Overview:
The Sister School program began in 2020-2021 as a video exchange between Nishisasagawa Jr. High in Yokkaichi and Will Rogers Middle School in Long Beach. The primary goals were to give Yokkaichi students new opportunities to practice communicating in English with age peers and for all students to learn about cultural similarities and differences in their Sister Cities. In the group-created videos they exchanged in the first year students talked about their schools, favorite parts of their cities and countries, hobbies and sports, favorite foods, books/movies/music/athletes, and their families. Links to those videos are below.

Yokkaichi junior high school students who participate in Sister Schools are taking English classes in school. Long Beach students do not take Japanese language classes but have a shared interest in connecting with and learning about students in Japan.

Goals and Benefits of the Sister School Program:
“Sister School Program Goals and Benefits”

The Sister School program has expanded to three established partnerships. Exchange activities now include several types of written communication, Zoom chats, individual and group created videos, and more. Program activities are different each year and across partnerships.

Participating Sister Schools and Program Leaders:
“Sister School Program Partners”

How It Works
Program coordinators:

Yokkaichi English Fellow (YEF) assigned by Yokkaichi City School District to the Sister School in Yokkaichi.

YEFs are assistant language teachers who work with English teacher(s) at their assigned junior high school. YEF’s are in Yokkaichi for 2-3 years and rotate schools each year. YEF’s work with English teachers at their schools and with the “lead” teacher at their Long Beach Sister School to create a plan for each year’s exchange activities. Many of the YEFs are from Long Beach.

Lead teacher at the Long Beach Sister School.

The Long Beach “lead” teacher is a teacher volunteer. He/she recruits student participants from a campus club and/or classes. Lead teachers work with the Yokkaichi-based YEF at their Sister School to coordinate exchanges that will take place during an academic year. Because YEFs rotate schools each year, Long Beach lead teachers have new YEF partners to work with each year.

How and When:
Exchanges are mostly shared electronically and take place from September to March—the only months that Long Beach and Yokkaichi school years overlap. Zoom chats typically take place at the end of a school day in Long Beach and in the morning (the next day) in Yokkaichi.

In addition, there have been two video exchanges between elementary school classrooms in Long Beach and Yokkaichi. They are not Sister Schools, but students have benefitted from the one-time exchanges.

Examples of Exchanges:

Video letter to Will Rogers Middle School from Nishisasagawa Junior High School, November, 2020
https://youtu.be/2RGwIBmBYGs?si=O0O0M1k8RzMI15fW

Link to video letter to Nishisasagawa Junior High School from Will Rogers Middle School, January, 2021
https://youtu.be/-FNEt-9Ibec?si=KfTPVpavyRXUj9hQ