Connecting with the World at KMJH

Promoting the school projects, virtual exchange, and sister school partnership, complete with a live video call, to raise student awareness of English competency and global citizenship

 

During the two-class long session, I shared the school's international education projects and activities with the whole 7th graders in the auditorium. The idea is to give a big picture and motivate them to participate in the upcoming dedicated course, even signing up for the Korean sister school visit next year.

 

International School Award

 

There is no way you'll miss the shiny ISA plaques all around the campus. However, most 7th graders, some colleagues included, knew little about what it was and how we won the award TWICE. 

 

I explained the very demanding selection process and judging rubrics, including how we faced harsh criticism from a judge and managed to implement feasible solutions.

 

Most important of all, as the only award winner among all middle schools, we turned the eight action plans into a school-based curriculum and benefited the majority of the students last year, with the whole 8th graders joining in online exchange sessions during school closures.

 

Virtual Exchange

 

Thanks to Jessica's generous help again, I got to provide a more hands-on experience for the 7th graders to experience what it'd be like to use English and make friends outside of Taiwan via a live video call. To make it more interactive, we came up with activities like:

l  guess which country she is from with Y/N questions

l  guess her ethnicity with a simple self-introduction through 4 languages

l  her impression of KMJH after three school visits

l  ask her any questions

 

It's easy to set up the gear for a virtual exchange, but do students know what to say to their Japanese or Korean counterparts in front of the webcam? Of course not. That's when lesson planning will come in handy.

 

With a structured framework of guided writing, students only have to answer each question with two or three answers and then complete their scripts of introducing the beauty of their hometown:

ü  History

ü  Location

ü  What do you see?

ü  What can you do?

ü  How does it make you feel?

ü  Why do you want to recommend this place?

 

Sister School Partnership

 

When this whole pandemic thing is over (That'll be the day?), we will resume school visits to the Korean sister school in Daegu, Korea. Until then, these 7th graders need to have a big picture of the selection process, screening criteria, and most important all, what they'll be experiencing and having fun with when we visit our sister school.

 

I showed some of the highlights back in 2019 when both Taiwanese and Korean students worked together and completed a variety of fun tasks in English, such as the homemade escape room, school news reports, and making bubble milk tea from scratch.

 

What inspired me the most was seeing them dance to a pop song with significant Taiwanese aboriginal elements. Students from both schools were then chatting so casually that I thought to myself, "This is all worth it."

 

I took great pride in making all these happen and involving so many students in KMJH. On top of that, I've got more and more help from the Academic Office and other driven teachers. I will be doing what I love to do with all kinds of government-funded projects related to international education and cross-curricular collaborations that help create more authentic opportunities for students to feel the need and excitement of USING English.