Faculty Member Chosen for Teacher Feature

R.E.A.L.: Discussion Skills for Life selected Parker 7th grade History teacher Alex Munro as its November “Teacher Feature.”

Munro shared, “Simply put, R.E.A.L. discussions are conversations between a group of students related to a prompt provided by one of their peers. The dialogue sessions ask students to be intentional in the ways they engage with one another. Students make visible how they relate to one another, how many times they’ve spoken, when they want to prompt further questioning, etc.

“R.E.A.L. discussions are valuable because we live in a time when the overconsumption of screens is normalized—hence a rise in the lack of human interaction for both students and adults. Not to mention, with the advancement of AI, it’s imperative for students especially to be having these face-to-face human conversations on a regular basis. Additionally, these discussions help students develop the skills related to emotional intelligence. They learn how to read body language or how to notice when someone hasn’t spoken because they've been overlooked. They’re picking up on those cues, actively listening and asking thought-provoking questions, all things that perhaps they may not have been invited to do at a younger age. All of these things happen with more intention, coaching and clarity through R.E.A.L.”

When R.E.A.L. Chief Learning Officer Emily Gromoll reached out and asked to feature Munro, he happily obliged. “Emily and I have connected numerous times during the past two years, reviewing curriculum and various methods to improve R.E.A.L. discussions for the 7th grade students here at Parker,” he said.

Click here to read this Teacher Feature and join the school in thanking Munro for sharing his excellence with Parker and beyond.