Hello, hello! I'm Isaac Esquivel and I'm a 3rd grade teacher in Los Angeles.  I've always wanted to maintain the attention of my class and so, when math or other topics start dragging, I've always sprinkled a bit of facts about something amazing I've learned about other cultures, something a lot of our youth are not exposed to.  I think learning about different cultures, foods, religions, etc., brings a sense of curiosity  to students about things they're not readily exposed to on a regular basis.  It is my hope that this leads to them be more tolerant of people's cultures different from their own.  Because I'm no expert in any of these cultures, I'm here, as many of you, as a life-long learner eager to learn new things and devise ways to introduce these into the classroom.  

Hi, everyone,

I am happy to be able to participate in another USC workshop! There are few such opportunities online or face-to-face here in Oklahoma where I teach European and world history courses at Northeastern State University. My own specialty is modern European history but I have a Eurasian focus on Christian Orthodox identity politics in Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and its successor states (1856-1939). Born and raised in Kazakhstan, I also have some Central Asian expertise.

Hello All,

My name is Jesica de la O and I was born and raised in Eugene Oregon and I graduated from the University of Oregon with both my BA and M.E.d. I left Eugene to live and teach at a small international school in Seoul, South Korea when I was 25 years old and I've been living and teaching at international schools in East Asia for more than a decade now. Being Mexican-American, I was primarily interested in American and Latin American history as a undergraduate and graduate student but upon moving to Asia I realized how little I knew about both Asian history and culture and I’ve been actively learning as much as I can (and as much as I have time for as a full time teacher, mother and wife). I’m excited to be taking this course and to incorporate what I learn into my curriculum. 

At my current international school I teach 8th Grade World History and Model United Nations. I teach a unit on Ancient China that focuses on the 1st and 2nd Imperial Dynasties: The Qin Dynasty and the Han Dynasty. During these units there is an emphasis on three ancient philosophies that helped shape Chinese and East Asian political and philosophical culture: Legalism, Doaism and Confucianism. The influence of Confucianism on Eastern society is particular import to my class as 99% of the students I teach are ethnically Korean, Chinese or Japanese although they are all fluent English speakers and have spent most of their lives in Western countries or attending schools that teach exclusively in the English language. I have more knowledge and experience teaching about Ancient China compared with Korea or Japan and I would like to learn more (and teach more) about ancient Korea and Japan. Due to the time difference between the West Coast and Seoul I will be teaching during the zoom discussions and I’m disappointed I’m unable to join them. Thanks and I look forward to getting started with this course.

Hi! My Name is Pooja Gupta. I teach Physics at a high school in Southern California. I wanted to join this course to learn about the history of Asian countries. I have few asian students in my classes and wanted to know more about the culture to realte it to them and bring it in my classroom. I am excited about learning historical, geographical and current information of China, Japan and Korea and make my connections to history of India. I am also hoping to bring the knowledge from this course in my classroom in some way. I teach physics and is open to ideas on how to implement cultural knoweldge in my curriculum standards. i am looking forward to this course starting from today.