[Melina Melgoza]

Hi, 

I have finished all of the assignments and submitted my essay and my final curriculum project. Where can I verify that I received credit for the course? Similarly, when will we see the salary points processed? Do we have to turn in any paperwork on our own?

Thank you!

[Melina Melgoza]

 

There are so many approaches that I thought might be interesting to incorporate into my teaching. Firstly, I think it is  key for me to center the experiences of marginalized East Asian identities, such as, women, LGTBQ+ community, Ughyur Muslims, and more. Learning about other people, cultures, and experiences is key to support our students in learning how to be respectful and accepting human beings. These types of conversations and dialogue is exactly what creates more educated citizens and more well-informed adults.  Personally, throughout the last few weeks in this course, I learned so much from the videos and texts—many of them which I want to include in my classroom. One in particular that stood out to me was, "Gender Relations in the Age of Violence." This is the first year I teach World History, prior to that I have only taught U.S. History, Ethnic Studies, Principles of American Democracy, Government, and Student Leadership and this gave me so many ideas on how to be inclusive of East Asian cultures within my other classes as well. This upcoming year, I will be teaching AP World History and some of the units include: the global tapestry, networks of exchange, land-based empires, transoceanic interconnections, revolutions, consequences of industrialization, global conflict, Cold War and decolonization, globalization, and so much more! I find that I can really include a topic around East Asian identities in each and every unit! Similarly, they can develop the necessary skills through study of East Asia, such as: developments and processes, sourcing and situation, claims and evidence in sources, contextualization, making connections, and argumentation.

 

      However, I don’t think teaching World History in necessary to embed East Asian history and concepts.  In Ethnic Studies, for example, we discuss ideas of sexism and other systems of oppression. Usually, I give some examples through American movies (sometimes Disney or sometimes non-cartoon clips), but after reading the article,"Gender Relations in the Age of Violence." it made me realize I should embed Asian history and understanding of gender relations in other courses. I would be covering East Asian history, while at the same time centering on the experiences of a community that is often at the margins.  This article gives an important perspective of how women, regardless of their social standing, get treated. I think I need to be creative and constantly reimagine and think about how to embed this new knowledge. There are many important connections to be made.  To finalize this short essay, I intend to incorporate East Asia into my teaching by focusing on the experiences and memoirs of those most often at the margins, those with marginalized identities who are often left off of history books—mainly because they don’t play a role in writing that history. 

 

 

 

Appreciations:

Thank you all for taking the time to support us in understanding a little bit more about East Asia! Greatly appreciate it.

 

Best,

Melina

[Melina Melgoza]

After much thought, I think it would be interseting to use segments of Parasite to discuss social inequity in society with students. In my class, we focus on understanding intersectional identities, as influenced by: race, class, and other factors. So, using parasite as a way to unpack this creatively and in an engaging manner could be very interesting to see play out in a class setting. Has anyone else used the movie or segments of the movie in their class?

MM

[Melina Melgoza]

Sean, your post really made me think about so many action items that must be taken into account when considering the implementation of something new. Similarly, I wonder who gets to decide that is higher in level of importance to consider. Should endangered habitats and species be of utmost importance? Historically, we've seen quite the opposite, habitats and species are destroyed for profit. We must certainly consider China's historical placement in our courses, students must understand how a lot of the events happening in the world have China's influential hand in there.

[Melina Melgoza]

Taylor, I wonder the same. I find that so many advancements in China, the U.S., and well every other "major" country has an ability to "develop" because of their exploitation of something: earth, people, labor. Which leads me to ask an important question: "At whose expense are certain countries advancing? Is this right? Does human development and advancement outweight the effects of labor exploitation? Is there a balance and where do we see it play out as a balanced experience?

[Melina Melgoza]

Hi Martha,

These are some great questions you pose. I wonder, to what extent U.S./China partnerships are also self-interested and how might this be harmful to the communities that they are working with. Personally, I don't quite care about who "leads" the work, but rather why and to what extent might this harm certain communities. I find that so much of history has taught us that countries are self-interested and when they claim "partnerships" it is not always the case. Certain states, countries, locations, and its people are exploited for wealth.

