Blog
Daraja Academy and the Four Pillars
As we approach our Global Concern Daraja review meeting, I thought it would be useful to look at my experiences with facilitating the GC this year. As we now enter May, it feels further away than ever that we visited Daraja Academy during the February break. Sometimes...
Being in Draft Mode
In our Tech Mentor meeting last week, Tricia mentioned a development within her lessons in which she has encouraged her students to leave their thoughts and work as a draft. It made me wonder how often we encourage the importance of draft writing in students work in...
Reflection on Creating Strong Conceptual Understandings – Part 2
In a previous post on the Reflection of Concept Based Teaching and Learning I briefly discussed the difference between structure of knowledge and structure of process, and how Psychology uses a combination of both to establish concepts. Today I hope to explore the...
Reflection on Concept Based Curriculum and Instruction Training – Part 1
At the end of January, I used the tool of concept mapping within my G11 classes. Did it work? Was it successful? Perhaps it is a little too early to judge, however we have witnessed a shift of focus within students' work from regurgitating key studies to explanations...
Why are there so many tall buildings in Singapore?
This is only one of the many questions that I have asked since returning from the Daraja service trip in Kenya. The surroundings of Singapore and Kenya are incredibly varied, with Kenya encompassed by vast open spaces with a dry terrain of burnt orange sand...
What it means to be a part of Daraja Academy GC
5th February. This week I will be returning to Kenya after almost 3 years away. The reason for my return? I am one of the teachers leading a group of students on a service trip to Nanuki, to Daraja Academy. Along with all the packing (deet, breakfast bars and...