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Summer 2025 Study Tour - Taiwan

Layers of History and Identity: June 29 - July 13, 2025. The Program for Teaching East Asia (TEA) at the University of Colorado Boulder and The Five College Center for East Asian Studies (FCCEAS) are organizing a two-week NCTA Study Tour to Taiwan. Fourteen participants will explore Taiwan's history and culture in Taipei, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. The tour is open to full-time, in-service K-12 NCTA teacher alumni who have completed at least 20 hours of NCTA programming, ideally an introductory seminar. Participants must complete pre-departure online modules, attend an orientation webinar, and submit a follow-up curriculum project by Sept. 2, 2025. More information and link to apply.

Fall 2024 - In-Person

Teaching Geography Through East Asian Picture Books: November 2. This workshop is for elementary and middle school teachers integrating picture books into geography and social studies lessons. It focuses on Colorado standards, covering climate, habitat, environment, ecosystems, urban development, and East Asian cultures. Enhance classroom diversity and geography education with engaging picture books! This workshop has filled.

Fall 2024 - Online Courses 

Taiwan Lives: A Social and Political History: September 16 - October 20​. Using Niki Alsford’s 2024 book Taiwan Lives: A Social and Political History, this course explores Taiwan's history from 1895 to 2020. The book’s twenty-four stories illustrate significant events and changes. Participants will delve into Alsford’s text, popular media, educator discussions, and meet the author. This course has filled.

Japan through Children's Literature: Children's Lives in Mid-20th-century Japan: September 20 - November 8. This program explores Japanese children's lives from the 1940s to 1960s through Freeman Book Award titles. Participants will read Yukie’s Island, Kozo the Sparrow, and Mai and the Missing Melon, discussing their historical and cultural contexts and applying insights to language arts and social studies. This course has filled.

East Asia in National Geographic Perspectives: September 25 - November 5. This course examines National Geographic's pedagogical practices and its representations of East Asia. Over six weeks, we'll analyze the magazine’s images, narratives, and historical contexts, and reflect on omissions to understand what has been left out in over a century of stories. This course has filled.

Our Story: A Memoir of Love & Life in China: September 26 - November 6. This online course explores Rao Pingru's illustrated memoir of life in China from the 1920s to the 21st century, highlighting daily life through the civil war, Mao years, and reform era, and examining personal and historical conflicts with humility and beauty. This course has filled.

China's Demographic Transition: Population Decline in the Post-One-Child Era: September 30 - October 28. This course examines China's demographic changes over the past century, including its recent shift to a shrinking population and India's rise as the world's most populous country. Participants will explore the history, motivations, and outcomes of China's population policies and their global implications. 

Fall 2024 - Webinars

A History of Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples & the State: September 24, 7pm ET. Join Professor Kun-Hui Ku as she discusses Taiwan’s indigenous peoples and their relationship to the state through different historical periods, including Tsai Ing-wen’s apology on behalf of the state in 2016 and the new administration under William Lai.  Details and registration.

Yukie’s Island: My Family’s WWII Story: October 1, 7pm ET. Join a webinar with Kōdo Kimura, who will discuss his collaboration with Steve Sheinkin to narrate and illustrate his mother Yukie Kimura's World War II island childhood in Hokkaido, offering insights into Japanese geography and culture. 

Mr. Pei's Perfect Shapes: October 29, 7pm ET. Join a webinar with Julie Leung, author of Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes, where she will discuss her book about the life and work of visionary architect I. M. Pei, exploring themes of design, architecture, perseverance, and innovation.

Mai and the Missing Melon: November 6, 7pm ET. Join a webinar with Sonoko Sakai, author of Mai and the Missing Melon, as she discusses her book’s 1960s Kamakura setting, explores its folktale and storytelling techniques, and provides insights into the themes of Japanese culture, geography, and the special bond between a grandmother and granddaughter. 

Poetry in the Classroom, Korea: September 26 - December 3. A great poem can be the perfect primary source to introduce students to the social, political and human complexities of important historical periods. Join us for one or all of these webinars that feature Korean poems in translation that can be integrated into your classrooms. . 

NCTA at TEA offers online seminars, book groups, and contemporary issues courses throughout the year. TEA's NCTA courses are open to teachers nationwide, unless noted otherwise. Please see individual course flyers for specifics of each course, including  grade level, discipline, and other priorities for applicants.  All courses offer a certificate of professional development hours and completion award.

Resources from TEA

TEA's NCTA Video Project. TEA's NCTA "Short Takes" is a collection of 40 video lectures designed for use by classroom teachers as professional background or classroom use. Each video focuses on a timely topic or “best practice” presented by an NCTA consulting scholar, seminar leader, teacher alum, or author.

• Take a “quick course” on a current topic you can integrate into your teaching.
• Choose a video to show in class.
• See how NCTA alumni are using new resources successfully.
• Hear what authors have to say about using their new books in the classroom.

Access the .

Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 in China and the U.S. through Literature and Writing is a 2020-2021 special project undertaken by TEA with funding from the Universty of Colorado Office of Engagement and Outreach and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA). The project worked with ten secondary teachers to introduce them and their students to the book Wuhan Diaries: Dispatches from a Quarantined City, by the Chinese author Fang Fang. Students then wrote diary and journal entries recording their own experiences processing their year during the COVID pandemic. Their moving personal accounts link their personal experiences to experiences in China and globally.  Visit our project page for more information on the project and selected student writings.

. Educators have a critical role to play in teaching about Asian America and, now more than ever, educating to combat anti-Asian racism and all forms of racism.  Developed for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, May 2021, this TEA-NCTA resource offers educators a selective "toolkit" to address these goals during the May 2021 Awarness month and every day.