Great Work Everyone!

Finally, i got around to taking photos of the maps that you made. Everyone did a great job. Your maps are more than what i expected given the limitations particular to each section.

Here's a short media presentation of our past activities. Enjoy!


N4C deserves special mention for abiding with our agreement the week prior to our map making activity. They finished the map at least on the same day of the map making activity. Because N4A and N4B begged off on our agreement, i think it would be fair that the prize, whatever it may be (wink, wink!), should go to N4C.

Nevertheless, everyone gets high merit for excellent work not only on your maps but in our "Show and Tell Asia!" activity too.

Keep up the good work! Read more!

The first session ... five tasks! whew!

No matter how much experience i have built up over the years that i have been teaching, i always find myself having a moment of dread as i start my first class every semester. It does not matter if the students are familiar to me. At least, for first meetings, the one today was pretty straight forward, still with the usual anxiety on my part though. I gave them a brief introduction on the reference material and how the class will be administered (in general).

There are five tasks that the classes i'm handling will have to accomplish this week.

Task #1 - Creat a class blog

Each class will have to create its own class blog. We will then link up the class blogs to "The Bamboo Grove", which will serve as the blog hub for our subject. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the class blog. They can write on their class blog, create their own blogs and link those to the main blog/s - whatever they choose to do as long as they are able to contribute to the "blog output" of the class.

Task #2 - Which is more important in a doughnut, the "hole" or the "dough"

For their first post, students are asked to answer the question above. Answers may range from the smart ass to the philosophical. But their answers must be "answers" in the true sense of the word i.e. their must be a thinking process behind it.

Task #3 - Focus Groups and what they are supposed to do

I will be dividing each class into focus groups. Each group will handle one of the following specific topic areas: India, China, Japan-Korea, Southeast Asia. The rationale for this "arbitrary" division will become apparent as we move along in the semester.

The group assigned to a topic will be responsible for formulating goals for the class when it comes to their specific topic area. For example: The China group will go through the first ten chapters of our reference book, focusing only on discussions that are relevant to China. They will then come up with learning goals for the class on China.

Task #4 - Show and tell Asia!

They are going to bring something to class (next meeting) that is uniquely Asian. From chopsticks to "yaya's" (nursemaids) - the item, photo, audio clip, etc. must be something that is undeniably Asian. Bringing it to class is only half the task though. The other half is for them to do a little research about that "something" that they are going to bring so that they can explain to the class why it is Asian.

The class will decide whether to accomplish this task as a group or as individuals. They can do it through the group, but as individuals they are also encouraged to do the task.

For this task and class activity, everyone is encouraged to bring cameras, video recorders, etc. or whatever their preferred technology for documenting our "Show and Tell Asia!" classroom activity.

Task #5 - The Bamboo Grove

Finally, students are supposed to visit this blog and find out why it is called "The Bamboo Grove". Read more!

Why Bamboo Grove?

I agonized over what to call this blog for the course that i'm going to teach this semester. I started out with "SSCHS Asian Studies" but trying to search for it on Google meant that the blog had to compete for attention with the thousand-and-one sites relating to asian studies (all of them too academic for a teacher like me). All i wanted was a title that would be distinctly asian and yet not too academic-sounding. If there's one thing that i wanted to avoid its making the title sound too academic, limiting the scope of its potential audience.

Here's a list of some titles i considered:

Oriental Express
Orient Excess
Our Asia
SSCHS Asian Studies
Asia ini! (This is asia!)
Asiablog
Bamboo Grove
Asia: are you?

After a night's sleep, i knew that i wanted this blog to have a title that would immediately say "asian" to any reader. I narrowed it down to things that are asian and consequently found myself with the word "bamboo", something which almost immediately makes one think of asia.

I chose "Bamboo Grove" not only for its distinct asian flavor but also for it's significance in relation to asia as a community of nations. Each clump of bamboo having its own unique character but part of a larger bamboo grove. Each asian nation and civilization has its unique character but all inextricably linked in some way: history, culture, traditions, world-view.

Exploring the bamboo grove to understand how we are different but so related is the journey for us this semester. Read more!