Ms. Leslie Birkland

Teacher of Japanese Language
Washington State

Leslie Okada Birkland began her Japanese teaching career in 1985, the year she introduced the Japanese language program at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland, Washington. Ten years ago, Ms. Birkland began the Japanese program at Rose Hill Junior High and currently travels between the two schools daily, teaching levels 1 through 6. She keeps busy at school as the advisor of the Japanese National Honor Society and the Anime Club. She travels with students to Japan; competes in the annual Speech and Skit Contest and teaches at the Japanese Immersion Camp which is held annually.

Ms. Birkland has been involved in Japanese language education at the local, state and national levels since 1990. She organized the Washington Association of Teachers of Japanese (WATJ) in 1990 and served as its founding president. In 1990, she helped organize the first Japanese Language Immersion Camp together with the Japan-America Society and was an active charter member of the Washington State Japanese Curriculum Guidelines Committee. In 1992 she was the president of the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers (NCJLT). Ms. Birkland was Co-President of the state language teachers’ organization (WAFLT) in 2002 and organized two conferences (state and bi-state) back to back. She has served on several ACTFL committees and made numerous presentations at conferences and workshops. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) Foreign Language Committee recruited Ms. Birkland to help draft the standards for the World Languages Other Than English certificate.

She received the Washington State Teacher of the Year in 1995 and the Inspirational Leadership Award in previous years. Two years ago, she was selected by WGBH in Boston to be filmed teaching a class on culture as part of the Teaching Foreign Languages Video Series. Ms. Birkland was honored this year by the Kirkland Rotary as the Outstanding Educator of the Year.

Ms. Birkland intends to use the project funds as scholarships for students who would otherwise be unable to travel to Japan. Recipients of the scholarship would be required to design a web page, prior to the trip, introducing Lake Washington High School to sister school students in Japan. During the trip, the students would be required to document their trip and upon their return, prepare a power point photo journal of their trip, to share with elementary, junior high and high school students in the Lake Washington School District. The intention of this project is not only to promote the study of Japanese, but to expose a greater number of students in the district to Japan and its culture.