Category Archives: Humanities

Empathy and a 7th Grade History Class

Posted on April 14, 2014 by

This post is part of my Professional Growth Plan documentation on how I’m using Design Thinking in my classroom One Grade 7 assignment I have done the past few years is a trial set during the Industrial Revolution, where students … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Thinking, Humanities, Professional Growth Plan, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Creating Questions: Ideation in a MYP World

Posted on October 17, 2013 by

My students spent a week coming up with a good question. A single question – average around 10 words –  took my 8th graders a week to come up with. In comparison, my students will spend a week actually putting … Continue reading →

Posted in Humanities, IBO-MYP-DP, MYP Humanities, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

A Teacher Thinking Visibly

Posted on April 24, 2013 by

See, Think, Wonder Back in February, I signed up to take the Making Thinking Visible course offered through Harvard Project Zero. I had seen the teachers in the elementary school at YIS go through the class and heard how they … Continue reading →

Posted in Humanities, Technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 23 Comments

Sustainabilty and Inquiry: Asking Questions, Failing and Learning

Posted on February 3, 2013 by

My kids are failing and struggling and I’ve never been more proud of them. We are in the midst of a project and I don’t know if they are going to get done what I thought they were going to … Continue reading →

Posted in Humanities, MYP Humanities, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

7th Graders (And One Teacher) Learning with Minecraft

Posted on December 12, 2012 by

Grade 7 seems like the wrong grade to pilot using Minecraft as a learning tool. This is an age where real-world interactions are difficult enough and empathy is sometimes lacking due to the fact that their bodies are rushed with … Continue reading →

Posted in Humanities, Technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The New MYP Humanities

Posted on September 13, 2012 by

If I haven’t said it before, I’m a big fan of MYP. Content takes a backseat to concept-driven curriculum. Skill development is more important than memorizing random facts. And right now we’re going through the growing pains of a new … Continue reading →

Posted in Humanities, MYP Humanities | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Creating Infographics: Making Numbers Sing

Posted on March 19, 2012 by

… Few people will appreciate the music if I just show them the notes. Most of us need to listen to the music to understand how beautiful it is. But often that’s how we present statistics; we just show the … Continue reading →

Posted in COETAIL @YIS, Humanities, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Students Inspiring Action and Creating Awareness

Posted on March 12, 2012 by

The Assignment: Working in small groups or individually, you need to create something that communicates to people what you learned about modern-day Child Labor. It can inspire ACTION or it can CREATE awareness. You have freedom to ask a question … Continue reading →

Posted in COETAIL @YIS, Humanities, MYP Humanities, Technology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Ninth Graders Wearing Ties, Kyrgyzstan, and Kiva Loans

Posted on October 2, 2011 by

Last Tuesday, 40 ninth graders were confidently presenting elevator pitches to the 2 teachers, the Head of Humanities, the Head of Academics, and the Head of School.  The boys were wearing ties, if you need proof that it was big … Continue reading →

Posted in Humanities, MYP Humanities | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

The Long Goodbye to the Five Paragraph Essay

Posted on September 25, 2011 by

My first five paragraph essay that I remember writing was on the word “square”.  I was in 9th grade Honors English and the assignment was to pick a word, go to the Oxford English Dictionary, and write a five paragraph … Continue reading →

Posted in COETAIL @YIS, Humanities, IBO-MYP-DP, MYP Humanities | Tagged , , , , , | 19 Comments