[Maria Cardenas]

I am teaching Geography as an elective teacher for all grades in middle school. Two of the five themes of geography are movement and human-environment interaction. This deals with one of the six essential elements Environment and Society and this includes the geography standard 16. The distribution and meaning of resources. Students can learn about Water on Earth and this includes Water Problems. This is about the water problems and the lack of fresh-water. Students can compare and contrast water shortage problems from Asia and the United States. An example that comes to mind is Flint, Michigan water crisis. Newsela has different articles that students can read that talk about Flint, Michigan. They can read about “Stories from around the world showcase the problem of water inequality” by National Geographic Society, adapted by Newsela staff. This article is about poor water quality.

            Aging Population: Ask students what is going to happen to society who has an aging society. Who is going to take care of the older population? Challenges will deal with the government and financially. Example can be used are Japan and South Korea. For example, the article that we had to read for the Two Koreas seminar had examples of the aging population was suffering with Covid-19. (https://china.usc.edu/sites/default/files/Gibson%2C%20South%20Korea%E2%80%99s%20Elderly%20Face%20Unique%20Challenges%20From%20COVID-19.pdf). Have students come up with solutions that can help society’s with aging population. The article of Asia’s demographic Crisis talks about Asia’s low fertility rate. It goes on to compare how in the 20^th century Europe had low fertility rate too and it gives solutions that can help Asia with low fertility rate. The document goes on to say that Asian men will have to be more supportive husband and father if they want to get married because women are dissatisfied with their options. They cannot be too big on keeping their gender roles. Yoshiaki Nohara’s article gives a solution that can be used in society to combat a problem with aging population, which is labor shortage. The article states how Japan is using robots in factories so that they can do the hard lifting. This article can also be used for students to read and for us to have a class discussion.

            Household expenditure: Students can compare and contrast what each country spends their money on compared in the pie chart. We can have a discussion about why the United States housing % is so high compared to the Asian countries. Students can compare the housing prices between different states, for example, California and Texas or so.

[Maria Cardenas]

Hello. I am a middle school teacher and this is the first year I am teaching 6th-8th graders. For the first time I am teaching Geography instead of history. I used to teach only one period of elective: Geography but this school year I found out I am teaching Geography. I would love to grab resources to use in the classroom. I will be working with History and Science teachers (6th grade) this school year so it will be nice to be more informed.

My school district is using zoom to give live instructions and synchronous work. I am finding what is working and what I need to work on. Pre-Covid I used to travel to visit family members and visit other countries. During quaratine I finish a scrapbook with my travel pictures and I started another one. Since I took some summer seminars and the school year has started I haven't continue working on the scrapbook. Hopefully I am able to work on it again. 

[Maria Cardenas]

Final Essay:

 

         Crossing Boundaries in East Asia seminar from USC was very interesting. I learned a lot from the readings, discussions, videos, and my peers. I believe everybody is always learning there is something out there that you still have not learned. I know that I learned a lot in this seminar for example that the Chinese were the original founders of Mexicali, that Jews fled Vienna and went to Shanghai, about Buddhism, western classical music coming to China, to list just a few things.  

         There are many different sources that can be used for middle school students from this course. The reading of Buddhism about China, Japan, and Korea, they may have to be modified or be read as a whole group with annotations and discussion about what was read. When talking about China we can play the classical music from the videos from Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai. Geography course you can lesson plan about present time so we can talk about what is happening to Muslims from China. Students can realize the East Asia like Europe has rich history and we can all learn about what happened in the past. They can analyze the situation about the Chinese Muslims.  

         I am not sure if I would show the documentary “Above the Drowning Sea.” Students would benefit to see that anybody can be a refugee it doesn’t have to be just the image the news project. They can also connect with the people from the documentary based on the loss they experience during this time period. Some students from my school have left their countries because of the violence. The reason why I may not show it is because I am not sure students would be engaged with it. Maybe I will show 20 minutes.

