Central Pa. elementary school teachers fish for knowledge in Japan this summer

• By Meryl Li / LNP | LancasterOnline

In a small fishing village situated along the eastern coast of Japan, a couple from Lancaster city, two elementary school teachers, wake up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the pier. There, they climb aboard the boat of a local fisherman who doesn’t speak any English. Breathing in the sea air and floating on the Pacific Ocean, they fish.

The pair, Kelsey and Taylor Pfaff, have traveled over 6,000 miles to learn about trout, sustainable fishing and other marine life—and they’re doing it all for their students.

The Pfaffs, who have been married for 10 years, teach at elementary schools in the School District of Lancaster. Kelsey is going into her third year teaching third grade at Wharton Elementary School, and Taylor is going into his fourth year teaching special education at Wickersham Elementary School.

This past year, the couple applied to receive and were awarded a $10,000 grant from Fund for Teachers, a national nonprofit organization that funds educators’ pursuits to better their students’ learning experience.

“We brainstormed together what our common interests are in education and how we want to grow our students, and after a lot of research, we decided to go to Japan,” Kelsey Pfaff said. She said they wanted to learn about sustainable fishing and enrich their classes’ marine life curriculum.

Trout in the classroom

Both Kelsey and Taylor Pfaff participate in the Trout in the Classroom program, a statewide program in which teachers raise trout eggs with their students in their classrooms. At the end of the school year, they go on a field trip and release the grown fish into a preapproved waterway.

“It’s like having 100 class pets,” Taylor Pfaff said. “It also lets us talk about questions like, ‘Where does our water come from? Why do we need to take care of it?’ Those environmental science questions become really tangible.”

Kelsey Pfaff said the students are really excited to see the trout everyday. While raising the trout, they learn about life cycles, take scientific notes and make connections beyond the classroom, like to their families’ recreational fishing.

“It’s been really cool to see how their learning comes to life through this hands-on experience,” Kelsey Pfaff said.

After finding out about the Fund for Teachers grant opportunity, the Pfaffs decided to submit a proposal to travel to Japan to study sustainable fishing. Taylor Pfaff said they chose Japan because it has a variety of trout species and access to the ocean, and the country’s fishing season would align well with their schools’ summer breaks.

On April 1, the Pfaffs found out they were chosen as grant recipients, along with 355 other U.S. educators. Fund for Teachers executive director Karen Eckhoff said they were chosen from over 1,200 applicants.

“Kelsey and Taylor, like all of our fellows, seek to build their experience and act as a force for achievement, learning and knowledge,” Eckhoff said. “Their students and community will benefit.”

The Pfaffs shared the news with their students before the school year ended.

“We made a little slideshow to tell them some of the things that we’re going to be learning, and how it’ll impact the learning of future students as well,” Kelsey Pfaff said. “They were so excited.”

Research in Japan

The couple left June 4 to start their journey in Tokyo. Their first stop was a small fishing village, Minamiise, where they went out on a fishing charter with a local fisherman and practiced sustainable deep sea fishing. Kelsey Pfaff said this experience was her favorite.

“It was absolutely beautiful,” Kelsey Pfaff said. “It was cool to learn another kind of skill.” She added that they caught a lot of fish and were able to eat some later when their Airbnb host cooked it for them.

Their next stop was Toba, where they saw the pearl divers, a group of Japanese women who have been diving for pearls and seafood, without scuba gear, for over 2,000 years. Kelsey Pfaff said this was a place from their preliminary research that they definitely wanted to see because it is both a sustainable and feminist fishing practice.

Then, they traveled north to Nishikigoi Village in Niigata prefecture, a koi farm and museum. There, they learned about the history of koi fish, the different koi breeds and their life cycles.

Next, they went to Hokkaido to study salmon at the Chitose Salmon Aquarium. They also learned Tenkara fishing, a Japanese fly fishing method, which uses a rod, line and a fly with no reel. When they cast out the line, the fisherman will mimic the motion of a fly floating on the water to lure the fish to bite.

Taylor Pfaff said this was his favorite experience throughout the trip.

“I’ve never gone on vacation and learned a skill I can bring back,” Taylor Pfaff said. They went fly fishing after coming home, he added, and now he’s thinking about how to teach his students the technique.

The couple stopped at many aquariums and fish-related museums along the way, and they tried local fish dishes as well. They ended their journey in Tokyo and returned to Lancaster on June 21.

What’s next

The pair are looking forward to sharing what they learned with their students. Kelsey Pfaff said she plans to teach her students about the different sustainable fishing practices they saw and tried in Japan and discuss how they minimize environmental harm.

“I feel like we are bringing it alive through pictures and videos,” she said. She said she’ll be bringing in her fly fishing rod (without the hook for the students’ safety), and she hopes she gets the opportunity to teach her students the technique at a future field trip.

She added that she will also share profiles on the marine life they saw that were particularly interesting, like Japanese spider crabs.

Kelsey Pfaff’s supervisor, Wharton Elementary School Principal Demettra Welters, said she finds it “phenomenal” that Kelsey Pfaff ventured abroad to deepen her knowledge.

“I think what she’ll bring back is a more in-depth knowledge that she can share with her students,” Welters said.

In his classroom, Taylor Pfaff will be sharing similar lessons with his students. He plans to teach lessons on trout life cycles and create reading comprehension activities based on what the couple learned in Japan.

“A lot of our students have been exposed to Japanese culture with anime or manga,” he said. “Starting with something the kids are interested in opens up what we can teach them.” He added that he is looking into raising a koi fish in the classroom, as well.

The Pfaffs plan to spend the rest of the summer fishing locally and visiting family. Come fall, they’ll be back in the classroom and ready to share their newfound knowledge with their students.