OMG! We did it. Of
all the candidates, only six received the award and won a one hundred thousand
TWD grant from the British Council Taiwan and Education Bureau of Taichung City
Government. All the sweat and tears going into this Skype Exchange Project
finally paid off.
Under the
framework of Identity and Belonging, we developed an action plan in the hope to
create an authentic environment for the students not only to use the language
but experience cultural differences. I cannot thank Akiko Kubo enough for her
determination and dedication to this project.
Most important of
all, I believe we offered our students something that no textbooks or cram
schools could ever provide. For my students' feedback like: "This is by
far the most successful cultural exchange I've experienced from this class. I
didn't read my script at all. Furthermore, I added more detail to my
presentation.", I'm really proud of ourselves.
With this project,
my students got to experience what it was like to talk about school life,
music, Taiwanese celebrities, the beauty of Taichung with their counterparts in
Tokyo through international video conferencing. On top of that, student volunteers from Malaysia, Australia,
and Holland came to my class and had some cultural exchange with my students'
presentations in English.
A lot of things
can go wrong when carrying out an ISA project like this. Careful planning and taking
risks is an integral part of making it happen. Thanks to the full support of
the principal and staff of KMJH, I got to fulfill this dream of mine, making
English a key to the world.
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