Things that model minorities do

Because I teach in the Asian American Studies department, usually the majority of my students are Asians. So if there ever was a laboratory to find out if Asian kids really are smart, model students, my classroom would be it (methodologists, just look the other way).

So today, as they sit there taking their midterm, I compile for you the evidence: these are the things that my model minorities have accomplished in just the past eight weeks. Be proud...


1 - Decide you want to take my course a month into the semester.

2 - Wait until the night before the midterm to officially register. (Most of my reading is on an electronic blackboard accessible only to registered students. And they turn in assignments that way too.)

3 - Figure out that I don't collect papers because you're supposed to upload them. (Yo, read the syllabus).

4 - Habitually leave class during the break.

5 - Then have the nerve to ask for extra credit.

6 - Make slides for your presentation but forget to turn them in.

7 - Make slides for your presentation--with 12 point font.

8 - Answer a question (on your slide) without understanding all the words in the question.

9 - Can't define self-determination. (Break it down. Self?)

10 - Ask me if you should put your name on all those sheets of loose leaf paper with all your answers on them. (Can you read directions?)


And my favorite excuse so far this semester:

**Professor, I accidently dropped my study guide into a puddle, so could I possibly have another copy to study with?**


Midterms collected. I hope they make me laugh more than cry.

Learning Lessons

I showed these videos in class yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlZkL_0lZ1Q [9500 Liberty trailer]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvFhB1k3x0 [invasion--watch 1:45-2:00]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7bnHb4wASM [9/11 and 7-11]

They debuted during my first semester of teaching. When I watch them now, I see California in the 1920s and 30s. I see the hatred and fear of manongs and Mexicans. But when my friends Annabel Park and Eric Byler first started posting them, I could not watch more than a few seconds. Too much hate and ignorance. I didn't want it on my laptop.

(For those not familiar with Virginia, Prince William County is home to Ikea and the largest outlet mall in the state. It attracts more tourists than the amusement parks. It also saw a housing boom in the last 20 years and attracted all the people needed to build them.)

But, you know, it's a privilege to be able to turn the hate on and off at my convenience. A year later, I was looking at my lesson plan for Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart and decided that showing these videos would help put my students in that time period--and unexpectedly bring the book to the present. My students, like the manongs, wouldn't be able to just turn it off.

I've become more transparent about the lessons that Fil-Am history teaches me. When I started, I felt the need to stay close to the facts, offer a few well-supported interpretations, and let the students draw their own conclusions. The problem, though, is that the students don't draw any.

It's not their fault. A lot of them don't have the life experiences (jobs, racism, poverty, involvement in politics) to connect personally to the material. Or if they do, they've "othered" it as an exception or thing of the past: the world is better now. I find students who have taken a year or two off connect more readily.

Also, I think the most powerful disincentive to learning is the need for testing and grading. The students really just want to make a connection between my slides and my exam questions.

Finally, history is not taught as lesson. Most students experience history as a recitation of facts and figures. To include "lessons that history should teach us" is to invite accusations of imposing my values on others.

Oh well.

I've decided it's not an imposition. I'm showing how I think Fil-Am history is relevant. They're adults and I'm not holding them responsible for parroting my views. A lot of students reflexively react with that tired adage, "history repeats itself." I don't believe that. Sounds like an excuse to do nothing. History repeats itself because we write it that way. How about we write it differently? Ultimately, the people of Prince William County neutered the anti-immigrant statute (but all sides paid heavily).

I felt for my students as they watched. I gave myself a year. Here I was making them squirm in their chairs. I watched their faces: confused, disgusted, awed. Some of them laughed. That took me aback. But to them, the testimony was just so ignorant or unbelievable that it seemed like caricature (there goes that othering again). I assured them it was real.


ps--congrats Annabel and Eric on a great premiere.

Benevolent Assimilation: From Thriller to Born in the USA

They turned off the lights and cued the YouTube video of Thriller (the real video, not the Cebu prison version). My Filipina dance major and her kababayans (teammates) started doing the zombie dance.

For real? The quiet Viet and Korean kids are dancing in my classroom? In front of 32 other students? How cool is that!

Then from outside the classroom, my Ethiopian student barges in dressed as Uncle Sam, white cotton balls taped onto his black face. "What are you doing? Nonononono," he says. "This is what you should be dancing to." Cue Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA. They start dancing, but it's still too funky so Uncle Sam corrects them into an air guitar move instead. But nicely, cuz you know this assimilation is benevolent. Viet and Kim look confused. Dance major is pissed. End skit. APPLAUSE!

