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4th graders learned about Vice President Kamala Harris on PebbleGo and Britannica.

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Kamala Harris (born October 20, 1964, Oakland, California, U.S.) 49th vice president of the United States (2021- ) in the Democratic administration of Pres. Joe Biden. She was the first woman and the first African American to hold the post. She had previously served in the U.S. Senate (2017-21) and as attorney general of California (2011-17).

Her father, who was Jamaican, taught at Stanford University, and her mother, the daughter of an Indian diplomat, was a cancer researcher. Her younger sister, Maya, later became a public policy advocate. After studying political science and economics (B.A., 1986) at Howard University, Kamala earned a law degree (1989) from Hastings College.

She subsequently worked as a deputy district attorney (1990-98) in Oakland, earning a reputation for toughness as she prosecuted cases of gang violence, drug trafficking, and sexual abuse. Harris rose through the ranks, becoming district attorney in 2004. In 2010 she was narrowly elected attorney general of California-winning by a margin of less than 1 percent-thus becoming the first female and the first African American to hold the post. After taking office the following year, she demonstrated political independence, rejecting, for example, pressure from the administration of Pres. Barack Obama for her to settle a nationwide lawsuit against mortgage lenders for unfair practices. Instead, she pressed California's case and in 2012 won a judgment five times higher than that originally offered. Her refusal to defend Proposition 8 (2008), which banned same-sex marriage in the state, helped lead to it being overturned in 2013. Harris's book, Smart on Crime (2009; cowritten with Joan O'C. Hamilton), was considered a model for dealing with the problem of criminal recidivism.

In 2012 Harris delivered a memorable address at the Democratic National Convention, raising her national profile. Two years later she married attorney Douglas Emhoff. Widely considered a rising star within the party, she was recruited to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Barbara Boxer, who was retiring. In early 2015 Harris declared her candidacy, and on the campaign trail she called for immigration and criminal-justice reforms, increases to the minimum wage, and protection of women's reproductive rights. She easily won the 2016 election.

When she took office in January 2017, Harris became the first Indian American in the Senate and just the second Black woman. She began serving on both the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Judiciary Committee, among other assignments. She became known for her prosecutorial style of questioning witnesses during hearings, which drew criticism-and occasional interruptions-from Republican senators. In June she drew particular attention for her questions to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was testifying before the intelligence committee on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election; she had earlier called on him to resign. Harris's memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, was published in January 2019.

Shortly thereafter Harris announced that she was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. From the outset she was seen as one of the leading contenders, and she drew particular attention when, during a primary debate, she had a contentious exchange with fellow candidate Joe Biden over his opposition to school busing in the 1970s and '80s, among other race-related topics. Although Harris's support initially increased, by September 2019 her campaign was in serious trouble, and in December she dropped out of the race. She continued to maintain a high profile, notably becoming a leading advocate for social-justice reform following the May 2020 death of George Floyd, an African American who had been in police custody. Her efforts silenced some who had criticized her tenure as attorney general, alleging that she had failed to investigate charges of police misconduct, including questionable shootings. Others, however, felt that her embrace of reform was a political maneuver to capitalize on the increasing public popularity of social change. As racial injustice became a major issue in the United States, many Democrats called on Biden, the party's presumptive nominee, to select an African American woman-a demographic that was seen as pivotal to his election chances-as his vice presidential running mate. In August Biden chose Harris, and she thus was the first Black woman to appear on a major party's national ticket. In November she became the first Black woman to be elected vice president of the United States.

In the ensuing weeks Trump and various other Republicans challenged the election results, claiming voter fraud. Although a number of lawsuits were filed, no evidence was provided to support the allegations, and the vast majority of the cases were dismissed. During this time Harris and Biden began the transition to a new administration, announcing an agenda and selecting staff. By early December all states had certified the election results, and the process then moved to Congress for final certification. Amid Trump's repeated calls for Republicans to overturn the election, a group of congressional members, which notably included Senators Josh Hawley (Missouri) and Ted Cruz (Texas), announced that they would challenge the electors of various states. Shortly after the proceedings began on January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. It took several hours to secure the building, but Biden and Harris were eventually certified as the winners. She later denounced the siege-which many believed was incited by Trump-as "an assault on America's democracy." On January 18 she officially resigned from the Senate. Two days later, amid an incredible security presence, Harris was sworn in as vice president.

