DC, Days 3 and 4

I'm going to double up on these two days, because they were both devoted to orientation and project discussions.

Friday morning we get up a bit earlier and meet in the hotel lobby to board our buses. We travel to Bell Multicultural High School, which is a District of Columbia public school, currently housed in what was Bell Vocational HS. It was created as a charter school, and still draws its student body from all over the city. With a 90+% free/reduced lunch population, one might expect that this school would have problems with high dropout rates and low test scores, but through the hard work of administration and staff, such is not the case.

A presentation on the school's educational philosophy and curriculum development methods is given, and then the MTP teachers are taken to various classrooms to observe. This is followed by a short question and answer period with students and staff, discussing what was seen in the classroom (the short answer is a lot of innovative and interesting learning techniques). The morning provides a good opportunity for both Japanese and American teachers to see modern U.S.-styled education practices at work.

After a return to the hotel, we scatter for lunch, then meet again at JICC to learn some basics about the JFMF MTP program and its requirements for the year. I have heard most of this before; what is different is the presentation style (much more concise) and the information about a new approach to the whole journal/website reporting requirements (a forum-based blog area and a separate directory for pictures, with specific topic headings for each teacher's reports, and the ability to upload the information directly from a home or school computer). This is a distinct improvement over previous years, where teachers on both sides were required to post reports directly on their school's webpage (relatively easy on the Japanese side, but a major nightmare on the U.S. side, where access to school webservers requires something approaching an act of God or at least school board approval).

There are questions about the video conferencing as well - JFMF stopped using CUSeeMe last year, when the package was rewritten and support for Macintosh systems was dropped. Yahoo IM is now the software of choice - it works well for Windows users, but the Macintosh version doesn't handle video cameras and voice chat. Mac users wonder why AOL IM (AIM) wasn't chosen instead (school firewalls are even less tolerant of it, for one thing). I don't suppose that we will ever find a package that will satisfy everyone, but I think that Yahoo IM can be made to work.

Back to the hotel for dinner, and I discover a problem - my room lock is not working. After time spent by hotel maintenance, it is finally determined that I need to have a room change; a bellhop brings up a new key, and takes my suitcase to the new room, and I follow after packing up the odds and ends I have spread out all over the place. I get settled in and go down to meet my partners for dinner at a local Subway shop.

We get a treat for Friday night; one of the translators has a relative who is manager for an exclusive hotel directly across the street from the White House. He has invited us to come over in the evening to get a photo opportunity from their rooftop patio. We end up riding the D.C. subway (more like Tokyo's system than I thought), and getting some spectacular pictures. An interesting note - before the manager could take us to the roof, he had to contact the Secret Service office to let them know that guests would be viewing the White House from the hotel patio. Apparently, this is a requirement whenever any events take place in that facility....

Saturday morning is another early start; we head back to Bell MHS for a series of workshops explaining the overall science projects (BUGS and Soil and Fast Plants), and giving us some valuable resource information about these and other projects likely to be suggested as paired projects during the year. Again, much of the information is not new to me, but it does provide a good "refresher" course, and helps me to direct my thinking towards the "how-to's" of getting our projects done this year.

Back to the hotel for a dinner and packing; we leave tomorrow morning for my home town, where my partners will stay during the next week. We have a full list of activities planned - sightseeing, school visits, web journal work.

3-19 ADDENDUM: Late in the evening, we began to hear first news reports about a major earthquake in Japan. Four sets of teachers are in Washington from the affected area (Fukuoka), but all are able to get in touch with family members and allay fears about their safety. We will find out more once news reports come in; apparently there was a "whole lotta shakin' going on" over there.