In January, 2017, many teachers at Colegio Maya had the fantastic opportunity to attend a two-day workshop run by our director, Michael Johnston, one of Compass Education’s master trainers, with assistance from several teachers who had previously completed the Level 1, Compass Practitioner training. I’m so glad I was able to participate and walked away feeling invigorated and excited about teaching children about systems and how we can use this knowledge to positively impact our world in a meaningful way.
My class and I got started right away in Social Studies. In fifth grade, we study Ancient Rome. This year, our essential questions were: How do systems work? and How did the Roman Empire get so big? The children were fascinated to see videos depicting the rise of the Roman Empire and its rapid expansion. We chose the second question because it’s a great systems thinking question and allows us to dig into all the factors of the time that contributed to building an empire unparalleled in human history.
