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Candace SlobodnikEach of the last two lectures and readings, gave new insight for educators on our approach to using the concepts of East Asian urbanization within our classrooms. If we use the constructs of context, culture and climate, many of the ideas such as informalities, socioeconomic inequities and environmental impact can be adapted for most topics. I agree that it is important that we introduce these concepts to our students to prepare them to become global citizens with a broad multi-perspective approach to the challenges of urban development.
One question I have - what are the ecological benefits and drawbacks of urban tourism? As we have seen in East Asian cities, it is important to preserve the traditional spaces and cultural interactions, as well as the traditions that migrating workers bring with them when settling in cities. Urban economies -jobs, renovations, moderization - are also dependant on both domestic and foreign tourism. Are there any studies that show that limiting tourism, or promoting rural eco-tourism packages are more or less beneficial? One the one hand many urban poor may depend of benefits of tourism, but on the other hand, do the environmental drawbacks, including CO2 emissions from transportation, outweigh the postive aspects?
Thank you, Professor Bharne.
Candace SlobodnikFocus Comments / Question for June 28.
Question:
In what ways can educators create learning opportunities where students begin to conceptualize possible solutions to climate change and food insecurites?
In the last lecture Professor Bharne shared how large areas of school property are covered with asphalt. Living near the Chesapeake Bay watershed, climate change also brings rising water levels for many communities. Our high school is a Maryland Green School, and a few of our staff members continue to seek grant opportunities to help sustain and grow our Green School status. One of the major issues for any changes are the local, state and federal zoning and school funding regualations. The state of Maryland also has strict rules about using school funding for capital improvements, which can lead to other uphill battles. Our school was built in the 1960s and rather than tear it down and rebuild, the decisions to improve usually involve construction or upgrades for classrooms when we have new career programs. The decisions are not always well coordinated, so as recipients of grant funding, the appropriate or intended use of the monies can often be delayed. During the pandemic one contractor did not complete our Outdoor Classroom and we are hoping the project will be completed so that we are able to fund and build our greenhouse.
During the second lecture, Redefining Western Modernism, Professor Bharne shared the concept of speedier rebuilding of Tokyo after disasters due to less strict zoning rules. On the other hand, one consequence of rapid modernization on cities such as Shanghai, have seen a negtative environmental impact that is also attributable to climate change. I like the idea of the impermanent screens used in Ginza and wonder if that concept might be used for schools such as ours that constantly adapt to the need for training 21st century workers. It would be great for our Contstruction and Development teachers and students to learn about this type of design from the architects.
I had a wonderful experience in April 2022 when I attended a Zoom event hosted by Univ of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies - Chesapeake Biological Laboratory's Science for Communities Webinar Series. http://ttps://www.umces.edu/cbl/science-citizens The guest speaker was Professon Dr. Kirchner of Morgan State University, HBCU. She shared her experiences working with students and the community to develop community gardens within one of Baltimore City's historically black neighborhoods. Many of residents face food insecurites and are also subject to increased gentrification as well as climate change and the hazards of rising water. Dr. Kirchner's work in Baltimore can be found starting on p. 48 of this Issu site - https://issuu.com/arch4247/docs/case_study_2_-_compiledpages. The document showcases Case Studies in other urban areas such as Detroit and Brooklyn as well.
While viewing the Dr. Bharne's second lecture, I began to see the connections with the ideas presented in the Morgan State community project and possible options for our own secondary students. Some of our students also choose to enroll in Morgan State each year and it is also the alma mater of a few colleagues. The ideas from this Session IV are an inspiration for me to share with our Green Team educators for our next steps when we apply for the competetive Exelon Corp Green Lab grant in the fall. Link -
Candace SlobodnikHi Niya,
I was also thinking about the natural world, and wonder about students who spend so much time on social media, Zoom meetings and using their devices in a 1:1 school. As a child I had so many opportunities to connect with nature and to wonder about the flora and fauna. For our students who live in multi-family dwellings and either not have access to or or take advantage of outdoor spaces, how this impacts their creativity and indvidualism.
If we use some of the ideas from the lecture and readings, can adapting materials and creating aesthetically designed spaces help to alleviate some of the negative aspects of population growth and climate change? Can communities, including schools, assist families with modest incomes and cramped living conditions to find ways to modify the indoor and outdoor spaces? If we design buildings and parks to be more aesthetically appealing, can we also find ways to create more peace and well-being among our youth?
Candace SlobodnikGood Afternoon colleagues,
For the pre-June 21 lecture discussion post, my focus is on the following two quotes from the Aesthetics and Symbols video and A View from the Zen Shoin reading. There are so many ideas that interested me in this week's lectures and readings, that I did find it difficult to flush out a focus point that might also become part of our faculty collaborative lesson planning in the fall. As I read and listen, I continue to think about context, culture and climate in Japan and how our students might connect to the topics in their career program classes. At this moment, I do not have a specific question and am looking forward to the lecture and discussions.
