual to send the riverin the same clean state it arrived in their city, on its
journey to the sea.
They researched solutions, action plans to follow andpledged to raise awareness.

Points for further improvement
Improvement needs to happen in thinking about ouractions, changing our actions for the better. The
learning from this project should be carried forwardwith corrective action, stopping practices that cause
the problem.

# How has your impression toward your partner’s country/region and the world changed?
Changes in the students
Changes in the teachers
Students are amazed at the seriousness with which
every person practices cleanliness in Japan. They are
more mindful in their actions now. They are practicing
recycling, reusing mindfully. They have used technology
to their advantage, even while they were in online
schooling, by making awareness videos, encouraging
their school community to join them to make posters to
spread awareness about water pollution. They posted
these videos in all the grade Teams and got good
response from the students.
Students became confident, learnt the skills of research,
critical thinking and problem solving. They are developinga global perspective and are understanding the bigger
picture, the wider ramifications of local actions.

# Flow of the Activity
Content
Month

MEET
Selfintroduction

SHARE
Research on
the theme

Jul.

Aug.

We established a very robust communication channel
on MS Teams with our students and communication
was very smooth between us. All students met thedeadlines, took active interest and even gave smart
suggestions to us teachers.
We took advantage of the online communication andinvited Water Warrior, environment activist, Kalpana
Ramesh, to address our students about the serious
water pollution problem and what actions are possible
to reduce the problem. We were very inspired by her
passion and commitment. We realized that we could
achieve a lot, even under difficult circumstances.

What you did
Introduction with cards, ppts
on school, city, country,
showcase of traditional
dresses, food, traditions,
festivals and more.

Your students’ attitude/reflection
They were very excited to showcase
their culture. Were very eager to learn
about Japanese culture. They shared
their love for anime, origami, etc... with
their partners in the video conference.
They loved the Rock paper scissors
game taught by their friends.

Research on the river
Yamuna, causes of severe
pollution, thinking of solutions,finding out what individuals,
government are doing to
reduce the pollution. We
interviewed an environment
activist, a water warrior who
showed us the grim picture
and our responsibility.
We also observed Hiroshima
Day and learnt and folded theorigami crane from ourpartners who sent a tutorial
for us.

Students were shocked to learn that the
Yamuna river is called the Dead river.
They seriously began to introspect what
they should do, at their level, as a
responsible citizen. They started aschool wide campaign to spreadawareness about water pollution andsolutions. They researched solutions
that were being implemented at
individual, community and government
level.
Students wrote peace messages on
paper cranes they folded.

Subject
English,SocialStudies,
ICT

SocialStudies,
ScienceContent

UNITE
Message of

Month

Oct.

united thoughts

CREATE
Mural painting

APPRECIATE
Reflection/
Appreciation

Feb.

Mar.

What you did
Showedstudents
theseriousness and diligencewith which Japan practices
cleanliness, 3Rs in videos.
Students were encouraged
to record awareness videos
which they circulated to all
the classes from grade 5 to10.
We shared all the problems
and solutions with ourpartner school.
Discussions on the forum
and video conference on theelements to draw, based on
theirresearchanddiscussions
with
their
Japanese friends. Students
were asked to visualize what
their water bodies shouldlook like, what they need to
do for making it happen. Also
elements of Indian culture,
heritage were added to thediscussion.
Students recorded videos of
their experience in thiscollaboration.

Your students’ attitude/reflection
Students were inspired by their partner
school’s information about Japan, theirreasons for keeping water bodies clean,
and felt motivated to do their bit for
their river. We collected posters fromother grades, wrote pledges, spread theword and followed the simple solutions
that were possible even during the
lockdown and online learning space.
Both groups decided on a combined
message for the world.
The dolphins the two groups researchedbecame the centerpiece of the mural,
which was a beautiful way to connect
the two sides into one continuous
picture. Both groups contributed very
good ideas to develop the combined
visual. While our partners painted theirside, we decided on the layout of ourside. We added our National symbols,
folk elements and the intentions wepledged to practice.

We have uploaded their videos on theforum.

Subject

SocialStudies,
Science,
ICT

English,SocialStudies,
ICT,
Art

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 effectEvaluation

Scenes and reasons that teachers felt the effects
Very productive exchange of culture, traditions of our two countries.
Our students learnt about Tanabata festival and wrote messages on
paper strips. Our Japanese friends made a tutorial of origami paper
crane and we made paper cranes to commemorate Hiroshima Day. Our
students taught Namaste to our Japanese friends, among other things.

Cross-cultural
understanding5

Expected effectEvaluation

Scenes and reasons that teachers felt the effects
The most profound learning was that it is the responsibility of eachindividual to send the river in the same clean state it arrived in theircity, on its journey to the sea. With this aim in mind, research andsolution finding was adopted. We invited Water Warrior Kalpana Ramesh
to talk to us about what we can do at our individual level, to at least
reduce the problem.

Critical thinking(objective, logical views)

5With this goal, even in challenging times when we were restricted to ourhomes, we could take action, at least to raise the alarm with strong
awareness campaigns. We used the digital media to our advantage,circulating posters, videos, facts and also solutions which we could
implement. Students took pledges to be the change.

Active learningand action

5

Interaction with our partners, who faced challenges of language, taught
our students empathy, understanding and they learnt to speak slowly,
in simple English. Also they quickly overcame this by forming small
groups where they exchanged letters and interesting information about
themselves, their interests, their culture etc. They became friends andenjoyed learning about each other’s cultures. During the Covid waves
that hit the two countries, they sent messages of concern and wellbeing, prayed for their good health.

Collaborating withdifferent people

5Expected effectEvaluation

Scenes and reasons that teachers felt the effects
Students’ confidence in speaking, presenting, ideating, drawing, painting
was seen. The research and vision for a better future for our water
bodies was meaningfully translated into a picture in the mural.
Our Japanese friends sent garlands of 1000 paper cranes for our good
health in the most critical time when our country was battling very highCovid cases. It was the most heartwarming gesture that truly touched
our hearts.

Expressing in words,
in shape

5

The message of ‘Connect to the future, our planet and our smiles’ istestament to the success of this meaningful collaboration.