On the town with Japanese friends!

Wrap up sessions in the morning, then Americans were catching flights back home. Yours truly's flight was scheduled for the red eye to Boston, departing at 10PM--a bonus day to do something in San Francisco! Though we've had great sessions on ESD, we've been cooped up at the airport Hilton, with NO time to go out for exploration. Ahh, but today, I was able to join our Japanese counterparts on their tour of SF! The lone American teacher, with a bus full of foreigners. (Can you picture it?)


Do I stand out like a sore thumb?

It was a blast! I played photographer for my Asian friends, sometimes with 15-20 cameras lined up in front of me! I had been to SF in '89, '90, and '92, when I worked in summer programs for Lawrence Berkeley Labs, so it was neat seeing the changes.

Alcatraz

Golden Gate Bridge

Fishermans Wharf, home to Pier 39, Ghirardelli Square and the famous resident harbor seals. Crowds, trinket shops, chilly breezes off the harbor, street performers, t-shirt shops, food vendors and seafood restaurants, make up this tourist mecca.

Friends went crazy with the Ghirardelli chocolate!

AT&T Park, home to the Giant's Baseball Team


Finally departed SF on a DELAYED red (now double red) eye, slept ALL the way, got into Boston just in time to miss my flight to Presque Isle, and finally got to Madawaska at 6PM Thursday.

It's been an AMAZING fast four days!

Can't wait for June 20--back to SF for two days of orientation to Japan, then Tokyo on June 22. ESD programs in Japan, homestay, playing tourist, then joint meeting #2 with the Japanese counterparts. Back home to Madawaska July 6. Will post as often as I can!

Tuesday Night

We had excellent presentations today and many opportunities to hear about what some American and Japanese schools are doing in the area of ESD. While ESD curricula does not "officially" exist in many American schools due to its decentralized structure, many American teachers are nonetheless teaching ESD-related curricula.

In Japan, because of their centralized system of education, ESD is embedded within their curriculum and therefore seems to be very well developed throughout the country.

Professor Gregory Smith of Lewis and Clark College spoke about Place- and Community-based Education and Sustainability Education. Place- and community-based education is "a holistic approach to education, conservation, and community development that uses the local community as an integrating context for learning at all ages. It fosters vibrant partnerships between schools and communities both to boost student achievement and to improve community health and vitality—-it involves all aspects: environmental, social, and economic..."

The definition of sustainability may be different for many people, but Professor Smith summarized succinctly what it means to him:

1. don’t eat your seed corn or turn your forests into deserts
2. don’t pump your sewage into your drinking water
3. don’t let some people have so much that others are unable to live secure and meaningful lives.

Dr. Dilafruz Williams from Portland State University, then spoke on Food, Culture and Academics in Learning Gardens: Sustainability Education. In summary, she spoke of the "disconnect" that children and adults have from their food. Seasons and place have become irrelevant because we can buy food whenever we desire, wherever we are. Mangoes, strawberries, citrus, and pineapples are all available at any time of the year… many are clueless about where food comes from, who labored, plowed, and harvested our food? Was it a large agricultural firm that hires immigrants, or a poor, small farmer, fending off buy-outs and trying to protect his 4th generation farm while trying to make ends meet to feed his family? Are the seeds genetically modified? Is the chicken served in the cafeteria prepared by people who spend hours on end at minimum wage, deboning chicken in factories? Is the premier lobster in Western luxury meals coming from another part of the world whose fisheries have crashed due to over-harvesting? What is the cost of food production, not just in financial terms? Chronic hunger? What are the impacts on children and their development? Undernutrition causes almost half of all children deaths. Hunger primarily results from poverty. Without school breakfasts and lunches, many children would not eat. Are we providing the right nutrition? Health problems: obesity, diabetes (1:2 children)...

We all need food.

Dr. Williams then presented examples of school-community relationships built around learning gardens.

The three panel discussions today were presented by American and Japanese teachers and provided many concrete examples about projects related to the environment, food & nutrition, and energy & resources. There are a lot of great ESD projects growing all over the place and many human resources to tap into for help on how to implement ESD curricula into our educational systems.

Late afternoon:


(Right) Though I didn't realize it at the time, on the bus ride to the General Consul's Residence, I sat beside and had a great discussion with Senior Specialist for Personnel Exchange, International Affairs Division, Japanese Ministry of Education, Mr. Hiroaki Motomura . A well-traveled man, Mr. Motomura told me of his 2-month sojourn traveling throughout the U.S., alone and by bus, while a college student. This is Mr. Motomura, speaking at the General Consul's Residence.





(Left) The Consul General and his wife were gracious hosts. Teachers had a great time at their beautiful residence, sitting atop a hill in down town San Francisco and looking out over the Bay and Golden Gate Bridge. Photo: Consul General Mr. Yasumasa Nagamine and Mrs. Nagamine, speaking with Mr. Samuel M. Shephard, former director of Fulbright Japan.



