Reflection Essay

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

East Asia course has offered me an opportunity to learn about this region more in depth. Forming a part of this group has allowed me to familiarize myself more with Poetry, Geography, Chinese Philosophy, Cosmopolitan East Asia, Classical & Warrior Japan, Japanese Literature, Late Imperial China, Meiji Restoration, Women in East Asian history and East Asia since 1900. I enjoyed the seminar process where we would have assigned reading for a certain day, presentation of the material by an expert in that area, question and answer with the presentor then followed by whole group discussion. This format not only allowed me a chance to learn about experts but also to learn from other participants.

Along with all the subjects mentioned above we had several opportunities to go online and begin working on our web pages but all this with direct guidance provided by Kami.

This coming school year I will be teaching 7th grade history curriculum and plan on using information and resources learned from this seminar. Items I am planning on incorporating into my classes are the establishments of trade routes and the importance of the Silk Road, exchanges between countries did not stop at material goods but their was also an exchange of philosophies, medicine, literature, math etc. I believe that there is too much attention given to the exchange of material goods and not enough emphasis on other changes that became part of their culture and dominated how they did things. I plan on reinforcing these contributions at greater length.

Another thing that fascinated me that I am planning on venturing into this coming school year is women´s role in Japan. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu and the role of females was impressive. In American educational institutions we are mislead when it comes to female roles in the different cultures throughout the world. It was not until this seminar came about that I became aware of the power women had. Along with this I plan on incorporating a section of Japanese poetry and using books like The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon and works from Ki no Tsurayuki, Matsuo Basho & Masaoka Shiki.

One of the items that I became my favorite was the amount of visuals provided in the powerpoint presentation. They were filled with maps, pictures and graphs all which I think are necessary to make the lessons less mudane for our students. Knowledge of the map archives available for the public through the university in Texas has been an added resource to my teaching. For me it is extremely important that before I get into the actual country that I show them a map and the relative relation in distance between that country and the U.S. Then I believe that it is imperative that they know the topography, waterways, vegetation and climate. This must be done first in order to fully understand why certain governments in different countries operate differently.

One thing that I would like to incorporate into next school year even though it is not covered in the California State Standards is the slave trade that happened in the late 1400s. During the exploration to the Americans “New World/New Spain” prisoner were brought to the new land by Spanish explorers. They were forced to aide in the settlement of the “new found” country and settled in small groups that spread throughout what we now know as Latin America. I believe that this is something that has not been discussed in the middle school setting and needs to be done so that we can hopefully begin to create this connection amongst one another.

Last but not least being able to communicate with each other and read each others´ ideas online has been a great addition to the seminar. Through it I was able to post a question regarding an activity for a topic I was not familiar with and was able to find out about activities that had worked for other teachers. Having access to the online system gives us all an opportunity to connect with each other at any time of day or night. Taking into consideration that we are constantly on while at school and probably not getting the chance sit down and read something until wee hours of the morning makes this website perfect given our hectic schedules.

Being able to participate in this seminar has allowed me an opportunity to increase my knowledge about East Asian culture and history, as well as meet other teachers through Los Angeles from different fields of teaching with different years of experience. Along with meeting experts in different branches in connection with East Asia from geography to poetry and everything in between.

[Anonymous]

In the past year, it has been a marvelous experience to share with colleagues and experts --on East Asia -- a topic which often is subject to much malign in the press. The lectures were informative and well grounded in substance and reflection. I am back for a summer session at my elementary school, and I now think more than in the past, how can I integrate topics on Asia in my curriculum--whether it is Math, Science , Language Arts ,or Social Science.
Too often at our professional development Tuesdays staff afternoons we are not exposed to the richness of subject matter on any topic. I really treasured the Tuesday evening meetings ---and even on Saturdays by the USC US--China Institute. Though I wished the Saturdays were a half a day instead of a full day. We must not forget our own UTLA for offering this course for salary credit and career development and advancement.

I would like to organize the rest of my essay on the personal and then close on the general critique of the course.
In February, I was discussing US History, and Japan came up as a topic. One of my students blurted out in the middle of the discussion,"They bombed us." This young lad previously did not go back in history farther than ten years but to a ten year old "bombing "has resonance and moves him to the past. I would fascilitate this moment like any other untypical day but it had an extra dimension to it since one and only one of my students was of Asian descent--not only Asian but of Japenese descent. She was also going through some identity challenges based on some of the questions she was asking about Japan previous to this teachers moment. How did I navigate this moment? I very calmly used this time to explore points of view from the Japanese side and the US side, and since I did not have enough time to explore all the nuances of this topic , I wrapped it up by asking them to separate governments from people. Of course, I could have brought up Iraq and the bombing there but enough was enough. With my knowledge from a lecture on Japan (that happen after this teachers moment) I would have used the ABCD countries and the threat of oil being cut-off from the Achaepalegio which may have provoked or at least exercabated the Pacific War. Ending with the thought--- When is bombing or war ever justified? On a student/teacher level, I had just visited Kyoto in December so I also brought in the culture of Japan for the remaining of the school year.
I guess my point is that we never know when our knowlege can be useful to process an emotional interlude in learning. This Seminar has helped me cross those divides so that some cross- cultural understanding may blossom.

