I teach medieval World Cultures to 6th graders and have had a heavy hand in designing this course at my school, which is an independent K-12 day school in Houston, Texas. We have 4 major units and two mini units throughout the year, and The Islamic Empires (from the founding of Islam through the Abbasid dynasty) is one of our main units. Because I did not learn a lot about this time period in my own schooling, I've spent a lot of time pursuing professional development opportunities that increase my understanding and knowledge about this time period as well as the religion of Islam. This summer I had the good fortune to attend the Dar-al-Islam Teachers' Institute in New Mexico, where experts in their fields come from all over the world to give teachers a crash course in various topics regarding Islam. It is experiences like these and this course that are giving me a better understanding of the importance of Islam during the medieval period.

My students end our Islamic Empires unit by choosing a Muslim achievement or innovation to research and then we have a "House of Wisdom" event where they present their artifact and research to their parents and other students and teachers at school. Many students are quite surprised to find out how interconnected the world was at this time and what achievements came from the Islamic Empires like hospitals, algebra, and the astrolabe. One of the main revisions I want to make to my course is improving the lessons about the foundations of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, and the early Islamic Empires. In the past, my own gaps in knowledge have left my students a little bit confused and as I learn more I'm able to teach this content in a more comprehensive manner.