2B-San Francisco Asian Art Museum

1. Contains a title using the format listed above .25 points

2. Contains the sources you used with links to these sources .25 points

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Art_Museum_of_San_Francisco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California#Racial_and_ancestral_makeup http://www.asianart.org/

3. Contains a brief paragraph how it connects to your study of humanities. 1 point

My choice of museum relates to humanities because this place is full of culture and history. Asia is one of many cultures that make California so diversified. As of 2006, wikipedia stats show that about 1/3 of the U.S.' Asian American population live in California. Paying a visit to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco gives us chance to learn about other cultures, the Asian culture through the works of art and artifacts. It's important to learn about other cultures, the cultures that shape who we are, where we live, the people we come in contact with everyday.

4. Contains the following "analytical elements":
   

1. Observation: What did you choose? What do you see or hear or feel or think of in the choice you made? What is the subject of the work? If you chose a 'thing' what is the work made of and what techniques (colors, lines, shapes, textures)does the creator use? Be specific in your description. If you chose a place, be specific in your description of what you see or hear. Talk to your reader as though they cannot see the item but somehow must draw a painting of what you see or hear. 1 point

I chose the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Just looking at the Asian Art Museum on the outside, it is a magnificent piece of architecture. The museum was moved from its original location in Golden Gate Park to its current location, the old city library in March 2003. The building is so amazing, it's almost intimidating. Not only is the building beautiful but the surroundings are just as breathtaking, the little park in the middle of the square, city hall is right across the street and the War Memorial Opera House. There are children playing on the swings and climbing the playhouse, people laying asleep on the green grass. Once we absorb the beauty on the oustide, inside we can see a collection of about 17,000 art pieces & artifacts that span over the last 6,000 years from China, South-East Asia, Korea, Japan, India, and Western Asia. (to the right is an actual artifact from a collection brought from China showing the colors they used to use for art, greens, blues, yellows, reds(hardest color to create) and i believe its made of porcelain) When I visited the Museum there was so much to see, it took me several hours to see everything because I wanted to take in all the history of the countries and the people that lived in that time.

2. Interpretation: What is your choice about? Give specific examples to support this statement in 2 sentences; do so in a way that teaches us something about your choice. Make Paulo Freire proud! .75 point

My choice of museum has to do with digging a little bit deeper on specific cultures. I've always wanted to see the Asian Art Museum and I wanted to choose a place I've been to recently so I could share a real experience. I felt that it wouldn't be the same if I had not personally gone to the Museum. Not only can I see a bit of history through the art and artifacts but the Asian Art Museum has an enormous library with books on archaeology, architecture, philosophy, history, religion, arts, music, and even science and medicine. The best part of the Museum besides seeing the art with our eyes, is the many hands on exhibits and classes they offer. "AsiaAlive" is an interactive program made of live artist demonstrations, hands-on activities and videos. The Museum offers a chance to experience the authentic Japanese Tea Ceremony, through the tastes, smells and sounds. Every first Thursday of the month in the summer they offer an event called Matcha, people can experience art, music and performances, meet up with friends and/or meet new people and share ideas and opinions. When I visited the Museum last month, I watched a Calligraphy class in session and it was really cool to see the creativity and even the diversity of people in the class. Other classes include dance, music, and storytelling.

3. Judgment: What led you to your choice? What do you think or feel about this choice? Why do you feel this way? Support your thoughts with specific observations. .5 point

My choice of Museums was a little bit based on my need and want to learn about my own culture, or more so the culture and history of my ancestors. Although I was born in the U.S. and spent my entire life here, I still want to learn about my heritage because it is also part of who I am today. I enjoyed learning about the history of China and the other countries such as India and Japan. I visited China when I was five yrs old so I don't really remember anything but it's great to be able to see this history from halfway around the world without actually travelling there. The museum had this jade exhibit that was trully breathtaking, there was tiny sculptures and big sculptures in the shapes of animals like the lion and shapes like bowls, and tiny boxes. I also loved seeing the little clay soldiers and workers and they had this exhibit of little wooden furniture(table, chairs, storage) that were maybe 3 inches tall. The wooden furniture was made to be buried with the families so they could have furniture when they went to the other world so they wouldn't compromise the quality of life.

