My name is Tod Baker. I began teaching informally more than 20 years ago in Colombia. Then I saw teaching as a way to bring people from different cultures together. Today I still see teaching as a way to build bridges, especially international teaching. Now I have more than 12 years of formal teaching experience in international schools in Colombia, Venezuela and China. Currently, I work as the IT Coordinator at International School of Tianjin, an IB World School. I enjoy photography and following my favorite baseball team, the Minnesota Twins. My wife and son join me in my enthusiasm for baseball and patiently endure my passion for photography.


Students learn best when they ask questions, share their thinking, collaborate with others and solve problems creatively. I think the PYP with its inquiry-driven approach supports this kind of learning well. Project-based learning, with its hands-on approach, develops great skills and knowledge as well. Put together, inquiry and hands-on projects create the best learning experiences for students. In today’s connected world, when students can google facts in seconds, knowledge is not enough. They need to learn how to collaborate and think creatively and to harness the collective intelligence around them. My role as an educator is to facilitate this kind of learning. I need to encourage questions as much as I do answers. I need to support teamwork within the classroom, within the school and with people who may not be within our school community. I need to provide the right technology to move students forward. The reality is we need technology to do inquiry-driven and project-based teaching and learning well. We just cannot share and connect and create effectively all the time without technology. And ideally we use technology to do what we could not otherwise do. That is not always the case, but when that happens technology creates truly powerful learning experiences.