Inquiry as a stance: revisiting ideas

“...inquiry is a collaborative process of connecting to and reaching beyond current understandings to explore tensions significant to learners.” ~Kathy Short

One of the first books I read about inquiry was Learning Together Through Inquiry. It was in a sense the book that propelled me to look more critically at what I was doing as an educator, which ultimately led me to the IB and teaching in an international school. So when I recently read, Taking the PYP Forward  I was excited to see that it was Kathy Short who had written the first chapter ~ quite fitting, I believe.

Inquiry as a stance on curriculum outlines the key features of the inquiry model developed by Short and Harste in 2002, addressing some of the common misconceptions about this ‘authoring cycle’ and clarifying what this model might look like in practice. Revisiting these ideas that are at the heart of inquiry practice has been a great reflective prompt for my own practice. 


It is natural (I would argue essential) that our practices change over time. As a PYP teacher, reflecting on teaching and learning is an integral part of the planning process, seeking to find ways to better facilitate student learning. As we attempt new approaches or concentrating on improving a particular aspect of our teaching, we often let go of practices that have become routine. But just because something has become routine doesn't necessarily mean it is an ineffective practice.

While reading Inquiry as a stance I found myself thinking, 'Oh, yeah - I used to do that' and wondering why I stopped. The best part about becoming more aware of what I am actually doing, or not doing, is that I can make small changes very quickly. I have found when I purposefully make such changes I am much more focused on the result or impact of the change and thus in a better position to reflect on my own practice. 


Reading this article reminded me of the importance of allowing time for learners to build on their conceptual understanding ~ not rushing to 'unpack a central idea' or make connections to the 'transdisciplinary theme'. While tuning in to our most recent unit of inquiry, I made sure we had opportunities to explore the concepts before making any connections to the theme, and all of this well before sharing the central idea. The students were so engaged and the connections they made to the unit once introduced were so strong, that the invitation to inquiry was a natural next step. 

Student created movie trailer exploring understanding of concept causation. Click here to see others.

Reflection is an essential practice for effective teaching and learning and we must make time for it. Unfortunately, this critical practice is often forgotten, or left until the end of a unit ~ a way to 'wrap-up' a planner. On-going reflection, focused and purposeful is a habit I must develop. I want my next 'Oh, yeah' moment to be 'Ah - that's why I do this!'

Managing Time ~ Realistically

The business of reflection in determining the true good cannot be done once and for all... It needs to be done, and done over and over and over again, in terms of the conditions of concrete situations as they arise. In short, the need for reflection and insight is perpetually recurring. 

~John Dewey

I must preface this post with an apology for taking so long to write - I cannot actually believe that my last entry was at the beginning of October! It is not fair to say I've been busy - every teacher I know is exceedingly busy and yet many of them manage to write articulate, thought-provoking and at times, inspirational pieces regularly in their blogs. So, what happened? More importantly, how shall I remedy this?

In an attempt to 'work smarter' I am trying to bring the different aspects of my current context together. I cannot add the continual update of my class blog to this endeavor (which is a labour of love that I will always find time to maintain), but I can aim to focus my professional activities; a bid to stop spreading myself too thin and to participate more actively in my professional learning network.

What am I involved in? 
One of the most time consuming activities educators face is keeping up with professional reading. There are just so many fantastic books and articles ~ and I love to read! What I found difficult was remembering where all of the great ideas were coming from - Was it in this article? That book? So, I began a professional reading journal that would help me to remember the key points and my thoughts about the reading. A helpful idea for me, but another time consuming task that did not lend itself to sharing and learning from others' thoughts about the material.

As a PYP teacher and workshop leader, I am also continually reflecting on my practice and thinking of ways to capture what inquiry based teaching and learning looks like in the classroom (my students are the most wonderful participants in this undertaking!) The creation of videos and reflective journals again takes time and while I was documenting what I might be doing, it didn't really help me to expand on this. What are other teachers doing? How are they approaching inquiry in their classes? How can we share these experiences?

