Creative History

Elementary and Secondary Education Employment: September 2000 – present: Los Angeles Unified School District; Dodson Gifted/High Achieving Magnet – Seventh Grade – Medieval World History; University Employment: June -July 2008: USC US-China Center: Tour Leader; July 2006 - Present: USC US-China Center; Lecturer; Asian Women & Japanese History; August 2005 – December 2005: CSU Dominguez Hills, Instructor; Teacher’s Education 467: Secondary Methods: Social Science I; August 2003 – May 2004: CSU Dominguez Hills, Instructor: Teacher’s Education 468: Secondary Methods: Social Science II; September 1998 – December 1998: CSU Long Beach, Instructor: Asian Studies 393: Japan’s Heritage; September 1997 – December 1997: CSU Long Beach, Instructor: Asian Studies 393: Japan’s Heritage;

The Historian’s Apprentices History is the most important subject in secondary school, yet often is the most ignored and the worst taught. To teach the dynamic of the human historical experience in order to give perspective to the student’s own existence is the greatest responsibility that a teacher can have. However, this can not be done by the rote memorization of dates and names that too often passes for “history†in secondary schools in the United States. Names and dates are only the skeleton of history, and only by providing the students with the skills of a professional historian can history become the vibrant and living subject that it should be. The history standards for the seventh grade in California cover medieval world history, and the approach taken is to turn the students into apprentice historians. An apprentice historian, as do other apprentices, performs the skills of the professional at a level commensurate with their level of understanding and capability. In the apprentice historian’s case, it means that in this class that the students will not be outlining chapters in textbooks, memorizing lists of names and dates, nor filling out worksheets. The skills of the historian that will be taught in this class involve both understanding the subject through the use of themes and primary sources, and expression of what is learned both in written and oral forms. The seventh grade curriculum covers the medieval world across the continents from Asia, to Africa, from Europe to the Americas, giving the students the experience of millions of people across more than a millennium. In order to utilize this curriculum to maximum effect, I use small group and class discussion to understand the great themes of empire, government, succession, dissolution, among others, enabling the students to see these themes as they are read across the continents and centuries, discovering both commonalities and differences. The students learn the subjective nature of history understand how historians can make generalizations about the subject without falling into stereotypes or dogma. History, however, is about documents, reading them, interpreting them, and demonstrating how they are used by historians to write history. Only through the micro view of primary sources do students get the full flavor and necessary skills to understand history on their own. We will use a number of sources in a variety of projects, including the Koran the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a House Code from fifteenth-century Japan, the Tao Te Ching, Dante’s Inferno and Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. The students learn to study history from the inside out and not just the surface. The textbook will provide a tool by which students can be taught to consolidate large amounts of text into easily recoverable information for future use. Expression will be both written and oral. Historians must be able to write and express themselves to the intellectual community to which they belong, and effective writing will be ongoing focus of this class. They must also be able to present that information to an audience, and in each unit students will have a poem, story, or report that they will present orally to the class. An understanding of humanity, on both a panoramic and microscopic scale should be the fruit of a well taught history class. This apprentice historian should also improve their reading, writing, and speaking, skills that they will need throughout their academic lives. History should be the most exciting and meaningful class the students take, for it teaches about humanity, the goal toward which all education should strive.

2015: National Board Certified Teacher - Social Studies 2005: Perryman Award, World History Teaching: SCSSA: 2004: NCTA Travel Grant; China: 1996-97: UCLA History Department Dissertation Grant: 1995: Sasakawa Research Grant: 1991-96: UCLA History Department Teaching Apprentice Appointments (11 quarters): 1980-81: California State University International Studies Scholarship

February 2002- May 2003: California State University, Dominguez Hills; Teacher Credential Program; Secondary; Alternative; March 1995: University of California, Los Angeles; Candidate of Philosophy; Japanese History; June 1993: University of California, Los Angeles: Masters of Arts; History; June 1984: California State University, Dominguez Hills; Bachelor of Arts; History, East Asian Studies; September 1981-March 1985: Waseda University Institute of Foreign Languages, Japanese Program

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