I can include the article from Dennis Carr, “Asia and the New World” Which I decided to include for the curriculum project for this course. I am using the California standard 7.11.2 to review the topic of global exchange between the continents with 8^th graders. They will be comparing the information grabbed from their history textbook with the Carr article.

I will be teaching geography so I can teach students about geography topics about the different East Asian countries.    

[Maria Cardenas]

Yes, we compare and contrast in history classes. This idea can be tweaked in different ways depending on what you want students to do. I am teaching geography so I will be helping the history and science teachers on similar topics we cover.

[Maria Cardenas]

I enjoyed listening to the music from the videos it was nice to hear the classica music. I am a history teacher and I have never really dived into Asian history because for 4 years I have taught American history. So reading that western classical music was brought to China was interesting. Although it didn't surprise me that Europeans were trying to convert the Chinese and find a way to come to an agreement that would benefit the Europeans. I am also curious whether western musicians traveled to other countries to attempt to share their music. Europeans regardless of were they went always tried to convert the populations to Christianity. Think about the Natives in the Americas the Spaniards would try to convert the Natives into Catholicism. 

 

[Maria Cardenas]

I watched the almost 3 minutes video about the Chinese influence in the Mexican city border of Mexicali. I think this video would catch the interests of the students because of the art. Students enjoy visuals. I found it interesting that the video talked about Chinese immigrants being original founders of Mexicali. When I think about Mexico I think about Natives, Enslaved people, and Spaniards. I have never connected China to Mexico in this way. So if I found this interesting I am pretty sure students will find this connection between China and Mexico as interesting. 

If you go read this la times article it talks about how the chinese helped found Mexicali and how they helped flourish other cities. It started with Woo Som Yee and he got his experience from the United States. The article is from the 1990s but the information is still relevant. 

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-16-vw-858-story.html

[Maria Cardenas]

Hey Evink.

I never really thought about religion in regards to China since I know its communist country. I guess I just thought that they didn't have a religion like North Korea. I have heard about the Muslim population because earlier this year I watched a video that talked about the Muslims from China. The United States is always involved in issues from other countries. 

I agree that we have to help students become critical thinkers were they analyze the material that is provided. They should question what is the purpose of this. 

[Maria Cardenas]

When I went to college I never took a history course about Asia it was the U.S. History or European history. I have been learning about things I have basic ideas as to what they are. I am a history teacher that has taught 8th grade history for 4 years and this year I will be teaching 6th-8th grade geography courses. I will be working closely with the history and science teacher. So I believe the more informed I am about different content that my students learn the better prepared I will be. 

[Maria Cardenas]

I also find it interesting that the korean government wants foreigners to come visit but make it difficult for people to become citizens. I found two articles that speak about naturalization. They were interesting.

The article, "How to obtain South Korean citizenship: What you need to konw" is about the difference between residence and citizenship. There are three ways to become a citizen: 1. general naturalization, 2. Simple Naturalization, and 3. special naturalization. General Naturalization means you must have lives in Korea for five years, you haven't tried to acquire Korean nationality before, you don't have any relation to a korean, and you must know basic Korean knowledge as a South Korean National. Simple Naturalization will be granted through parents this is used by foreigners who have some South Korean descent and you must meet the requirements for general naturalization. Special Naturalization can vary.  https://transferwise.com/us/blog/how-to-get-citizenship-in-south-korea

In the article, "Bill proposed to give high-educated foreigners Korean citizenship," from 2019,  lawmakers were proposing to allow foreigners that acquired a bachelor's degree or something hired to become naturalized as Korean citizen. They would like for them to become naturalized so that they can help their declining population. If it is even better that they would be able to bring their talent to korea.  https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/04/177_267576.html

 

[Maria Cardenas]

Two Koreas-Final Essay

            Two Koreas seminar was very interesting and I learned a lot from the readings, videos, and discussions from zoom. I know about South Korea because of dramas and Korean pop. I took a class when I studied abroad about the Korean War but this was an eye opening. I guess I never really put much thought as to the role that the United States was playing in Korea.