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Kamala Harris | Biography, Policies, Family, & Facts

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Kamala Harris, 49th vice president of the United States (2021- ) in the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden. She was the first woman and the first African American to hold the post. She had previously served in the U.S. Senate (2017-21) and as attorney general of California (2011-17).

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2nd graders read The Empty Pot by Demi, a Chinese Folktale on Storyline Online read by Rami Malek.  The Chinese Emperor announces an unusual test to choose an heir—the child who raises the best flowers from a seed given by the Emperor will be his successor. Ping, unaccountably, is unable to get his seed to sprout—but Ping’s empty pot is best of all.

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The Chinese Emperor announces an unusual test to choose an heir-the child who raises the best flowers from a seed given by the Emperor will be his successor. Ping, unaccountably, is unable to get his seed to sprout-but Ping's empty pot is best of all.

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The Chinese Emperor announces an unusual test to choose an heir-the child who raises the best flowers from a seed given by the Emperor will be his successor. Ping, unaccountably, is unable to get his seed to sprout-but Ping's empty pot is best of all.

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5th grade students learned about Asian American and Pacific Islander Month using Britannica and National Geographic.

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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

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People with ancestral roots in Asia and the islands of the Pacific have been integral to the story of America. To celebrate their heritage and contributions, in 1992, May was designated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

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Tracy Guan, an author from JQES, presented her latest book titled Love is Mama's Hands to the first-grade students. The book, beautifully illustrated by Bo Feng Lin, serves as a joyful tribute to the numerous ways mothers express love by intertwining food and culture within its pages.

See Love is Mama's Hands by Tracy Guan: An Interactive Read Asian American Read Aloud Video Mother's Day

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K2 - !st grade read about tennis player and activist Naomi Osaka on PebbleGo

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Naomi Osaka, (born October 16, 1997, Ōsaka, Japan), Japanese tennis player and activist who, with her victory at the 2018 U.S. Open, became the first player from Japan to win a Grand Slam singles title. She also became in 2019 the first Asian player to ascend to the top of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) world rankings. In addition, Osaka is known as an advocate for social justice.
(Read Britannica's interview with Naomi Osaka.)
Osaka was born to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother. She was raised in Japan until the age of three, when her family relocated to Long Island, New York. There her father encouraged her to take up tennis. After the family moved to Florida in 2006, Osaka practiced tennis during the day and was homeschooled at night. She bypassed junior competition to turn professional in 2013, and she soon received support from the Japanese tennis federation. Over the next few years she emerged as one of the sport's most promising young players. In 2016 she advanced to the round of 32 at three Grand Slam tournaments-the Australian Open, the French Open, and the U.S. Open. At the last of those tournaments her serve was clocked at 125 miles (201 km) per hour, one of the fastest serves ever recorded in the women's game. Osaka was named the 2016 Newcomer of the Year by the WTA.
(Read Chris Evert's Britannica entry on the U.S. Open.)
In March 2018 Osaka captured her first WTA Tour title, winning the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Some six months later she faced Serena Williams-one of her childhood idols-in the championship match of the U.S. Open and bested her in straight sets. Osaka triumphed again at the 2019 Australian Open, where she notched a three-set victory over Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the finals. With that win Osaka became the first woman to claim consecutive Grand Slam singles titles since Williams accomplished the feat in 2015. On January 28, 2019, Osaka officially assumed the number one world ranking. She held the top spot for 21 weeks, until overtaken by Australian Ashleigh Barty in June. Later in the year Osaka again sat atop the world rankings, for two weeks beginning in mid-August.