[Melina Melgoza]

I attended the, “Hate Is a Virus: Combatting Prejudice Against Asian Americans.” I took away a lot of important lessons and information regarding the biases and discrimination that have existed and continue to exist, and how it is playing out during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic. As the student leadership teacher at my school, I truly enjoyed learning about the resistance that continues to develop to these types of hate crimes. It is clear that we must all stand together and fight against any sort of hate or bigotry. I used this learning experience to understand why and how hate crimes have been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic. I also used this experience to learn about America’s role in shaping the perceptions of the AAPI community. I learned about the similarities that varying BIPOC communities face and I want to ensure that I bring these lessons back into the classroom and support my students in understanding how to be critical and accepting human beings, in particular learning how to stand up against wrong.

[Melina Melgoza]

I attended the, “Hate Is a Virus: Combatting Prejudice Against Asian Americans.” I took away a lot of important lessons and information regarding the biases and discrimination that have existed and continue to exist, and how it is playing out during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic. As the student leadership teacher at my school, I truly enjoyed learning about the resistance that continues to develop to these types of hate crimes. It is clear that we must all stand together and fight against any sort of hate or bigotry. I used this learning experience to understand why and how hate crimes have been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic. I also used this experience to learn about America’s role in shaping the perceptions of the AAPI community. I learned about the similarities that varying BIPOC communities face and I want to ensure that I bring these lessons back into the classroom and support my students in understanding how to be critical and accepting human beings, in particular learning how to stand up against wrong.

[Melina Melgoza]

Here is the link:

https://sites.google.com/a/g.ucla.edu/japanese-internment-and-critical-media-literacy/

 

I couldn't attach an image.

[Melina Melgoza]

I created curriculum for 11th grade U.S. History, where we used Critical Media Literacy to deconstruct, analyze, and interpret the media that played a role in criminalizing Japanese-Americans.

Attaching the file here:

 

[Melina Melgoza]

I created curriculum for 11th grade U.S. History, where we used Critical Media Literacy to deconstruct, analyze, and interpret the media that played a role in criminalizing Japanese-Americans.

Attaching the file here:

 

[Melina Melgoza]

Here are a few wonderful resources:

Balboa Park's (Lake Balboa) Japanese Garden	An oasis build around a water reclamation facility	6100 Woodley Ave.Van Nuys, CA 91406	(818) 756-8166 http://www.thejapanesegarden.c om/
Japanese American National Museum	Japanese American history on the West Coast.	369 East First St. Los Angeles, CA 90012	(213) 625-0414 Collections | Japanese American National Museum (janm.org)
Museum of Tolerance	A museum focused on the Holocaust and that promotes racial and ethnic tolerance.	9786 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90035	(310) 553-8403 http://www.museumoftolerance.c om
Pacific Asia Museum and Tokyo Village	Asian art and culture museum and cultural village	46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101	(626) 449-2742 http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/
Japanese American Museum	A museum focused on the visiting the virtually.	See website	https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/united-states-of-america/los-angeles-museums/japanese-american-national-museum/             (cut and paste url)
Japanese Garden Portland (virtual)	Japanese gardens built in Portland, Oregon to educate about Japanese history.	611 SW Kingston Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97205	https://japanesegarden.org/visitvirtually/    (cut and paste url)

 

[Melina Melgoza]

Here are a few wonderful resources:

Balboa Park's (Lake Balboa) Japanese Garden	An oasis build around a water reclamation facility	6100 Woodley Ave.Van Nuys, CA 91406	(818) 756-8166 http://www.thejapanesegarden.c om/
Japanese American National Museum	Japanese American history on the West Coast.	369 East First St. Los Angeles, CA 90012	(213) 625-0414 Collections | Japanese American National Museum (janm.org)
Museum of Tolerance	A museum focused on the Holocaust and that promotes racial and ethnic tolerance.	9786 West Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90035	(310) 553-8403 http://www.museumoftolerance.c om
Pacific Asia Museum and Tokyo Village	Asian art and culture museum and cultural village	46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101	(626) 449-2742 http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/
Japanese American Museum	A museum focused on the visiting the virtually.	See website	https://joyofmuseums.com/museums/united-states-of-america/los-angeles-museums/japanese-american-national-museum/             (cut and paste url)
Japanese Garden Portland (virtual)	Japanese gardens built in Portland, Oregon to educate about Japanese history.	611 SW Kingston Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97205	https://japanesegarden.org/visitvirtually/    (cut and paste url)

 

[Melina Melgoza]

The events around Manzanar, are critical to California and American history, yet, I don't remember learning about Manzanar in school. As educators with new found knowledge, we must allow students the opportunity to learn about these experiences and to understand that all people should be guaranteed civil rights under the constitution. It's important to teach out students that they have to stand up for what they believe in and not treat others differently based on social constructs. 

