Our first, three-day teacher workshop, “Critical Exploration in the Grade 4 – 12 Humanities Classroom: An Introduction,” held in August, was focused on poetry as well as on history. …
What does it really mean to be a researcher? When we assign students a research project, how can we make the experience as authentic and engaging as possible? …
In addition to finding interesting materials, Critical Explorers and the people who have inspired it have developed ways of asking questions, listening to and responding to students, and looking at students’ work. …
(Creating Reconstructions) The primary texts of ancient history, even in translation, can be difficult for students to read and comprehend. When writing styles, vocabularies, or cultural references have changed, primary documents only a few centuries or decades old can seem almost as inaccessible. How can we help students make sense of these sources? …
(Developing Characters) Here at Critical Explorers, we’ve temporarily paused work on publishing to the website the remaining sections of the Slavery and Reconstruction resources in order to take advantage of an opportunity further to develop our soon-to-be-published Ancient Greece investigation. …
Pinocchio, the engaging marionette in Carlo Collodi’s nineteenth-century children’s classic, longed to be a real little boy. Already, Pinocchio was no ordinary puppet. …
I am so happy to see you all here! Welcome, and thank you very much for celebrating this important moment with us. The over-arching purpose of Critical Explorers is to promote the having of wonderful ideas in public schools. …
I want to thank all of you for your support of this work. All through its development I have been dependent on colleagues who shared the same goals for teachers and kids, and encouraged me in the way I was trying to go about it. …
… I’m very proud to be a part of this gathering – to enter with you into this remarkable moment that is both a culmination and a beginning. We’ve called this a “launch” party, and I think that metaphor works because what we’re launching is a vessel …
Sometimes I’m lucky enough to overhear a conversation that fits a question I’ve been carrying around. Maybe due to my sense of murkiness on the topic, I’m drawn to listen but reluctant to join. If I’m really lucky, the conversation helps clarify my thinking…