安心マップ

Today instead of teaching classes in the morning, I went out with my students and the other teachers as they mapped their neighborhoods, taking pictures and interviewing people about the possible 'danger' spots they could encounter on their way to and from school.

The students were grouped according to the area they lived in. Then, with a teacher and parent volunteers, they headed out with a map, a digital camera and pen & paper to record areas of concern that they found. My group had an area near the school. We wandered around the side roads and alleyways noting where a stranger could lurk and possibly jump out at students. I thought it was also going to be about dangerous places where students could get hurt, but it was just about places where suspicious individuals could hide without students seeing them.

We spent 3 hours outside, stopping for short breaks in the neighborhood parks where my students showed their aptitude for drawing Anpanman and Sponge Bob.

After we had covered the required area and interviewed the required 3 people, we went pack to the school where the teachers printed out the photos for the students to put on their own large scale, hand drawn map which will be pieced together into one big map of the city.

The only negative part of the day was when the other teacher I was with stopped twice for cigarette breaks, right in front of the students...NEVER would that happen in Canada.