Building a Global Learning Environment
In order to carry out SGH Associate activities as effectively as possible, Nagoya International Junior and Senior High School (NIHS) has seized the invitation to undertake important and original facilities improvements. We are aiming to create an integrated and thoughtful learning environment, one that highlights and promotes our commitment to fostering links with universities, to encouraging students to engage in debate and discussion and to nurturing citizens of the world who are respectful of differences.
In some of our learning spaces, for instance, we have created open areas with two large screens on which we can project images. We have improved our online infrastructure as well. One goal is to permit our students to conduct videoconferences with students in schools in other countries where the time difference is small enough to allow real-time communication.
Four Skills Guidance (Benesse) 2015.10.02.
Mr. Tsubasa Date from Benesse Corporation came to our school and spoke to students in our new Active Learning Lab (ALL) about the importance universities attach to development of the so-called “four skills” in English. In our increasingly global society, these four skills are of tremendous importance, of course, but Mr. Date is passionate about another point. “It’s not just the ability to use English that is so important, it’s a matter of what you can do in English that’s vital.” Starting with the Super Global Universities (SGU), all four-year universities will be emphasizing this point more and more in the coming years. Practical fluency in English will be an essential skill that every global leader must have in his or her repertoire.
Promoting English Signage in School Facilities
At our school, all of the signs and plates identifying the various classrooms and special use spaces are labeled in English only. Bilingual labeling is ubiquitous at our school—emergency evacuation information, school maps, even directions on how to separate garbage. We want our students to be immersed in English at all turns when they are on campus. In addition, there are more full-time foreign teachers and foreign students at our school than at most other schools. Our school is a place where students enjoy studying, teachers enjoy teaching and everyone agrees that important learning is taking place. The ability to interact every day with people from other cultures is one of many reasons NIHS has earned this enviable reputation.
SGH Associate Display Corner
We have recently created a special display area with bulletin boards that feature important information about our SGH Associate activities and social action projects. This information is for the benefit of our students and the many guests who regularly come to our school. In this display corner, students and visitors can learn more about our three overarching SGH Associate themes and view a slideshow describing the social action projects associated with each.
In addition, in order to enlighten those strolling about the campus, we have created a display explaining the emergency (disaster) kits that we have prepared for each student on campus along with quizzes and earthquake models made of straws to encourage visitors to become more familiar with disaster preparedness and mitigation.
AED Installation
We have installed three AED devices at our school—one in the main school building, one on the playing field and one in the gymnasium. There are few such devices in the neighborhood of our school, so installing these devices will serve not only our students but nearby residents as well. Our school has been designated an official emergency evacuation area by Aichi Prefecture. For this reason, all of our teachers receive annual instruction on how to use the AED devices. Many students also attend CPR and lifesaving classes where they learn how to use the AED devices.