Why Administrators/Teachers Sign Up for the Korea Seminars and Workshops

“….With the Korean American population growing, many have lost their heritage and feel too “American.” I would like to help these students understand where they came from in addition to making them realize that they are both Korean and American at the same time.”

“Koreas is of interest to me as an ESL teacher to Korean students and as a mother of a Korean adoptee…I want to know more about Korea because it will make me a better ESL teacher, a better mother, and a more broad-minded citizen.”

“I am a new teacher and more than 50% of my student population is Korean. I know very little about the Korean culture and would like to learn more so I can interact better with my students and their families….”

“This seminar will help me become more knowledgeable and sensitive to the Korean American experience. I teach at a school with a large Korean population, and I believe that this workshop will help me meet the needs of these students. Also, the variety of activities and presentations sounds absolutely wonderful.”

“I am the librarian at my school. The workshop will be valuable in understanding the culture and to learn about books and resources for our Korean students.”

“Among various other reasons, I am particularly interested in attending this conference because we have such a high number of Korean students in our magnet program. My school community was devastated this year by a series of murder/suicides within the Korean community. We lost one of our second grade students at the hands of his father this past April. Many of us are continuing to struggle in understanding the situation, for obvious reasons. We are working together with our ELAC, the District 4 Crisis Team and the Asian Pacific Treatment Center to help adults and students heal. Any additional support that I could provide would be beneficial. I feel that our faculty and staff may not truly understand the struggles that our Korean community members are faced with.”

“My school is predominantly African American and Latino. My students are not exposed to Asian culture. I try to make a point to talk about the Asian American experience in my world history classes to expose them to Asian American culture….I believe that my knowledge and understanding of Korean culture and history is very poor. By attending this workshop, I hope to extend my experiences and knowledge to my students and the social science faculty at my school.”

“I immigrated with my family when I was ten years old and my background and knowledge of Korean culture is very limited. I was not exposed to Korean culture because I was educated in a monolingual classroom where they only emphasized the importance of the American culture. I think this seminar will be a great opportunity for me to learn in a deeper notion of Korean culture and meet various bilingual educators…This opportunity will provide me a broader understanding of the culture/history and why bilingual education is so important to meet the diverse student population.”

“I have many students who are first generation and second generation Korean American and I know very little about their history and experience. I feel that prejudice and stereotyping come out of ignorance. I would like to gather information so that I can help enlighten my students as well as my fellow colleagues.”

“Our school population has shown a tremendous increase in Korean and Korean American students. Over the past eight years, I have had a number of Korean students. Some of them have tried to share their culture with the class, an exercise that has been interesting and exciting. Unfortunately, I have not been able to supplement what they have introduced because I lack the information and true understanding of the culture. I would very much like to be able to make these students and their parents feel a true part of the school community. In addition, I have an adopted niece and an adopted nephew that are Korean. While they have been raised in the U.S., it would be wonderful to be able to share their birthright culture with them.

“…learning about the Korean culture will assist me in my everyday activities as an administrator – especially since our school is comprised of 100 plus Korean families.”

“…It’s important to me – not only due to my Korean background – but because it is still not emphasized enough in our education system. Moreover, the seminar would be extremely beneficial to me now that I’m in the classroom to provide my students with opportunities that I may not have experienced while growing up.”

“As a Korean American, I am interested in the subject personally, as I have never formally studied Korean history or culture; I am interested in gaining tools with which to better understand my own cultural heritage. As a teacher, and one with a fair number of Korean American students, I welcome the opportunity to learn ways to incorporate the Korean American experience (especially as depicted in literature) into the study of the overall American experience. Although Chinese American and Japanese American literature has entered the mainstream culture, and consequently the high school curriculum, Korean American literature is conspicuously absent.”

“I am the Assistant Principal over Instruction. My primary responsibility is professional development for teachers and working with department chairs and supervising the Bilingual and title I Coordinators…My primary interests in the course is to first and foremost learn about Korean culture. As a Korean American, I feel as though I have a lot to learn in this area. I know that such knowledge will empower me to be more effective as an educator and a leader in the greater community. It is my hope that with this new learning, I will be able to immediately incorporate it into the professional learning community at my school site.”

