Session 1 (9/23) - Demography & Geography

[Brigid Schmidt]

During the Genroku period the city of Edo was a bustling metropolis and men outnumbered women two to one. Edo had many craftsmen, warriors, merchants, and performers. The shogun's castle was in the center. Edokko culture was rooted in the Edo language. We also see examples of the life in the kabuki stage, which professor Dube spoke about in the lecture as well. I would like to teach my students a little about kabuki theatre and about Edo art. Kabuki theatre was a place to see the latest fashion trends and current events of the time. It was intertainment for the common people. My students study plays (Shakespeare, O. Henry, etc) so it could be interesting to study a play quite different like this to search for themes, characters, and plots. Additionally, going through the Edo art from the National Gallery of Art was quite interesting. There were painting and sculptures and many other kinds of art work. My students could use this as a virtual field trip and visit this art. We could then have each student pick there own piece of art to research or write a creative writing story based on what they see. There are so many pieces to choose from. 

[Tara Corral]

So I read your response about creating a lesson that foucses on looking at problems concerning fresh water and Cynthia's response about how to expand that lesson by looking at Yellow River. I really liked the way both ideas focus on how water is important role in our society and how it can affect civilization. It has given me an idea to look at the stats of how some of the biggest cities irrigate fresh water to large populations. Students can learn just how important and how much water we use as one of the biggest cities. I imagine working with 4th/5th grade and have them study maps of different cities as well as articles on how they try to save/reuse fresh water. A standard for Visual Art is create drawings that represent real life, and it would be a great idea to have kids draw fictional maps based on a paper granting them a specific amount of water and population. At the end of the assignment students can see how their maps accomadated those restrictions. 

[Tara Corral]

One of my biggest struggles as a Itinerant Visual Art Teacher was just how much my students are eager to waste. I am hoping to learn new ways to help reduce my classrooms impact on the enviornment. Imagine a class of K-5 with watercolor paint. Their is overflowing water, running water, emptying and refilling of water as well as just so much paper towel use. Those are my most stressful days but I would love to have my students more aware especially because we are in California. I hope change my students way of thinking by having them focus reduce, reuse and just being careful and thoughtful. 

 

[Tara Corral]

I think another thing you and your students could explore is Japanese Folklore, yokai,  and the artwork associated for them. The Japeanese have an extensive list of yokai some created long before the Edo period but others created during that time. I think it would really insterest the students to see the types of monsters that were created from their beliefs, understanding and culture. Now this art isn't as pretty as the art in the national gallery but I think its important to help understand of their beliefs.

[Maria Cardenas]

Yes, I agree studnets will be surprised to see how young the U.S. is compared to other nations. If you show the table from the second video at 4:06, students can see the world manufacturing goods and see how the U.S. and other nations progressed as the years went by. I think they will also be surprised over the fact that Third World Countries: China and India produced the most compared to other nations. 

Yes, the U.S. used every means necessary to get where they are. 

[Zoey McKinney]

I agree that the one child policy is an interesting topic for students to learn about. Last year, my students were studying water use and water waste, and one student became very impassioned about the destruction to the environment! He proposed an idea very similar to the one child policy in order to stop resource depletion and protect the environment. I mentioned that it had been enforced in China, and he did some research on how it played out historically. We were able to have a class discussion about it the next day, talking about why it might sound like a good idea, but in practice actually had several harmful effects. I thought it was really helpful for students to see how many considerations there must be before enacting policy. I was glad that the student was passionate enough about environmental issues to start thinking of solutions, and I felt that studying the one child policy taught him that ideas must be nuanced and well thought out in order to make a difference.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

Discussing the rise of machines in the workforce can be an engaging classroom discussion. It has occurred multiple times in history already. Machines are able to work overtime, at a fast rate and produce more products over time for less money. It makes sense to have machines take over certain jobs but what would happen to families that depend on those jobs? Massive unemployment will be the result. During the discussion students can be divided into groups, one group will defend and support the rise of machines and the other will object. Students can use the article “In Japan, the Rise of Machines Solves Labor Shortage” to provide supporting details. Students can also discuss which countries would benefit from this change.

