John Hunter Interview by Student at Hillside School

on Monday, 28 January 2013. Posted in Education, Interviews

Abhijay Bhatnagar interviewed John Hunter in the new media lab at Hillside School on MLK day. His interview was one of the most thoughtful and joyful that Mr. Hunter has conducted!

Abhijay and his fellow Hillside students from all over the world have a unique understanding of global competency and cross cultural understanding that make John Hunter's World Peace Game accessible and interesting to them.

Here's a Preview Video of the Interview:

You can find the full interview linked below.

Jan 25

World Peace, One Classroom at a Time

on Friday, 25 January 2013. Posted in Education, Media Coverage

John Hunter and Jamie Baker of the Martin Institute spent the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday working with the faculty of Hillside School in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Hillside is a junior boarding school for boys that offers a unique learning environment that includes a parking farm, flexible scheduling for a variety of sports, and highly relational learning. The day's events included an evening screening of the film, World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements, for the student body of about 200 middle school boys and their parents.

The boys were a delightful audience, captivated by the real problem solving that Mr. Hunter's student engage in. This article from the Metro West paper shares some specifics.

Photo by Kim Neal

World peace, one classroom at a time

With Capitol Hill in a constant state of gridlock, an everlasting cycle of conflict in the Middle East and handwringing over global warming, John Hunter has a simple solution – send in the kids to sort it out.

Hunter, who was listed as one of Time Magazine’s education activists to watch in 2012, spoke to a crowd of students, teachers and parents Monday night at the Hillside School in Marlborough about instilling the values of global citizenship in young students.

Jan 14

gcLi Leadership Edge Video of John Hunter

on Monday, 14 January 2013. Posted in Education, Testimonials

Ted Fish of the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute spent some time recently talking with John Hunter about his life and his teachers. His brief video of John's life and work in the classroom is here:

Aug 03

Memphis Participant Blogs the Master Class

on Friday, 03 August 2012. Posted in News, Education, Master Classes, Testimonials

Presbyterian Day School Teacher Philip Cummings's Obervations

Memphis Participant Blogs the Master Class

Philip Cummings, a participant in our July 2012 Master Class in Memphis, shared his blog entries from the weeklong class.

The first tool John shared was teaching students how to use FFOE to assess their creative thinking. As a sample activity, John explained that he would show the students a coffee mug and ask them to brainstorm ways that the mug can be used other than as a container (i.e a door stop, a paperweight, a drum, etc.). At first they will find it hard to think this way, but as they practice, they will become better at it.

FFOE stands for:

Fluency – producing as many ideas as one possibly can
Flexibility – producing ideas that demonstrate variety or different approaches
Originality – producing ideas that are unique or unusual
Elaboration – producing ideas with detail or enriched characteristics

There's far more great tidbits contained in his fabulous series of blog postings from the week:

May 17

A Letter to Their Parents

on Thursday, 17 May 2012. Posted in Education

In John Hunter's World Peace Game, the objective is to achieve peace, without violence if possible. It is often the case, however, that a nation team will decide that it is strategic and necessary to wage war. As we know, in war lives are lost. The game requires that the leader of the attack must write a letter to the parents of the person killed in combat. The point of the letter is to teach the natural and inevitable consequences of combat, to create an empathic understanding about the cost of war.

Below is an example of a letter to the parents of a life lost. This letter is from the Nin Leader who chose to wage wage.

May 11

John Blossom's Class Comments on the National Geographic Article

on Friday, 11 May 2012. Posted in Education

What is happening through John's work, speeches, teaching Master Classes, etc. is that people are becoming inspired to make their own challenging games. The class of students in Hawaii with whom John Hunter recently Skyped are now tracking the media coverage of his work. They have been discussing how to create their own game. They have stayed in touch and wanted to share these impressions of the recent article about John Hunter by National Geographic's Good Traveler.

May 11

Reflections from University of Connecticut Grad Students.

on Friday, 11 May 2012. Posted in Education

John Hunter recently Skped into the classroom of Cory Wright-Maley's graduate students. Cory's interest is the use of simulations and their success in social studies classrooms. It was great talking with these education grad students and they were kind to collect their thoughts to share after our conversation.

May 11

Pam Moran Writes About the Trip to The Pentagon

on Friday, 11 May 2012. Posted in News, Education, Media Coverage

Pam Moran is the superintendent of schools for Albemarle County and is the president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents. Recently she accompanied John Hunter and his class of enthusiatic, knowledgable, excited 4th graders to visit Leon Panetta and staff at the Pentagon. She pens this very thoughtful reflection of the trip for the Richmond Times Dispatch.