{"id":476,"date":"2011-02-06T10:33:31","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T01:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seanmisen.com\/?p=476"},"modified":"2011-02-06T10:33:31","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T01:33:31","slug":"exchange-trip-to-palmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seanholland.net\/seanmisen\/alaska\/exchange-trip-to-palmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Exchange Trip to Palmer"},"content":{"rendered":"
This January I had the privilege to escort six students from Saroma, Japan, to my hometown of Palmer, Alaska.\u00a0 Saroma Town employs me as their Assistant English Teacher, one of the requirements for the position being roots in Palmer.\u00a0 I grew up in Palmer and graduated from Palmer High School in 2002, eventually finding my way to Saroma in 2008 after a degree in linguistics and a one-year stint on the JET Programme in Niigata.<\/p>\n
It’s now my third year in Saroma.\u00a0 Every year, there are mutual exchanges at both the junior high and high school level, and each year I have helped to prepare the students for their experience.\u00a0 This year the exchange groups went to Colony Middle School and Palmer High School.\u00a0 We hold about 10 to 12 predeparture classes at the Town Hall, teaching basic English conversation skills, helping to prepare them for cultural differences, and teaching about Alaska and Palmer in general.\u00a0 They also spend a large portion of the time creating a poster presentation in English about some aspect of Saroma or Japan that they then present while in Palmer.<\/p>\n
This year, as in past years, the groups from the high school and the junior high were both small, so it was decided that they would be sent together.\u00a0 This year, though, I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the chaperones for the group.\u00a0 As such, I had the pleasure and privilege of not only preparing the students for the exchange, but supporting them and guiding them while in Palmer.\u00a0 To tell you the truth, I was not entirely sure of myself in this regard.\u00a0 While there was another chaperone from the high school, I still felt responsible for the six students who were travelling, particularly the junior high students, whose maturity levels were quite different from the two high school students (who had both been to Palmer once before).<\/p>\n
However, I somehow managed to get everyone from Hokkaido to Palmer and back, without any serious problems, crying fits, bouts of homesickness, huge misunderstandings, illnesses or disastrous scheduling errors.\u00a0 All of the students and the other chaperone seemed to have a fantastic time in Palmer, and didn’t seem too concerned about getting back to Japan.\u00a0 I too enjoyed myself, although I was busier than I could have expected, playing sort of a double-agent role as ambassador both from and to Palmer and Saroma.\u00a0 Let’s just say that the students were not the only participants on this trip who experienced new challenges and developed new skills. \u2666<\/p>\n
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