BIO
Anusheh Hashim holds a B.A. in psychology and a master’s degree in Learning, Design and Technology from the University of Houston. She has worked closely with children for over eight years in Montessori and public schools in Houston and New York. She is a strong advocate of access to high-quality, early childhood education for all families.
Currently, Anusheh teaches primary level students in a Science and Inquiry Lab in East Harlem, New York City. In her classroom, you will find students conducting research, asking questions, building, experimenting and making plenty of mistakes. This is a classroom you will never find silent and one that can get pretty messy at times!
Topics of instruction are guided by student curiosity rather than a standard curriculum. Anusheh believes that by giving students a voice in their own education, she can facilitate an organic learning process and help ensure an authentic level of engagement, allowing students to pave their own path to becoming productive and successful members of society. She is thrilled to be joining this network to share and learn best practices with a global and talented team of teachers.
WORKSHOP
While working with hands and materials in efforts to solve a problem or respond to a challenge, questions arise as a child’s curiosity beckons. As a desire to discover transforms into a need to understand, the teacher – a guide rather than a lecturer – helps children access resources to channel their wonder. Mistakes are made and persistence is developed. The class is immersed in an authentic learning experience and an academic culture in which learning is truly student driven.
Participants in the workshop will spend time engineering an open-ended project with a group using few materials and receiving limited instruction. Afterwards, we will debrief and discuss how students’ work towards a goal drives their learning, how this work can connect to specific learning standards and applications of technology, and how working with a group benefits students’ social development.