A New Type Of History: Your Old History Class Is... History
Academic Milestones
A New History
Your old history class is history.
—by Melissa Tassoni
In Peter Schumacher’s eighth grade class, the history of the modern world is studied through the interdisciplinary themes of urbanization, technology, and government. The thematic approach aims at getting students to understand the world they live in today—where it came from, how it came to be, and why.
Students’ study of history spirals through time, moving quickly through the dawn of agrarian society, before settling into a multi-faceted study of the modern city. The urbanization unit culminates with an interdisciplinary project in Jeff Hanna ’91’s art class, in which students are asked to create their own urban site in Philadelphia. Students’ work in history serves as a prelude to inform their work in art class, which intersects with the history class’s later units of study as well.
Schumacher’s students then study the history of technological advances: How did early humans make fire? What technologies did people invent to help them farm? The history course takes another, final, turn through time, wrapping up with a unit on government, “because government develops from and causes all of the other things that we do,” explains Schumacher.
The approach emphasizes how life has changed over the course of human history and how those changes are meaningful today. “That’s what I’m looking for,” says Schumacher, “moments of great change and what was happening during those periods. There are different layers and levels and they all fit together.”
BELOW:View a slideshow of photos from an eighth grade field trip to Philadelphia.
Confidence to Explore: In this series, Shipley alumni show how the confidence they gained from their Shipley education didn’t end on graduation day. In this post, Maddie Norris ’12 explains how her experiences with Shipley’s French program and The Brain Tree School led her to Uganda and France today.
What’s so special about Friday’s one o’clock bell in the Middle School? Mini courses, of course! These half-hour sessions focus on letting the students take control to explore new hobbies, grow their passions, and learn about themselves in the process. Read more about mini courses in the Middle School.
Newberry award-winning author Kwame Alexander had Middle and Upper school students roaring with laughter during his talk on Monday morning. His talk focused on perseverance, inspiration, and using writing as a tool for expression and creativity.
With the opening of the Chris Wagner Arts Center in September of 2015, Chris Fornaro and his fellow STEAM teachers seized the opportunity to create a new home for their growing program by taking over the empty art spaces in the Upper School and establishing Shipley’s first MakerSpace, a modern-day workshop that's transforming the way students learn.
Since the 90's, Shipley has partnered with Agnes Irwin, Baldwin, and Haverford to bring students together for an extra-curricular, educational consortium. This year's collaborative curriculum focuses on art history.
Drawing inspiration from shows like The Layover with Anthony Bourdain, students in Annette Marrecau's seventh grade Spanish class plan what they would do on a 24-hour layover while building confidence to speak publicly in a foreign language.
The Middle School teaching duo of Christine Hutchinson and Peter Schumacher teamed up to create a musically-inspired interdisciplinary English and History project for their eighth graders. Read more about why they brought Bruce Springsteen, U2, and more into the classroom.
There’s an old saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." While there isn’t any fishing happening in Marian Roche’s second grade classroom, she uses the same basic idea in teaching her students the foundational skills for reading and spelling.
The 2015-2016 academic year will be remembered as a milestone year in Shipley history. With the excitement of the new building, one of Shipley’s Action Research teams is working to find how the trends in spatial issues have changed for Upper School students and what more could be done to improve student life.
A summer obsession with the popular HGTV and DIY Network tiny house television shows inspired Middle School science teacher Caroline Feldman. With a curriculum based on sustainability, she challenged her eighth graders to create their own, fully-sustainable, tiny houses.
Technology has become an everyday part of the Shipley curriculum. With a technology coach in each division, the additional resources allow even the youngest of students to get their feet wet in coding and programming. Read more to learn about how Shipley's emphasis on learning coding and programming can prepare students for success in any career, even one without a technology component.
The community unit of the Kindergarten social studies curriculum engages students to learn more about the people and places around them. Based on their own curiosity the students write questions and conduct their own interview, beginning with their classmates and ending with field trips to local businesses.
In Peter Schumacher’s eighth grade class, the history of the modern world is studied through the interdisciplinary themes of urbanization, technology, and government. The thematic approach aims at getting students to understand the world they live in today—where it came from, how it came to be, and why.
How does Shipley develop in its students the inherent qualities of a good leader? By understanding child development from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12, Shipley’s program challenges emerging leaders to take risks and build the confidence to succeed.
What can constructing a chair out of newspaper and tape teach a sixth grader about creative problem solving? a lot! While constructing the most stable chair is the obvious goal of this project, teacher Caroline Feldman’s goal for her students points to the process. Read more about how the sixth grade chair project inspires creative problem solving.
How could fourth graders learn about several events leading up to the Revolutionary War in one day? Through an intensive preparation process, Shipley fourth graders organized and facilitated a student-led debate on who is to blame for the Revolutionary War.
Shipley is shaping its growing STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Math) program from Pre-Kindergarten through grade 12, including the addition of a maker space in Upper School, cross-curricular projects school wide, and curriculum tailored toward the future.
In Shipley’s second grade, students’ work on the writing process lays a foundation for future academic success and, more specifically, their end-of-year Desert Zoo research projects. It all starts with learning how to write a paragraph using the hamburger method.
How does getting together outside of school with fellow seniors and watching movies inspire creativity, grow confidence and build essential life skills? Read more.
Shipley’s student-led conferences provide an in-depth, personalized look at the student’s learning experience. Facilitated by the student rather than the teacher, parents and teachers alike work together to understand the student’s needs, praise their accomplishments, and plan for a bright future.
The Shipley School is a private, coeducational day school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students, located in Bryn Mawr, PA. Through our commitment to educational excellence, we develop within each student a love of learning and a desire for compassionate participation in the world.