This post/letter is dedicated to the Class of 2019.
Keeping with a tradition I started since my first year teaching, I would like to write and dedicate a letter to the Class of 2019.


Dear Class of 2019,
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It’s been a little over a week since you graduated and I wanted to take some time to process it. Your class holds a very special place in my heart. When I first started at Santa Teresa, you were sophomores. About 50 of you had me as your world history teacher and became part of my first group of students. My reach didn’t stop there. I was also one of your class advisors and that allowed me to meet many more of you through ASB activities. A few of you ended up in my government/economics class your senior year or just ended up hanging around my class during break, tutorial, and/or some club activity. Not only are many of you among my first group of students, your class is the first one I’ve had the honor of seeing mature over the past three years. I definitely repeated this so much you’re tired of hearing of it.

I am looking to write more often, so I'll be taking baby steps and starting with these short reflection pieces, "Thoughts for Chang."

Since I started teaching, I've been working really hard on helping my students ​develop perspective and opinions of their own. 

I get a few messages a month from people who saw my guest post on The Civic Educator, asking about my curriculum and my experience with it. I have also reposted it on the site here. Here's some updates on my progress a year later in 2019. ​

I have loved history ever since I was a kid.
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I just want to be clear that my goal is not to make my students fall in love with history. As I matured, I’ve realized that everybody has different interests, strengths and weaknesses. Rather my purpose is to help students understand the importance of history.

 I'm currently in Minneapolis for my very first National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly (RA) where around 8,000 public school educators across the country have gathered to set the policy and direction of NEA.
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Coincidentally, the Families Belong Together March happened on the first day of the RA. The issue of children being separated from their families is a very personal and strong issue that resonates with many educators. Naturally, since teachers educate children, many educators, including myself, took part in the march. About 7,000 people showed up to the march in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday, 6/30/2018.  Here I've shared some pictures I took during the march. 

I apologize that this site hasn't been active the entire school year. I thought Year 2 would free up some time to write and reflect. Instead, I made the conscious choice of doubling to even tripling my responsibilities, making Year 2 even busier than Year 1. I'll be reflecting on Years 1 & 2 over this summer while I give this site a facelift. ​

*This post was originally a response to a post from The Civic Educator*

Brian at The Civic Educator posted in this Facebook group I moderate, asking about our thoughts on testing in civics education (and to me, the social sciences & history by extension). This is something I feel very strongly about so I decided to share my response on that post here.

Hi folks,
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I apologize for the long hiatus. By the time I had this site up and running, the school year ended and I went out of the country for a month to attend two weddings in East Asia. I took the opportunity to do quite a bit of travel around South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I will probably write about those down the line. You can check them out in the "Travel + Life" section (if I ever get to it). I thought I would've had plenty of time to blog while traveling, but that wasn't the case.

​This post/letter is dedicated to the Class of 2017.
 
Dear Class of 2017,
 
As you (my seniors) know, I am a first-year teacher. Your class occupies a lot of “firsts” in my career and life. You are my first group of students (at least as a paid teacher) and the first class of seniors I am graduating. As such, you hold a very special place in my teaching career and my heart.