Final Essay

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} USCI 2011 Summer Residential Seminar provides a fantastic opportunity for me to evaluate and to organize the existing knowledge I have had about China and Japan, in addition it also fill in the huge knowledge gap I have always had about Korea. As I was learning from all of the wonderful presentations each day, I was constantly thinking about what and how could I incorporate as much of the knowledge into my current curriculum as possible. I think the answer to my own question is relevance and correlation.
For everyone who has been involved in this seminar either as a coordinator/presenter or as a participant, the relevance and the connection is already present, recognized and apparent. That explains why our seminar was a success, which could be testified by all participants. As a teacher, I need to make sure the relevance of my lessons about East Asia is highly comprehensible and detectable. I also need to make sure the correlations between each of my lessons and with lessons from other disciplines are strong and reasonable. Reasonable and intelligent students should never feel what we are learning in my class has nothing much to do with them or with their lives. Specifically in my Chinese classes, I will choose the lesson materials that meet or exceed the above mentioned criteria. For example, I will either arrange my lessons with current events, or to utilize a current movie to introduce knowledge and concepts included in my curriculum. As far as correlation, one example I can give now is to know what is going on in other classrooms on campus. At tenth Grade English, students read Monkey in their English class. Knowing when the reading will occur and design a relevant lesson at the same time in Chinese class definitely serves the purpose. Students’ interest levels will be unavoidably enhanced in both classrooms.
Although all topics about China covered in the seminar are of most relevance to my Chinese classes, many about Japan and Korea are also appropriate in my curriculum. I believe students should know about how their peers are doing in other part of the world. As Japanese animation and Korean soap operas and pop culture become a popular trend among teenagers, it makes sense to know that how and what are Japanese and Korean teenagers are doing. What’s the culture and history behind their behaviors? As we all talked about over and over in the seminar, we need to prepare our students for the future. We all know the competitions for our students in every field of their lives are no longer against their peers in America. They are very likely competing against anybody from anywhere, especially East Asia being a big portion of the world economy today. One problem of education is that we seem always teaching our students outdated knowledge and information. However, my resolution after this seminar is to pay more close attention to what is going on with East Asia and bring in more relevant teaching materials and lessons to my students.
Besides everything in East Asia, we are living in Los Angeles where we probably have people and cultures from every possible place in the world. We have a lot of valuable resources about East Asia at our back yard. Food, museums, culture events and ethnic communities are all available to us within a short distance. Although the funds available to teachers are rare these days, I still want to create opportunities for my students to get first hand experience from field trips such as what we have done in our seminar. Nothing is more relevant and connected to anyone than being able to listen, see, smell, touch, and taste.