Osaka's outspokenness on issues of social justice also attracted widespread attention. In August 2020 she temporarily withdrew from the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament in New York as a means of showing solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests that were occurring in cities across the United States that summer. At the U.S. Open the following month, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she wore a series of face masks featuring the names of African Americans who had died at the hands of police or in alleged racially motivated attacks carried out by others. She stated that the face masks were part of her effort "to make people start talking." Osaka triumphed at the tournament, winning the U.S. Open title for a second time. In recognition of her tennis success and activism, the Associated Press selected Osaka as the Female Athlete of the Year for 2020.

Osaka added to her collection of Grand Slam trophies in February 2021 when she secured a second Australian Open title. She was the 16th woman of the open era (since 1968) to have won four Grand Slam singles championships. The following May, citing mental health concerns, she withdrew from the French Open after having been fined by the organizers for skipping press conferences during the tournament. She later revealed that she had suffered bouts of depression since 2018 and that she planned to take a break from competition. Osaka opted not to play at Wimbledon in 2021, but later that year she competed at the U.S. Open, where she was upset in the third round. She subsequently went on a four-month hiatus, returning to competition in early 2022. At that year's Australian Open, Osaka experienced another loss in the third round, and she lost in the first round of that year's U.S. Open.

On several occasions Osaka represented Japan in international competitions. She played on the Japanese Fed Cup team in 2017, 2018, and 2020. In October 2019 Osaka, who held dual citizenship with Japan and the United States, announced that she would relinquish her U.S. citizenship and compete for Japan in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Games opened in July 2021, and Osaka was given the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron. She competed in the Olympic tennis tournament but lost in the third round.

In January 2023 Osaka announced that she was pregnant and would not compete that year. However, she planned to return in 2024. Her daughter was born in July 2023.

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Naomi Osaka | Biography, WTA, & Black Lives Matter

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Naomi Osaka is a Japanese tennis player and activist who, with her victory at the 2018 U.S. Open, became the first player from Japan to win a Grand Slam singles title. She also was the first Asian player to ascend (2019) to the top of the WTA world rankings.

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Maya Lin - architect, sculptor and activist

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Maya Lin - architect, sculptor and activist

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4th graders learned about architect, sculptor and civil rights activist Maya Lin on Britannica and PebbleGo.

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Maya Lin (born October 5, 1959, Athens, Ohio, U.S.) is an American architect and sculptor concerned with environmental themes who is best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The daughter of intellectuals who had fled China in 1948, Lin received a bachelor's degree in 1981 from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where she studied architecture and sculpture. During her senior year she entered a nationwide competition sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to create a design for a monument honouring those who had served and died in that war. Lin's award-winning design consisted of a polished black granite V-shaped wall inscribed with the names of the approximately 58,000 men and women who were killed or missing in action. This minimal plan was in sharp contrast to the traditional format for a memorial, which usually included figurative, heroic sculpture. The design aroused a great deal of controversy, reflecting the lack of resolution of the national conflicts over the war, as well as the lack of consensus over what constituted an appropriate memorial at the end of the 20th century. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the commissioning of a traditional statue depicting three servicemen with a flag to stand at the entrance to the memorial. After Lin's monument was dedicated on the Mall in Washington, D.C., on Veterans Day in 1982, however, it became a popular and affecting tourist attraction. In 2005 the American Institute of Architects conferred upon the monument its 25-Year Award, given to a structure that has proved its worth over time.

Lin sought anonymity by returning to academia, beginning graduate studies in architecture at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In early 1983 she left Harvard to work for a Boston architect, and in 1986 she completed a master's degree in architecture at Yale. In 1988 Lin agreed to design a monument for the civil rights movement on behalf of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Her design consisted of two elements: a curved black granite wall inscribed with a quotation from Martin Luther King, Jr., and a 12-foot- (3.7-metre-) diameter disk bearing the dates of the major events of the civil rights era and the names of 40 people who were martyrs to the cause. Water flows gently over both parts of the memorial. The Civil Rights Memorial was dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama, in November 1989.

