DESCRIPTION:

The "Teaching East Asia" Seminar, now called “East Asian History and Culture for Teachers," is a 21-contact hour professional development course for in-service classroom teachers. It is funded by the Freeman Foundation of New York and Stowe, Vermont to provide both the content and resources needed to enhance students’ global competencies by teaching about China, Korea and Japan in your own classroom. Instruction via lectures, discussions and multi-media presentations will focus on East Asian geography, history, philosophy, art and literature from ancient through contemporary times. Topics and educational resources that correspond to state and national standards for social studies and AP World History Themes are emphasized, but teachers of other subject areas including language arts, gifted education and the arts will also benefit from participation.

DATES and LOCATIONS:

Fall 2012: For K-12 educators in the Topeka, Kansas area.  Sessions will meet at the Auburn-Washburn School District (USD 437) in Topeka, Kansas on Wednesday afternoons from 4:15 PM to 6:15 PM on September 5, 12, 19, 26th and October 3, 10, 24th and November 17, 14, and 28th. An optional visit to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is scheduled for the morning of December 8th.

Spring 2013: School districts wishing to host the seminar at their own site at a time of their own choosing are being sought anywhere in Kansas or western Missouri. Contact Nancy Hope at nfhope@ku.edu regarding this opportunity.

BENEFITS:

Copies of all PowerPoint presentations by the instructor for use in your own classroom.
Bimonthly updates about opportunities to learn more about East Asia for you and your students
Periodic opportunities for trips and events especially for seminar alumni.
$50 cash stipend for writing one lesson plan.
Option for two graduate credits from the University of Kansas (paid for by participant) if desired.

REQUIREMENTS:

"East Asia History and Culture for Teachers" is open especially to upper elementary and secondary teachers (grades 5-12) of world history, geography, literature, art or the gifted from public and private schools. Teams of educators from the same school or district are especially encouraged to participate. To participate you need:
• Willingness to share knowledge gained in the seminar with other educators.
• Commitment to attend at least six of the ten sessions and create a lesson plan if a $50 stipend is desired
• No previous knowledge of Asian culture or language is required.

REVIEW OF KCTA SEMINARS BY FORMER PARTICIPANTS:

Susan Dillinger, a Title 1 reading teacher at Onaga Grade School, developed lesson plans for middle school teachers on China's Terracotta Warriors and Japan's Samurai.  Linda Dills, who teaches technology at Chaparral High School in Anthony, has students do projects about East Asian topics in her computer and web design classes. And Michele Radio's gifted students at Blue Valley North High School, many of them interested in careers in international relations, discuss the difference between Japanese and American business practices.

Dillinger, Dills, and Radio share not only an interest in Asia but an experience: They attended seminars given by the Kansas Consortium for Teaching about Asia (KCTA). The twice-yearly seminars administered by the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Kansas are designed to give teachers the knowledge and resources to educate Kansas students about a region that is vitally important to their future and to our state's.

Through the seminar's lectures, readings, videos, and other resources, teachers learn information that dovetails with what the state's social science standards say students should learn. Teachers who complete the program, which started in Kansas in 2001 and is part of a longer-running national effort, institute lesson plans on East Asian topics — on China, in particular.

"For our prosperity and our security, all students need to know about the rest of the world. Trade with Asia surpassed that with Europe in 1979, and it has never looked back," Hope said. "With two-thirds of the world's purchasing power and 97 percent of the world's consumers outside the United States, wages in export-related jobs, are estimated to pay 13 to 18 percent more on average. It's quite lucrative to a state for people to look beyond its borders."

"Furthermore, as a nation we are experiencing the influx of new cultures," Hope continued. "It makes us stronger to understand these cultures. It's a resource for us."

"It's very important that we have some introduction to other cultures, because they're certainly not getting it in the school hallways," said Dills, whose district is mostly lacking in diversity. "Because of the Internet, because of technology, we deal more with other countries. The students need to respect other cultures that are very different. … Hopefully I can create a little respect for other cultures different than their own."

In a more diverse, suburban district like Blue Valley, Radio said, the seminar brought additional benefits. "I learned more about East Asian culture. I talked to East Asian kids about things they didn't know about their culture. … I have been bolder in trying to get my Asian kids to embrace their culture, to learn about their roots."

Dillinger is convinced that important topics — and knowledge of Asia and the world at large is one she believes in — are best taught in a variety of subjects. "Integrate everything, pull it all together," she said. "What you're teaching in social studies, kids are reading about it in English. … I believe then the students learn so much more and are so much more excited.

The KCTA seminars are free to participants, thanks to funding from the Freeman Foundation of New York and Stowe, Vermont. If they choose, teachers can pay to receive two hours of graduate credit from KU.

"The thing that is so impressive is that the seminar is so well organized," Radio, the Blue Valley North teacher, said of the program she went through in spring 2003. "Each one of the classes offered valuable information and materials. It was very user friendly for teachers who needed to learn quickly about East Asia."

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR APPLICATION:

Click here to print a application form; or follow the link in the navigation bar to the left, or contact Nancy Hope at nfhope@ku.edu.