Final Essay

[cgao]

Please post your reflective essay here.

 

 

[Nayeli Ruiz-Sanchez]

As an educator it is our job to incorporate as many subjects, topics, cultures into our teaching so that students can learn about the world and be able to be knowledgeable in various areas not just one. Therefore, I plan to incorporate East Asia into my teaching by using stories, using interactive and informational websites, and also by showing films that students can relate to but come from a different culture than that of their own. I feel that using technology and media as a support enhances my lessons and engages the students to explore the topic presented. Also, by showing students techniques that were used in the East Asian Culture for artwork, music, etc. can help students gain a sense of appreciation for another culture.

The topics that I would definitely want to explore with my students are the role of women, the East Asian culture, and the impact of rule and power. I have always been interested in the topic of women’s rights and feel that my students can learn something by discussing the topic of women and their position in Japan. One question I would like to raise would be, “How are women viewed differently in Japan compared to the United States?” In addition, I would like my class to research and learn about the East Asian cultures traditions and answer how East Asian culture traditions are different than that of their own cultures. Lastly, I think that in this moment, politically it would be beneficial for students to analyze how rule and power can impact everyone’s lives. For example, students can talk about the power that people hold when they vote and also the power that the government holds over the people.

Before this seminar experience, I was familiar with the most known topics in East Asia studies but I think that after this seminar I am confident and want to share these topics with my students so that they can also share what they know and pass it forward to those around them.

[Tara Corral]

 

As an educator I love learning about history, I think it is such an integral part of any subject. As a Visual Art Teacher I hope to learn about history to help explain Art in its time period and its importance in our modern Era. I haven't taught any lessons previously about East Asia because I did not have a lot of information to teach it properly.  I think with what I have learned about China, Japan, and Korea I can teach a couple lessons properly without treating it as a craft not giving it the credit it deserves. 

 

I work with the lower grades TK-6th and I am always eager to find new ways to connect our art to a culture, country, or movement that way I can provide more representation. This class provided a lot of useful historical  information to help with my lessons but I will need to choose carefully considering the age level of my students and what is/what isn’t appropriate for those students. I will also need to find ways to connect to the Visual Arts since I am a single subject teacher. Some of the topics I would like to explore with my students are Ukiyo-e Prints, Minhwa Artwork, Chinese Playing Cards(Propaganda), and potentially a little about the political atmosphere. Once my students enter back into the classroom I would like to introduce them to Scratch boards as an alternative to Woodblock, its an easier material to manipulate, and have them create multiple color print. 

 

My goal as an educator so far has been to implement as much diversity and knowledge whenever possible for my students. Moving forward I would like to teach East Asian Art with European Art or just as much. It would be better for students to have more access to diverse groups creating art and learning how they have impacted the art world. Less of the European White Male.

 

[Serece Tascione]

The amount of information shared in this seminar was far more than I imagined when I signed up.  As an elementary Visual Arts teacher, my main goal was to find ways to incorporate the arts into my program, so I was excited when the arts were mentioned, and challenged when they were not. I knew I needed to find an avenue to teach the vast and diverse history that was being shared with me. My school near a university where professors are invited from Asia to teach for a semester at a time. This usually takes place during their summer, so they bring their children with them mainly to learn English, but also for the experience. Having a consistent flow of East Asian students in my school, I want to find ways they can acclimate and find connection to a new temporary home. 

