Heart, Head, Hands
in the Realm of Family, Community, and Work
Keizai Koho
Fellowship Proposal
January 31, 2012
Proposal
At Goshen Middle
School
In
7th grade social studies, we focus on the eastern hemisphere and,
with the implementation of TAP, there has been a large shift in the way that we
teach our students. Teachers now have
clear objectives for each lesson and we are responsible for making real life,
relevant connections between our content and our students’ lives. In my classroom, students have been answering
the following two questions for every unit, “Why do I need to know this?” and
“How does it affect me?”
The
focus of my proposal would be to educate students, colleagues and people of the
community about the ways of family life (heart), education and community (head)
and the work industry (hands) in Japan . I would split the lesson
into these three parts. I would
challenge people to compare and contrast the differences in culture, food,
education, business, and economic growth between these two areas of the world.
Heart
The
focus of this portion would be to collect information from observations /
interactions with people and families. I would reflect on the values of family
life in Japan .
I would seek out the answers to questions such as, how are family structures
similar to families in the USA
and the family lives my students? How is
family life different in Japan
than it is here? Is there more value placed on the family? Are families tight knit and supportive? What
is the divorce rate in Japan ? If it is low, why is this case? How is
religion incorporated into family life? I would then reflect on the ultimate
question: “What can we learn from the people of Japan to strengthen our own family
bonds?” This would be developed into a
lesson where students would predict, analyze and reflect on the differences and
similarities. At GMS, we have an almost
50% Hispanic population. This would be a
very interesting lesson to complete with
such mixed diversity in the classroom.
Head
In
the states, our focus in public education is to make students productive
members of the community. These two
topics: education and community, go hand in hand. I would like to learn first hand about the
educational styles and structures of Japan . The thought of going to a
school in Japan
to see this in-the-flesh gives me goose bumps.
I would seek answers to questions such as: What are the educational
philosophies for elementary and secondary schooling? How much emphasis is focused on Language Arts
and math? What is the overall graduation rate?
What professions do these students go into after they graduate from
school?
The
concept of community would involve what these students are doing outside of the
school setting. I would want to see the
communities in action and get a feel for what people do for entertainment: from
Tokyo’s Disneyland, to baseball, to local gaming centers, and what they do to
help one another in the communities. Are
there outreach groups and support groups to help those less fortunate? How are
these agencies run and are they effective?
I
would have students compare and contrast their educations and communities to
those of Japan . Students would reflect on the similarities
and differences as well as understand why it is important to understand these
contrasts. Students would be asked to explain how we can learn from each other.
Hand
In
the United States , when a
teenager is asked about Japan ,
they instantly connect to Anime, technology and video games. Students here understand that Japan is a
technologically advanced country and many students desire to travel there some
day. I would want to find out what jobs
are available for people when they are out of school, from the New Tokyo
Airport Elkhart County Japan
and relate it to business and economics in the USA . I would create the third part of the lesson
(Hands) to help students understand more about industrialization, globalization
and economics.
Dissemination
of Information
Below are the contacts and correspondence for disseminating
information to the community.
No comments:
Post a Comment