Finally, I've decided to participate in a course with colleagues and work toward a Certificate in Educational Technology. Another amazing learning opportunity ~ being able to share and explore with colleagues, thinking critically about the ways in which we integrate technology in our classrooms and develop digital literacies - highly engaging conversations. Again, incredibly time consuming, but more importantly - how can we share the conversations with a wider network? Learn from the collective wisdom of our shared learning communities?

Bringing it Together ~ a potential solution
Professional reading, personal practice and coursework - how to align these practices and bring them together? And then it hit me ~ through my blog of course! I sometimes can't believe how hard it is to see the easiest of solutions. Why have I been separating all of my professional work, creating separate writing tasks, when I have a blog? This is even more embarrassing as I am an advocate of blogging; often talking about the value of this practice both for teachers and for students? And so, taking a moment to reflect on my practice (ironic isn't it!) I am now 're-inspired' to continue with my blog.

Next post ~ soon!

Reflecting on my Goals

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow."
~ Mary Anne Radmacher

I recently attended an EARCOS workshop with colleagues to begin the process of developing an action plan to assess the impact our technology initiatives are having on our school community. While this was a worthwhile event for our team, the biggest ‘take-away’ for me was the personal spark for reflection. As we worked through the steps in creating our action plan, one of the guiding questions stood out - What do you expect to see? A simple little question that stopped me in my tracks.

At the beginning of this school year I set some goals for myself to try and create a classroom that resembled a collaborative problem solving studio. I had some ideas in my head about what I might do and a vague sense of what this would look like, but I didn't develop any concrete plans or devise a way of assessing my progress. What did I expect to see? It's a great question and one I didn't really ask myself when I first started to think about changes I would make in my practice.

So, what do I see everyday? Am I really looking? Or have I fallen into the busy trap of doing what needs to be done in order to ‘complete’ units in time to be in step with my colleagues. It's time to take stock. What have I done? What do I plan to do? How will I know if my classroom is becoming more like my vision of a collaborative problem solving studio? What do I expect to see?

I decided to make a list of the types of things I would hope to see if I walked into such a learning space.

• Animated students working together in small groups on a variety of projects and investigations
• Students writing on their blogs about their inquiries, collaborating with students from other countries
• Purposeful noise - the kind of buzz that is generated by happy people engaged in meaningful work
• A sense of freedom and flexibility as everyone used the space and resources as needed
• Me, the teacher, working with a group of students as a collaborator
• A welcoming space, one where students would invite visitors into their conversations, keen to share and open to learn from their experience

Do I see these things? Without any evidence or collected data it is hard to say. From my subjective viewpoint, these are the things that are working. I know I try to dedicate time for students to pursue inquiries of personal interest, but to be honest, it is the first time I steal from when interruptions (holidays, evacuation drills, assemblies...) make it difficult to get to all of the learning engagements I had planned (I know - the 'I have planned' part is a part of the problem!). I am trying to use technology to make effective use of our time in class. I have joined the Flipped Class Network and have just completed my first 'flipped' lesson (awkward and way too long, but my students liked it!). My students are using their blogs to write about their learning and to host our first attempt at digital portfolios. How well am I doing at writing comments on all of my students' blogs and monitoring their progress with their digital portfolios, well - this is definitely an area for improvement.

What's not working? I am going to restrain myself from going on and on here, but... I still have students waiting for me to tell them what to do. Many of my students still ask for 'permission' to do the things they need to do for their own learning ("Is it alright if I do this on the computer?" "May I work at the round table?"). Most of the activities in our class are still initiated by me and many of the students are still focused on the 'amount' they need to 'do'. I still struggle with realistic time lines; my class is not an island, but one of five and we work collaboratively with the other classes. How do you allow for individual and authentic learning experiences when you are tied to shared assessments and a common schedule? I still catch myself saying things like, 'Only five more minutes until French - finish up!'

