Brian Greenough

HS/IB History, Social Studies

This is my fifth year as a high school History teacher here in Addis. This year I will be teaching grade 9 History, grade 11 Standard Level IB History and grade 12 Higher Level IB History. I will also be a grade 9 class advisor, a coach for the cross-country team, an adviser for the National Honor Society and an organizer for Addis' only regularly meeting Ultimate Frisbee team (email me to find out more!).

I continue to live in Ethiopia and work with this school community because there are very few places where such a diversity of cultures and perspectives comes together for a common goal. As an educator, one of my primary concerns is to help my students learn how to read more effectively and write more clearly. Through readings, research and discussion I hope to foster in my students a more subtle and complex understanding of how they view the world. It is through this understanding that we can learn that our differences are strengths and not hurdles to be overcome. In class, I like to teach that history is messy and we are always trying to “complexify” the simple narratives of what has happened in the past.

I am excited to participate in ICS's expanding 1 to 1 laptop program this year, as my grade 9s and grade 11s will have laptops soon after school starts. I think it will be a good opportunity for me to give more feedback to my students and to engage their voices beyond in-class discussion through blogs, tweets, podcasts, forums and wikis.

Before Ethiopia, I was born and raised in San Mateo, California in the United States. I studied History at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where I also earned my secondary teaching credential. Also at Dartmouth I met my future wife Jessica Fortin (the registrar). This will be my ninth year teaching secondary social sciences and ICS is my third school, the two previous schools were public high schools in the United States.