collaborations

I am proud to have brought this TFJ conference to life for 3 years, as we work to create spaces for celebration and joy and bring Asian American Studies into classrooms. In collaboration with Educate to Empower, UCI Teacher Academy and UCI Center for Educational Partnerships, we launched the inaugural Teaching for Justice Conference in April 2022.  Educators from across the country joined virtually, as local educators joined in person to explore how Asian American Studies can and should be embedded across the k12 curriculum.

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We push back against the unnatural invisibility and stereotypes of Asian Americans in mathematics education and highlight and disrupt how the model minority myth - the belief that Asian Americans have “made it'' despite obstacles - is used in mathematics education to hurt our siblings of color, render Asian Americans invisible, and imply that mathematics education does not need anti-racist work. 

In collaboration with Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, I consulted a national team of local cohorts of teachers on how mathematical investigations can deepen their projects of addressing local social issues. 

This cross-country collaboration brought together some of my professional inspirations to create this inspring message to use the Hope Wheel to engage students to tap deeply into our humanity and respond to injustices in solidarity with each other. 

In a collaboration with education researchers from across the country, I shared the impact of using mathematics and an AAPI Framework to developing a critical lens towards what we are teaching and what our children are learning about identity, power, oppression, and themselves. 

This presentation was a part of my collection of collaborations with UCLA Math Project that uses mathematics to comprehend the cultural references and relevance of children's books. This particular one discusses the nuances of oversimplifying data and how it can exclude marginalized communities. 

In an ongoing collaboration with CA Mathematics Project, we guided groups of high school students  in this multi-day lesson to make sense of real data and relationships between socio-economic status and standardized test scores. Lessons like this position students as mathematical sense-makers and change agents in their own communities. 

This presentation was an earlier part of my collection of collaboration projects that uses mathematics to comprehend the cultural references and relevance of children's books. This particular one, in collaboration with UCI Science Project, discusses the stewardship of deep-sea divers to preserve traditional customs in S.Korea. We created a self-guided activity packet for students to explore patterns and buoyancy.

I co-created this affinity space with Ph.D student Socorro Cambero, as a response to the needs of our community. Since it's inaugural launch in 2022, I've supported student (name removed for privacy) as they fully embrace their whole identity and source it for strength to support others. 

I am so honored to be part of this amazing collaboration with Educate to Empower to bring you a specially-designed collection of cross-disciplinary lessons connected to the real history of Orange County, CA. The People's Guide to OC tells the hidden histories and stories that refuse to be silenced by dominant narratives. Check out our open access collection of resources! More to come, so stay tuned!

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Ethnic studies (ES) extends beyond a history class, providing a framework of principles that informs instruction.  In this presentation, I collaborated with UCI Math Project to discuss with fellow math educators about how we can enrich math instruction by incorporating concepts from the ES framework and principles.  We reflected on our current practices that align with these concepts and considered adapting or adopting approaches to foster criticality in ourselves and our students.

Through the context of the Japanese/American incarceration, we use mathematics to not only understand the reparations they received, but learn about the history of the land that sits below our feet. This presentation was offered during the inaugural Teaching for Justice conference, to kickstart our spotlight on bringing AAPI curriculum into k12 classrooms. 

I was told this session was the first folks have ever attended where their own identities were the topic of conversation, and how these identities shape how we teach and interact with children. Together, with Theodore Chao from Ohio State University, we discussed how implicit biases and internalized racism inform the way we teach and uphold educational systems. 

This was a large partneship with UC Berkeley's Integrated Action Civics, UC Irvine's History Project,  EastYard Communities, , and secondary teachers from UCLA Mann HS, Roosevelt HS, and Math-Science-Tech-Academy.  We collaborated to merge statistical reasoning and data analysis and GIS mapping to investigate environmental justice issues and community activist organization to support Ethnic Studies students through their Youth Participatory Action Research projects.

In collaboration with UCI Science Project, we examined climate change data through a mathematical lens. We urged participants at the statewide science educators' conference to foster data literacy in our students in order to develop a critical lens of "fake news" about our environment and learn to take action in measurable ways. 

Part of the Hidden Statistics series, this was a collaboration with UCLA Math Project that develops a critical examination of the increasing wealth gap and inequalities dominating our country. 

I co-created this affinity space with Ph.D student Socorro Cambero as a response to the needs of our community. Now in it's 3rd year, I uplift early career teachers as leaders of the space. Creating opportunities as such is an intended outcome of this community. 

At the end of the inaugural year, we shared our experience with the UTEACH community at large, urging program leaders to create similar spaces for their prospective programs. 

Two participating members exercised their leadership by traveling to Texas and co-presenting to this national audience. 

As a high school teacher, I co-taught a unit on using mathematical models to understand the case for reparations for descendants of enslaved African Americans. I collaborated with a history teacher to merge lessons about slavery and Japanese American incarceration. I spoke about this lesson at conferences across the state and country to the NCTM president, professors, teachers, and leaders, urging them to  foster honest conversations about antiracism in the math classroom.