            From ancient to modern art, East Asian culture is an enriching way to create a bond for these students. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Guiding Principles ensure the opportunity for our students to have a culturally relevant environment. To me, this is crucial for a more accepting world with less discrimination due to ignorance. For upper grades, I plan to include Korean Minhwa, Japanese woodblock printmaking through the artwork of Hokusai. For TK, I want to introduce the Japanese Wabi- Sabi, and enhance upon what our school already does for the celebration of the Chinese New Year Parade that our kindergarten hosts. Though not mentioned much in the seminar, my research led me to a common art style that is dear to my heart- Japanese Kirie. In the spirit of Wabi-Sabi, I found various examples of upcycling artists who are making an impact on our waste. South Korea has its Seoul Upcycling Plaza educating and exhibiting used material that artists have given new purpose to. With paper cutting being a form of art that has evolved over many years, there are several exquisite Japanese artists to know about. Masayo Fukuda makes absolutely exquisite masterpieces that stun an audience with her intricate 3D illusions.  Whereas, artists like Yuken Teruya asks the question, can a toilet paper roll that is made from a tree, be turned back into a tree? He encourages us to acknowledge the ecosystems that we live in. With waste management being a significant problem in Korea 20 years ago, artists found upcycling to be a part of the solution. This can be appreciated and hold high value to students across the world, therefore exposure to the different artists can be influential. To initiate these ideas, I would focus on Teruya. In a school wide project, by grade-level or by class, I would have each student represent a part of the tree with cutting a single toilet paper roll. Then we would assemble them to create one sculpture that encourages the school community to envision the possibilities and being more mindful of our waste.

[Brigid Schmidt]

Having previously had the privilege of taking the Ancient East Asia course and Crossing Boundaries, I was very interested in continuing my East Asian studies in this Modern East Asia class. Not only has it been beneficial to my teaching, but rewarding for me to learn as well. I am embarrassed to say that my prior knowledge of East Asia was limited to what I learned in my two-week trip abroad there a few years ago. 

While the two previous courses aligned more with my 6th graders' history curriculum, I felt this class interested me the most. I have always loved history and learning more about it, but I found it fascinating to learn about historical events from the point of view of the Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans. In school, we generally learn about wars and major events from the side of the US. Our guest lecturers were very knowledgeable and so gracious to answering our many questions and clearing up confusion. I feel so fortunate to be able to learn from educators from different schools all over the world and that they took the time to speak with us. 

As I teach 6th grade Language Arts, there are many pieces of this course that I will intertwine in my lessons. I enjoyed learning more about the different kinds of art (wood block paintings especially), poetry, and even music. These will work as an aid to guide my writing lessons where we focus on sensory details, imagery, symbolism, and figurative language. For me, learning about the Korean War and the Cold War were quite impactful. It is a war I was not that familiar with and it helped me understand why it is called the "forgotten war." As. some of our classmates pointed out, it would also benefit our students to hear personal accounts from this war as many of them, like myself, might have past family members who were involved in the war. 

In addition, I found the lectures on the different monarchies and political systems engaging. I have always been intrigued by the British monarchy, so I found myself comparing and contrasting the different systems and the changes each has gone through. In such a political year, it is interesting to learn about the different ways other countries elect their officials. I have noticed, I have many students interested in politics this year. 

Overall, the class was compiled of an abundance of resources I am eager to use in my own classes. I value the chance to continue learning as an educator and collaborate and engage with other instructors. Professor Dube, as always, is so insightful and is filled with knowledge. I absolutely enjoy all of his lectures and plan to share parts of them with my students. Additionally, I am starting my three-day memoir lesson with two of my classes next week! I am excited to see how they like it. Thank you so much for offering these classes to educators, it is a nice deviation from teaching to be fortunate to keep on learning, even virtually!

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

As a new teacher, I do not have many resources or activities under my belt, this is my very first year teaching World History at the Middle School level. The reason I decided to take this course is to increase my own knowledge on East Asia affairs and its history.  The readings and coursework that I completed for this course have allowed me to have a better understanding of multiple historical topics and discussions. Before this course, I had no knowledge of Asia's demographic crisis, which refers to Asia's low fertility rate. I also wasn’t aware of Asia's history with art. When we look at different cultures, art is one of the easiest and fastest ways to get an understanding of its history and impacts on society. In one of our discussions we learned about Woodblock prints, which originated in China and was adopted by Japan. They would use bronze or stone seals to make impressions of clay and silk and the practice of taking ink rubbing of inscribed text from bronze and stone reliefs. The first woodblock prints were of a religious kind. Buddhist worshipers used woodblock printmaking to copy images of saints and religious amulets. It was also used for printing books on agriculture and medicine as well as for printing calendars, calligraphy, and auspicious charms. That has opened a new perspective to artwork. I never imagined integrating art in my lessons, but now I have a better understanding of the importance of creativity. I have a greater appreciation for art. I have learned about Edo Art, Woodblock Prints, Ukyio-e and Cultural Revolution playing cards. Now my mission as an educator is to broaden my own knowledge and bring more diversity into the classroom. 

