By Ikuko Karacsony | Program Officer
The 2018-19 Global Classmates program, our virtual exchange for high school students in the U.S. and Japan, kicked-off last month and we are off to a great start! A total of 66 high schools are participating in the program, 33 in each country, with approximately 1,800 students connecting with one another. The participating schools come from 18 states in the U.S. and 18 prefectures in Japan, ranging in location from a metropolitan area like New York City to a remote area like the tiny island of Naru in Nagasaki with a population of 2,000. We are very excited to be able to offer our program to a diverse group of students.
The students have been getting to know each other through the exchange of messages, photos and videos on a variety of topics, such as school festivals, favorite music, and what kind of person they want to be in the future. We were thrilled to see that one pair of schools, East Central High School in Indiana and Ueda Nishi High School in Nagano had over 700 posts on their self-introduction topic, averaging 16 posts per student!! We can see that the students are becoming more comfortable using the exchange platform and experimenting with various ways to share information. Some students have snapped quick selfies around their school to introduce to their partner classmates. Some made sure to take a lot of pictures during their school festival so they can share the event with their friends across the ocean. Others have captured a moment from their day on video using their cell phone to share. One student took a video as he prepared udon noodles at his grandparents’ restaurant to introduce his favorite food to his partner classmates!
Although the program is part of a class or club activity, students can log into the e-classroom from anywhere, anytime, so despite the time difference, it sometimes turns into chat session. Students from Kunori Gakuen High School in Yamagata were so eager to share and chat with their new friends at Deerfield Beach High School in Florida that they even requested to have a new section to just share their daily occurrences. Some have shared a picture of a strange bug they found or a beautiful rainbow they saw, while others have wished each other happy birthdays. It has been remarkable to see the students share so many things with one another and we can’t wait to see these friendships blossom over the next four months.
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