Volume 39, Number 07

Kids

Global Kids Academy Pen-Pals
Students Make Friends Using a Pen and Paper.
by Marie Teather

When Marie Kobayashi, a teacher from Global Kids Academy (GKA) took a trip to New York, little did she know that she would soon be forging friendships between students at an inner-city school in the Bronx, and international school kids from Tokyo’s Minato-ku ward.

Before entering the 6th grade classroom of the Thomas C. Giordano Middle School 45 (MS45) in the Bronx, Marie was advised from the classroom teacher that the students might not be quite as enthusiastic about her lessons as she would have hoped for. In the classroom Marie began to explain that she was from Japan, she explained a little about Japanese culture, and even began to give students their first Japanese lesson. She had brought some letters written by Global Kids Academy students to the MS45 students. As she passed them around the classroom she noticed that students, in their delight to receive correspondance from overseas, had already started on their replies. Nobody was more surprised than the classroom teacher, who admitted that some days, she has trouble getting the kids to pick up their pens.

Correspondance began with students from both countries writing about their cultures, symbols of their cultures, sports, and often about food. Students from Japan talked about soba noodles, Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Disneyland, and one girl even asked if her overseas pal knew any tricks to make her play volleyball better. Students from the Bronx wrote about the Statue of Liberty, baseball and ten-pin bowling.

For students at MS45, most of who have never even left the Bronx area, the chance to communicate with students from other countries was a whole new concept to them. Marie explains, “I felt like their horizons had expanded” before adding, “This is also good for the students here [in Japan]. Children here lead very privileged lives and it’s a good chance for them to communicate with kids who can’t all take vacations abroad every year...”

For Marie, the fact that the students wrote without prompt and were truly fascinated about the lives of students in Japan, spoke volumes, and the continuing success of the pen-pal program has lead GKA to go on to start a pen-pal correspondance with a school from the Ratanakiri Province in Cambodia, and the Francis Parker School in Chicago.

The Global Kids Academy philosophy is that ‘all children at GKA become global communicators’—something that the owner of the school, Mika Fukutomi, has always encouraged. With teachers like Marie who are enthusiastic enough to travel and to teach students of all backgrounds and nationalities, Mika’s dream is something that the school is surely to achieve.

For more information on Global Kids Academy and the pen-pal correspondance see: www.globalkidsacademy.com