Ms. Patricia Burleson

4th, 5th, and 6th Grade Teacher
Island View Elementary School
Anacortes, Washington

Ms. Patricia Burleson teaches 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes for gifted students at Island View Elementary School in Anacortes, Washington. She began incorporating Japan into her classes twenty-six years ago when teaching in the Kent School District in Washington State, which has a strong Sister City relationship with Kaibara, Japan. In 1989 Burleson was accepted to the Asian Studies Institute, a three-year series of intense summer study on Japan and China, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and directed by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington. Based on knowledge learned from this institute, Burleson developed curriculum materials that were recognized nationally by the Asia Society.

After traveling to Japan in 1992 with a teacher exchange program sponsored by Hyogo Prefecture through the Hyogo Business and Cultural Center in Seattle, Ms. Burleson initiated a sister-school program with a school on Ieshima, a small island off of Himeji. Concurrent to working on this program, Burleson and a colleague created a year-long high school class on Japan at Lopez Island High School. In 2000 she applied and received funding from the Freeman Foundation to take students from this class on a study tour to Japan. In 2002 she led another study tour to Japan, this time for teachers from the Anacortes, Washington area.

An active board member of the Washington State Council of Social Studies, Ms. Burleson regularly facilitates workshop sessions at state and national conferences, many of them about Japan. As an instructor for the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia, Burleson also trains teachers from throughout Washington State to incorporate East Asia into their courses.

A former Washington State Council of Social Studies Teacher of the Year, Burleson will use award funds to provide her students with part-time Japanese language instruction, to purchase Japanese language software, to take students on field trips to Japan-related sites, and to provide a course for local teachers focusing on Japan.