Welcome! Sign up for the YURI newsletter to get updates on our work. Learn about the Asian American and Pacific Islander stories that have been left out of the history of our multiracial nation, and how we can thoughtfully bring them into learning spaces. Our professional learning and youth workshops for schools and organizations are grounded in culturally relevant, Ethnic Studies teaching practices that center student engagement and empowerment.
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Back to School with YURI!
Published 16 days ago • 1 min read
Happy Back to School!
Hi Reader,
It's been a wonderful year of getting back to what I loved most as a classroom teacher: collaborating with teachers on curriculum and lesson planning, crafting lessons, and — to borrow a phrase from a favorite Social Studies Methods text — "being in there with the kids."
Working with teachers and learning about their unique strategies was uplifting. It's always great to see teachers doing excellent work, especially in these difficult times. Whether I was giving an overview of AAPI curriculum integration at a school workshop or digging into the details at the AAPI New Jersey Curriculum Design Intensive, I loved facilitating these events. One-on-one coaching with teachers like Alyssa, Interim Supervisor of Instruction and Social Studies/World Language Department Chair, was a great chance to dig into the nuances of fully integrating AAPI history into a course — including helping conceptualize her department's new class on Asian American and Latino/a immigration history. Building these personal connections while helping bring more inclusive stories into classrooms is one of the most heartening parts of this work.
It was also wonderful being back in the classroom myself. I spent eight days leading small-group youth workshops with 7th and 8th graders at a San Francisco Bay Area school, turning students into history detectives using primary sources from Smithsonian Asian Pacific American History, Art, and Culture in 101 Objects. Hearing their perspectives was a highlight of the year.
YURI's work stays rooted in AAPI curricular resources and workshops on how to use them in learning spaces. UCLA's Asian American Studies Center recently launched Foundations and Futures, the first AAPI multimedia textbook — and we're thrilled to partner with them to bring this resource to our next professional learning workshop.
Whether you're a teacher, professor, community educator, or program director, we'll work together to bring AAPI history into your learning spaces. This free, two-hour online workshop is open to Grades 7–14 school and community educators, with optional coaching and a stipend for classroom implementation. A recording will be available to all registrants afterward.
We were hired by UCLA AASC to develop lesson plans for the textbook's first completed chapter, "Incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII," which we'll feature at the workshop alongside other parts of Foundations and Futures. We'll also be joined by Christian-Joseph Macahilig, Education Manager of Foundations and Futures, and you'll leave with hands-on, accessible tools for your classroom.
Welcome! Sign up for the YURI newsletter to get updates on our work. Learn about the Asian American and Pacific Islander stories that have been left out of the history of our multiracial nation, and how we can thoughtfully bring them into learning spaces. Our professional learning and youth workshops for schools and organizations are grounded in culturally relevant, Ethnic Studies teaching practices that center student engagement and empowerment.
