John Burrell
Currently I am a science teacher and Biology co-ordinator at Bangkok Patana School in Thailand. There, I the subjects I teach are KS III science, GCSE Biology, IB Biology and KS III ICT.
Prior to entering teaching I worked in Local authority Outdoor education centres in the United Kingdom. My teaching background includes a number of inner city comprehensive schools followed by teaching in a sixth form college in Barrow in Furness. I joined Patana, my first international school in 2002.Currently I am working with colleagues to develop the use of online technologies for collaborative student work, particularly with Wikispaces.
My teaching vision is to see students empowered with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. A positive view of the future envisages greater global connectivity between people and places. The world will require individuals to come together in short term ventures using their knowledge and skills to create innovative solutions to problems. People with the knowledge and skills necessary to collaborate will have an advantage.
Paradoxically the autonomous learner will be best positioned to meet these demands. Possessing the knowledge and the thinking skills characteristic of the major disciplinary areas will still be crucial. The autonomous learner however will also know how to select just the right information from which creative and innovative solutions can be synthesised. With a broad range of communication skills the autonomous learner is able to share their findings. Yet the future holds challenges which go beyond the mechanics of work to question the ethical and respectful attitude of citizen. Doing ‘good work’ and resisting the temptation or pressure to compromise takes courage but should be encouraged early in our students. Irrespective of the cultural or religious background of our students they recognise a common and shared morality amongst their fellow citizens. My vision is to see my students take their ethical and respectful code beyond school, out and into the local communities.
For those teachers new to IB Biology this site should reduce the preparation time for the content of your course. However as a simple collection of facts it hardly constitutes a course in itself and so hopefully the time saved in researching the content of the syllabus can be used to construct and design a course that promotes understanding of biology. I would urge teachers to read and consider the ideas covered in ' Understanding by Design' by Grant Wiggins and Jay Mc Tighe. This is thought provoking writing and for myself something of a paradigm shift in my teaching methods.
Hopefully these pages will inspire students to 'seek knowledge and empower themselves' .