Skip to main content

The Peopling of the World

           Recently I cruised through an Upper School ninth grade history class where students were grappling with the history of the human race. It looked quite different than the Western Civilization classes I had visited in the same classrooms just a few years ago. In this class, we started with essential questions – the why behind the exercise of the class. We were being asked to consider whether or not people ultimately made their way to the Americas by one method or many methods – apparently a historical debate that has raged for quite sometime. It was a question without a clear answer, even in the world of our adult scholarship, but our ninth graders were going to take it on in a 45 minute period one Wednesday morning in History class.


            The kids were paired off – with one computer a piece – to consider eight different archaeological findings including names like Kennewick Man, Buhl Woman, and Luzia Woman. While I am sure these are all famously known by our parents, I had literally never heard of any of them. The teacher set the kids off with some basic who, what, when, and where parameters and were given about ten minutes. At the end of that ten minutes, all of these famous archaeological discoveries had been researched and catalogued by the ninth graders. We began the process of sharing our findings. What our teacher was able to do so masterfully, however, was push the students further. After they had the facts, he asked them to construct meaning by asking questions like: what does this one tell us about how people possibly migrating 12,000 years ago? Does it seem reasonable? What are the problems with some of these theories we are considering? All of this was integrated with images facilitated through technology. It was not seventeen kids coming up with seventeen factual reports but a class of our ninth graders collectively building a theory about the history of humans through research. I actually forgot where I was, as I was spellbound but the possibilities of our ancestors as a nation. 


            For me this was Curriculum 2020 in action in our classrooms already - today. Rather than being asked to learn a fact or theory and remember it for a test, our students were creating the theories. Rather than read facts out of a textbook, our kids were actually seeking out the content on their own. It was how they synthesized this content that actually mattered. I wish you could have been there with me, as I bet you would have lost yourself for a moment as well. It gave me hope for our direction, and I found myself ready to go back to high school. I have not said that too many times in my life, for the record. I need to visit more classes more often.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Piercing the Bubble

This week we were so fortunate to have former NH Senator Kelly Ayotte address grades 7 – 11 in our theater about Civil Discourse in a time of Political Polarization. Senator Ayotte spoke to the need to take the high road in tough conversations and put an incredible primacy on building relationships with people who hold different opinions. She was able to speak to some of her own successes in working across the aisle to develop legislation to address the opioid crisis in New Hampshire as one powerful example of how this can be possible. Additionally, Senator Ayotte offered a strong reminder to our students of the need for more women in positions of leadership within our government, citing that she had only been the 53rd woman to serve in the US senate during her tenure. With a down-to-earth style and but an appropriately impassioned call to action, she challenged our students to become the leaders that they could be. Her call to action and example of service were powerful reminder...
Post a Comment
Read more

Inspiration Commons

All this week, I have been sneaking into the library every six hours or so. With our new Inspiration Commons set to open over the weekend, the final details are being installed and the results are spectacular. For me, it is so rewarding to see how our donor community has rallied behind the notion of an educational experience that will be hands-on and engaging. Just walking through the new fabrication studio, as the new tools were being unpacked, there was an unspoken energy in the room that it was time to build something. The teachers who were being trained on the equipment simply had smiles on their faces. So did I. But standing on the second floor, looking down over the new balcony, one realizes that the Inspiration Commons has very little to do with technology in the end. Surveying new furniture and the new organization of space, I could envision how kids will want to be in this space - together. They will want to have conversations, collaboration, and time to make their ideas ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Behind the scenes

I often like to use the word authenticity when talking about Berwick Academy. I have said that I feel more able to be myself at Berwick than any place I have worked to date; it truly is a gift to feel that way. For parents, we usually focus on the teachers and coaches who make our kids’ lives so dynamic, and we forget the people behind the scenes who make the Berwick experience possible: maintenance, custodial, food, transportation, and support staff, etc. Berwick could not deliver the program it delivers without such high quality yet largely unheralded work. The same could be said of the Head of School. I am quick to point out that being a father is far more humbling than being a Head of School. There is no way on earth that I could have possibly moved this school forward without the unquestioned support of my wife, Amy. I often marvel that, in addition to dealing with a husband who can be tired and grumpy at the end of long days, she somehow has managed to catalyze the amazing...
1 comment
Read more