Thomas Education

At the NESA2012 Spring Educators Conference, teacher Pilar Quezzaire, of the American Community School in Beirut, presented a short workshop on the use of live simulations.  During the workshop, participants practiced with a brief simulation of the Syrian crisis – we randomly selected disparate roles of participants, then provided some statements and responses that would be characteristic of those roles.  Ms.Quezzaire added a modern twist to the role-playing by instructing us to act as bloggers.  Role-playing allows us to avoid personal conflicts in class, but even so it often engenders empathetic reactions.  Blogging our comments provides some emotional distance, and also allows students to research through that very medium – i.e. finding and reading weblogs of people filling each role in the society. Further, the spotlight on blogs allows students to see more directly the isolating nature of the medium, thereby encouraging them to recognize the ...

Relections on the Classroom Use of Simulations, as discussed at the NESA Spring Educators Conference April 2012 Neil McCurdy, Ph.D. taught the Technology-Infused Project Learning Institute at the NESA Spring Educators Conference, April 1, 2012. Dr. McCurdy now serves as Assistant principal at a new charter school in San Diego, Coleman Tech. He formerly taught at High Tech High with pairs of teachers (science & language), but he was dissatisfied because of lack of differentiation there. He recommends using StarLogo TNG v1.5 (The Next Generation) software for teaching programming concepts while working on realistic projects. This particular Project-Based Learning emphasizes the additional level of abstraction presented in creating computer simulations. Although computer simulations are fun and engaging, they actually require students to exercise some higher-order thinking skills in mapping – read, abstracting – live behaviors onto a computer screen. ...

The NESA Spring Educators Conference earlier this month included a provocative speech by Ian Jukes about Education in an Age of Disruptive Innovation. Ian Jukes proposes that we are living in an age of disruptive innovation that poses a particular challenge to educators. Most of us have sat in an education-centered box for our whole lives, and thus we suffer from an affliction he humorously terms Terminal PP, i.e. Terminal Paradigm Paralysis . Disruptive innovation occurs when a new product creates new spinoff markets. For example, when first invented, the telephone needed operators, then rotary dials replaced operators, then pushbuttons enabled automation, then portable phones removed the tether, then cell phones made universal accessibility ubiquitous. Now smartphones replace many other devices -- e.g. landlines, alarm clock, and wristwatch. In the case of computers, keyboard and mouse input is now being disrupted, as touchscreens are the new normal. We must try to imagine...

The 13th annual conference of the Teachers Of Young Children gathered at Dhahran campus, March 8 , 2012. President Ros Power introduced gue st speaker Jim Leahy of IP S school. Both Barb and Jeff gave presentations during the breakout sessions: Barbara: Third Culture Kids Jeffrey: Teaching the I-Child, Unplugged  click here for the slideshare presentation.

Starting the Thomas Education professional blog, intended for our notes about teaching and learning, academic subject areas, international schooling, and political and cultural observations.  We invite comments to this part of our Professional Learning Network. Introductions: Jeffrey "JT" Thomas has lived a global upbringing and professional life, starting nursery school in France, graduating from AIS high school in Israel, student-teaching in Japan, working in international publishing systems in Helsinki and Prague, then teaching in India, Saudi Arabia, and Korea, while making technology work well for people and preparing students for future success. Barbara Ogden Thomas grew up all around the US, and taught public school in Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, and New York, then worked also in Europe, India, Saudi Arabia, and Korea.  She currently enjoys teaching first grade and helping Third Culture Kids make successful transitions.