Focus on TUSD - November 2006

Bland Tours Japan as Fulbright Winner
Fort Lowell Elementary School students didn't go to Japan last summer, but they got the next best thing. Their teacher, Jacqueline Portnoy Bland, toured the country June 12-29 as a winner of the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher program.

Bland is back in the classroom, teaching Haiku, calligraphy, origami, mask making, tea ceremonies and Japanese song and dance. As an Opening Minds through the Arts specialist, Bland will help her first-graders create an opera based on Japanese folk tales in May.

She's fulfilling the terms of the grant, which is to teach children about Japanese culture and help them understand it.

The Japanese government paid for the trip, estimated at $10,000 for each of the 200 teachers who went this year, in appreciation for the American Fulbright grant, which brought Japanese teachers to the U.S. Bland was chosen from 2,300 applicants nationwide.

Bland said Japanese people were interested in American education, asking how they could encourage individualism, independence and problem solving in their students. She said Japanese people are hard working, responsible citizens who have a strong environmental ethic.

Bland heard lectures from government leaders, as well as experts on Kabuki, Japanese theater, music and bonsai. She stayed with a Japanese family in Itabashi and enjoyed the hot springs near Mount Fuji during a stay at a traditional Japanese inn. "We were treated special everywhere we went," she said.

Teachers and administrators who want to see a presentation of her trip should contact her at the Fort Lowell School. The deadline to apply for next year's Fulbright grant is Dec. 5.