The first quote is from Aesthetics and Symbols video lecture 28.09 “It is really about enhancing the natural qualities that nature gives to you which makes Japan very unique from other cultures." If we use a culturally responsive approach to teaching students, teachers might use visual thinking to make connections to students’ lives, thus enabling them to create lessons that are culturally relevant to students from diverse backgrounds. I think students in different content areas will benefit from tracing the evolution of aesthetics of building design including indoor and outdoor spaces with their teachers. Although Japan has adopted a modern approach to design, in many instances they have retained and adapted some of the Zen traditions and models from 12th c Japan to the present. Each one of our students has a special quality that can be developed despite the trauma they face. Students can connect with the quote as part of an SEL activity where they discuss their own unique superpowers, and the difference between accepting differences and collaborating with peers to design products while sometimes rejecting peer pressure.
This leads into my second quote from A View from the Zen Shoin.pdf: “What is significant however is the effort in these gardens to not outright obliterate or negate history, but seek conceptual and aesthetic threads that “keep alive the memory of a tradition–however thin or forced they may appear to be.” (p. 79). Many of our students have complete breaks from their own family’s history, such as migrating from the southern United States or from Central America. Schools develop their own traditions and culture that evolve as well. By modeling the traditions of ancient cultures such as Japan or Aztec, including buildings, landscapes, agricultural uses and people, students might engage in learning and rise above some of the trauma and stress they face outside of school.
There is so much to learn from this 3rd lecture series, and I look forward to our synchronous discussion on Tuesday.
Candace SlobodnikHi Nia,
I like your method of incorporating Shintoism and Zen Buddhism practices into your Environmental Science class. Several teachers in our school are involved in maintaining our Green School status as well as applying for grants, such as Outdoor classrooms, a Greenhouse, and other projects. Our culinary students competed nationally (and won!) for a chance to have their recipes used on a future NASA voyage. The takeaways from the lectures and readings about landscape, urbanscapes, buidlings and footprints in Asian societies are definitely adaptive and as we share these, our students will develop broader understandings of our changing world.
As schools become more open to mindfulness and SEL integration into lessons, I think more teachers will be willing to seek resources about Asian societies, and to adapt their lessons to include lessons from indigenous and traditional societies. In addition, as it becomes more acceptable to discuss the mental health issues that our communities face, becoming more open, inclusive and culturally responsive will also pave the way for future school reforms.
Candace SlobodnikGood Afternoon Marcos,
I, too, am intrigued about how growth will impact our next generations. We already see this summer the extreme drought, weather and fires in the western USA that cause us to realize the importance of raising our students to plan for the future. I think the ideas shared by Professor Bharne during the lecture of incentivizing people to rebuild and to reuse are great ideas. If we challenge our students to start small, such as recycling in the cafeteria, not wasting food, and considering their own footprint. we will jump the first hurdle. The next step is to work as teams within school in the areas of art, civics and STEM classes to prepare students about the decisions their families make when purchasing products, in voting for an official, and in supporting their community through service learning. In all areas of education, we need to move out of our silos, and to inroads for support from our communities.
Candace SlobodnikGood Afternoon Taylor,
I like your idea of students sharing their own fund of knowledge of art and making the connections to mental health and healing. Often when teaching a subject about which I may not have my own deep background knowledge, I ask a colleague from such as an art teacher, or a community member to speak to our students. Reaching out and stepping out of the textbook is so important today, especially due to our student connections to social media. Our state continues to assess students using the Common Core standards, which do require students are able to synthesize using multiple sources. Now that most classrooms have access to Smartboards and Zoom, we are able to bring the professionals directly to our classrooms.
Candace SlobodnikAs we begin to reform our secondary schools, and to adapt the ways in which we communicate with our students since the pandemic shut down, it is most important that we address student learning gaps and to reach the whole child in every classroom. If we integrate the concepts of context, culture and climate within lesson and project-based learning activities, we can help our students to develop a sense of empathy and growth mindset about the ways that physical buildings, including the physical space, symbols and materials, can shape the student thinking about climate change.
During the lecture on Tuesday, Professor Bharne discussed the topic of climate resiliency and the connection to cultural resilience. Many of our students, especially those with interrupted schooling and food and shelter insecurities, struggle with gaps in learning that were heightened during the pandemic. These students also have a deep desire to learn; as educators we need to find ways to engage these survivors who may also work after school to support their families. Although many students struggle with accessing secondary reading and math standards, using examples of the cultural and material adaptations made by Japan as they adapted to changing times and the ideas of modernization.