4. Questioning:

   What else would you like to know about this choice? When completing the question section, lead your audience into the question by stating a fact you do know, yet you still have the related question. This way, both your audience and you will have an educational experience. Example: I learned that John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was based on his personal experience working with farm workers. I would like to know if the characters he used in that book are fictitious or are they people he met? .5point

I'd like to know how Avery Brundage, a major collector of Asian art and the guy who had the idea to put his collection in a museum, got his collection of Asian Art. I'd also like to know how can one tell if a piece of art or a specific object like a vase is a valuable artifact. I see these people on Antique shows and I wonder how they obtain such wonderful pieces of history. What is also intriguing is how the researchers and anthropologists can figure out the era the artifacts are from.

5. Using your classmates work from last week, tell us one thing you learned from 1 student. Is this one thing some common experience you share or some experience that is completely different than what you experienced? Is this one thing related to our class theoretical foundation and if so, how? Is that one thing related to historical or cultural context of this country or a different one? Link that persons blog to this entry (eg cut paste that blog entry here) . .5 point

I checked out Scott Sandine's Blog on Yosemite National Park. I've never been to the park but I've heard lots about it on the news!??!! I didn't know that Yosemite is reknowned for its granite cliffs and that Native Americans lived in the region for 8,000 years. I didn't know there are so many hiking trails, streams, waterfalls, and lakes; I pictured the park having many cliffs and maybe one or two major waterfalls. The way that Scott described Yosemite makes the park sound much more intriguing and now I really want to go visit this landmark! Sounds like not only will I learn the history of the park, but the people that resided in that area and I can meet new people that visit it every year.
http://scottsandine.blogspot.com/2008/09/week-2-component.html

2A-The Many Faces of San Francisco

Assignment 2a

PROJECT 2: My California Primer

1. Contains a brief paragraph how it connects to the study of humanities. 1 point.

Humanities is the study of a culture, its people, the food, arts, history, etc and I think San Francisco is the one of the most perfect places to study its culture because it's so rich with diversity and history. San Francisco is the home to its own "Little Italy" in North Beach, the biggest Chinatown outside of China, Japantown and many different art and science museums. No need to travel when one could go to this city and taste foods and meet people from all over the world. Hot dogs, popcorn, nachos and soda are usual ballpark food but AT&T park, home of the famous San Francisco Giants, has sushi too, now that's different to me! The people, the food, the arts, what is there not to like and learn about in San Francisco?

1. Contains the following "analytical elements" Observation: What did you choose? What do you see or hear or feel or think of in the choice you made? What is the subject of the work? If you chose a 'thing' what is the work made of and what techniques (colors, lines, shapes, textures)does the creator use? Be specific in your description. If you chose a place, be specific in your description of what you see or hear. Talk to your reader as though they cannot see the item but somehow must draw a painting of what you see or hear. 1 point

I chose San Francisco because of its outer and inner beauty. Not only can we see this city's beauty through it's world famous Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, TransAmerica building, Alcatraz, Treasure Island, cable cars and beautiful skyline but we can find its deep history through roaming the streets talking to its residents or visiting the many historic museums. When I go to San Francisco, one of my favorite things to do is hang out at North Beach and have lunch because the skyline is so pretty and it's so refreshing to breathe the air. You can always watch the sailboats and the big cargo boats, there's always people flying their kites and people walking with their dogs. The food in this city is just as diverse as its people, I can go to Chinatown and Japantown to have authentic Asian cuisine like Chinese, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Korean and Japanese. Or I could have some Italian in "Little Italy"(North Beach) or maybe some good old burgers and fries at a Mel's Drive In around the city. Maybe some Latin cuisine in the Mission District? Wherever I choose to go not only will I enjoy some fine cuisine but I will enjoy the culture's music and art. Japantown has the Peace Pagoda and a yearly Cherry Blossom Festival. Chinatown has the two lions guarding the entrance, yearly Chinese New Year Parade and the Mission District has beautiful murals done by local artists. Another staple of this city is sound of the cable car bell ringing to signal its next stop and welcoming others to hop on. There is nothing plain or boring in this town!

