Day 1

The whole group of international educators met at 9 AM March 16, 2006 at JICC. I was introduced to my new partner teachers Miki Tskuamoto and Shuji Nakamura. They were both kind, friendly, and easy to visit with. I learned that this was their second year for participating in the Master Teacher Program. After the brief introductions we boarded a bus to begin our tour around Washington DC.


We made a brief stop at the White House and then went on to the Jefferson and the Lincoln Memorials where US history was discussed and connections were made to the present. The focus was on education.


We concluded the formal tour in front of the US Capitol. After that, our assignment was to do a little team building. We went to lunch at the Mirstam Cafeteria at the National Museum of the American Indian http://www.nmai.si.edu/. They have all sorts of interesting native dishes available at Mirstam. Because of the native connection to Wyoming and my personal interest, I enjoyed showing Miki-san and Shuji-san some of the displays after lunch.

Our next assignment was to visit the bug collection at the Natural History Museum http://www.mnh.si.edu/.

We made it after a walk across the mall. There was a bug meet and greet that some of the Smithsonian workers were putting on. The purpose is to allow people to see the bugs and get to know them a little better. Children and adults were curious about the insects. I was glad to see this display. I have visited the Smithsonians two previous times with my family, but I did not know about the bug zoo, so it was the first time for me. Shuji-san held one of the large lubber grasshoppers. People also had the opportunity to hold a Madagascar hissing cockroach.

My partners continued their Smithsonian visit while I went to a meeting back at JICC for the US traveling participants. It was full of helpful information from past participants about the MTP and life in Japan.

Miki, Shuji, and I reunited for dinner at a good Italian place. We enjoyed each other's company and just had a good time getting to know each other. I finished the day with even more excitement about the MTP program because my partners were both interesting people that seem easy to work with. They both seem to have a passion for teaching and a delightful sense of humor.

I feel very fortunate to be involved with JFMF and the Master Teacher Program.

Day 2

We visited Bell Multicultural High School on March 17. It is a lovely school. As it turns out, it was the first new one built in Washington DC in the past forty years. It serves many minority students and does so very well.

We visited with students and staff at Bell. This school serves a different population than I am accustomed to back in Wyoming. There is not nearly as much diversity in my school. In spite of our differences, I note even more similarities between teachers and students everywhere. We really are not all that different.

The sense of pride and teamwork was evident in the Bell students and teachers. I admire the dedication of my Bell colleagues. Most spend twelve or more hours a day at school to help students.


We entered and exited the school with the drum line. It made us all feel welcome. Shuji-san even showed off some of his dance moves as we returned to the bus.

After lunch, we had more meetings at JICC about implementing our FMF projects and other logistics. I appreciated the organizational skills that it takes to put this kind of program together.

For dinner we joined with some of the other MTP participants. We continued having fun and enjoying each other's company. I believe that to be successful, we need to have a good relationship with our group. It was also nice to have time just to get to know each other and discover interests and hobbies.






Day 3

We opened the day with workshops organized by JFMF at Bell Multicultural High School. We were divided into three groups by grade level to better suit our needs. Our group first listened to Mr. Adam Bahrani from Harvard University talk about the defenses and counter-defenses between bugs and plants.

Nakamura-sensei declared that he was a generalist because both the tobacco leaf and the kale leaf tasted OK to him. He did indicate a slight preference for the tobacco leaf. I was provided with many ideas that I can use in my class right away in terms of experiments that students can design and perform fairly easily. There were also many evolutionary examples that I had not previously considered.


In our next session, Dr. Paul Williams from the University of Wisconsin discussed the Wisconsin Fast Plants.

The two things that I appreciated the most about Dr. Williams were his creativity. When I look at a copy box, I see a copy box. Dr. Williams constructs a greenhouse. He also presented his information the way in which he would teach it to a group of his students. I have always had more faith in people who model the behavior they expect.

Our final session featured Dr. Henry Ferguson from US Department of Agriculture teaching about soil and potential applications in the classroom.


After the sessions at Bell Multicultural High School, joint team Hibiki/East took some time and went exploring. First we went to Union Station for a look around and some shopping. Then we went to Chinatown and found a good Tapas restaurant.

Day 4

We spent this day mostly traveling to Cheyenne. We took a taxi to Dulles and from there flew to Denver, Colorado and took a small plane to Cheyenne, Wyoming.



With a few weather delays, we finally arrived in Cheyenne at 2 PM to a bunch of snow. We took a short tour of Cheyenne and Miki-san and Shuji-san got checked into their rooms. Unfortunately, their bags were "short checked" and arrived in Cheyenne on a later flight. We met for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and team Hibiki got to meet the rest of my family.

Dinner went well and luggage was reunited with the Master Teachers from Japan around 8:30 PM that same evening.

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More photos and information available at: http://www.jfmfmtp.org/2006/html/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=107