Visiting Japan to represent California education has been an absolute honor. The Japanese people have been incredibly welcoming and gracious as a whole, but most especially the teachers, students, and faculty at the schools we visited in Tokyo. We were lucky to observe and interact at a variety of schools, both public and private. After several very full days, I found that there is a wide range of educational environments students can experience. Each school seemed to have a distinct philosophy, climate, and instructional approach, just as in the United States. We were even fortunate to meet two female principals, which our guide indicated is less common in Japan.

Another almost universal theme in Japanese schools seemed to be educating the whole child, with a "mind, body, culture" approach. While our experience included visiting a wide range of classrooms, some of which were teacher-centered and some more student-centered, all of the schools had very rich elective and club activities for students to enjoy. Most students stay at school until 7:00 or 8:00 at night, participating in clubs, sports, or studying. At Tokyo Metropolitan Itabashi-Yutoku High School, we were served formal Japanese tea ceremony from by students and a "Master of Tea," who taught us the ritual in partaking. We also observed the calligraphy program, which was absolutely incredible to watch as students created works of art. At Sakuragaoka Junior and High School, we observed a very rigorous soccer club practice and a joyful home economics classroom where students were elated to share their sewing projects. Our visit to Nerima Municipal Nakamura Nishi Elementary was a particularly joyous experience, as students ran out into the hallways to greet us and happily shouted "Hello!" To commemorate the spirit of each visit, I made an iMovie trailer in the van after we left every school. (Since I posting this from the mobile app and can't embed video, check out my YouTube Channel.)

One of the teachers from Sakuragaoka graciously allowed me to stay in her home while we were in Tokyo. Her name was Tokoyo and she has been an English teacher for ten years. We exchanged many ideas, because this was her first year being selected as an 1:1 iPad classroom teacher and that is my ed tech wheelhouse! She loved the iMovie trailers and asked me to teach her how to create them - so we did! What a fun, international tech geek moment!

As I sit here writing this blog post, we are on the Shinkansen bullet train, heading to Kyoto for several days, then traveling to Hiroshima. As a side note, my students are following my journey on Instagram, which has been really fun! Connecting with my kids from another continent feels AWESOME.

More to come...

I am not a particularly adventurous person. Sure, I packed up all my stuff ten years ago to move to California, and yes, I do love a good road trip with lots of random stops at hole-in-the-wall places, but I am mostly the kind of person who orders the same thing off the menu every time we go out to dinner. My husband, family, and even my students have my Starbucks order memorized because I've been ordering the same drink since forever.

Conversely, I would consider myself an adventurous professional. When it comes to teaching, I am fascinated by possibilities and I don't hesitate to bring new ideas into my classroom - especially if I think it's what's good for kids. Introducing 20% Time, going mostly paperless, digital storytelling - being adventurous is essential to my effectiveness as an educator. And now, I am honored to take that adventurous professional spirit abroad as the 2014 California Teachers of the Year travel to Japan!

I'll be honest. When I first found out we'd be visiting Japan, I was 98% excited and 2% scared...or maybe 2% excited and 98% scared. (Thanks for that line, Owen Wilson.) So, this immediately became my mantra:

After facilitating a week of professional development on digital storytelling for PSUSD, I hurriedly packed my bags to meet Linda Horist, Michael Hayden, and Tim Smith at LAX to catch our flight. We are grateful to the Japanese Travel Bureau for providing such an amazing opportunity to visit beautiful Japan to meet its students and teachers over the next few days.

The flight was about eleven hours, which provided ample time to catch up on new releases and practice our Japanese phrases - Konnichiwa! Genki desu ka?

Upon arrival, we cashed in Japan Railway vouchers and took a bus to the Sunshine Prince Hotel, where the view was incredible. My first impression of Tokyo is that it is remarkably clean everywhere! Walking down the street, I am actually astounded that we are in a major metropolitan area.

Today, we will visit several schools and meet our home stay families. I am very much looking forward to interacting with Japanese students!

Sayonara! Ki wo tsukete!

This past year, my students took on the largest film project ever attempted at JWMS.  Jebari, one of my 8th grade video production students, wrote a really wonderful script about a boy whose parents are getting a divorce; the boy decides to get creative and seek lost treasure in order to solve his parents’ financial woes and save their marriage. Where does one find a sunken pirate ship and lost treasure in the middle of the southern California desert? At the Salton Sea, located at the eastern end of the Coachella Valley. Based partially on local lore, Jebari cobbled his script together from various versions of the legend of the lost ship and his own creative ideas.

When Jebari came to me with his project idea, I was immediately supportive because my favorite answer to give students is, “Yes!”  I thought his idea was original and the script had the potential to make an emotional impact as well. Jebari wanted to cast the movie with AV Club students and utilize video production classmates to round out his crew. All of it - the story, the performances, and the potential success of the project hinged on filming on location.  Though my students currently have access to a green screen and three-point lighting, Jebari and I talked at length about how much we needed to be able to film off campus. Enter DigiCom Productions and two of the producers of the Palm Springs Unified DigiCom Film Festival, David Vogel and Dr. Lee Grafton.  They graciously read Jebari’s script and decided to fund almost $1,000 of travel expenses for my students to be able to plan and execute two days of on location filming. We filmed at two different sites: the Salton Sea and a residential neighborhood in Indio. (Our school is located in Cathedral City, at the west end of the Coachella Valley.)

Here’s a look behind the scenes of “Lost Ships”...

Throughout the production of “Lost Ships,” my students and I learned two big lessons.

The first realization we reached is that movies are made in the editing room. The first cut of “Lost Ships” was over twenty minutes in length; the second cut didn’t get much better and sat at a solid sixteen minutes in length for the better part of a week as we scratched our heads and tried to figure out how to condense the storyline. After several more cuts and many hours, Jebari and his assistant directors and editors adopted a non-linear approach to the storytelling of “Lost Ships.”  It wasn’t until we all agreed to throw the script out and create the best story from the footage we had that my students struck gold.

The second lesson we learned involves some ideas about filming on location: You will always need to do a reshoot.  Before filming on location, my students drew extensive storyboards, tirelessly rehearsed their script, planned to accommodate for lighting changes throughout the day, and even then, they needed to do a reshoot.  No matter how prepared you are going into it, there will always be elements out of your control, unforeseen complications, and moments during post-production when you think, “If we only had a shot of _______.”  Hence, having the opportunity to revisit locations is crucial to creating the best product possible. 

Here is what Jebari had to say about filming on location:

Students worked for over five months to produce "Lost Ships" from beginning to end.  Their dedication and passion for this project really paid off, as demonstrated in their final product...

The cast and crew of “Lost Ships” were recognized recently at the California Student Media Festival as “Lost Ships” won an award for “Best Storytelling.”  Students were also staggered to learn that in a little over a week, “Lost Ships” will premiere at the Palm Springs International Short Film Fest as part of the DigiCom Best of Fest Student Showcase!  Also, Jebari and another student from my video production class, Gina, will receive all access filmmaker’s passes at Fest to be able to interact with adult filmmakers from around the world…wow!

Since Jebari is an 8th grader, he promoted to high school this past Thursday, as did two of the film's actors, Brent and Marissa.  Having been their video production teacher for the last three years, I will be honest and admit that I had a couple of tearful moment in my classroom after all my kids left.  Sometimes, there are groups of kids who have this incredible, beyond ordinary connection - with one another, with me, with the medium of digital storytelling. So, sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye. But I definitely know that these kids are destined for great things.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the future!