1. Interpretation: What is your choice about? Give specific examples to support this statement in 2 sentences; do so in a way that teaches us something about your choice. Make Paulo Freire proud! .75 point

My choice is about diversity and the freedom to express ourselves emotionally, physically, artistically, whatever way it may be. San Francisco is a melting pot of nationalities and personalities, it's known as quite liberal, a city of acceptance. These people from all different backgrounds and cultures co-exist everyday. Every year these people come together for Bay to Breakers, they can dress up in funny costumes and run for a good cause or show support for the Gay Pride Parade. There are so many places and opportunities to explore and learn.

1. Judgment: What led you to your choice? What do you think or feel about this choice? Why do you feel this way? Support your thoughts with specific observations. .5 point

As I stated earlier, I chose San Francisco for many reasons, its inner and outer beauty especially. When we look upon San Francisco, we see the Golden Gate Bridge, the Coit Tower, the Port of San Francisco, etc but when we delve deeper, we find so many people from all different backgrounds with different stories of where they came from, where they've been and what they've learned. I think it's a great place to learn about cultures around the world through the people, the food and the arts without actually travelling the world. I enjoy learning about other people's cultures and how the cultures and rituals come about, it's so enlightening. I love going to the city for that very reason, there's no end to what S.F. has to offer, so much that I can't experience everything in one day!

1. Questioning: What else would you like to know about this choice? When completing the question section, lead your audience into the question by stating a fact you do know, yet you still have the related question. This way, both your audience and you will have an educational experience. Example: I learned that John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was based on his personal experience working with farm workers. I would like to know if the characters he used in that book are fictitious or are they people he met? .5 point

I'd like to know about the other cultures that are so predominant in this town. I'd like to visit these places again and again because we can never learn enough. I want to go to the War Memorial Opera House and drive along the curvy Lombard Street and sip some tea at the Japanese Tea Gardens. I also wonder what it'd be like for the people that come visit from a different country, how their experience would differ from mine. I wonder what it'd be like to compare San Francisco life to New York life.

1. Using your classmates work from last week, tell us one thing you learned from 1 student. Is this one thing some common experience you share or some experience that is completely different than what you experienced? Is this one thing related to our class theoretical foundation and if so, how? Is that one thing related to historical or cultural context of this country or a different one? Link that persons blog to this entry (eg cut paste that blog entry here) . .5 point

I read Russell Lemley's work on Friere and one quote from Paulo really stood out " a teacher who learns and a learner who teaches." I totally agree with Rusell and the other students that this philosophy of learning is really important and effective. I've had so many classes where all we do is listen to a 2-3 hour lecture without any class interaction. I'm really shy and I don't like talking to other students but I do like this idea of reading other students' responses and giving our own opinions. That way no one gets left out of a group. Sometimes it's easier to comprehend a subject when we discuss it as a group because people can see it from different angles.
http://russdabus44.blogspot.com/2008/09/assignment-1b.html

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_San_Francisco,_California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japantown,_San_Francisco,_California

Assignment 1c

Component C INSTRUCTIONS
For this one, find two classmates who have submitted work so far. Read their work. Create a new blog called Assignment 1c and answer the following questions:

1. Tell us their name and something about them.
2. Tell us 2 things from each person you learned regarding Paulo Freire.
3. Tell us how this information will relate to our study of humanities
4. Submit in your login area.


1. The first person I will comment about is Yesenia. She is taking this class as a requirement but another thing her blog made me think about was what else California represents, such as immigration, the land of opportunity, the place that movie stars live with expensive houses, nice cars and nice designer clothes.

2. The first thing I learned from Yesenia's blogs about Paulo Freire is that his ideas of education were to challenge the ideas themselves and to discuss these opinions through dialogue. By interacting with each other including the teacher, and some perserverance & patience, an learning experience is great enhanced. The second thing I learned in the blog is that Paulo had been jailed and exiled for 15 yrs after the Brazilian govt was overthrown; where he then moved to Switzerland and became the Advisor to the World Congress of Churches.

3. I think that this information relates to Humanities because it shows the importance of an education, whether at home or in a institution, and how education relates to a culture. I think Paulo shows us the need for people to read & write, especially in children since they are the future of this universe. Many of us take our education for granted while others in third world countries thirst for knowledge and the chance to learn about other cultures in the world. Through learning what we have & what we don't have, we can gain the knowledge to possibly change our world accordingly.


1. The other person I will comment about is Chris. Chris is also taking this course because it is a requirement and like many others, he is taking this class online because it is convienent.