[Maria Cardenas]

I have read about the Forest before and what happens there. This article, "In Japan, suicide rates among men rise as coronavirus impact hits hard," by Julian Ryall, it says that 705 working men killed themselves in the month of September. Men are killing themeselves because some of them are getting laid off or they are in a tight spot economically. Japan needs to overcome helping the Japanese that are struggling because of Covid-19 and those with mental health issues. There is a stigma with seeking help for mental health issues especially for men. This probably has to do with the Societal norms of what is acceptable for men to do. 

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3111180/japan-suicide-rates-among-men-rise-coronavirus-impact

[Maria Cardenas]

One has to wonder if China's One Child Policy plays into their aging population crisis. I mean there has to be a connection there, Chinese women were forced to have abortions, sterealized, in order for the One Child Policy to be followed. In the following article from the guardian, "Can China recover from its disastrous one-child policy?" by LIly Kuo and Xueying Wang in Shenyang, it states how China is now trying to get families to have two children instead of one. Like Guadalupe state the law One Child policy was eliminated in 2015. The Chinese government is trying to incite families to have more than one children. Some women put a lot of effort into giving their all for their one child they cannot imagine having time or energy to give the same to another child. Just like Japan it seems China is also trying to convince women to have more children. Just like how Japan has daycares in China they have been opening more Nurseries but that is not a solid solution to the issues. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/02/china-population-control-two-child-policy  

 

[Ester Yang]

Last week, I taught a lesson on water cycle and briefly covered the history of California drought. This led to many questions and examples on what we can do to conserve water at home. Definitely my students were aware of the drought situation since they're in 8th grade, but they won't execute their plans of conserving water. It was always my homework to educate the students how important it is for us to drink and use fresh water.  

[Khrystle San Diego]

Brigid, I think that it is imperative for students to keep up with current events. Sometimes they are so disconnected with the "real world" around them and simply focus on the lives of YouTubers or other social media influencers they see on their most used phone apps. I wonder if you have used the news app "Newsela" in your classroom. It provides differentiated articles for students. For example, the articles of a specific topic are similar in main ideas and facts. The differences are the word count/level of vocabulary. When we were really experiencing the water scarcity in Los Angeles, I believe they had a myriad of articles that discussed conservation and the effects of polution. You could relate all of these issues to the water scarcity in Korea and China by showing them realia about the Los Angeles River (or even what's left of it) and how we are getting our sources of water. If they see that the water we use is actually being brought in from the Kern County/Mojave Desert area, you can relate that to the water issues that North and South Korea experienced as well. 

[Khrystle San Diego]

Betsy, I emphasize the "setting" or "places of origin" of all the texts I bring into the classroom. It is quite shocking to know that many of our students are unfamiliar to geography of other parts of the world. To integrate Asian geography in your class, in addition to undersanding the context and environment of organisms, students can identify different organisms in Asia and where they can be found. You can also have them find out different traits they have or how they adapt to their environment.

[Khrystle San Diego]

Donna, the importance of being a global citizen is so important especially after what has been going in in our country in response to recent events this year. It is true that many times, our students can be wasteful - especially with food. 

Asian cultures put a big emphasis on the elders in families. Oftentimes, many households consist of three generations (grandparents, parents, children). My family is one of them. We put importance in taking care of my grandparents by providing for them. We definitely are family oriented. It's a bit disheartening that US culture is very individualistic, but it's interesting because many immigrants to the US come from Asian countries (mainly China, India, and the Philippines). Along with them, they bring Asian ideas on a family dynamic.

[Khrystle San Diego]

Ester, I suggest also integrating the website "Newsela" in your class. There are a lot of articles that discuss water scarcity. You can differentiate the articles to accommodate your students' various levels. You can also bring up the fact that our water is not locally sourced. Students are often shocked when they see that our water is brought in from farther away in California.

[Zoey McKinney]

I thought this article was really interesting because it is a perspective on machine labor that we don't really have in the United States. I think we could survey students' opinions on machine labor to see what points of view they are bringing into the classroom. I would guess some students would be excited about futuristic technology while others might have been exposed to the idea that machines take the place of human workers and leave people jobless. Our country certainly does not have a labor shortage, so students may not have considered the viewpoint expressed in the article. We could talk about why the situation in Japan is drastically different than the situation in the United States. Students could come up with solutions as if they were government officials, working to solve the labor shortage problem in Japan or the issue of unemployment in the United States. Then they could research what is actually being done to address these problems.

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