Betse sent the following note and many, many pictures. Since we can only add one photo at a time, this will take a few posts. [and strangely - the photos Betse sent aren't going up - we'll have to work around this problem] Please check out her comments below.

I thought her idea of discussing the trip at a Back to School Night was excellent. Please share other ways of taking the experience beyond your own classes.

***********
As a 7th grade teacher I have many opportunities to teach about China and Japan and after the NCTA trip to China and Japan in the Summer of
2008 I was able to incorporate many of my experiences. At Back to School Night and at Open Houses I have a power point presentation which accompanies my unit and lesson plans on the transmission of Buddhism and music on the Silk Road. Students and parents are excited to see Ms. Jelenic and myself in front of sites that relate to something that they study about. A popular assignment which tied directly into our trip to Xian is the Wu Chao (Wu Zetian) Wanted posters and Commemorative plaques. Photos are attached of some student work.

Students ask many questions about political and economic reasons why Buddhism was able to become so popular in during the Tang Dynasty. Also attached are photos of some examples of the sh ort essays regarding the spread of Buddhism in China. My experiences in China added to my student's understanding of cultural diffusion and exchange. We could relate this to current cultural diffusion and exchange as well.

Our librarian, Mrs. Iijima is familiar with many aspects of Japan such as origami and the food. I invited her in as a guest speaker and she introduced students to Japanese snacks and had them create an origami Samurai hat. Prior to my experience in Japan this would have just been a "show and tell" of culture. What I experienced in Japan is that the process is as important as the result and I encouraged my students to take a slow meditative approach to this experience. This helped them to appreciate the legacy of the Japanese approach to life and was transformative.

Before the last parent conferences in March, the history department was asked to showcase one of our standards, so I volunteered to use many of the artifacts I collected on my trip to Japan and created a Heian-kyo display case. As you walk into the lobby at Fleming the first thing you see is Kyoto come to life during the Heian period. My students developed diaries of their lives as noblemen and noblewomen in Heian and also wrote Tanka poems. Even my ESL students were able to capture the mood of the courtly life. To augment this expe rience I showed students portions of "Tale of Genji" (the PG parts! and used the History Alive lesson plan ideas to support their efforts. March was also Women's History month and Lady Murasaki came to life in this display of fabric, pictures, writing and artifacts. I even snuck in my woodblock print of the Shinto shrine some of us did. My students are receiving a much richer connection to East Asia because of my experience and I expect the study tour to have a residual effect for years to come. Let me know if you have any questions.

Get the scoop on the live music scene in your area and hit a show tonight. Check out TourTracker.com!