For this semester, I started off my GP1 by discussing with Professor and trying to get some grasp of how exactly I am to proceed with this project. The eventual goal is to train third culture students in SFC to work with Fujisawa City in sharing stories from their culture.
But after the initial discussions with Professor, I quickly came to the realization that talking to kids effectively is not as easy as I initially thought. Rudolf Steiner's philosophy is commonly seen in classrooms around Japan today, and it is important that one first understand his philosophy in order to see it, or even execute in the classroom. Jenaplan was another topic that I had to research because before I go out and try to even consider visiting a classroom, I needed to do the basic research and obtain the basic information. I am still doing more research, and plan to continue to read and get as much knowledge as I can about these 2 topics before I begin my internship with Kenshin over the summer break.
The actual work of the semester involved talking to Laura Johnen who had already started the project by making initial contacts with Fujisawa City government. Laura is now no longer at SFC and returned to Germany I believe, so I took over and am now the main contact person and coordinator of the project with Fujisawa City government. My work for GP1 is a extended project, as during my internship over the summer at Kenshin, I will need to contact third cultural students via mailing list and as I gain experience through my independent study, I will create a plan and program to "train" third culture kids to be able to walk into a classroom and be able to work with kids. I have already started talking to a few third culture students who seem interested in being involved in my project, so I am excited for this.
Although perhaps not directly related to the project itself, for the Freedman Lab I talked to several OB like Mr. Okazawa and Mr. Kondo about classroom learning, and planning for events, and this was really useful advice and learning for me. Because I need to coordinate an event in GP2, this will prove to be very valuable experience for me.
My schedule for the independent study over the summer is as follows; 8月10-16日〜Basic Study and Review before independent study begins 8月18日〜How do Jenaplan's concepts come to life in a classroom? Observe. 8月19日〜Record Data and thoughts 8月22日〜Theme; How are Steiner's concepts executed in a classroom? 8月23日〜Record Data and thoughts 8月30日〜Observe how storytelling is done in a classroom and why is this? 8月31日〜Record Data and thoughts 9月2日〜Observe kids playing and think about "what is play"? 9月3日〜Record Data and thoughts 9月6日〜Interview+Analysis 9月7-10日〜Final Paper
9月11-20日〜Start designing a training session, start contacting through mailing list