Ms. Mamiya Sahara Worland

Japanese Immersion Teacher
Great Falls Elementary School
Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia

Mrs. Mamiya Sahara Worland was born and raised in Japan.  She graduated from Sophia University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law.  After coming to the United States, she received a Master’s Degree in Education from George Mason University with a Title 7 scholarship.  She has been teaching in Fairfax County, Virginia, for nineteen years.

Mrs. Worland, who is called “Sahara Sensei” in school, currently teaches 1st and 3rd grade at Great Falls Elementary School in Fairfax County.  Sahara Sensei believes that immersion language education requires constant engagement.  If the students are actively engaged in the lessons taught in Japanese, they will focus much better. By using varied activities such as video taping, viewing tapes, writing, drawing, listening, reading books aloud, story telling, singing, dancing, cooking, tasting, role-playing, crafting, and speaking, she can reach every student through their preferred learning style.

In addition to her participation in workshops and in-service programs, she has also participated in numerous conferences, such as the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)m the Northeast Conference on Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL), the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers (NCJLT), the National Network Early Language Learning (NNELL), the Foreign Language Association of Virginia (FLAVA), and the Greater Washington Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages (GWATFL).  She has also made presentations at these conferences.

Sahara Sensei has contributed to Japanese language and cultural education on many levels.  She believes that exposing students to Japanese culture involves a two-way exchange, so she has worked hard to establish and maintain contacts with organizations here and abroad to provide her school with these opportunities. Each year, she has taken students, parents, and principals to Japan where they have met sister schools, local families, and dignitaries.  In addition, she and the Japanese Immersion families have reciprocated by hosting students and teachers from Japanese sister schools on their visits to America.

In addition to international exchange programs, for the past several years, she has led up to 120 students and parents in the National Cherry Blossom Parade and Sakura Matsuri Festival in Washington, DC.  Her students have also participated in a Pentagon event called “A Lifetime of Language Learning”.   Her students have also participated in various contests throughout the year, such as the NCJLT sponsored Nengajo contest, the Mid-Atlantic Association for Teachers of Japanese (MAATJ) sponsored Haiku contest, and the Itoen sponsored Haiku contest in Japan.  They have also participated in cultural celebrations such as the New Year’s Festival sponsored by the Embassy of Japan, and other events at the Japan Information Culture Center, and the Japan Commerce Association of Washington, D.C., Inc.

Currently, Sahara Sensei is serving as a vice president of NCJLT and has been honored as a National Teacher of the Year 2007 by NCJLT.  She was re-elected as a co-president for the MAAJT in 2008 for the third time where she has been working to connect and communicate with different levels of Japanese teachers, from elementary to college.  She was honored as a Mead Leadership Fellow by NECTFL.  She also was appointed as a consultant for the World Language Other than English committee by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in March, 2008 and worked on revising the national standards.  The revised standards were approved by the NBPTS board in November, 2008.

Sahara Sensei has been featured in numerous publications and television broadcasts such as Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and Nihon Hose Koki (NHK).  She has appeared in major national and local newspapers both in the U.S. and in Japan.

In the local community, she has been a judge for the Japan Bowl for the high school student’s Japanese language contest for the past five years.  She also has volunteered as a selection panelist for the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program for the past three years.  She has maintained a close relationship with the volunteers from Washington Tokyo Women’s club.  In 1994, Sahara Sensei and her school were honored when the Emperor and Empress of Japan visited Great Falls Elementary during their state visit to the United States.

Sahara Sensei would like to use the project fund for a Japanese Garden at Great Falls Elementary School.  The school recently started a much needed renovation. Watching the former classrooms being destroyed has been heartbreaking for her first and third grade students. She wanted to think of something that would provide a positive environment in the midst of all the destruction.

The school has lost both a beautiful Habitat garden and a small Japanese garden in the front part of the school.  The children used to spent time planting flower seeds, releasing butterflies, and looking at clouds in the sky from these gardens.  This was the spot where children created ideas for their Haiku poems.

Sahara Sensei has met with three experts to work on the Japanese garden.  The completion of the garden will be celebrated with a huge celebration. This Japanese Garden will be famous in the town of Great Falls and will remain in the children’s minds for a long time.  They may come back to school with their own children someday, so that they can share their memories together.