Final Reflection

[Anonymous]

Elopez I share many of your sentiments and believe that this is only the start of many, many productive lessons and units to be generated. I look forward to delving into the material discussed and hopefully start to compensate for some of my lacking knowledge of Asian history beyond the survey knowledge that I acquired as an undergrad. In moving forward, I trust that the true beneficiaries of this P.D. will be our high school students and hopefully we will be able to engender in them a greater gravitational sway towards Asian history than is usually done at the high school level. Lets keep the discussion going beyond this P.D.

[Anonymous]

It has been a rewarding and refreshing experience for me to attend this seminar. I was born, raised and educated in China. Learning about China from the American perspective during the seminar has been interesting. I was able to review the history of China and gain new understanding of significant cultural events and figures.

I was also humbled by the presentations on Japanese history and pop culture. I didn’t know very much about Japanese culture and its impact in today’s American culture until I attended these presentations. I enjoyed the Saturday events on Popular Japan very much. However, the time frame of the seminar didn’t allow us to explore Korea this year. I feel sorry that we missed this opportunity.

I am especially grateful for the opportunities to work together with colleagues from other subject matters. I value very much the rich online discussion on the USC-China institute. Colleagues shared a lot of materials and resources that I can utilize in my own classroom and lesson planning.

For future reference, I would suggest that we incorporate field trips (such as museum visit) into this seminar to make this rich experience richer and colorful. Also, it is a wonderful idea to have curriculum project at the end of the seminar. It would be even better if we have a session that all of us can get into our subject matter groups to brainstorm for the unit.

I would like to give my sincere thanks to all the wonderful teachers and colleagues in USC-China institute who worked extended hours to make this seminar happen for us.

[Anonymous]

In reflection of this seminar I was unable to make it for the full seminar due to extenuating circumstances and health issues, and yet, I felt blown away with all of the information I received in the classes I attended, as well as in the weekend seminars. I truly believe that this is an important program to experience, in order to get some first hand information on East Asian customs through intellectuals who have a passion for proper Asian representation in other countries.

I know that it wasn't until I visited Korea that I was able to find my Korean heritage. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and remember being called "Chinese", "Oriental", and "not Korean" as a child, being the only other Korean in my elementary school, besides my younger sister. So it was tough to identify with my Korean heritage except through the narrow window of my family and family's friends.

I thought that it was a shame not to be able to learn more about Korean culture, since I, myself, am Korean-American. I would like to attend future workshops to learn more, because I know that there is too much information to be covered in the short time that we had our seminar. I hope that I will be able to do more workshops in the future so that I will be able to have a better understanding of the Asian cultures and how they all fit together in this world and with the Western culture.

I especially enjoyed how the keynote speaker, William M. Tsutsui, was very entertaining and had a way with presentation of his subject which is about Japanese Pop culture. It was very nice of him to give us a free copy of his book, "Japanese Popular Culture and Globalization". I will be telling my students about information from his book, especially since they are very much into Japanese anime and manga.

I would like to suggest for future workshops that we have more time to work in groups to collectively work on our lesson plans. I would also like to ask that we have more hands on experience, for more kinesthetic learners. It would have also been nice to have a Korean and Vietnamese seminars, especially involving the wars, to get a more well-rounded view of Asia and it's relationships with America and other countries.

Overall, I believe this is a very good seminar and program to have for teachers to access for free and with incentives to promote Asian cultural awareness in public schools. I look forward to learning more and growing along with the program and it's opportunities for learning. Thank you for providing us with these great opportunities!

[Anonymous]

I am reflecting... mmm Im so frustrated :o(
I love attending the meetings and when things are difficult I try my best to solve the problem ans still smile. Transportation issues were solved by my mother who so nicely carpooled with me and many times drove so I could make it from San Pedro to UTLA building after the school meeting on most Tuesdays after school.
I was taking notes on my old laptop as I have done the previous times, using them to help me remember and building my comments for the forum.
Well... this time things have been just complicated. My laptop does not turn in no matter what and my notes are out of my reach.
I had to miss a Saturday workshop, but I planned organized and got funded to take students to the museum on a field trip which was very successful yahooooo.
I hope this new year I can have the resources to have more order and be able to retain my information and access it as I need it.
I like learning and attending these types of workshops, but really things can make the fun harder to enjoy when besides the running and the traffic other things get on the way.
I will try again because I do like the learning and taking workshops sorrounded by people instead that online (when I can log in).

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

After a semester of the East Asia course I am delighted to say I learned tons and my understanding of East Asian history has grown. Although, I may not be able to use everything we have learned throughout the course there are many opportunities where I can utilize the information gained. I teach 11th grade U.S. history and work in a humanitas team with an English teacher at my school. By looking at my multi-lesson curriculum project it is evident how I have incorporated East Asia into my teaching. My curricular unit focuses on 20th century China specifically the time period prior to the Chinese Revolution up and through the death of Mao Zedong. At the end of the three-day lesson students juxtapose China’s Cultural Revolution to the actions taken during the 1950s Red Scare in the United States. These lessons fit perfectly into my larger Cold War unit which is driven by the essential question of, “What are you willing to sacrifice to feel safe? ”.
Another instance where I see new possibilities is Japan’s experience during World War II. Having the honor of Professor Yamashita lecture on Japanese history triggered a plethora of ideas to show the “other” perspective about WWII. I foresee using class lectures notes to create a power-point presentation giving students context on Japan’s imperialistic ambitions. I will also purchase and extract excerpts from Professor Yamashita’s book, Recovering the Wartime Voices of Ordinary Japanese. This book does an amazing job giving people a new perspective of how Japanese from different age groups to social strata viewed wartime Japan and describes their lives during and after the war. Most of history is written by the victors and gaining a new perspective on ordinary Japanese will provide students with a new point of reference when looking at WWII.
In addition, working with my English colleague, there is a unit on civil disobedience we both teach where I can include some of the East Asia class material. Utilizing an article called “The Asian Soul of Transcendentalism” from the magazine Education About Asia, I can introduce students to how East Asian philosophy influenced the transcendentalist movement especially Henry David Thoreau, who coined the term Civil Disobedience. My English colleague in the past would expose students to different practitioners of civil and uncivil disobedience and now she would be able to introduce Hindu and Buddhist philosophy as the inspiration to the civil disobedience unit we teach. I would also suggest a two-day lesson on the four Chinese schools of thought and having them engage in a Socratic seminar on the effectiveness of each philosophy. These are a few of the relevant time periods/issues in history that I see easily supplementing in my curriculum to educate my students on East Asia. I look forward to the mini-lessons or units I can develop in the future using the resources gained during this past semester.

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