In an attempt to avoid being typecast as a builder of memorials, Lin in the 1990s shifted her attention to other forms of art and architecture. Many of her artworks, from small sculptures displayed in galleries to large environmental installations, took their inspiration from the natural features and landscape of Earth. In a series of "wave fields" ( The Wave Field [1995] in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Flutter [2005] in Miami; and Storm King Wavefield [2009] in Mountainville, New York), for instance, she reshaped grass-covered terrain to resemble undulating ocean waves. Lin also explored the ways individuals experience the landscape through a series of constructed topographies, as in 2×4 Landscape and Blue Lake Pass (both 2006), and she considered bodies of water in such works as the sculpture Silver Ontario(2012-13) and the site-specific installation A River Is a Drawing (2018). In Madison Square Park, New York, Lin planted a temporary grove of dead Atlantic white cedars killed after rising seawater caused saltwater inundation. The work, Ghost Trees (2021), sought to draw attention to the often unseen effects of climate change.

In 2000 Lin was commissioned to create a series of seven art installations along the Columbia River to honour the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. These pieces-which ranged in size and scale from a fish-cleaning table inscribed with the Chinook origin story to a pedestrian bridge spanning a state highway-examined the historical impact of the expedition on the native peoples and on the land of the Pacific Northwest. Lin's interest in environmentalism reached its apotheosis with the multimedia project What Is Missing? (begun 2009), an exploration of the growing threats to biodiversity that she referred to as her "final memorial."

Among Lin's other large-scale works are Topo (1991), a topiary park in Charlotte, North Carolina, created in collaboration with landscape architect Henry F. Arnold; The Women's Table (1993), a sculpture commemorating the coeducation of women at Yale; and Groundswell (1993), an installation of 43 tons of glass pebbles at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. Her architectural achievements, which were noted for their emphasis on sustainability, include designs for the Langston Hughes Library (1999), a converted barn in Clinton, Tennessee; the Museum of Chinese in America (2009) in New York City; and the Neilson Library (2021) at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.

In 1995 the feature-length film Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994), written and directed by Freida Lee Mock, won the Oscar for best documentary. Lin was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

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Maya Lin | Biography, Art, Vietnam Memorial, & Facts

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Maya Lin, American architect and sculptor concerned with environmental themes who is best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C. Her later works are inspired by the natural features of Earth, as in her series of 'wave fields.'

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Kicking off AAPI Heritage month - Award-winning author and illustrator Jason Chin came for an author visit and presented his book The Universe in You a Microscopic Journey to our 3rd-grade students.  He enthusiastically and gracefully detailed his writing, research, and illustrating processes.  He emphasized the importance of ‘representation” and with this new book, he features a child who uses a wheelchair.  We are grateful that through a grant with Wondermore, each student received a signed copy of the book to bring home!

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3rd grade students read The Sound of Silence written by Katrina Goldsaito and illustrated by Julia Kuo StorylineOnline with actor Simu Liu. “Do you have a favorite sound?” little Yoshio asks. The musician answers, “The most beautiful sound is the sound of ma, of silence.”  Join Yoshio on his journey through the hustle and bustle of the city to find the most beautiful sound of all.

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"Do you have a favorite sound?" little Yoshio asks. The musician answers, "The most beautiful sound is the sound of ma, of silence."

But Yoshio lives in Tokyo, Japan: a giant, noisy, busy city. He hears shoes squishing through puddles, trains whooshing, cars beeping, and families laughing. Tokyo is like a symphony hall!

Where is silence?

Join Yoshio on his journey through the hustle and bustle of the city to find the most beautiful sound of all.

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"Do you have a favorite sound?" little Yoshio asks. The musician answers, "The most beautiful sound is the sound of ma, of silence." But Yoshio lives in Tokyo, Japan: a giant, noisy, busy city. He hears shoes squishing through puddles, trains whooshing, cars beeping, and families laughing. Tokyo is like a symphony hall!

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1st and 2nd graders learned about award winning author and illustrator Allen Say on PebbleGo.

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Most of the books by artist and writer Allen Say are about his personal experiences, people in his family, and influences on his work. The realism in his writing focuses on the power of stories, the lure of nature, and the reality of dreams to describe Japanese identity and culture. Say is the author and illustrator of books for young readers and is the recipient of many awards, including the Oregon Book Award and the Caldecott Medal. He has lived in Portland since 1999.

