Self-introductions

[cgao]

Hi everyone! We are looking forward to meeting you online and getting to know you over the next few weeks. Please use this thread to introduce yourself to the other participants. What/where do you teach and what are your teaching circumstances at the moment? Any complaints or tips? What were your pre-covid hobbies? Any newly discovered quaratine talents? 

Please upload a photo of yourself. Go to "my account," the

 

[Philip Bramble]

Hi!  I'm P. Sean Bramble -- I'm one of those middle-name people -- and I teach U.S. history and modern world history at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland.  Before returning stateside to teach, I spent two decades teaching in Asia: one year in Shanghai, China, and the rest in Japan: three of those years in the Goto Islands (the setting for part of Martin Scorsese's film Silence) and the remainder in modern Fukuoka and historic Dazaifu.  Pre-covid (was there truly such a time?) there were few things I thought more enjoyable than getting on an airplane to go far away, with naught more than a book or three to keep me company as I landed in a foreign city to make my way through certain half-deserted streets, the muttering retreats to a quiet coffee shop, where the clock has a pendulum that swings relentlessly but the hands are forever frozen at twenty-five past two.

Not that I've ever been to such a place, mind you, but if and when this pandemic ever ends you'll know where to find me.

[Shurong Tu]

Hi! I am shurong Tu. I live in Oregon and teach Chinese language at a private school in Oregon. I and my family we often go to beach before pandemic and now we always commute from work, home and grocery store. A new formed quaratine habit is spendig more time online- This is why I am here to meet you and everyone else!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone!

Best, 

 Shurong

[Jennifer Lee]

Hi everyone! I am Jennifer Lee.  I teach AP Art History and Studio Art at a public school in southern California.  Right now we are only doing remote learning, but we will be transitioning to blended soon. Before we were banned from entering most countries, I loved to travel internationally.  In Asia I have been lucky enough to travel to Japan, China, and Macao. I spent a month in China in 2016 with a group of other Californian teachers. Some of my new quarintines hobbies include, brush lettering and using/decorating my planner/journal.

[Emily Zimmerman]

Hello everyone; I'm lucky enough to get accepted to this class from the wait list, as a non K-12 teacher (although my brother David teaches history at Conestoga High in PA).  I did teach Asian-American Studies at San Francisco State University from 2000-2005, and prior to that, I directed a (now discontinued) Masters program in Korean Studies at the Intercultural Institute of California.  Currently, I volunteer as a Master Gardener (with University of California Cooperative Extension), and I have a 25-minute slide presentation called "Introduction to Korean Culture Through Plants."  My favorite book on bridging East-West differences is is U. Michigan psychologist Richard Nisbitt's "The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently, and Why." 

[Denis Vovchenko]

My name is Denis Vovchenko, I am originally from Kazakhstan which has kept my interest in the rest of Asia throughout my life. My research focus is on Christian-Muslim interactions in the Balkans and Asia Minor in the 19th and 20th centuries. By the way, you can see the Bosphorus in the background of my picture.

I teach European and world history at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma so I  need to fill in my glaring East Asia gaps. This is one of the few summers my family and I spent in Oklahoma - before COVID19 restrictions, we typically tried to wait out the Oklahoma heat in a cooler place like Moscow where I could also collect archival materials. Staying in Oklahoma this summer gave me more time to grow a lot of tomatoes and to finish a couple of articles - hopefully, they will be published soon but the peer review process is slow.

Another change is that I chose to teach all of my classes online this academic year.

I have taken several AFE online courses. Looking forward to another stimulating book group!

 

[Denis Vovchenko]

I also love gardening! I will check out Richard Nisbitt's book. Thanks!

[Shaolu Yu]

Hello, everyone:

I teach Urban Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. One of the courses is Asian urbanization through cinema, which leads me to this course. I hope to learn more about Asia from urban design and architectural perspective.

I was born and raised in China, then moved to Connecticut to study geography. After graduation, I moved to Memphis for my job. I have been in the US for 10 years, Memphis 5 years.

