Menu
close
Jimmy MartinezA couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to go to the Chinese American Museum. The two exhibitions I enjoyed most were Origins: The Birth and Rise of Communities in Los Angeles and Journeys. I really enjoy teaching my students about the local history and the cultures that shape and influence our community. These two exhibitions do a fantastic job of really highlighting the experiences and hardships of Chinese immigrants in LA. My students are always shocked when I tell them how far the Chinese travelled just for work and that they helped lay down the railroads not only in America but in Mexico as well. The Chinese were always assigned the most laborous and dangerous jobs. One of these extremely dangerous jobs was mining and so they had to blow up mountains and work with the highly exploseive ingredient that is nitroglycerin. Many Chinese and Irish died from doing this and most Americans refused these kind of jobs. The truth is America would not be the nation it is without the blood, sweat and tears from immigrants all over the world.
Jimmy MartinezMarcos I have only been teaching for about 2 years now so i completely sympathize with the money problems that many teachers have. I have been working as a Lyft driver just to make extra money. I am currently climbing the pay scale and sometime I feel a little overwhelmed with how many PD's/classes I am taking. I've had to sacrifice many events with my family and friends this past year and most of the time I feel really when I have to cancel. More sacrifice in the beginning means less stress later.
Jimmy MartinezI agree with you Scott, the forbidden city was absolutely amazing! The immensity of the all the structures and wonders/treasures that they have inside of the city are simply remarkable. Google Expeditions (A Virtual Reality App) actually has an aerial view with lots of great info on the forbidden city but unfortunetly does not have a better virutal experience.
Jimmy MartinezRicardo, thank you very much for the interesting article you shared. When you think of languages you think of a certain group of individuals who speak the same language and never really think of it as an animal/endagered species. You would think that generation after generation that the language might change a little bit, accents and such, but that the language would endure. That is definitely not occuring in our world. Languages are dying like the Manchu language. According to this article over half of the 7,000 languages will be extinct by 2100. That is a shocking number!
Jimmy MartinezI think most of us grew up being taught certain things and not questioning them. Taking these newly learned facts without questioning is a common mistake most learners make in the beginning. Maybe our minds were not mature enough to develop this sense of questioning but I also love when students ask the why. Posing this question to our students of "Did Marco Polo really go to China?" could be an excellent way of challenging the notions that we have had in our minds since we first learned about these things. Also it would be a perfect research project in which the students could dive deeper into the materials at hand.
Jimmy MartinezLinda, I completely agree with you that it is a very difficult task in making students realize what technology really encompassed. It is true that they turn to their phone whenever they think about technology, it's what they know best. We had a similar discussion the other day in class when we were talking about inventions and innovations. I had the same exact reaction when I showed the wheel as a technological advancement. It is rather difficult to drill this piece of information in their head because they simply have a more simple way of looking at these inventions.
Jimmy MartinezLinda, excellent point on comparing the dynmaics between both groups. I think it is a great idea to see both points of view of the Chinese and Mongols and also highlight the fact that there was still a trading relationship between each other. This would prove the point that two opposing societies could in fact live amongst each other yet still have quarrels. Highlighting the similarities would also be a a fun activity in which we could use graphic organizers such as a venn diagram.
Jimmy MartinezGerlinde, great resource and thanks for the share. I will definitely use this the next time I teach ancient civilizations/world history. I really like when the students collaborate because it mentors debates and different points of view. Also the assignemnt of roles is a great aspect I would like to explore a little more in the classroom. I believe this activity really helps the students put themselves in these theoretical situations and acclimates them more to that specific time period.
Jimmy MartinezI agree also with the grpahic organizer idea. I think it is a wonderful tool to use with the students since most of them are visual learners. I use them all the time to help them organize their ideas before writng an essay. Sometimes students tend to get lost int heir ideas and this is a great way to lead them on to the right path.
Jimmy MartinezDuring Professor Dube's lecture he stated: "We tend to talk about the past to explain the present." This is an important aspect to teach our students because it is one of the main reasons we teach history. It is critical to learn from our past in order to not make the same mistakes and even learn from other cultures to not repeat that same mistake. I am currently watching "Chernobyl" and I think it is one of the most interesting historical shows because the scientists try everything in their power to discover what specific mistake was made in order to prevent such an atrocious event from happening ever again. Another interesting fact I learned was that the Mongols created a social heirachy with them on top, muslims underneath them, Northern Chinese under them and Southern Chinese at the bottom. This had an interesting dynamic because the Muslims were second on the heiarchy and the Chinese were at the bottom because they had resisted the Mongols for so long.
Jimmy MartinezProfessor Hirano had a great lecture and I learned so many new facts about the Japanese culture. There was a time during the lecture when he stated: "Japanese people don't know about diversity." This was a strong point that he brought up that many societies face and that lead to the persecution of people because of their differences. People fear what they don't know. Learning about the Japanese attire was also very interesting and I had no idea that some women wore clothes that consisted of 12 layers of silk. I get hot when I wear two layers of clothes, nevermind 12 layers! I also learned that Cherry Blossoms represents Japan ever-changing ways in that it is beautiful but only last for a short time, like the seasons.
Jimmy MartinezI am another person that was completely misconveieved by the Hollywood industry. I could not agree with you more that filmakers romanticize ideas sometime and completely change the storyline and factual evidence. Then again Hollywood is only in it for the money and as long as they make money there is "no harm" in creating white lies or completely changing the idea and putting "Based on a True Story" at the end of any movie.
Jimmy MartinezI agree that introducing different perspectives is critical in the ways that we teach history to our students. I think most students come in thinking that there is only one way of perceiving a historical event. Standford History Education Group (SHEG) has an excellent activity to introduce this idea of multiple perspectives called "Lunchroom Fight." https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/lunchroom-fight
Jimmy MartinezI also really enjoy the idea of creating a lesson that focues on the role that religion had on the formation of a certain society. Religious has been the causes of war since societies began to develop and they will probably continue to be that way until the end of time. Today we have so much religious conflict that we are seeing deaths in places of worship in an alarming fashion.
Jimmy MartinezLi Po is legit!! One of my favorite poem by Po is "Drinking Alone." One of my favorite lines is "We share life's joys when sober. Drunk, each goes a separate way." I can't imagine making poems when I'm drunk but Li Po had a lot of practice I'm guessing. I also don't think they would not be coherent or make any sense at all.
