I\u2019ve not experienced the level of anxiety I have felt as the start of this semester drew near for quite some time. I\u2019ve been telling people that I think I probably teach better when I have that anxiety that leads me to overthink, overprepare, and often find myself unable to sleep or waking up unduly early because of how anxious I am, as I continually think about what I am teaching.<\/p>\n
In case you haven\u2019t heard, I\u2019m teaching a class on China and Islam that I have not taught since 2006. If you look at the web page I created for the course<\/a>, back when it was part of our previous core curriculum, it looks like you might expect a website to look from that long ago if it hasn\u2019t been updated since then. That was the year I joined Facebook, if I recall correctly. I still had to show documentaries by bringing a VHS player into the classroom, although I believe we had started trying to transfer those grainy collections of clips onto DVDs. I still have them in digital format. Today I can tell students to watch documentaries in better quality online. I also used to have students clip articles from a newspaper and paste them into a notebook with commentary. A news journal looks very different today, and so I\u2019ve rethought completely what I am getting students to do and when and how I expect them to do it. Students will be contributing to a blog<\/a> on which they will reflect on and engage with news about and from China and the Middle East, as well as\u00a0about<\/em> China and the Middle East. I am so excited to see that our library is trying out PressReader<\/a> at just this time, as it seems to be a convenient way of accessing news from other parts of the world (as well as from closer to home).<\/p>\n I also moved offices since I last taught the course, and guess which books I thought I could surely afford to get rid of at this point in my life and career, since I hadn\u2019t taught the course they were associated with in more than a decade? The lesson to book hoarders is clear: don\u2019t make the mistake I did! Hang on tightly to them, as you never know when you might need them again! Actually, with the change in technology, combined with library and other resources, there is probably nothing I need that I cannot get hold of, in fact most likely more easily than looking for it on my shelf if I had kept all those books.<\/p>\n It is really rewarding to go back and teach a class one hasn\u2019t taught for a long time after such a long break, in an area that was outside of one\u2019s normal expertise to begin with. It brings back the terror that provides adrenaline and impetus to prepare. I confess that I started semesters and walked into class comfortable and overconfident. And I did know what I needed to and was certainly prepared. But it wasn\u2019t as vibrant and lively as when I walk into class concerned about possible gaps in my knowledge, or that an untested class discussion topic might go horribly wrong.<\/p>\n Of related interest:<\/p>\n The\u00a0Chronicle<\/em> offered a helpful guide to tech choices related to education.<\/a><\/p>\n YouTube and the Hong Kong protests<\/a><\/p>\n Politicization of science in the U.S. and China<\/a><\/p>\n Impact of China\u2019s new two-child policy<\/a><\/p>\n Where Chinese students in America get their news<\/a><\/p>\n That latter article is fascinating in many ways, including how media outlets popular in China navigate censorship enforced by algorithms, and how they pander to what their audience wants. Definitely worth reading. Here\u2019s a snippet:<\/p>\n Lin said that College Daily\u2019s stories accurately reflect its readership\u2019s disillusionment with America, particularly when they compare the U.S. with China. \u201cEspecially after the 2016 election, our readers see how divided a society America is,\u201d he said. \u201cThey see the chaos that\u2019s brought about by its freedom. At the same time, China appears to be orderly, positive, and continuously advancing. This changes how an overseas Chinese student feels. It means that if we write things that are critical of China, or if we\u2019re singing the praises of America, we will be less popular with our readers.\u201d Following the\u00a0mass shootings<\/a>\u00a0in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in August, College Daily ran an explainer on why many Americans own semi-automatic guns, which said, \u201cThe reason is that in America, the police do not have the duty to protect you when your life is in danger.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Also relevant, but connected to this semester\u2019s other unit and to my other course for this part of the core that I will teach next semester:<\/p>\n Imran Khan: The World Can\u2019t Ignore Kashmir<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n