 

[Thomas Pineda]

 This seminar covered so much ground in terms of time and also places. It will be helpful for my 6th grade Science courses and our studies of the Next Generation Science Standards. One particular standard that I find engages students is MS-ESS-3-3 “Apply Scientific principles to design method for monitoring and minimizing a human impact on the environment” and MS-ESS-3-4 “Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.” Both of these can be studied in the various countries or events that were presented during the seminar. 

 Two of the examples of locations I would use for class would be the Yellow River in China and the Demilitarized Zone in Korea. While presenting before and after maps or a timeline of the human developments around the river, students can see how the river’s path had changed over time. From there, I would have students research what impacts this had on the environment and flora and fauna in the area. In terms of the opposite effect, I would have them examine the DMZ in between North & South Korea and give them some background about the political history of the area. From there, they could research the changes to the natural environment over time due to the lack of human population and impact. (MS-ESS-3-4) 

  Another thing I would like to introduce them to is the use of Ukiyo-E paintings as wrapping paper and then their subsequent popularity. This type of reuse could potentially lessen the impact on the environment and I would have students look for other possible avenues of reusing or reducing the amount of consumption. Some of this re-use could be in the form of art projects that encourage people to think about the rate of consumption of natural resources. (MS-ESS-3-3)

 

[Zoey McKinney]

This seminar has benefitted me most by expanding my own horizons and reminding me of how much I don’t know! Even though I consider myself to have mastered my own curriculum, during this course I was struck by how much information I had never come across before, as it isn’t part of my curriculum or any curriculum that was presented to me while I was growing up. For example, I know cursory details about the Korean War, particularly the United States’ involvement in it, but never in my school career did we dig more deeply into Korean perspectives on the war and the division of the country, or the effects on the Korean people apart from lives lost. Although it makes sense that we want students to be particularly knowledgeable about the history and workings of their own country, I think when it comes to developing global awareness, we (and our curriculums) have a lot of work to do. That said, I found it challenging this year to connect my 1^st grade content to the content of the seminar. We have covered such a large period of history in three major countries, and most of it as presented would go over the heads of my young students. However, I was inspired by Professor Dube’s approach in asking discussion questions, particularly in his first lecture about China’s geography and demography. One question was “How might resource scarcity and utilization fit into your course?” What struck me was that water scarcity is such a familiar and vital topic in Southern California, and that easily helped me relate to the new information about water scarcity in China. One of the first-grade standards in Social Studies is “Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places around the world and recognize that some aspects of people, places, and things change over time while others stay the same.” I will use this approach to incorporate teaching about Asia into my lessons this year. Learning about a new and unfamiliar place can be challenging, especially for young students who might have little exposure to East Asia or find it difficult to conceptualize how far away it is or how different some parts of society might be. I plan to focus on what we have in common, so for this reason my lesson unit centers around school life in other countries. Students recognize all the pieces of school life from their own lives – classes, friends, extracurriculars, homework. Having that as an anchor can allow them to explore the many differences between cultures without being overwhelmed. With a stronger background in East Asian history, I now feel more confident in expanding my students’ views beyond our textbook curriculums so they can start thinking like global citizens.

