Teaching Methods and Examples

The global pandemic has forced and allowed educators around the world to shift their brick and mortar classroom practices to online modules. In designing onlining learning I strive more than usual to focus on the "Learning Outcomes" for our students. In anticipation of the moving online I signed up for Global Online Acadmy's online course "Designing for Online Learning" to help best prepare myself, colleagues, students, and thier families for the shift to online learning. Below are some examples of how I am trying to help students' wayfinding in our classes.

G6 I&S - Instructions for Monday, May 11.webm

This lesson for my Grade 6 IB MYP Individuals and Society class focused on teaching students how to properly give feedback to each others work demonstrating the similarities and differences of their research topics.


Using Screencastify with 7th graders as we moved to online learning.

Using curriculum from Facing History and Oursleves in suport of reading the novel,

"A Long Walk to Water"

G7 Identity Analysis Summative Info.webm

This was a video for my grade 7 students on how to use their peer and teacher formative feedback on their summative assessment.


The Harkness table - Based on their daughter's enjoyment of class discussions in my eighth grade Global Studies class at Hutchison School in Memphis, TN her family donated the funding for the school to purchase a Harkness table. Based on my experience teaching case studies in foreign and domestic policy at St. Albans School of Public Service summer program in Washington, DC, I introduced the use of the Harkness table to enhance evidence based class discussions and helped other teachers integrate it into their teaching. The table resided in my classroom but within two years was used shared and used by most middle school humanities teachers. I was later offered and took a full time position at St. Albans School in Washington, DC, but Hutchison School and my former colleague still uses the original table. Here is a link to an article about it's use at Hutchison today.

8th grade students engage in an evidence based discussion .

  • Students must use evidence to justify their position of whether Mao Zedong was good or bad for China.

  • Students had to pick one side or the other.

  • Eventually students will have to write a paragraph supporting each side and cite classroom articles, discussions, and videos using MLA format.

Based on assigned readings, lectures, and class discussions student provide me with a "security briefing" as an authentic assessment of their learning on the current events "Iran" unit.

I am very proud of the track record working with colleagues to expand the knowledge and skills of our students. Two particular areas have been the teaching of research and writing. Below are some testimonials from the school librarian and students.

Hutchison School Librarian - Lee Billings

Students testimonials

Students talk about research and writing.

Students talk about research and writing.

I was selected to participate in the National Consortium for Teachers of Asia (NCTA) study tour of China and Japan in the fall 2008. Here is a portaportal site I put together to support the synchronous and asynchronous distance learning of my students in the US back while participating in the study tour in Asia.

When I was asked to take over the Model UN at Hutchison School in Memphis the program was simply, "food, flags, and fun". During my time the students and I were able to use a formal and informal (in class) MUN Conferences as a curricular model that provided global awareness, public speaking, research skills, critical thinking, and problem solving for the middle school students. Model UN developed into a valuable tool that supported numerous curriculum goals and enabled our students to have one of the strongest middle and upper school MUN programs in Memphis and the Mid South. Below is a portaportal that I curated to support the neccessary resources for quality student research. I worked with Hutchison's head librarian and her staff to choose subscriptions that best fit the needs of our students.