Long-distance learning bond
11/30/2016
During just 10 days this summer, two groups of students from opposite sides of the earth learned more about each other’s cultures while studying science together than they otherwise might have learned during their entire time in school.
One was a group of nine middle school and three high school students from Port Washington.
The other was 16 high-school age students from Japan who made the more than 6,000-mile trip to Wisconsin in July to study freshwater science with their peers from Port Washington at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon.
Together they learned as much about each other as they did about the largest reserve of surface freshwater in the world and, unbeknownst to them, inspired what promises to be an ongoing international relationship between the Port Washington-Saukville School District and school systems in Japan.
“Our kids were working with students from thousands of miles away and they said to me, ‘Ms. Surfus, they’re kids just like us. They listen to the same music and like the same food,’” said Chris Surfus, the district’s curriculum director. “Another culture that our kids thought was so different turned out to not be that different at all.”
The summer program laid the groundwork for a visit last month from Fukuo Seki, a school official from Niihama, Japan, to the Port-Saukville School District to further develop a fledgling relationship between the two school systems.
“One of the things we talked about was expanding the relationship between our two communities and, more importantly, our two school districts and our students,” Supt. Michael Weber said.
Already students at Thomas Jefferson Middle School are exchanging letters and emails with their peers in Niihama, and school officials are talking about an exchange program that would one day send Port students to Japan.
“I would say that we’re beyond the early stages of developing this relationship and moving forward,” Weber said.
The relationship has much to do with a handful of educators who are redefining the way students are taught with a collaborative approach to education.
More than a year ago, Uvidelio Castillo, an assistant professor of pharmaceutical science at Concordia University Wisconsin whose children attend Port-Saukville schools, approached Surfus with the idea of collaborating in ways that would give the district’s students access to the university’s resources.
The district jumped at the opportunity, which has since manifested itself in several initiatives, although none more ambitious than the summer program that brought the Port and Japanese students together.
Part science workshop, part cultural exchange, the program spanned the geographic and cultural divide between nations to give students the opportunity to work together on issues that affect both their countries by tapping into the resources of the Concordia Center for Environmental Stewardship.
“The big lesson was the importance of collaboration between cultures,” said Kelly Evenson, the Thomas Jefferson Middle School teacher who spearheaded the summer program. “Even though our cultures are different, we can learn from each other and together about the planet we share and the challenges facing all of us.
“They’re no different than us in terms of concerns about the environment, and since we’re studying the same things, it made sense to do it together.”
When not taking and analyzing water samples and working on other experiments, the Port students were busy introducing their counterparts from Japan to life in Wisconsin. The gregarious Port students were a perfect match for their reserved peers from Japan, Evenson said.
“Japanese students tend to be very shy, so it helped them being with our students, who tend to be a little more vocal,” she said.
“The bonds that were created were incredible. There was a lot of discussion among the students about music, what they read, their schools and families and what they do in their free time.
“There were a lot of tears shed when they had to say goodbye.”
To ensure the students remained in contact, Evenson suggested they exchange addresses and become pen pals. That turned out to be a pretty old-school idea.
“I found out that before I even suggested they become pen pals they were already communicating with each other on social media,” she said.
A key player in the program was Yukio Itoh, a retired Wisconsin teacher who now serves as a liaison between schools in Wisconsin and Japan. In addition to helping facilitate the Concordia program and serving as an interpreter, Itoh, a native of Niihama, is now instrumental in efforts to forge a relationship between the schools in his native city and the Port Washington-Saukville School District.
That effort, combined with additional programs at Concordia for both middle and high school students and their Japanese peers this summer, promises to expand educational opportunities for students in ways made possible by a collaborative approach to education, Evenson said.
“I think this is just the beginning of what we can accomplish together,” she said. “I’m so pleased that our school district jumped on this concept of collaboration.”
By BILL SCHANEN IV