[Khrystle San Diego]

I am thankful to have been given this opportunity to participate in this seminar because it allowed me to know more about East Asian countries and their histories. Prior to teaching students with special needs, I was teaching middle and high school history. Joining this seminar allowed me to rekindle my love for history and increase my knowledge about East Asian countries. I am Asian and although I knew much about my ancestors, this class allowed me to research more about the impact of Asian historical figures and events on the organization of these countries today. 

 

We have covered so much about East Asian countries in six sessions, but the overarching focus of Professor Dube’s lectures were based on how we could bring the world closer to our students. Honestly, that question challenged me quite a lot because my students are unfamiliar with the history of the United States - much more countries that they do not necessarily hear about at home. Especially because most of my students are from lower income homes, the most they are exposed to Asian countries are through quick snacks such as instant ramen, television shows that are dubbed anime, and most recently, the K-Pop influence on social media. 

 

I plan to focus on the things that the East Asian countries and the United States have in common so that the students can relate to the experiences the Asian people experienced. If we start off on commonlities between the nations, we can open up the discussion about differences amongst these various cultures with enthusiasm. Because I was given the information about East Asian countries, I feel that I have become more confident in bridging these different cultures and integrating them in our curriculum. 

 

As a teacher, we should promote our students to become more responsible global and digital citizens. Our main focus as teachers should encourage students to view different other cultures with respect. This is especially important in this society because of the recent events in our country. We should promote diversity and inclusion across all aspects of our class. 

 

[Ester Yang]

Throughout the seminar, I’ve learned so much more than I imagined. I first signed up for this course hoping to learn about the Asian culture and use that knowledge to relate to my students during my SEL learning periods. My students always talk about k-pop artists and Asian countries during our conversations, but my knowledge on East Asia was very limited for me to relate to them. I’m now confident that I can even give my students a background information of how it all started. I’ve also learned that the knowledge I have gained about East Asia can also be tied in my 8^th grade science classes. As an 8^th grade science teacher, I plan on using our seminar on resource scarcity in East Asia to make a connection on the lesson of human impacts on earth. Students can research on the history of resource scarcity of each East Asian country using a Venn Diagram. From there, the lesson can be stretched to compare and contrast the causes of resource scarcity and try to design solutions for such impact. This would fit in the NGSS standard of MS-ESS-3-3 and MS-ESS-3-4.  

I’ve gained a lot of insights on how to tie in the history of East Asia to my science NGSS standards. I thought it would be impossible to intertwine history with science, but this seminar proved to me that anything can be done. I’m very thankful to have received so many resources and ideas from fellow educators through our discussions in class and in the forum posts.
 

[Jaclyn Wall]

When I signed up for this course it was because other colleagues had mentioned how beneficial it was for them. I honestly had no idea how much I would learn about a vareity of Asian cultures, history, and art, but I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this course. I'm truly blown away and would recommend it to anyone looking to add another tool into their academic tool belt. 

Professor Dube and all of the guest professors not only kept my interest, (I must admit I'm not a huge history buff,) but also made me look forward to their lectures and open conversations. As an educataor I deem it so important to keep expanding my education and strengthening my knowledge in content subject areas that I'm not familiar on. I not only learned multiple new things each week and from each session, but I also learned how to bring Asian cultured lesson plans into my classroom with ease. I thought that would be extremely difificult given I teach 3rd grade, but I have already taken ideas from these sessions and incoprorated them into my virtual lessons this school year. My students love learning about different cultures and have really gotten into the Name the Gibberish game (where I presented the 3 C's, 3 S's and 3 J's from Professor Faison's lecture) and guessing the BTS and Psy instructumental song titles.

Thank you for expanding my Asian cultural knowledge and making this class accesible during a global pandemic. I look forward to the next one! 

[Betsy Telle]

I thoroughly enjoyed this course. Before this course I only knew some very basic things about the history of East Asian countries, and what I did know was all taught from an Western/American perspective. I have learned so much and filled the many gaps in my own knowledge. Prior to this course I would have never thought to incorporate teaching about East Asia in my Curriculum. Once I started taking this course I was not sure how I would integrate my learnings into my Science class. However, I found the course and the fellow participants very helpful with thinking about how to bring in East Asia into Science. I was thankful that there were several other middle school science and math teachers taking the course as well.

