Welcome to my Japan web page!

My name is Skip Tyler and I am honored to have been selected to represent Virginia in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program. It is intended to provide participants with an overview of Japan's education system, culture and people through a 3-week immersion program. Educators experience new educational methodologies, technologies, processes, and procedures that enhance instruction through workshops, lectures, panel discussions, readings, etc. There will be opportunities to integrate international perspectives and methodologies into instruction and to inspire educators to incorporate actual experiences from the fellowship into the classroom and school community.

I have created this website to share my travels and experiences with my students, teachers, parents, and community. Please visit my journal (describing my daily events on the trip) and my blog (allowing you to send me questions or comments) for additional information!

For an inside look into my brain, READ THE JOURNALS! :)

Background information

In October of 2006, Varina High School math teacher, Skip Tyler, will depart for Tokyo as a participant in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund (JFMF) Teacher Program. He was selected from a national pool of nearly 2,300 applicants by a panel of educators to earn this honor. This program allows distinguished primary and secondary school educators in the U.S. to travel to Japan for three weeks in an effort to promote greater intercultural understanding between the two nations.

Among a group of 200 educators, Skip will begin his visit in Tokyo with a practical orientation on Japanese life and culture and meetings with Japanese government officials and educators. He will then travel in a group of 20 to his host city (Soka, Saitama) where he will have direct contact with Japanese teachers and students during visits to primary and secondary schools as well as a teachers college. He will also visit cultural sites and local industries in addition to a brief homestay with a Japanese family.

JFMF, based in Tokyo, oversees all aspects of the Teacher Program. The program is sponsored by the Government of Japan and was launched in 1997 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. government Fulbright Program, which has enabled more than 6,000 Japanese citizens to study in the U.S. on Fulbright fellowships for graduate education and research.

Visitors since September 10, 2006