High School

"My mind works in composition,” Micah Crochet says. Before he joined the high school English department, Micah studied, performed, and taught music. When he moved to Korea with his partner, Micah considered other subject areas he would enjoy teaching too, reviving his interest in literature and chemistry. 

At a glance, Micah’s favorite disciplines – music, language, science – seem mismatched. But Micah is fascinated by how pieces come together to form a whole musical score or novel or chemical reaction. In his English classroom, he teaches students to spot the parts that create the word or sentence or story, celebrating the essential function and intricacy of language and communication. 

Micah also celebrates individual student voices in his classroom. Student perspectives contribute to the school community and Micah welcomes their insight in his own classroom too. A few years ago, he asked a class about dropping a particular novel from the syllabus and was surprised by their insistence that it stay: the book was a challenge, but meaningful. Each book on the syllabus adds to their collective conversation – yet can also speak to one.

Sara was born in Japan and attended some school in Germany but moved to Korea from Maryland. When she started high school at KIS, she noticed a couple of things that make KIS stand out. First, many classes and clubs are multigrade, giving learning conversations new depth. Sara appreciates the different views and approaches to projects. “Everyone learns from each other,” she says.

Sara is also impressed by the teachers she works with. “They support your learning,” she says, “and recognize your improvement.” At KIS, teachers provide achievable benchmarks to help students meet a standard and discuss their progress along the way. All high school students have a scheduled autonomous block, or autoblock – students often meet with teachers or peers during their autoblock. That chunk of time also gives students freedom to explore their learning through independent projects.

One subject Sara enjoys is social studies. She sees the connections between people and cultures and likes to learn more about countries and languages. Sara is glad KIS offers a Chinese language program too. She knows the spoken language from her Taiwanese mother but is now excited to learn the written language. At the close of her first year at KIS, Sara is excited for more opportunities to design her future.