I selected The Wandering Earth because I already had the opportunity to watch the movie, I really enjoyed the movie. Now that I had the opportunity to read the short story that inspired the movie, I believe that the movie could have been better. As a matter of fact a series would have been a better choice that just a movie.

R1: Great story but does not explain how the coalition was formed. It mentions the Leavers and the Takers, but does not provide more background information. How where the engines built, or the underground cities.

R2: The mood is on the first chapter is one of constant surprise and awe

“Our school was scheduled to relocate to an underground city, and we were among its first inhabitants. Our school bus entered a massive tunnel, which sloped gently downward into the earth. After driving for half an hour, we were told that we had entered the city, but nothing outside the bus windows resembled any city I had seen before.”

R3: The story depicits a avery desolated planet surface, where everyone is living underground. Only the “Mountains” and “Peaks” (engines) are above ground. The Oceans are frozen on the surface.

R4: The keep on mentioning the massive, powerful engines that are pushing the Earth to its new solar system.

R5: This story reminded me of the movies Interestellar and 2012 among others. All three of these stories talk about the end of the world. In interestellar the have to find a new planet and find a way to transport humankind there. 2012 is about the end of the world as we know it, and how the governments of the planet organize to create arks to save some of the chosen ones. The Wandering Earth is about moving the whole planet to a new solar system to escape the destruction that will be caused by our own sun.

R6: Chinese science fiction is increasing and becoming better known around the world. Just like in USA science fiction, the USA always plays a crucial role to save the world. In Chinese science fiction, China has a crucial role in saving the world.

R7: This story makes me thing of all the people who are turning against Science and do not believe that global warming is happening and its grave consequences to our planet. 

This was my first selection ... and the story seemed very simplistic from a teaching perspective.  Yet it does ring true.  You need to make a connection with students... “ they don’t care how much  you know until  they know how much you care.”  A student who has been written off or abused in a class make have a tough shell built up.  Finding a connection in order to penetrate the shell and get the student to learn is key.  

I attended a seminar this summer that taught me that it is our responsibilty as educators to ensure that we ourselves are learning about sustainability so within the lecture looking at the themes in The Wandering Earth, you can focus on the precison of science/fact vs the ignorant mob and can integrate this information into our lesson and classrooms.  You can also use it as a launching point to talk about global warming and climate change though the text doesn't emphasize that humans are to blame for these two issues. 

Additionally, you can talk about problem solving such as using collective effort/collectivism as well as about legislation that is being used worldwide to combat what we've done to the earth. For example, San Francisco is not allowing the sale of water bottles and you will receive a fine if you do sell it. Also, in Asia you can look to places in Japan and China. Yokkaichi has 6 bins to organize their waste and then incinerates their waste; anything left over from the incineration is either used to make the paving for the roads or is taken to another part of Japan to break it down further. In China, people wear belts with mini bins to sort their waste and will receive a fine if you are not disposing of waste properly and has stopped the import of plastics. Our own students can be asked to focus on one or more of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals determined by the Paris Agreement: https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html) and use global competencies (here is the link to view them: http://calglobaled.org/classroom-resources/global-competence-indicator-posters) to try to come up with creative ways to solve local and worldwide problems as a project or discussion. 

All classes, no matter what the subject, should try to integrate environmentalism whether you use the novel discussed today, integrate articles showing examples of legislation or problem solving in other countries (especially China as they are one of the top producers of waste due to their high population and the United States that creates more waste per person despite having a smaller population) 

Here are some key exerpts about the neccessity of educating students in California according to the California Department of Education:

In 2015, as Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. established the nation’s most ambitious California greenhouse gas reduction target, he noted, “climate change poses an ever-growing threat to the well being, public health, natural resources, economy, and the environment of California, including loss of snowpack, drought, sea level rise, more frequent and intense wildfires, heat waves, more severe smog, and harm to natural and working lands, and these effects are already being felt in the state.”