I especially was drawn to this quote: "...ideas of monuments, communities, indeed entire cities being recurrently destroyed and built again..." (p. 37 Behind the Culture of Wood). I think our students who live in urban areas of the United States, and have never traveled, may find it hard to grapple with the bigger idea of ancient cities as well as with the traditions and diffusion of Buddhism. My students live in the area around the District of Columbia which is the subject of a recent documentary, DC Legacy Project created Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington, DC premiering on June 16. (https://dcist.com/story/22/06/16/barry-farm-documentary-dc-free-premiere-mlk-library/)
Many of our students have recently experienced the impacts of gentrification or forced migration (from Central America or Afghanistan), so they will connect to the concepts raised in our discussions on Tuesday. As the career and technical education southern hub of our district, each of our students enter career pathways in grade 9, such in engineering, construction and development or business management. Our students also participate in a year-long student-built house project with our local businesses and government that culminates in a marketable brick suburban home.
If our teachers use the ideas from the lectures and readings to create transdisciplinary lessons, our students might imagine creative adaptations for the house or other projects. They might choose materials and exterior and interior design models that are aesthetically appealing while connecting to both regional culture and climate. They might also begin to see the benefits of perseverance and the potential growth of our urban and suburban spaces rather than blight and unemployment.
Candace SlobodnikHi Taylor,
I connected to your post about cities becoming more walkable and pedestrian friendly. If you have a link to the article, I would like to read it. It is interesting that in the US our urban planning seems to be centered around parks and green spaces within cities, often as an afterthought, and also on planning for suburbs that were automobile dependent after WWII. Each of these concepts are also linked to racial disparities, eminent domain and gerrymandering that have developed in those same spaces. If we begin to invite and listen to members of microcities, then plan for changes that will benefit humans from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, while protecting the environment, we might create more livable city spaces.
Candace SlobodnikI am excited about participating in this seminar and in the different ways I might connect to and share our discussions and readings with our school and district communities. Living and working through the pandemic, many educators have gained insight into both surviving and thriving during a time of shifts in our practices and approaches that were in some ways predictable, such as becoming a 1:1 student device district, yet in many ways unforeseen, such as the trauma faced by many students and families, we serve who already faced housing and food insecurities. In order to truly transform our public education system, educators need freedom to innovate while conforming to district curriculum mandates.
One way that each of us might connect the topics of urbanism and architecture to professional practice as educators at any grade level or content is to infuse topics and perspectives from different cultures, such as Asian and other societies. We can also share the resources and guide colleagues within our school and district communities to access the materials and concepts of this seminar. I am particularly interested in the ways that we can align the comparative themes that are discussed in the introductory video that will help our students grapple with some of the obstacles we face as we adapt to recent changes in our world, including daily life, modern communities, and climate change. As a young country, we have so much to learn about the resilience and resourcefulness of the societies of Asia, including through visual and performing art, architecture, places of worship (both natural and man-made), and political responses to external influences and interactions.
If we use a student centered inquiry based approach within our classrooms, the questions posed on p. 2 of the first reading, Framing the Asian City, by Vinayak Bharne may serve as a springboard for classroom discussions. How can we connect the adaptations to climate change and Western influences made by Asian societies in the past, present and future, to the dilemmas we face in our own communities? “What are the forces shaping them? What are the forces that they in turn are shaping? What are the dilemmas and challenges that underlie them? How are they different from the West? Are Asian cities treading a different path to their future?”
Candace SlobodnikI am Candace Slobodnik, Instructional Lead Teacher at Crossland High School, Science Technology and Advanced Trades in Temple Hills, Prince George's County, Maryland. We are the southern hub for CTE in our large district; our student demographics include about 70% African American and 30% Latino students. Our school is a "Green School" and among our staff we have a group dedicated the study of climate change and preservation.
I am interested in this course as part of our school's interdisciplinary approach to educating students who are college and career ready. I have been a member of NCTA for about 10 years and am looking forward to collaborating with and learning from educators around the globe to gather new resources and to learn new strategies that I will share with our staff.
Candace SlobodnikGood Afternoon Amy,
I find the idea of creating aesthetically appealing urbanscapes in ancient cities, while preserving the traditions of collectivist cultures intriging. Often when I think of modern cities the first images in my mind are cement and steel, with some urban parks. If we begin to develop the perspective of microcities with unique features where neighbors bond and form traditions, while connecting to other parts of the city, we can view the sustainable possiblities for the future. This can include markets, community green paces, places of worship and cooperative living spaces.
Candace SlobodnikI have a question about ancient city planning. During the lecture on Tuesday, you share that participants in this course we will begin to frame potential solutions to climate change, economic dispartities and socioeconomic polarization as we learn about urbanism from East Asian perspectives.
Throughout human history, governments have faced challenges of alleviating economic disparities. In 2022, in cities around the world, governments attempt different methods to adpat to growing numbers of people who face insecurities with shelter and food.
Is there evidence of how urban planners of ancient cities attempted to exclude or to accomodate groups such as the growing homeless population in U.S. cities?