 

 

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

Hi Everyone! My name is Kimberly and I teach middle school US History, World History, and AP Spanish at a Spanish Immersion school in San Diego- so I teach History in Spanish.  I am the kind of person who likes to know about everything, so I have a pretty decent breadth of knowledge but very little depth in most, so I try to dive into the depths of different topics when I can.  I guess my own areas of focus have been Latin American history and politics, and Colonial history of North America.  I love to travel more than almost anything, and in Asia I have been to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing, Malaysia, and India as a student on Semester at Sea in college.  This past summer my trip to Mongolia was put on hold, but I took an online course here on the Two Koreas, which was fascinating.  I also took Gender and Generation in Asia last summer onsite at USC.  My school district is fully online still for the forseeable future, with entire year-long courses crunched into two, non-consecutive 9-week sessions, so I recently decided to move my Asia unit to my spring quarters in order to give them more time.

I look forward to this course and to meeting all of you virtually.

[Maria Teresa Harris]

Thank you Emily for the book title. I'm looking to forward to hearing more about your presentation. 

[Yan Liu]

Hi, everyone! My name is Yan Liu and I teach Chinese language and culture in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. My academic background is in second language acquisition. I have been teaching Chinese in the U.S. since 2009. In addition to Chinese language courses, I have been designing and teaching interdisciplinary content courses in Chinese, like Global Health and Environmental Studies. I'm very interested in the topic of this seminar (architecture and urbanism) and would like to know how to integrate it into my teaching. I look forward to the seminar and meeting you all soon!

[Jennifer Place]

Hello everyone!  I teach visual arts, theatre, and language arts in a K-8 magnet school.  I too love to travel and was disappointed when my trip to Africa was cancelled.  I have chaperoned high school arts students to China and have been to Spain and Morocco in recent years.  I enjoy learning new things in general, but have been fascinated with the architecture of China since my last visit. I am looking forward to the seminar and to meeting everyone.  

 

[Thomas Pineda]

Hi, my name is Thomas and I am currently teaching in San Bruno, CA after living in Los Angeles the past 3 years. I've been primarily teaching 6th grade Math & Science, and now am working remotely through Zoom. While it's often hard to link some of the topics related to Asia in my Math & Science classes, it's been an opportunity to collaborate with my students' ELA/History teachers and add to their ancient history units. 

Before COVID, I used to really enjoy playing team sports and running with my running club in Koreatown. Since then, we've moved back to the Bay Area and I've spent more quarantine time working in the garage or out riding my motorcycle. However, most of my time has been spent recently getting my new students up to date with their new virtual learning environments and providing "tech support".

[Elizabeth Rosales]

Hello,

I teach third grade in Riverside, California, which means that I teach everything: Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science, History/Social Studies, Physical Education, Digital Citizenship, Art, and the list goes on. So I truly enjoy meeting educators outside of the elementary spectrum, since you are experts in your field. I love learning about anything and everything, and bringing back relevant pieces to my students. They begin the school year at 8 years old, which in some respects means that they are still babies, but I never underestimate young children. They are brilliant, kind, open, and highly intuitive. They have enjoyed learning some of the things I have learned here in previous seminars. I am teaching entirely online at the moment, so I am working from my father's house in Wisconsin. I work during the day, and visit with family in the evening.

I am so happy to learn about architecture in China. That was one of the things I loved the most when I visited there in 1988, along with the hardscapes and landscapes of the many amazing gardens. If you haven't been to the Huntington library in Pasadena, they have built such an incredibly accurate representation of a Chinese garden, it felt like I was back there, which was nice to share with my family.

On Friday the 13th, last March, we were told to leave the school and not come back. So I went to my daughter's house on Oahu and worked from there for a few months. I was so grateful to be able to spend time with her. I also went on an almost three-week long road trip with my son during the summer. We visited many states, including the cities of Portland and Seattle. I guess we are not a fearful family. We value our relationships with each other, and with other people everywhere we go. We met many wonderful people. 

During quarantine I have read a lot of books!

[Betsy Telle]

My name is Betsy Telle. I teach 8th Grade Science at Dr Julian Nava Learning Academy for LAUSD. This is my third year as a teacher. I am currently teaching 100% remotely from home. Pre-Covid I travelled quite a bit. I thankfully was able to travel quite a bit last year before the shutdown. Since quaratine, I have begun hiking a trail near my house several days a week. I've been trying to eat healthier and excercise more. I started a garden during the shut down from seeds leftover from vegetables from cooking.

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