Teaching through memoirs is so important in history classes and all other classes. Which is one of the reasons, that I bought the book, "Farewell to Manzanar." As a reminder, A memoir is a personal account of the significant events and people in the author’s life. Most memoirs are first-person narrative in the author’s voice, and most express the writer’s feelings and opinions about events, providing insight into the impact of history on people’s lives. Memoirs often help a reader learn about the beliefs, values, traditions, and customs that are characteristic of the writer’s culture.

There were many quotes that stood out to me, mainly because I felt that they could be used in the classroom.

“But there were deeper, uglier reasons for his isolation…I could hear them whispering about Papa, deliberately, just loud enough for us to hear. They kept using the word ‘inu.’ I knew it meant dog. And I thought at the time they were backbiting him because he never socialized.” (PP.66)

This passage really resonated with me, because it seems as though she is trying to understand the deeper and uglier reasons why her father is always isolating. It almost seems like she never quite understands him, but tries. Clearly, her father is battling some difficult inner battles. This reminds me of my relationship with my father. As a young girl, I tried to understand why he would isolate and drink alcohol excessively. I could never understand until one day my uncle said, “when we were 14, we started drinking, not out of trying to get drunk, but because we were poor and alcohol would keep us warm in the cold nights.” It is difficult to understand what immigrant parents have gone through, even when we try. It is difficult to understand why they get so nervous at airports and near armed security guards. I related to this passage because you could tell she knew there were deeper and uglier reasons for her isolation, but she wasn’t able to ever fully understand.

“The night mama and I came back from the latrine with this newest bit of gossip….he had been drinking all day….He began to curse her for listening to such lies, then he cursed her for leaving him alone and wanted to know where she had really gone. (PP. 67-68)


This quote resonates with me about the plight of the main character because you can tell she often feels lost in understanding her elders. You can also tell she becomes affected when her father drinks all day, curses her mother for listening to lies, and responds negatively toward the family members. It is clear that there is a very difficult relationship amongst the family members.

I really enjoyed learning about the Manzanar through the novel and the website because I felt I understood the Japanese people's struggle through a very personal memoir. I think it's important to hear from these oral histories because we can then avoid these atrocities from ever happening again. We must be able to stand up against hatred and unjust treatment. Particularly, I think it is critical that we use our privilege to stand up against the Anti-Asian hate that we see today. I don't actually remember learning about Japanese internment in middle school or high school. And, it wasn't until I became a teacher and I began to plan curriculum that I realized it was critical for me to engage in these conversations in the classroom. I was definitely able to use my imagination by reading the descriptions in Farewell to Manzanar and get a vivid image from Mas's narrations of his life in the camp. Learning personally about this through oral histories helped me appreciate more what the Japanese endured and gave me the opportunity to understand the events more in depth.

I think Farewell to Manzanar gives us a vivid and clear picture of the true story of Japanese Americans trying to survive the unjust detention and treatment of Japanese Americans. Growing up in barbed wire is cruel and unjust, and I think it is critical we give Manzanar victims and Japanese internment victims the opportunity to tell their story and bring light to the issues that have scarred generations then and now. This book was inspiring because it showed me the importance of voicing our stories and fighting against injustice. We have to continue to fight against the hate that is present today so we can become a better society. No one should have to endure what the Japanese communities endured. Never again.

[Melina Melgoza]

Social and economic structures are key to this film. It is clear that the focus of the film is on the greed of humanity and the constant social structures that discriminate against those less fortunate. Throughout the film, the bricks continue to build and build, and then they topple. It truly was quite fascinating because the film has many unexpected twists and turns. The film is exciting, yet really highlights the sincere reality, revealing the unfortunate experiences of humanity. While the film itself was entertaining, I think the writer also wanted to tell a deep and meaningful story of social injustice.

I really truly enjoyed this film, I'd go as far as to say it is a masterpiece.

[Author]

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