[clay dube]

Thanks for this suggested article. I'm in China at the moment and the GFW (Great Firewall) has blocked access to the page. Internet access is monitored and controlled.

[clay dube]

USC's Rossier School of Education has launched a new website (http://myteachermyhero.com) which aims to celebrate teachers and teaching. Students upload videos of themselves talking about their teachers past and present. Posted videos include those from Antonio Villaraigosa, Sue Nagle (HBO Entertainment chief), and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. Some USC alumni who have uploaded testimonials include Jeff Smulyan (CEO of Emmis Communications), Dick Cook (former chair of Walt Disney Studios), and Thelma melendez de Santa Ana (Assistant Secretary of Education for elementary and secondary education).

Please take a look at the site and let us know what you think. Do you have a teacher who you would like to talk about and celebrate?

[clay dube]

The Folger Library is located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC and on the web at the address below. It has a fascinating exhibition running through January 9, 2010. Entitled "Imagining China," the exhibition looks at what Europeans knew/thought about China during the period 1550-1700. The exhibition includes illustrated books, maps, woodblock prints, ceramics, and much more. The website is well-done and a help for those unable to get to DC to see the actual materials.

http://www.folger.edu/Content/Whats-On/Folger-Exhibitions/Current-Exhibitions-Imagining-China/?CFID=9405557&CFTOKEN=2e8def009b8b31c1-3BC5E8F1-A08D-0F7C-CFD37D3DF11ABD52

[clay dube]

We heard about this from the LA County Office of Education -- it sounds like something many might utilize. If you do complete the 1 hour training and then get the package, please do post a review of it.

***
Virtual Economics
Complimentary Copy

Virtual Economics contains lesson plans for teaching economics and/or personal finance at any grade level K-12. The Virtual Economics®: Version 3.0 CD-ROM is an interactive tool that helps you understand the most important concepts in economics and personal finance and find the right lessons to teach them at your grade level. Available to you at no money cost.

Through a grant from State Farm Insurance Companies, the (National) Council on Economic Education has placed all of its materials (over $10,000 worth) on one CD ROM. The CD-ROM allows you to search a database of over 1,200 lessons by grade level, concept, Voluntary National Content Standard in Economics or California economics standards. Then view and print the lessons you want. The CD-ROM also contains multimedia explanations for 51 key economic concepts and a glossary with over 500 economics terms and definitions.

The CD-ROM is available to all California teachers at no money cost. Teachers who go through a one hour online training session will receive a complimentary copy of the CD-ROM. For instructions to register for the training session, contact Bernard Mauricia, Program Director, California Council on Economic Education at [email protected]. Put the phrase, Virtual Economics in the subject line.

[clay dube]

Hi Meg,

Thanks -- please do let us know how the student posts go.

[clay dube]

California Council for the Social Studies
49th Annual Conference
http://www.ccss.org/index.htm

K-12 Social Studies: Laying the Foundation for a 21st Century Workforce

March 5-7, 2010
Pasadena Convention Center
Pasadena, CA

Featured Keynote Speaker: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
On the Shoulders of Giants: Empowering Students to Learn, Achieve, and Serve

Experience how the lessons learned from the struggles and victories of the Harlem Renaissance gave Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the confidence, will, and inspiration to become a legendary basketball player and recognized humanitarian dedicated to achieving social justice around the world. Explore approaches to help all students embrace the stories of the past as prologue for the future. Together we can help young people adopt a personal commitment to themselves and future generations to become informed, responsible, engaged citizens dedicated to creating a better world for all.

This year's theme, K-12 Social Studies: Laying the Foundation for a 21st Century Workforce is purposefully selected to provide participants with the content, skills, and resources to prepare students to become responsible citizens and competent workers in a highly technical, global society.

Conference strands include:
• Working Collaboratively: Describes how Professional Learning Communities and/or other collaborative networks are used in schools to share best practices in History-Social Science.
• Technology: Describes how technology is utilized to improve academic achievement and meet the goals of History-Social Science education.
• Access and Equity: Describes how content, process, and product can become accessible to all students to close achievement gaps and reduce high school dropout rates.
• Response to Intervention: Describes how educators can adapt History-Social Science instructional practices to meet the learning needs of students with special needs.
• Civic Literacy: Describes how students can acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become effective citizens before and after high school graduation.
• Problem Solving and Critical Thinking: Describes how students can acquire these workforce skills through engaging, high level, rigorous History-Social Science content and instruction.

[clay dube]

Some of you may be History Day veterans. Have any of your students taken on an Asia-related project for History Day? If so, please do share it with the forum.

This workshop on Oct. 10 will help teachers understand the opportunities the event offers and will provide them with ideas and materials to help their students get started. The workshop is at Azusa Pacific University. Please see the attached flyer for more info.

[clay dube]

From the flyer:

National Council for Social Studies
http://www.socialstudies.org/conference

Join more than 3,000 of your peers from across the U.S. and around the world to share the most current knowledge, ideas, research, and expertise in social studies education. With the theme "Dreams and Deeds: The Civic Mission of Schools," the conference will highlight the central role of social studies in our schools: preparing young citizens to make a better world.