“I would like to attend this workshop because I work with parents and students who are learning English as a second language. I test all English Language Learner students who enter our district and I work closely with the parents, insuring that they understand all the policies and procedures for our district. I run workshops for parents of English Language Learners so that they can be involved with their children’s education. I also run workshops for teachers, helping them to understand the special needs of English Language Learners. I help the teachers develop and improve their curriculum so that all students can succeed. The largest population of English Language Learners in our district is Korean. Since I am the first contact most Korean parents and students have with the district, it would be valuable to learn more about their culture. It would also help in developing my workshops, making sure than other cultural needs are addressed.”

“I have worked with a fairly large Korean population for the last twelve years…I believe that the seminar…will help me understand and work better with Korean families. As an example, our Korean families are always bringing gifts. Sometimes these gifts are fairly extravagant. It’s embarrassing. How do we handle this dilemma? Should we discourage them? Another area of concern is the pressure some of students are under. Parents expect their children to apply and then enter very competitive colleges. Not all are going to make it to Stanford or UCLA. How can we assist these families to be more realistic?

“Los Angeles’s schools and Korean students need more bilingual teachers fluent not only in the language but fluent and skilled in Korean culture as well. I feel that this program will add to my ability to teach in a dual language program.”

“Until I get the opportunity to visit Korea myself, this week of seminars is the next best thing to allow me to learn and appreciate the experience of so many of my students. I look forward to sharing the experience with the other teachers at the school when I return.”

“….I am seeing a growing population of Korean students who do not have a support system at home. Often, the language barrier is a problem and the schools have few resources to accommodate Korean-speaking families.”

“I have recently started working with more Korean students and find myself not very knowledgeable about their culture. I also read Helie Lee’s “Still Life with Rice” and felt that this seminar would be a wonderful opportunity to meet the author and to learn from her as well.”

“The California history social science standards for 7th grade, and my curriculum materials that follow those standards, include sections on medieval China and on medieval Japan, but shortchange Korean history of the same time period. I would like to expand my knowledge of Korean history and prepare lessons for my students that would include Korea in my medieval-Asia history curriculum.”

“At my site and district, I am part of the curriculum committee. I am part of the Principal’s teacher coaches, and also an English Language Development lead resource. The knowledge I learned in the past seminar has allowed me to do professional development at my site and influenced my suggestions on our division’s pacing plan.”

“I am an ESL teacher at Fullerton College in Fullerton …Our Korean enrollment at the college has increased about 40% in the past two years with Korean students now making up about a third of our ESL classes….I, as well as my colleagues, are embarrassingly ignorant of the culture and language of this rapidly growing ethnic group. I truly believe that an effective teacher, at any level, should have a sense of the culture of the students that she/he teaches.”

“I am interested in understanding my Korean students and their families in the context of their culture. I would like to share what I learn in my classroom with other students and with my fellow staff members at my school site. Also, I am currently working with my district to help coordinate a community based literacy program for our adult English learners. We have a rapidly growing population of Korean families …I plan to use the knowledge and resources (from the seminar) to develop and implement a plan for an adult literacy program to help our district better serve our Korean families.”

“I hope to participate in this workshop to enhance my teaching about Korea and Korean Americans in my Honors U.S. History classes, to develop closer relationships with my Korean students, and to further satisfy my curiosity about Korea…. Approximately one-fifth of my students are Korean. In sum, this course seems like the perfect summer seminar for me. After perusing the course schedule, I also can’t imagine a more fun and exciting way to spend a week of summer vacation.”

“I am just crazy for Dong Suk Kim’s music lessons. By the end of the week, I will have the Arirang “down.” (one of my goals)

“The students who enroll in my chemistry classes are usually 30% or more Korean or Korean American. I would like to learn more about Korean culture and education in order for me to better understand the expectations of my students and their parents. I often see my students struggle with differences between their parents’ culture and the culture of their teenage peers, and would like to be more sensitive to their needs in this regard.”