On the critique of the course, I felt at times the discussions veered toward a Sino-Eurocentrism axis as opposed to a thematic approach to world history. I think we need to be more focused on history,economics,family and extended family and historical experience of the culture we are studying. For example, when viewing the pharses "central kingdom" and "all under heaven" ,they both have historical context.
I remember thirty years ago the debate was around the Cold War and the Soviet/US debate. With so many players on the stage . it is not China and the US but the world as a stage. The emphasis ought to be on themes that are common to all and less on civilization, empire, or nation. We need to move beyound victory and hegonomy and outside this conumdrum that we find ourselves. The more we speak of hegonomy the more aggressive all countries become and the conflict resolution strategies decrease.

Back to the classroom, the Silk Road could be compared to the Trans-Saharaan caravan routes known as the Gold Roads and the trading routes in the Amreicas called the Turqujoise Roads. (This is further demonstrated in "Bridging World History" produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting/The Annenberg Foundation with Linda Walton as the Co-Lead on the project.) In this way Africa and the Americas are not marginalized.
After reflecting, I think this is the approach I will take in my classroom since my goal is teach my students to be good citizens and critical thinkers of the nation and the world. This includes an emphasis on reasoning skills. The overview can happen now while the more particular knowledge can come later. The process is more important than filling a vessal and the bipolar arguments can be left to outdated politicians. Finally the curriculum emphasis will be on the thematic and historical rather than a face down between two nations mistakenly undergirded with hegonomy and political strategy. Afterall, I think most will agree the family,extended family and the community are worthy units of analysis to study and polycenters of interest for our students.

[Edit by="jcsmyth on Jul 31, 8:26:32 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

The course East Asia and New Media in My Classroom has been one that I have thoroughly enjoyed, interacted with and benefited from. Entering the course I came in with some knowledge of East Asia, specifically China and Vietnam. I had majored in history and art history and took a lot of courses on China and Vietnam. I took a seminar on the Cultural Revolution and wrote a 20 page paper on the role of the Peoples Liberation Army during the Cultural Revolution. But I must admit that I had dithered in my continuing study of the region. By taking this class I was happy to reemerge myself in a subject that I had always found a connection to. This paper shall attempt to outline what I thought of the course and how I plan to use what this class had to offer in my own classes as a history teacher.
This course has allowed me the freedom and the forum to reemerge myself in East Asia. Do to various factors, the demands of teaching, being a father and doing community work I have not had as much time as I would like to study East Asia. Concerning the structure of the course, something that I was impressed with was the immense academic knowledge afforded us. Some examples are the various professors with years of experience, the reader itself and the knowledge of our fellow classmates through our forum space. The way the course was set up was good. I especially found the forums to be excellent. To be able to read other peoples thoughts on East Asia on a variety of topics and to be able to respond was extremely helpful. It provided me a space to learn from others as well as express my interests and points of view. The course reader was great and the resources and subjects covered was something that I can turn to for help when thinking about curriculum. The passion and knowledge of the various professors was wonderful and very informative, although I did wish the class time was not just lectures but various things including discussions, debates, hands on and just more interactive. Finally web knowledge and power point cd’s will come in handy.
I will be able to incorporate a lot of what this course had to offer into my classroom. For instance the websites that were shared and that I found will be very useful. For example the Smithsonian website that has lesson plans al kinds of topics including East Asian history, culture and art. One website that I found useful was The Silent Problem: Poverty in China, this site outlined in detail the growing poverty in China especially in the rural areas. It has great photos and graphs that show how poverty manifests itself in China. I can use this site and these graphs in my international relations class to study modern China. The various professors also gave me lots of ideas on possible lessons. For example various professors talked about women in East Asia this has made me want to create a thematic unit on Women in East Asia. Also I have thought of creating a unit on Japanese Imperialism and on Confucism, Daoism, Mohism, and Legalism. The course taught us how to create our own web page and that will be useful. For instance I plan to have various links to websites that support the issues we are covering. I also plan to have key handouts and my syllabus in the website. This part of our course was very exciting to me and will benefit my class and students.
I truly appreciate the resources, knowledge and time that this course has offered to me and I will surely put it to good use. Thank you.

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