Allen Say was born in Yokohama, Japan, on August 28, 1937. His mother Masako was a Japanese American born in California and raised in Japan, and his father Joseph was a Korean orphan raised by a British family in Shanghai. At home, his parents spoke English to each other but Japanese to him. His mother taught him to read before he started school, and he read comic books to other children, which inspired him to draw and tell stories.

When American bombs fell on Yokohama in 1945, Masako took her children to Tabuse to stay with Allen's uncle. It was the first of almost forty moves that Say would make in his life. The house in Yokohama was destroyed, and the family moved to Kyushu, where his father found work.

Say's first-grade teacher in Kyushu, Mrs. Morita, was the first of several teachers who encouraged him as an artist. It was there that he first encountered the work of Noro Shinpei, a popular cartoonist. When Say was twelve and living in Tokyo, he became Shinpei's apprentice and inker. Shinpei gave him work and advice: "To draw is to discover-and to be astonished." Shinpei also created a character, Kyusuke, for his Demokurashee-chan comic strip, modeled after Say. In Tokyo, Say saw a Vincent van Gogh exhibit that influenced his art.

Say's parents divorced, and his father moved with his new family to California in the early 1950s. He asked fifteen-year-old Allen if he wanted to go to America to make a name for himself. At sixteen, Say arrived in Long Beach, California, with ten dollars from his father. A family friend drove him to the Harding Military Academy in Glendora, where he worked for his room and board and learned how to drive. He left school after a year and enrolled in a high school in Azusa, where teachers once again encouraged his artistic work. He took classes at Chouinard Art Institute and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles; Say credits his teachers there with changing his life. On a trip to Yokohama to visit his family, he realized the similarities between him and Kyusuke, his cartoon self.

By the early 1960s, Say was an architecture student at the University of California at Berkeley. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1962 and was stationed in Germany. During his two years in the military, Say's photography appeared in Stars and Stripes, the army's newspaper. After returning to California, Say worked as a freelance photographer and wrote and illustrated his first book, Dr. Smith's Safari (1972), illustrated other writers' books, and wrote an autobiographical novel, The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice (1979). Say moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1999.

Writing in a style that is precise and understated, Say sometimes merges the real and the surreal in his books, using photographs, pen-and-ink sketches, and watercolor paintings to illustrate them. His picture books include Erika-San (2009) and Drawing from Memory (2011), which were awarded the Oregon Spirit Book Award by the Oregon Council of Teachers of English, and Drawing from Memory, which won an Oregon Book Award in 2013. The Boy of the Three-Year Nap (1993), written by Dianne Snyder, won a Caldecott Honor Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Say's illustrations. Grandfather's Journey (1993) was awarded the Caldecott Medal by the American Library Association.

A exhibition of Say's illustrations was at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles in 2000, and The Art of Allen Say: A Sense of Place was exhibited at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2007. The Multnomah County Library presented a retrospective of Say's work in 2015.

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Most of the books by artist and writer Allen Say are about his personal experiences, people in his family, and influences on his work. The realism in his writing focuses on the power of stories, the lure of nature, and the reality of dreams to describe Japanese identity and culture.

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5th grade students listened to Michelle Yeoh read Lotus and Feather written by Ji-li Jiang and illustrated by Julie Downing. Inspired by the true story of a crane that rescued a Chinese village, and graced with sensitive watercolor illustrations, this lovely book about respecting nature offers deep emotion and delightful surprises.

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Author Vincent Yee came to JQES to talk to Ms. Wang's 5th graders about his new Clara Wu book series.  This new series was created to highlight Asian American superheroes in literature.  We were so thankful that Vincent was able to donate a class set of his first novel Clara Wu and the Portal Book. We look forward to hosting him again!

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Students read Lon Po Po written and illustrated by Ed Young on Bookflix.  The familiar story of Little Red-Riding Hood is reset in the Chinese countryside with beautiful watercolor illustrations that retell the classic with cultural twists and variations.

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Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young Read Aloud by a Teacher