2. In Chris' blog, I noted that Paulo Friere studied philosophy, phenomenology and law. He learned a law degree but didn't practice, instead he spent his entire life improving and spreading education around the world. He taught at many universities including Cambridge & Harvard. Friere, himself had a diverse education which probably enhanced his teachings and philosophies.
Secondly, I learned that Friere eventually returned to his home country of Brazil, later in his life, where he applied his principles of learning and teaching to what Chris noted is "70% of Brazil's schools". That is absolutely phenomenal! It shows how much influence Friere's principles had on society; he must've been correct in his ideas or not many people would follow them.

3. Paulo Friere's philosophies relate to Humanities in the fact that we must keep an open-mind in our approach to learning and be innovative with the way we learn and the tools we use. Through dialogue we can discuss different ideas and see different views from different people. Traditionally we go to school and learn from a textbook, but in this class we are being unconventional in the way that we don't meet in a class but we still interact through "blogging" which in itself has just recently become very popular around the world. By blogging and commenting on each others' blogs we are enhancing our learning process and we are ensuring everyone interacts with each other where in a classroom not everyone might raise their hand to pose a question or opinion.

Assignment 1B

Paulo Freire is a renowned educator and theorist of education who experience poverty and hunger firsthand during the 1929 Great Depression at the age of 9. He enrolled in a law school later in life but focused primarily on philosophy, specifically phenomenology, and the psychology of language. Once he graduated he did numerous teachings at universities and organizations. He once taught 300 sugarcane workers how to read and write in 45 days! I think that's amazing, I would like to have known how many words and/or phrases they learned in such a short time. It takes years for us to read and write and many of us still don't write "perfect".

"Dialogue in itself is a co-operative activity involving respect. The process is important and can be seen as enhancing community and building social capital and to leading us to act in ways that make for justice and human flourishing." I agree w/this concept because I feel that dialogue enables everybody to speak and to contribute their own ideas and opinions instead of conforming to one person's ideas. By talking about a concept together, we are interacting w/each other & creating bonds as well as improving our knowledge. Someone might lead us to path never before seen. I look at it as put all the choices on the table & let someone pick for themselves which specific path they want to explore further.

Paulo believed there were two main deficiencies in the educational system: lack of schools for children and the poor teachings of public schools. He didn't believe in a curriculum, he believed in dialogue. He says "Nobody starts reading the word because before the word, what we have to read at our disposal is the World...men invented the language..centuries later, men invented the writing." To me it means, instead of sitting in a classroom reading a book about flowers, go outside and learn about the flowers by smelling them or touching them. Paulo's philosophy was being, not thinking and "a teacher that learns and a learner that teaches" because not everyone knows everything and there's always more to learn and many times our knowledge comes through experiences or dialogue with others or within ourselves.




Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSyaZAWIr1I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6bMBWvoPp8

ASSIGNMENT 1A

1. What is your first name only: Debbie
2. Why are you taking this class and what do you hope to learn:
I'm taking this class b/c i'm fulfilling the requirements to finish my AS so i can transfer next Fall. I was told this was a great class to take & that I would learn a lot from this class. I hope to learn about the history & culture & diversity of California and whatever else this class has to offer!
3. How far do you live from SRJC main campus (go to google, maps to get the SPECIFIC answer; for this you type in your address and 1501 Mendocino Ave, Santa Rosa, CA to find the exact mileage. EXAMPLE: 2.6 miles from campus. The goal here is to use new tools available to us. You can always come back to edit this)
I live 5.69 miles from the campus.
4. What do you think of when you think "California"? Does this differ from what non-Californians think and if so, how?
When someone says they're from CA, the first thing most people ask is which part, Northern or Southern CA? Northern CA is most famous for their wineries esp in Sonoma/Napa or farms. Southern CA is where the excitement is: the theme parks, the beaches and usually sunny weather. Mostpeople who aren't from CA think that it is just sunny all the time and we all go to the beaches and surf probably. More people are excited to go to Southern CA than Northern CA. I also think of CA as one of the more diverse states in the country, we have a lot of people from many different ethnicities here & it's a great experience to learn from each other's cultures.
5. Have you created a blog or webpage in the past?
Just on myspace, this seems a little different, I hope I am doing this right!!???!!