            I do believe North Korea and South Korea need to come to an agreement to end the Korean War that has been in a stalemate since 1953. If that means unification, who knows, but maybe they can coexist right next to each other. In a time that people have freedom to come and go and families can be reunited.

            The movie “Ode to my Father” I would not show the whole movie to my middle school students. But I would show the first 20 minutes it shows the despair, family separation and how people flee their homes for a better opportunity at life. They can visualize how people flee during war times and what can happen.

            For the Curriculum project I have decided to compare and contrast Ancient China vs. North Korea. Students will be comparing the leaders Shi Huangdi  (Qin Dynasty) and Kim II Sung (North Korea). Students will be able to see that things that happened in the past also happened in present day history. They can also see that we can learn from our history so that we do not make mistakes. Students will enjoy reading about North Korea because I believe everybody knows North Korea as a bad guy or villain. They can read about what happened in North Korea’s history.   

           We have been given a lot of sources in order for us to educate our students about an asian country. They can see the rich history that comes from Korea. They can compare Korea to other countries and see the similarities. I will be teaching geography to my middle school students so I can go into great detail about Koreas geography and how over time Koreas culture has changed. 

[Maria Cardenas]

From the very beginning of reading and watching the videos I was interested about western classical music in China. The article from Huang stated that more Chinese children are learnning to play instruments like the piano or violin than western children. The article or even the video stated that parents and grandparents focused on their child learning to play an instrument because of China's one child policy. They had all of that energy and resources to focus on that one child excelling. I learned a lot about China and their history with classical music. Open Door Policy made it available for trade to happen between other countries and China. Missionaries bringing music with them made it easier for the music to spread. 

I would have thought China would have destroyed or remove western classical music from its country. Instead focus on growing their classcial music after the cultural revolution. I never really studied History of China in detailed so this bits of information I found very interesting. 

[Maria Cardenas]

Since I will be teaching 6th and 7th grade history for the first time. I am also glad I am taking this course in order for me to have a better understanding about Buddhism. I can use some of the resources provided by the professor and sources our peers have been providing. It make sense how the Buddhism religion was able to spread in Japan because it was able to maintain or keep its own.

[Maria Cardenas]

I found this article that talks about comfort women and how they have brought awareness to what happened to them during the war. The fact that there are memorial sites in U.S. cities for them and the fact Japan isn't happy about them. I find it sad that Japan isn't recognizing the fact that "comfort Women" did take place in their history. The article states that Japan has removed that topic from their textbooks. They are different from Germany that recognize what Nazi Germany did. This will be my first year teaching 6 & 7th grade history so I believe the history framework talks about comfort women and we will have to teach about it (I live in California).  

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/who-are-comfort-women-why-are-u-s-based-memorials-n997656

They also provided a curriculum and resources handbook if you guys want to take a look at it. (10th grade)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VkgU1GAPOnKwGvFJ3cW4YFDYzzvInnIf/view

[Maria Cardenas]

I believe countries that rely on China won't be criticizing or going against China. Yes, at the  moment countries and people may be upset with the Chinese because of the pandemic. But like you said once it gets better people will be going back to how things were. Some of the countries who benefit from China's BRI wont decline t the help provided. Since some of these countries do not recevie monetary help from other of the developed countries. Like in the discussion we had on Monday, countries like Israel and Italy are making deals with China regardless of what the United States wants.

[Maria Cardenas]

I remember hearing about re-education camps in China for minorities in the news a while back Reading about Uyghur and what they experience in China was very upsetting. The re-education camps from China reminded me about the diffferent prisons that North Korea has and North Koreans also get re-educated for some of the crimes. China is doing what has been done by other countries in the past to their own citizens. 

Like what others have been saying I found it intersting that China has so many ethnic groups. I don't know why I just assumed they were all the same. The article provides a brief description about the ethnic groups of China and it also provides a table with the different ethnic groups. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/china_ethnic/statistics

I believe this session's sources can be used with the teaching about the "Silk Road" and make a connection to the present with what China is doing with his Belt and Road Initiative. In a World History class students can present current events about what is happening in China today.   

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