Japanese Connections
The Japanese Connections Course and Study Tour has introduced students to Japanese culture through educational travel since 2001. Originally the program began with a one-year grant that teachers Mrs. Patricia Burleson and Mr. Kurt Jacobs obtained from the Freeman Foundation. Starting that year and continuing through the present time, the Freeman Foundation has been very generous in funding the program.
Mrs. Pat Burleson, along with teacher Greg Ewert, was one of the founders of Lopez Island Foreign Exchange (L.I.F.E.) in 1991, the organization which later became InSTEP. She continues to serve on the InSTEP board in an emeritus position.
Japanese Connections is affiliated with InSTEP and has a compatible goal: to support Lopez students’ international travel through a high quality, teacher-led program. InSTEP does not provide any funding for the Japan Trip, but is grateful for the opportunity to promote the program on its website and in the Lopez community.
Prior to that first year, Lopez School had established a sister-school relationship with Ieshima Island Junior High School. The Ieshima Islands are an archipelago of islands in the Inland Sea just off the city of Himeji, very similar to our San Juan Islands located just off the mainland from the city of Anacortes.
Acceptance into the program is by application, and is usually open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Successful applicants participate in after-school classes and meet several times on weekends. Grades are given for the course and study tour and are dependent upon completion of assigned projects like journal entries, research papers, and project presentations.
Students read two novel-length books and several texts and learn travel and language skills prior to travel in the spring. Our program teaches about Japanese culture and prepares students to look beneath the “cultural iceberg” when they are in Japan. When in Japan, students keep daily journals based on their observations. Upon return, they use their journal entries, reading notes, and memories to respond to reflection questions. The students’ reflections, presentations, photographs and videos are shared with the Lopez and Orcas school communities.
For the first seven years of the program, each study tour took 14 to 20 students. Now, most study tours take 8 students (4 from Lopez, 4 from Orcas) and four teachers: Mrs. Burleson (director of the program), Mr. Burleson (language and culture specialist), Mrs. Hellar (Orcas teacher), Mr. Behnke and Ms. Terada (Lopez teachers).
To date, the Japanese Connections Program has introduced Japanese culture and people to more than 160 students and 22 teachers from Anacortes, Lopez Island and Orcas Island School Districts. In addition, it has hosted more than 40 students and teachers from the island of Ieshima, our sister-island in Japan. On three separate occasions, it has helped fund study tours from Japan, hosted them on Lopez, and shown them around the state of Washington. This was the first trip outside of Japan for most of these students and teachers.
The 14-day study tour visits many of the same places each year. The highlights include:
Tokyo and surrounding areas such as Nikko
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Miyajima Island, off the coast of Hiroshima, where we stay in a traditional Japanese inn
Kyoto, with its famous temples and shrines
Nara, with Todaiji Temple, the world’s largest wooden structure
Ieshima Junior High School
Side trips and adventure days are an important aspect of the trip. There are usually two adventure days scheduled, where students visit places they have researched, and which pertain to their projects. Students are supplied with a Japan Rail Pass, which covers nearly all rail travel. Teachers carry Japanese cell phones, and can be contacted at any time. Students have explored all over Japan, from Fukuoka in the far south, to Nikko and Mashiko in the mountains north of Tokyo.
The Japanese Connections Study Tour is funded by a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation and is dependent upon those funds to continue. Thanks to their generosity, and the hard work of Mrs. Pat Burleson and the other teacher-chaperones, another four fortunate Lopez students will travel to Japan in spring of 2017.
Mrs. Pat Burleson, along with teacher Greg Ewert, was one of the founders of Lopez Island Foreign Exchange (L.I.F.E.) in 1991, the organization which later became InSTEP. She continues to serve on the InSTEP board in an emeritus position.
Japanese Connections is affiliated with InSTEP and has a compatible goal: to support Lopez students’ international travel through a high quality, teacher-led program. InSTEP does not provide any funding for the Japan Trip, but is grateful for the opportunity to promote the program on its website and in the Lopez community.
Prior to that first year, Lopez School had established a sister-school relationship with Ieshima Island Junior High School. The Ieshima Islands are an archipelago of islands in the Inland Sea just off the city of Himeji, very similar to our San Juan Islands located just off the mainland from the city of Anacortes.
Acceptance into the program is by application, and is usually open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Successful applicants participate in after-school classes and meet several times on weekends. Grades are given for the course and study tour and are dependent upon completion of assigned projects like journal entries, research papers, and project presentations.
Students read two novel-length books and several texts and learn travel and language skills prior to travel in the spring. Our program teaches about Japanese culture and prepares students to look beneath the “cultural iceberg” when they are in Japan. When in Japan, students keep daily journals based on their observations. Upon return, they use their journal entries, reading notes, and memories to respond to reflection questions. The students’ reflections, presentations, photographs and videos are shared with the Lopez and Orcas school communities.
For the first seven years of the program, each study tour took 14 to 20 students. Now, most study tours take 8 students (4 from Lopez, 4 from Orcas) and four teachers: Mrs. Burleson (director of the program), Mr. Burleson (language and culture specialist), Mrs. Hellar (Orcas teacher), Mr. Behnke and Ms. Terada (Lopez teachers).
To date, the Japanese Connections Program has introduced Japanese culture and people to more than 160 students and 22 teachers from Anacortes, Lopez Island and Orcas Island School Districts. In addition, it has hosted more than 40 students and teachers from the island of Ieshima, our sister-island in Japan. On three separate occasions, it has helped fund study tours from Japan, hosted them on Lopez, and shown them around the state of Washington. This was the first trip outside of Japan for most of these students and teachers.
The 14-day study tour visits many of the same places each year. The highlights include:
Tokyo and surrounding areas such as Nikko
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
Miyajima Island, off the coast of Hiroshima, where we stay in a traditional Japanese inn
Kyoto, with its famous temples and shrines
Nara, with Todaiji Temple, the world’s largest wooden structure
Ieshima Junior High School
Side trips and adventure days are an important aspect of the trip. There are usually two adventure days scheduled, where students visit places they have researched, and which pertain to their projects. Students are supplied with a Japan Rail Pass, which covers nearly all rail travel. Teachers carry Japanese cell phones, and can be contacted at any time. Students have explored all over Japan, from Fukuoka in the far south, to Nikko and Mashiko in the mountains north of Tokyo.
The Japanese Connections Study Tour is funded by a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation and is dependent upon those funds to continue. Thanks to their generosity, and the hard work of Mrs. Pat Burleson and the other teacher-chaperones, another four fortunate Lopez students will travel to Japan in spring of 2017.