"Now is the time to tackle this challenge. Under the leadership of State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SSPI) Tom Torlakson, the Governor, and State Board of Education, and with the support of California voters and legislators, California public education is undergoing a historic transformation. Now is the moment to elevate environmental literacy as an essential element of a 21st century education in California, and to establish the leadership, collaboration, strategic partnerships, and necessary funding to ensure environmental literacy for all California students. Support for environmental education is high: 89 percent of Californians think that it is very important or somewhat important that local K-12 schools include environmental education."

Here is the link for more information about the full plan that was put together by the Environmental Literacy Task Force to reach all students about environmentalism:

https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/sc/documents/environliteracyblueprint.pdf

In Folding Beijing  the first, second, and third space reflect our social class systems, lack of social mobility, and interdependence on labor. After our discussion today, I realized that I can use science fiction movies, TV shows, and books to reflect social classes, oppression, resistance, and economic systems in class. Science fiction often includes these themes of class struggle and resistance, but I have never brought this into the classroom. Movie clips and short stories in this genre would be appropriate during the World History periods of Industrialization, Imperialism, and the Cold War.

I teach a unit on Survival and currently teach The Hunger Games as one of the ways to discuss this focus. After seeing "Folding Beijing" I can see my students using this in literature groups to discuss a continued outlook on a dystopian planet. The Hunger Games and Folding Beijing both emphasize the class system: the more you have to borrow to get food, your name is added to the tesserae (the pool of names who are "eligible" for the reaping based on how many times you have borrowed) which means that the disadvantaged districts become the focus of "fun" for the rich people living in the capitol and how long you are able to be awake on the planet based on what class (which you cannot change from) you belong to. However, based on the language I noticed in the novel I will have to either only use exerpts, tread carefully or possibly edit out the words for my classes since I teach 9th grade. (There is usage of the F word on page 3, for example!)

I'm not a fan of Science Fiction, and I chose to read the short stories, but I now want to read "Folding Beijing," which sounds more dystopian than SciFi to me. (I love Dystopian YA.)  I did really appreciate the discussion of themes and their connection to contemporary issues and events. I think my middle school students could definitely connect to this literature- it almost makes me wish I taught a Humanities block, but not quite.

I read the You Jin short stories from Singapore. They are written by a teacher or former teacher, and I found them poignant because each (well, I read 2 of the 3) deals with kids who are seen as troublemakers, but the teacher/author/narrator sees deeper and learns what is making them break the rules of school.  Although on the one hand it might be a little trite or savior-esque, on the other it is a good reminder to get to know our students better and remember that there are ways to help students be their better selves once we understand what their struggles are and why they are acting out.  I am a big believer in giving kids chances while being firm on consequences, but trying to help them break barriers in their own lives so they can excel.

Something I found interesting in these stories was the school rules not being seen as the problem, which they might be if these were written in the U.S.  If I were the teacher, I would've taken issue with the rule against students dyeing their hair, but she didn't.  At my site, I am the one who refuses to enforce dress code because our dress code is unreasonable, sexist, unenforceable, and in violation of Title IX.  But in these stories the teacher seems on board with the rules, but is helping the students to follow them and change their ways, partly through building up their self-esteem, and partly through finding financial assistance for them- two ways a U.S. teacher might also try to help a student.

While I do not think I can use the short story, Pets, in my World History curriculum, I can use it in my Restorative Justice (RJ) class. The students in my RJ class must learn to be teachers themselves as they lesson plan and run RJ circles and run conflict mediations for students. The cycle of Wen Li's Chinese language teachers abusing her in class leads to her both giving up on the subject and stereotyping Chinese language teachers. This cycle is common with many students who give up in high school after years of failing classes, or ridicule and mistreatment by teachers. I think some students will immediately connect with Wen Li’s story, and others may empathize more with students who they perceive as “lazy” or “dumb.” Pets can spark a great discussion about achievement and how to connect with students.