What did I expect to see? How will I know? I've decided to embark on a bit of a project after our mid-term break. With my students help we are going to take a picture of our class every 20 minutes during the school day over the course of a week. What will we see? It will be an interesting analysis and will hopefully help me to become more objective when assessing the progress (or lack thereof) I am making in trying to achieve this shift.

Stay tuned - I'll share when the project is done.

A New Year ~ A Wealth of Possibilities

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.

~ J. B. Priestley

There is something so exciting about the start of a new school year. The anticipation of meeting new students and new colleagues. Reuniting with friends and catching up on all that has transpired over the holidays. Pulling together all you have read, viewed and thought about over the break. Writing the first word on a clean page in a brand new day book. The first blog post. I love being a teacher!! In what other profession can you continually transform what you do and put your learning into practice immediately?

And yet, there is a a twinge of fear alongside the anticipation. What if I can't keep up? What if I forget and slip into my old comfort zone? How will I possibly balance it all - as a mother, teacher, wife, friend, colleague? There is always so much going on in education - trends, research, articles, blogs, websites, social networking, SOS marches, authentic assessment, problem based learning, inquiry, flipped classrooms, standards, outcomes - ahhhh! It can easily become overwhelming. I think it has become more important than ever to focus on what is personally important to you as an educator and filter the vast amounts of information that are tweeted into our lives 24/7. Find your own passion and you will be better prepared to help students uncover their own.

I have spent a good deal of my holiday trying to uncover my own passion, by paying attention to those ideas that spark the immediate 'of course!' or 'great idea!' reaction. This was a technique learned years ago while reading Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach - learning to pay attention to what speaks to us - not necessarily what we think it should be. After doing this for a few weeks I was able to see that the lines of thought I followed and the articles and posts I took the time to really read all shared the following characteristics.

It's all about the students and learning.

We all know this, we all say this, but we don't always act as if this is the case. At least, I know I don't. Pressures from schedules and expectations from others make it far too easy for me to slip into a mind set of "I need to get this done." rather than stopping and asking, "Is this really best for my students?" Thus one of my goals for the upcoming school year is to be an advocate for my students. When decisions are to be made regarding curriculum or events I will ask myself first - "How will this impact students? How will it affect their learning? Their voice?"

When I slip (as I know I will!) I intend to go back and revisit the following:
12 Most Important Things to Know About Kids Today, Angela Maiers
Authentic Enquiry Design Principles, from Learning Emergence
Wood, Chip. "Changing the pace of school: Slowing down the day to improve the quality of learning." Phi Delta Kappan. 01 Mar. 2002: 545. Retrieved with Proquest using eLibrary.

Building a professional learning network is crucial.

Finding a group of people who share your passions is an inspirational and motivating way to learn. They 'get' you - they understand your challenges because they've been there, too. I have always loved collaborating with colleagues, but like all teachers, finding the time to get together with educators from outside of my school to share ideas and experiences is difficult. Hello - Twitter! This simple micro-blogging programme has changed my life and the way I view professional learning networks. There are other social networking programmes, including the very latest - Google+, but it is Twitter that has shown me the power of an online PLN. This year I plan to turn to my network (both online and in person) whenever I discover something and want to share or when I hit a snag and need support.

Need convincing, check out these:
Twitter as a PLN, an article from What's New in the World
 23 Resources About Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), Teacher Reboot Camp

Technology is changing the how, why, what and where of education.

I love technology - I will happily and enthusiastically admit it. I love the 'cool' and 'wow' factors of something new and different - it's exciting! Yet...that is not why I believe technology is a vital element of education today. You simply cannot ignore the changes that technological advancements have brought about - our students live in a 'wired' world. If we continue to approach teaching and learning as we did in the past we are doing a disservice to our students, ourselves and ultimately, the future of our planet (okay - a little heavy for a back to school blog post!). Technology allows us to differentiate in ways that only a decade ago were impossible. Our students are now able to create and share with a global audience. They are able to collaborate with students from around the globe. Thus, another goal for this year is to remember the age we live in and act accordingly.