Conference Highlights

* Over 500 Sessions Workshops and Poster Sessions

* Keynote and Featured Speakers including:
Representative John Lewis
Greg Mortenson
Maya Soetoro-Ng
Dr. Eric Foner
Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt
Dr. Dennis Denenberg
Dr. Maleeha Lodhi
Dr. Bryan Lindsey
John A. Stokes

*Special Events
Re-Opening Reception at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
NCSS Documentary Film Festival
[Edit by="Clay Dube on Sep 14, 11:50:08 AM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

FREE RECITAL (after museum admission) --
September 19, 2009
Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Pair Work: Celebrating Japanese Heritage in Contemporary Music

Antares Boyle and Rory Cowal will present a free public recital of contemporary music by Japanese composers. Selected composers include Joji Yuasa, Toshio Hosokawa, Michio Kitazume, Kazuo Fukushima, and Misato Mochizuki.

The highlight will be the world premiere of a newly-commissioned work by the composer Ryan Tanaka. The concert will be both a celebration of modern Japanese music and an exploration of cultural fusion. The selected composers were all trained in the Western classical tradition and are internationally active in the contemporary art music scene. Yet each has developed a personal approach to composition that incorporates a distinct concern with the composer’s national and ethnic identity. The myriad ways in which composers address this background in their music creates a program of fascinating diversity while showcasing recurring elements of uniquely Japanese musical aesthetics.

This event is included with museum admission. Admission: $9 Adults; $5 Seniors (age 62+); $5 Students with ID and Youth (age 6-17); And Free for Museum members.
For more information please call (213) 625-0414 or visit
http://www.janm.org/events

[clay dube]

Parents have a higher opinion of the schools their children attend than do Americans in general. A Gallup survey found that 76% of parents were satisfied with the education their children received. Only 45% of the general public indicated it was satisfied with schools.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/122432/Parents-Rate-Schools-Higher-Americans-Overall.aspx?CSTS=alert

[clay dube]

The Economist recently (7/23/09) had a great article about Toto, a giant Japanese producer of toilets, etc.

http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14082288

There are many interesting comparative cultural notes in the article about the CEO's ease with subordinates and so on. The firm's success in exporting to China is also remarkable.

Every teacher we've taken to Japan has remarked about high tech Japanese bathroom fixtures and at least two have subsequently bought and installed Japanese toilets in their own homes. I'll leave it to others to visit the Toto and other websites so as to share pictures of these state of the art creations.

[clay dube]

Hi Caroline,

Quite right that the image of opium dens was a powerful one and was used by those anxious to close the door to Chinese migrants and to limit the rights of those already here. When you look at the Time/Life guide to telling your friends from the enemy, remember that until World War II America denied naturalization to both Japanese and Chinese immigrants.

An excellent book on the subject is The Coming Man, it's profusely illustrated with images from The WASP, yes there was such a periodical, and other publications.

At Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Man-Century-American-Perceptions/dp/0295974532

The book's title comes from this image:
http://imgzoom.cdlib.org/Fullscreen.ics?ark=ark:/13030/tf7779p49j/z1&&brand=oac

[clay dube]

A colleague of mine just called. He is British and was outraged at the lack of coverage of the August 18, 2009 death of Kim Dae-jung. As he put it, "this man is like Nelson Mandela." Kim was an amazing figure and for forty years fought to build democracy in South Korea and to improve ties with the North. He spent time in prison and in exile (including in Los Angeles) and was sentenced to death in 1980. But in 1998 he was inaugurated as president of the Republic of Korea. In 2000 he went to the North, a bold move that earned him the Nobel Prize that year.

These achievements were not entirely untarnished as the obituaries cited below make clear, but he was a remarkable figure and one that we should definitely be teaching about. His story allows students a sharp view of the battle to bring democracy to Korea and the democratization of South Korea and Taiwan is one of the great stories of the late 20th century.

NY Times obituary (includes a great slide show)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/world/asia/19kim.html

The LA Times initially had only a one paragraph note about his passing, but then published this excellent piece by Barbara Demick: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-korea-kim18-2009aug18,0,787710.story (note his explanation for why the $500 million payment for the Kim/Kim summit in 2000 was no big deal)

After his own story of surviving persecution to become president, Kim Dae-jung is best known for his Sunshine Policy toward the North. By June 2009, though, Donald Kirk concluded that the policy was dead. Read his essay in the Far Eastern Economic Review at:
http://www.feer.com/essays/2009/june/the-death-of-the-sunshine-policy

[clay dube]

William Joseph of Wellesley College visited China during 1972 and took many photos. He's just made them available at a website entitled "Serve the People: Images of Daily Life During the Cultural Revolution."

Please visit the site at: http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/China1972/main.html and let us know what you think of it. [Edit by="Clay Dube on Aug 21, 6:39:39 PM"][/Edit]

[clay dube]

This is a very interesting film. Caroline and others may be interested in the Asia Pacific Arts 2004 video interview with director Kim Ki-duk (there's a transcription as well):
http://www.asiaarts.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=9820

You may find this excerpt interesting:
"Most importantly, I do not make films to serve the audience. I don’t try to entice viewers to watch, understand, or even like my films. That is not my purpose. Many filmmakers try to satisfy and please viewers but that’s not my job."

Asia Pacific Arts is moving to USC next month, but searching for Kim Ki-duk: Love it or leave it will bring to it.

[Author]

Posts