July 27 - Session 1 - Dube - Introduction - Evaluations

I thought the morning introduction session was great. First I appreciated seeing such a diverse group of teachers come to participate in this outstanding program- I mean WoW, a teacher from NY, WA, etc. Also Clayton did a fine job conveying the essential reasons why it is important to not only become educated but also to educate our students about East Asia- culture, current events, and context. I look forward to continuing the session for this seminar.

We've made a great start! The seminar was explained fully, we were well fed, (unusual for teachers), we were able to walk through the forum in a lab, and we saw how relative and important East Asia is to our western world. Our readings tonight on the traditional philosophies should help put part of the present into a little bit more focus for us.

Thank you so much for the fantastic opportunity to be hear and learn so much about east Asia. I thought the morning session was a great introduction. I enjoyed hearing from my cohort about their varied backgrounds and focuses in education.

The overview was well done visually. It kept my attention and thoroughly engaged my interest with the maps and pictures. I did feel it was somewhat scattered, but it all came back to the original focus of why we are teaching about Asia. It is sad to me that so many schools and courses do not feel the importance of teaching about Asia. My school is Pre K - 5. We do not focus on Asia at all and primarily focus on American and our individual communities. With the help of this seminar, I plan to change that. I hope to integrate a unit into the 4th and 5th grade classes this coming fall that will focus on Asia and in particular China.

I look forward to tomorrow. Back to my reading!

The morning session was great! Everyone seems so excited to be here it becomes infectious. The responses to the question "what is the most interesting thing you have heard about East Asia?" were extremely interesting as well informative I can see where we can go off on tangents. I thoroughly enjoyed the power point presentation; so much info was well presented. I appreciate the notion that we need to connect but not only with Asia but the entire world. I will truly utilize the concepts in the power point to stress the importance of current events in my classes next semester.

I gained so much information in such a short time regarding the status of Taiwan and its government, even the trivial knowledge of the “peace sign” and “ thumbs up”. The discussion/explanation about the meeting today was very interesting. In just this short period of time the importance of teaching about East Asia really came through for me.

By the way lunch was great!!!!!

So now I am back to tonight’s readings the 90 minutes have turned into 6 hours and I am still looking at the philosophies! Oh well back to my readings.
[Edit by="kheukrodt on Jul 27, 10:28:50 PM"][/Edit]

There were parts of the morning session that I found particularly interesting. I was unaware how important the youth vote was for the election of South Korea's President in December of 2007. As was mentioned in class, I was thinking of how similar it was to our own presidential election. Technology has such a profound impact on literally everything we do, from elections to ordering a pizza to writing and researching papers. It is therefore critical that we, as educators, not only take advantage of the increased use of technology, but be at the forefront of such usage. Young people grow up with us as their guide, it seems silly for us to be guiding them back into the stone age with outdated techniques when they have iPods and iPhones that can outpace the technology in many classrooms.

I really like how the morning started with "What happened today?". What a great way of getting students to look at current events and discuss them without doing the same old thing (writing about it).
I found the slide show to be particularly interesting. The visual graphics introduced as well as the sources was great. To see why Taiwan is such a big issue. I only found out about how big an issue when their flag wasn't allowed to be flown during the Olympic opener last summer. To now understand where United States stands on the issue was good.
And of course, the food was excellent. 😀

I thought the morning session was a great "teaser" trailer for our upcoming class! Clay always gives you just enough information to get you hooked and make you think about all kinds of stuff. The Big Mac Index, # of Netizens, and the short discussion of Fukuzawa Yukichi really got me hooked! I look forward to learning about the more modern side of East Asian History.

PS Its always a good idea to get a refresh course on Forum use and etiquette, especially since its not as GUI freindly like M.S. Apps.

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