Alex Soudah

Behind the Government Shutdown
by Ted Shaffner

The Hun School’s Blue Sky Project is working hard this year to accomplish its two-part mission: to celebrate innovations on campus, and to be a shelter and enabler for risk-taking in the classroom. For the first part of the mission, we will be publishing a weekly blog post, highlighting the work of a particular teacher with a lesson that showcases innovative techniques. On the Project, we define innovation as anything that makes the material new for the teacher and students, and brings about a love of learning and a new way of approaching important skills. Innovation might include technology, but doesn’t need to. For some teachers, a field trip, or an experiment with hot air balloons, or a project about the printing press could be innovative and bring the issues to life for their students.

Our first showcase teacher is Alex Soudah. In his U.S. History class, the students were confused by the government shut-down of 2013, and they asked him why Congress could not get anything done. It’s a common enough question, and at the time, it was all over the airwaves and the internet. Many teachers might have shrugged the question off, or given some sort of perfunctory answer and moved on with their material. But Mr. Soudah took the question seriously, and he devoted the next two long periods to creating an experiential lesson in which the students could discover the answer for themselves.

He explains the process in the video interview. What the Innovation Team would like to highlight is his willingness to follow a student-generated question, to devote class time to find a meaningful and memorable answer, and to find new and exciting ways to help them develop the skills of critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, effective communication, creativity, and leadership. As he says in the video, he was not willing to move on from an issue that was important to his students. He was willing to shelve his lesson plans to follow their lead, but in the end, the lesson played right into his curriculum, rather than distracting from it. Mr. Soudah’s willingness to take a spontaneous risk was backed up by a careful attention to individual students and the firm scaffolding he had crafted in previous classes, on which the students were able to build. They could focus on current events that were important to them, while also understanding the difficulties of governing. They were also confronted with a real-world task they are likely to grapple with after college, whether it be in politics, a boardroom, a doctor’s office, or any other arena.

Click here to watch the 5-minute interview.

We know examples like this happen all the time at Hun, and we are looking forward to ferreting them out. We will be looking for more examples, so please contact a member of the team if you would like to share a lesson. It might be similar to Mr. Soudah’s, or it could be entirely different. And if you don’t volunteer on your own, you can definitely expect us to come knocking on your door.