 

Flynn, William J. "FIVE TRENDS THAT ARE CHANGING THE EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE." Catalyst, The. 01 Apr. 2010: 29. Retrieved with Proquest using eLibrary.

What does this mean for the upcoming school year?

I stumbled across a wonderful description during my summer reading in a blog post by Shelley Wright discussing flipped classrooms. She described the classroom as a 'collaborative problem solving studio' for students ~ I love this idea. For me, it pulls all I am passionate about together - student learning, professional collaboration and technology. This year I will strive to create such a space with and for my students (as well as myself) to learn. If you have time, stop by @ 6C's Class Blog.

PYP Exhibition

I have finally finished my PYP Exhibition Journal! I have embedded it here along with the small booklet that I produced for visitors at the exhibition and the short movie trailer that I created for my class blog. The original journal was created in pages and has links and videos embedded in the file. To see a copy of this with the links activated, go to my shared documents in iWork where it has been uploaded.

Open publication - Free publishing

Open publication - Free publishing

Holidays - time to explore

Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
~ Arthur Koestler

I love being on holiday! I enjoy the down time with my family and travelling to new places, but I think what I love most of all is simply having more time. Time to explore, to learn, to experiment. As a teacher I am constantly being introduced to new ideas, yet I have little time to play with these ideas and figure out how I might be able to use them with my students.

My first experiment of the holiday was with Storify. This online platform allows you to easily pull together items from social media (such as articles, images, video, blog posts and tweets) to tell a story. Below is my first attempt ~ next step... How will I use this with my students?

My second exploration is with the use of QR-codes. I was first introduced to this 2 dimensional bar code at the ADE Institute in April. While I thought this was an interesting way to present information, I really hadn't had much time to look at these images or consider how to use them. I'm still not really sure, but I have had fun generating some QR-codes and then using my phone to scan the ones I have made or found. The code below was generated with Kaywa, an online site that will generate the QR-code and you can download the reader at this site as well. There are many free apps that will do this as well - they turn the camera on your phone into a scanner that can read the image. I am using i-nigma and it seems to work very well.

                                          

And why is it important to take time to explore? I think the following video sums it up well.

Apple Software: Discovering Pages

Before moving to Hong Kong in August 2010, I had spent the previous 5 years working in a PC environment and had, I admit, acquired the Microsoft Word habit. While coming to an 'Apple School' felt like returning home, some habits are hard to break. As my computer came with Microsoft Office installed, I continued using Word for the majority of my documents. I spent most of my time learning how to use the iLife applications and had not given the iWork tools much consideration. That changed after attending the ADE institute in Ho Chi Minh City last month.

Through casual (and continual) conversations with many different people, I was learning about some interesting features of Pages, and so during the conference I began to use this software. Flash forward to today - I will never go back to Word - I am a Pages convert!! I love that Pages allows you to choose straight up word processing or a layout design from the same template menu. While the templates are varied and easily modified (great for busy teachers!) I also love the range of options in creating your own designs. But, I think the single most important feature that made me switch and become an advocate of this particular piece of software, is the Share feature.

Now, when I complete a document that I want to share with collegues, students or parents, in a click of one button I can upload this to iWork.com. This allows me to embed documents easily into class blogs or share a link with different groups of people. I know there are other ways to do this, but with Pages I can continue to revise the document on my computer, hit Share, and it will replace my original document, but keep the same URL! I love it!! I am using this to share my PYP Exhibition Journal with colleagues as well as develop material for my class, such as this recent Math Menu during our study of fractions.

I know most people in the Apple community are aware of the features of Pages, but if you are a secret Word user like I used to be, it's time to come out of the closet and take the plunge. It's worth it!