I think I'll give them an "A" for that.

Yesterday's class was devoted to presentations on the Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War in Political Cartoons. The cartoons reveal how superior white men thought of themselves in relation to Filipinos (and all non-WASPs). "Benevolent Assimilation" was President McKinley's explanation for what the US was going to do for (to) the Philippines.

I had divided the class into 9 barangays (teams) two weeks ago and assigned each group a chapter. Their assignment was to pick a cartoon, act it out and then explain it. This group's inspiration was the cartoon above of Uncle Sam and Aguinaldo (drawn as the little black girl).

And you know, this great exercise comes from the Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) (http://phoenixpublishinghouseintl.com/pep_book.html --I'm eagerly awaiting Volume II, Allyson). I'm so glad to have this resource. The other groups were pretty creative and had fun with it. One even had a Kanye West interruption: "Amma give you back the mic but you know America has the best flag" (or something like that).

I was expecting some groans when I told them their assignment and some sheepishness during the skits, but they seemed to take to it. Really, I would never think up an exercise like this so thanks PEP!

Obviously, Thriller still lives on. In Cebu. Prison. Okay end metaphor.

Furlough

I got an unpleasant surprise last semester when I found out that the university-wide furlough plan applied to me because I was teaching two courses. It amounted to a reduction in pay for one paycheck--not a deduction, just a reduced gross. I'm an adjunct professor. My pay is already gross.

I'm only teaching one class this semester, so I think I'm safe, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. How does someone whose only responsibility is to teach take a furlough day? I see a canceled class or two...

From the UMD president:

Under the plan Graduate Assistants, Contingent-I and student employees, employees paid to teach by the course, employees on H-1B visa status, employees with 100% contract and grant funded status on 9/15/09 and some other categories noted in the plan will take zero (0) furlough days.

All other employees, independent of salary source and percent of employment, must take a number of furlough days based on annual compensation. Employees earning $29,999 and under annually are assigned two days. Those earning between $30,000 and $49,999 will take three (3) furlough days; between $50,000 and $69,999 will take four (4) days; between $70,000 and $89,999 will take five (5) days; between $90,000 and $114,999 will take six (6) days; between $115,000 and $139,999 will take seven (7) days; between $140,000 and $169,999 will take eight (8) days; between $170,000 and $199,999 will take nine (9) days; and $200,000 and above will take ten (10) days.

This is worse than last year. Good thing I have another job.

Hero Haikus

A 2.5 hour class from 5 to 7:30 requires some creativity to keep the students awake and my mouth from going dry. Today it was the first 30 minutes of the Jose Rizal movie and... HERO HAIKUS! Plus I had them do it in teams (called barangays, thanks PEP).

Lapu Lapu
He killed Magellan
Led resistance against Spain (my commentary: not really, that's revolutionary propaganda)
and wore a loincloth

Jose Rizal
Jose Rizal wow!
What a guy, freedom fighter
For Filipinos

Inspired to write
For the love of his country
Sacrificed his life

Lived as a hero
Rizal led nonviolently
Died as a martyr

Andres Bonifacio
Rizal follower
Founder of Katipunan
Led rebellion

I forgot to add the list of sheroes to their reading so gotta add it now.

Class Census
So my roster is finally set. I managed to scare away 10 students in the last two weeks but they were mostly replaced so I have a total of 39 students. Good number. It's a pretty diverse class--and not just racially. The trend of fewer and fewer Filipinos continues with 11 (I'll write about what this might mean later). There are 13 other Asians so the class is majority Asian. There's one African (Ethiopian), African American, American Indian, and Middle Easterner; 3 Latinos and the rest white.

Most of them found out about the class from the online catalog (the class fills their Core Diversity requirement and Social/Political History requirement). Only 2 have ever taken an Asian American studies course. About half are science and engineering majors. And one of the Filipinas is a dance major! I'm bummed the other dance major dropped. He was Asian too.

There are 21 men, and 8 students over 21. There are only 3 freshmen and 4 seniors. The average GPA is 3.03, which is the highest of any class I've taught. We'll see if it's a difference that makes a difference.

Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray

2am - Just got back from my SECOND trip to UMD today. I was hunting for a pic to put in this post when I realized: I left my USB drive in my classroom computer!!! FAIL! I live in Arlington, a 50-mile round trip over 2 rivers, 4 highways and many lights. EPIC FAIL! It's after midnight. What comes after EPIC? Oh no, my key card works but the door is deadbolted...EPIC EPIC EPIC FAI...then I got lucky. Two students said the computer lab entrance should work. Success! My key card worked, I went up to the classroom and there was my USB drive.

I didn't even have to use it. I had uploaded my presentation to blackboard on Sunday. I did this once last semester too (and then I didn't realize it til the next afternoon). Lesson relearned. It was only after I left that I thought, isn't it kinda early for students to be pulling late-nights in the computer lab?

Anyway my first trip to UMD today was more fun. Driving in, this song came up on my iPod. It's one of my all-time-favorite k.d. lang songs, originally sung by Patsy Cline (maybe I should get into country music programming). And being that I was on the way to teach class, I started thinking about how the song relates to the Philippine Revolution/Spanish American War/Philippine American War. Then I decided, I'll make that their homework for next week. To make sure they read, I make them write a 500-word reflection each week. I give them prompts--words, quotations, concepts--to wrap their reflections around (and to keep them from mindless summarizing). This song just became one of the prompts they can choose from. See, this is why listen to music in the car instead of NPR.

I pulled up the video on youtube when I got to class, played it for them and said: so there are three characters in the song: my love, I, and the stranger that came along. In the drama of these wars, who is my love, I and the stranger? Let's see what they come up with. I have my ideas. What do you think? The lyrics are below.

So four students dropped (including one of the Filipino Cultural Association officers who I was looking forward to having, boo) and four students took their places so I still have 40. They have until Monday to solidify their schedule. Four people were absent today so maybe I'll end up with a smaller class. What's up with the fours? Isn't that an unlucky number?

Having a TA is nice. She did my copying so I didn't have to come early, took roll and best of all, she made my slides look beauteous! (It's a word--I looked it up). The handout was a census form and survey so now she gets to tally them for me. Yay!

But I'm the one who has to remember to take my USB drive out of the computer!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbum19PoYRw

Two cigarettes in an ashtray,
My love and I in a small cafe.
Then a stranger came along,
And everything went wrong.
Now there's three cigarettes in the ashtray.

I watched her take him from me,
And his love is no longer my own.
Now they are gone, and I sit alone,
And watch one cigarette burn away.

Gratuitous Applause

Today was the first day of class. This semester I'm teaching Filipino American history. Just one class--and I was definitely better prepared for it today than I was last year when I had a second class on a different topic thrown at me (which I willingly caught) two weeks before classes started.

So this class goes from Magellan to Marcos, but really they're just weak bookends to the burgeoning story in between. I started out with an homage to Cory Aquino. I showed the first four minutes of this clip, up to her proclaiming that "I have returned as the president of a free people." It's from her speech before the U.S. Congress in September 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/user/NinoyAquinoTV#play/user/D76CFC30F40BCB55/0/WX9ysynaIq0

"What did you see?" I asked the class. "Gratuitous applause." "A warm welcome." "Congratulations."

Then I flashed back 88 years to the story of the U.S. invasion of the Philippines, to another proclamation of freedom by another revolutionary leader and Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo. Using a cartoon adaptation of the history as written by Howard Zinn, I asked three students to volunteer to do a dramatic reading of the story (It's called A People's History of American Empire. You can look it up on Google Books but the preview blocks out all the drawings, but here is a sample).



The contrast is not subtle. A warm welcome versus a deceitful arm around the shoulder. Sincere (maybe even guilty) congratulations versus a congratulations with a glint in the eye. Gratuitous applause versus gratuitous violence.

"This is American History" read the last slide. That is an homage to Ronald Takaki who asked us to challenge the Master Narrative of American History, that our country was settled by Europeans and that Americans are white.

As usual this idea, to add the Cory Aquino video, came to me last night, meaning I get some good ideas at the last "minute." Thanks to those of you who posted videos after Cory died. You were my source.

So the class went well. Everybody came! All 40 students on my roster and 1 person from the waitlist showed up! That's never happened before. And the average GPA in the class is a 3.08! Normally it's around 2.8. This should be an interesting semester. Let's see if the syllabus scares anyone away.