Overview For Teachers & Students Public Programs on Asia Film + Makers Series Elgin Heinz Teacher Award
An Education Incubator Deepening U.S.-Asia Relations

EngageAsia

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  • Globalizes American classrooms through teacher professional development programs

  • Builds networks of educators throughout Asia and America designed to foster peace and understanding

  • Fosters empathy and cross-cultural understanding through project-based learning research trips and academic seminars

  • Promotes peace through building community via education networks

  • Views teachers as leaders who can transform their students into global leaders

  • Creates teaching resources that can be widely used by educators

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EngageAsia was founded with the belief that education can serve as a powerful force for building empathy and highlight our shared humanity to teachers, students, and communities. By stressing the importance of deep historical and sociological knowledge of the societies and countries with which we engage as opposed to the abstract study of globalization, EngageAsia aims to help educators develop real-world knowledge of other cultures, thereby strengthening knowledge of their own culture.

In 2022 we held numerous webinars and in 2021 we held more than one webinar a month that helped over 1,000 people understand more about Japanese society, culture, and craftsmanship as well as other aspects of Asia. These webinars are all available for free public viewing on our Vimeo page here: https://vimeo.com/engageasia and range from topics such as traditional Japanese farmhouse architecture to what school lunches in Japan tell us about Japanese society and from sustainability on the island of Teshima to the role of baseball in U.S.-Japan relations.

In addition, with support from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, we ran an intensive month-long workshop on Japanese craftsmanship for 26 K-12 teachers from 16 states across the United States that featured six master instructors. These teachers learned about Japan through a deep exploration of Japanese craftsmanship with a focus on tea ceremony, traditional wooden boat building, traditional carpentry, paper making, and calligraphy. Teachers developed teaching plans for their classrooms they have been implementing all fall and are therefore assisting youth in the U.S. learn about Japan and Japanese culture. These teachers also learned new ways to think about education by examining how masters of Japanese craft teach.

EngageAsia also honored two teachers in 2020 with our Elgin Heinz Outstanding Teacher Award (see: https://www.elginheinzaward.org/) - Mr. Daniel Carolin, Teacher of Japanese at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids Iowa and Ms. Juno Tanaka, Teacher of Japanese at Clarendon Elementary School in San Francisco, CA. This award that honors top K-12 teachers who have dedicated their careers to teaching young Americans about Japan.

EngageAsia is currently transitioning from its virtual programs that were developed during COVID to some in-person programming and is currently in a strategic planning phase. Stay tuned for developments.