[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

Date Time: Oct 29, 2020 04:00 PM 

What's Next in the US-China Economic Relationship

Description: Though we are quite intertwined, U.S.-China relations are at their lowest ebb in at least a generation. Focusing on our technology, trade and investment ties, what might be the aims of the next administration, whether headed by Donald Trump or Joseph Biden? What might that administration do to realize those aims? How is China likely to respond?

 

Joseph Biden requires immediate solutions to fix the relationship between the US and China. There are problems between both countries that have been building up for a long time. Trump brought his own perspective on these matters, and his own method. Joseph Biden has brought up the issues of missile technology proliferation, human rights and Taiwan. Biden has made the statement ““The United States welcomes the emergence of a prosperous, integrated China on the global stage, because we expect this is going to be a China that plays by the rules”. He has described China  as a top strategic challenge and agrees that the United states must regain its place in liberal values and economic innovation. Joseph Biden wants to rebuild alliances and partner with China on health security, climate change and nonproliferation. There might be new changes as the presidential election approaches. 

 

[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. 

 

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I agree with your statement, exploring   the spread of Christianity in Asia would be an interesting topic to explore with students. At the moment in my history class we have covered the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire and in the Byzantine Empire but we have not covered it's spread to Asia. This topic is covered in a different chapter, I am excited on teaching it in the future after gathering so much information through today's readings. Many students do not know the origin of their own religion, which makes me wonder about their reactions to new information.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

Thank you for sharing this resource, I will be using this I with my 7th graders. I've never heard of “The Red Scarf Girl”, so I will be part of the learning process as well. This book tells the story of the cultural revolution in China and tells the choices made by Jiang and her family. One of the units that students cover in English is making choices, therefore I can use this book in my English class as well. This website is also a great resource for teachers. I will be exploring it even  further.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I love your idea on having students match playing cards to slogans of the Cultural Revolution.  I think it would also be a good idea if students created their own classroom slogans and made playing cards to represent them. Another idea is to have students analyze the playing cards and create assumptions on their message. Students could work together on this and created a list of inferences on what they believe the card represents. At the end of the lesson students can be given the real messages behind the playing cards.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I love your idea of showing students the different weapons that were used in the war. I would show students different photographs and have them make up their own conclusions of which war used them and the origin of their manufacturing. It would also be interesting if students compared and contrasted American weapons with the weapons used in Asia. Sometimes students forget that other countries manufacture their own weapons and hadve their own strategies and ideas.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

Thank you so much for sharing this website, I can definitely use this information and include it in my lessons. Students are always able to connect with different cultures when they are given the opportunity to engage in a creative project.I like how the website offers a  brief history on Woodblock prints. I can start my lesson by giving a brief summary of its history followed by a video. I can also show students different photographs of different woodblock prints that have been made throughout history.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

One fun and entertaining activity that students can do to learn  more about Korean culture is by taking a trip to a Korean supermarket. Students can examine the items being sold and their prices. Perhaps students can even meet with the store owner and discuss who their customers are and what items are the most popular. This can be an  affordable field trip that can broaden students' knowledge about Korean culture. Students can even purchase one item to try afterwards. At end of the field trip students  can share something interesting they found at the supermarket and one new thing they learned about Korean culture.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

You brought you insights into the discussion. I've only considered the womens perspective on working long hours and choosing between a career and having a family. However, I completely  overlooked the fact that many families in Japan will have an absentee father. If women are choosing between careers and have a family men are forced to choose between being unemployed or working long hours to support their family. Men are also being affected by this, they are forced to work long hours to support their families and most of them are bringing the only income into their home. Which can add a lot of responsibility. 

 

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I like the idea of using art to teach political affairs and social studies. It adds a fun and entertaining element to lessons. Every student is different and by integrating the arts into a lesson we get to cater to all learners. Especially now that students have to sit and attend class virtually for hours, adding a fun element will engage them. It will also give students the opportunity to be creative and express their opinions with art.  ELL students will also benefit greatly from a lesson that includes an art project and not just research papers.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I think it's important for students to learn about geography in order for them to understand the function of different countries. Sometimes my students have a hard time connecting with the information being given when they do not know where a particular country is located. I always make sure to include maps when we are discussing a specific empire. I started the semester with discussing the Roman Empire followed by the Byzantine Empire and now we are learning about the Islamic Empire. By showing my students different maps they are able to visualize their location and how they are connected.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

Learning about slavery from around the world is an interesting topic because history books do not really discuss such topics. As a history teacher I see that my history textbook leaves out a lot of crucial details that are also very important. Sometimes history books only mentioned slavery from certain parts of the world but they exclude this information when discussing certain countries. I had no idea that Korea had a history of slavery, now I need to further my own research on this topic.

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

 

I agree with your statement, I think it's a wonderful idea to choose entertaining topics for students to research and write papers on. As long as the students are practicing  and mastering the necessary skills, it shouldn't matter what the research is on. Even if the teacher is not necessary teaching a specific culture  students should be given the option to choose any topic to write on. I remember when I was in Middle School my English teacher allowed us to choose an animal to write a research paper on. The freedom to choose my own topic motivated me to continue with the research paper.

 

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

A way for students to study and analyze contemporary Korean cultural  is by being presented with artifacts or with photos containing these artifacts. You can place a different photograph in each station and students can rotate to each station to take notes and make observations. They can answer questions such as: Who uses these objects? Whom were they made for?  When and where would these objects be used? Does everybody use them? Why do so many of the objects have English on them? How are these object different from what you normally see or use?

[Lizbeth Vazquez-Ruiz]

I agree using photographs to teach a certain timeline in history is a wonderful idea. Students can analyze a photograph and make observations about it’s content. They can use these observations to draw conclusions and use their historical imagination and their knowledge to analyze a photograph. This  can also engage students and allow them to absorb more details. 

 

Possible prompts: 

What is the caption? 

Are there people in the photograph? 

What do they look like? 

Who might they be? 

What are they doing? 

 Where are they? 

What is in the background? 

 Is the photo posed or spontaneous? 

Why might the photographer have taken the photo? 

What message do you think the photographer was trying to get across with this photograph?

 

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