Maki zushi (rolled sushi), ginger (white in the middle), skewered pork, and nigiri zushi (red item on the right. This is another type of sushi that is not rolled, but is served on a small pile of rice.)

Tuesday's Plans

It's a beautiful sunny day in SF, just like yesterday. We spent over 12 hours sitting in a conference room Monday. Today, I'm taking my breaks outside!

Professor Gregory Smith from Lewis & Clark College is our first guest this morning, followed by a panel discussion on the environment. This afternoon, we'll have a presentation by Professor Dilafruz Williams of Portland State University, and the second panel discussion of the day on food and nutrition (of course all related to ESD). A third panel discussion will wrap up the afternoon's activities: energy and resources.

We leave the hotel (late afternoon) for a reception at the Residence of the Consul General of Japan in downtown San Francisco. This is a formal dinner and meeting with Mr. Yasumasa Nagamine and Mrs. Nagamine. Neat! I hope to have pics to post later tonight, but if it's anything like visiting the embassy in Costa Rica in April 2009, we had to walk through metal detectors and were told to leave the cameras behind. (Although, there was an "official" photographer.)

It's going to be a good, good day!

Mr. Vanier and I have communicated concerning my students not being able to leave comments on my blog from school. It worked last year, but apparently, things have changed a bit at blogger.com--the comments widget is blocked (students, you know the deal with BESS!). Mr. Vanier has offered an alternative, which I have not had time to try out. I'll keep you posted if and when there is an alternative. In the meantime, you can reach me via email, and I can post the comments manually temporarily. Thanks! I enjoy the comments. GTG

Video Summary of Day One

I'm a novice with creating movie clips, but here's a summary of Monday's seminar, 3 minutes long. NOTE: the quality is decreased to minimize the file size for web streaming.

Monday, lunch time

It's been a great morning!  I've got about 15 min. left of lunch, so I'll be brief and be more detailed later tonight.

There are 47 Japanese teachers and 48 American teachers.  First impression:  communication is going well, even if most Americans don't know the Japanese language.  Thankfully, many Japanese teachers seem to understand and speak some, or even a lot of, English.  There are two official translators and we are using small ear units to hear the translation.  I'll download pics of this later tonight.

We took part in a really neat simulation called "Catch Game", an activity that can be used to explore individual and collective management of a “common pool” for a particular renewable resource (such as oil, water, food, etc.).  The resource we played for our game was fish, and the two goals were 1) catch as many fish as possible, AND 2) leave as many fish in the ocean as possible.  Yes, those seem to be opposing goals.  More later on this.

Next, we'll be learning about education systems in Japan.

I've met teachers from all over the states.  If only I were better with names! A few of us are trying to get a group together to head to the Pier in SF tonight.

Students:  I hope all is well at school.  I've received a few emails that it's been difficult to leave comments on my blog.  I don't think this is a MAC problem--I just sent a test from my MAC and it was successful.  When you write a comment, it asks to select a profile, to which you should select "anonymous", then it will have you type a provided code to prevent SPAM.  Keep trying!  I do want your messages.  Thanks.

Arrived in San Francisco!

What a hot day.  The weather in PI was beautiful, near 80 and muggy when I left at 2pm.  Boston was also hot and muggy.  The flight from Boston was delayed for "a small leak in one of the left engines."  Great!  This delayed us by one hour because we lost our place in the queue. 

They're housing us at the San Francisco Airport Hilton for the next 4 days.  All of the workshops will be on sight, ending around 8-9PM each night.  On Wednesday, the program ends in the morning and from what I understand, most teachers, except the Japanese who will tour the area for a few days, will be flying back to their home states.  My flight departs at 10PM Wednesday, so I'll have a "bonus" day.

On tap for Monday:  1) joint meeting with Japanese teachers, introductions, etc.,  2) ESD Workshop,  3) Differences in Japan and U.S. Education Systems, 4) Panel discussion on curriculum development, 5) debriefing and presentations by Japanese teachers who have been touring Portland, Minneapolis, and New Haven for the last two weeks.

Will try to post pictures of something(!) tomorrow.  Not much to write up yet.  Time for bed:  almost 1AM here, but it's 4AM by my Maine body clock!

Packing and almost ready to go!

Leaving Sunday, May 2, flying out of Presque Isle, ME to Boston, then onto a direct flight to San Francisco, CA, and arriving in SF at 9:45PM local time (three hours behind Madawaska, 12:45AM, Monday).  Though I submitted various airport choices to the organizers, I am grateful they selected Presque Isle so I don't have to drive to Bangor, Portland, or Quebec!  I'll be returning Thursday, departing SF late Wednesday night, flying the red-eye to Boston, and arriving in Presque Isle Thursday, around noon.

Back to packing.  Looking forward to beginning this adventure.  Wish I could bring my entire family.