Shoko Parker
Shoko Parker is a Japanese teacher at Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon. Ms. Parker takes her students to Osaka, Japan annually to access the real-life Japanese experience into her students’ program/curriculum, volunteering her time to communicate with local travel agencies. She also organizes events to welcome high school students from Roosevelt’s sister high school in Japan, for the purpose of preparing her students for the visit to Japan every summer.
Why are you passionate about student travel?
I am passionate about student travel because of these 3 major reasons:
- It is always instant and authentic for my students to acquire what I am teaching in the classroom. The sense of smell, touch, see, hear is all harmonized everywhere they go even when they sleep in the Futon or bed in Japan.
- It is powerful that my students’ motivation to improve themselves academically and socially as well as their consistency of showing respect to other people are always pumped up dynamically after I take them to Japan.
- It is a win-win outcome for me as their teacher and my students because they know they want to go back to Japan and communicate more fluently in Japanese.
What is a major highlight from any of your student travel experiences?
The major highlight from my student travel experience is that they decide to pursue studying Japanese when they go to higher education. Then, they contact me back with their successful stories; for instance, they decided to pursue their master degree, tried to teach English in Japan, and/or go back to visit their host families by themselves. After they were able to go to Japan with me, they became more confident, less fearful to experience new challenges, and more patient with frustrating situations.
What is the greatest lesson you or your students have learned from your trips?
I think my students and I want to continue this type of trip for our future students so that we keep having a healthy, safe, comfortable, fun trip every time we go. The more you see and experience, the more you learn quickly and affirmatively. Thus, I need to keep working hard to share the cultural lessons in class, too.
How do you try to tie your travel experiences back into the classroom?
I try to tie my travel experiences back into the classroom by bringing up the most recent highlights from the trip every year. My conversation practice among my students is more authentic, and you cannot get the knowledge from a normal textbook. For instance, we talk about our types of blood, astrological signs, and/or complimenting people’s hair styles, fashions, and/or even nails.
Everyone is interested in different things about Japan in my classes, so that I also try to introduce Japanese historical aspects, architectural aspects, and/or environmental aspects while most of students are into Japanese food and animes.
Why does Shoko deserve to be Traveling Teacher of the Year?
Nowadays, it is hard to find many teachers who can manage extra volunteering work and take their students overseas due to the lack of planning time and heavy restrictions regarding international field trips. However, Shoko spends her time communicating with her students’ family members, the host families who take care of her students in Japan, and everyone else who associates with the program – without getting paid for her work. It is a year-long contribution of her work, and she has been taking her students to the same high school in Japan for 10 years.
Photo courtesy of Shoko Parker.
