12th Grade Humanities

 

My name is Joanne Sith and I am currently an 11th grade American history teacher at High Tech High International. My passion for teaching is primarily student-centered. My personal objective is to project relativity, purpose and equity into my classroom. It is too often that a history classroom is sadly considered as a rough timeline of historical dates and information, in where the sole student participation is rote memorization and recall of data. For me, the root of history and teaching history is bringing to life the human voice behind the text. It is important for students to understand that learning history is not only for the purpose of reasoning the present but also for understanding the social discourses of the past that have constructed and affected the ways of today. By comprehending the historical thinking of the past, the students will activate their historical empathy, which will help engage their student interest and motivation. Therefore, it was incredibly refreshing to experience a school where every curriculum is founded on the ideas of the “Habits of the Mind.” This concepts allows the teachers to develop unit plans and lessons that engage their students in critical thinking skills that are transferable to not only various academic contexts but also to the students’ academic career. The school’s student expectations to utilize and embrace the Habits of Mind entice the students to take ownership of their learning and acknowledge that they have every right to question, analyze, and evaluate all subjects they are curious about. As teachers, our class rooms should not be constricted to the domains of the subjects’ criteria but instead, the classroom should be a place where students learn to develop their skills as both active learners of the subject’s content and active citizens of our international community. Both of these characteristics will push our students to answer the many open-ended questions/controversies embedded within all subject contents and the real world.

 

As a continuously reflective teacher, the academic consideration of equity-based practices further emphasizes the academic successes of our students. Each of our students comes from different backgrounds and personalized history. All of these stories are uniquely theirs and add a special element to the academic environment when supported properly. Equity provides that gateway of opportunity to all and as teachers it is fundamentally our main job to ensure that each student feels that he/she has the necessary supportive tools to reach their true potential. At High Tech High, our ideas of untracked classes, project based curriculum, collaborative teamwork, habits of mind practices and cooperative learning are all in place to promote equitable learning.

From day one, I immediately fell in love with the educational environment that is established at HTHI. The combination of the supportive communal relationship between the faculty members and the students is especially inspirational to me as a growing teacher. The faculty’s sincere care for the students extends from the students’ academic success to the success of their personal growth. The many opportunities, such within power lunches and two a week faculty meetings, instill the genuine sentiments for student as well as teacher academic success.

 

When I am not in the classroom, I enjoy being outdoors. Tazzy is the best dog ever and accompanies us whenever possible. Hiking is by far our favorite pasttime for it gives me peace and beauty all at te same tme.