 

The topics that have the most relevance to my class would be related to geography, environments, and population studies. I teach 8^th grade Science and one of our big Units for the year is Evolution. This Unit focuses on the main ideas of evolution. There are not specific examples that are required within the Unit. Because there are not specific examples required, this would be a great Unit to fit in integration of East Asian topics. Thankfully my fellow seminar participates helped my thinking about how to incorporate these topics, especially the comparison of the population issues facing East Asia right now with animal population trends. I also think it will be easy to use the geography of Asia to teach about different environments.

[Guadalupe Moreno]

As a student I have always enjoyed history and as I started my path in art college during college, I found a passion for ethinic art and art history. Straying away from the typical Eroupean art history, I actually enjoyed learning about ethnic artwork. Continuing to have the opportunity to develop myslef and learn more about other cultures only perpertuates that interest. Suprisingly, I came into a curriculum focusing on cultural art which only makes me love what I do even more. This is the second class that focuses on East Asia specifically South and North Korea. It is so amazing being able to learn so much about a different culture and have the opportunity to share it with our students. 

I feel like the more I understand the cultrue, history, and people the better I can teach my students to embrace the art. My goal as an educator is to continue to implement diversity and cultural knowledge. We at times are the only opportunity our students will have to learn about and experience other cultures. I would like to be the one to give them that opportunity. We need to let our students know artist are diverse and not only centerd around Euroccentric male artists. 

 

[Maria Cardenas]

This is my third course I have taken with USC about Asia. Just like the Two Korea's and Crossing Boundaries, I really enjoyed this course. I enjoy hearing what my peers have to say on the different topics and I learn so much from them. I think compared to the other two seminars, in this one people gave me suggestions to my lesson ideas and I was able to read what others were thinking of creating for their curriculum projects. The more courses I take the more I learn about Asia and their history is very rich. Different events can be compared to each other and now I can connect history that I know to what I am learning. 

The movie I watched Pandora, I will use in class because it will grab the students attention. We can review the 5 themes of geography with a video. I have done this with my students but we used the orginial movie of the Lorax. 

There are different topics and resources that I can use and connect them to the elective class that I teach which is Geography. My curriculum project is about China's Environmental Crisis and the solutions. I can definetely see myself also creating somthing similar about Korea and Japan, when the time comes for me to cover those countries. 

I always enjoy all of the resources that we read or watch because I can choose what I want to use in my class. Thank you so much for another great course. 

[Cynthia Jackson]

East Asia is an important region for our students to connect with. Most career fields they will enter after high school require our kids to know something about the countries there, speak a language spoken in that region, or be able to navigate a semester or internship abroad there. As East Asia is relevant outside of our classrooms, this means that geographical region is important inside of our classrooms too. Moving forward, I will be using what I have learned in the past two and a half months to finish building a unit that addresses the rich, long history of East Asia and introduce students to a part of the world they will interact with socially, culturally, and intellectually as they become adults. I have come up with ideas for or found materials for about 25 lessons to teach ancient and modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history. Some of these lesson topics are:

• China in the Industrial Revolution: GDP

• China in the Industrial Revolution: Economic Growth vs. Economic Development

• Opium Wars and Unfair Treaties

• To Save China Debate

• A Study: Isolationism in the Modern Age

 

Yes, East Asia is relevant today, but this region has also always been relevant. One of the qualities that makes this region perma-relevant is its experience with diversity. East Asia provides a good example of the dangers of “a single story”. Sometimes students are so used to hearing a phrase like this said in conjunction with the words “the United States” or “America” the lesson that needs learning does not sink in. However, teaching World Geography has afforded me to open up my classroom and center each of our units on deconstructing single stories, learning various perspectives, and coming to our own conclusions. I am excited to continue working over the next year to achieve these goals through the topics listed above.

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