My last several weeks in New Zealand have been full: visiting schools, connecting with New Zealanders, learning about different NZ cultures, adapting to life in a new city, and exploring a new landscape. The more schools I visit, the more educators I meet, and the more classes I observe, the more I think about the importance […]Read Post ›
Today I had the pleasure of visiting Island Bay School, an inquiry-based school in a suburb of Wellington, NZ. Thank you Ximena and Amy for hosting me so warmly! A typical school day at Island Bay provides clear models of engaged learning. Doing school in this context means that students were active and involved, spread out in different […]Read Post ›
[Cross-posted on Edutopia] I’d like to invite you to try something. Stop reading for a moment and think back to a time when you were immersed in a deep learning experience. Maybe you’re remembering a time when you figured out how to solve a problem? It might have been a time when you had little […]Read Post ›
My 10th grade students recently completed proposals for museum exhibits about Colonialism. The Colonialism Unit is framed by three Essential Questions: In what different ways did colonialism affect both colonized and colonizer? How did people resist colonial rule? What different legacies did colonialism leave behind? Our unit began with the book Things Fall Apart. As […]Read Post ›
I am thankful to Katrina Schwartz of MindShift for this wonderful article on our Modern Day de Tocqueville project: How Inquiry Can Enable Students to Become Modern Day de Tocquevilles Some teachers are skeptical about “student-driven learning,” suspecting that it’s really just another chance for unfocused social time. It can often be hard to see […]Read Post ›
Mr J Block 