And So....The Learning and Sharing Continues!

We Have a New Project!

Over the 2011/2012 school year, Pete and I have worked on a "Teacher Learning and Leadership Program" (TLLP) with the Ontario Ministry of Education. Our project has focused on the inquiry approach to teaching. We developed a website www.inquiry-based.com and I started this blog. It was an amazing year of learning and teaching for us and for our students and we thought that the project had come to an end.

...That is until we learned about the "Provincial Knowledge Exchange" (PKE) project created by the Ministry of Education at the "Sharing the Learning" Summit, in November.  All TLLP participants gather at this Summit for an opportunity to share their year-long learning and accomplishments.

"Sharing the Learning" Summit in Toronto - November 2012

The Ministry wants to continue to share the growth and learning that the TLLP participants have gained throughout the year.  This program provides funding for teachers to get together to share their expertise and refine their practice! We agree...it's the missing link! Please visit the following link for information~ TLLP  and PKE ~ Maybe we can bring our learning to you by visiting your school. Check it out!

 

www.inquiry-based.com

Our PKE project has been approved and we are now able to continue working with teachers and on our own project. With the support of our board, we will be able to share our learning about inquiry-based teaching and learning with teachers and their students. We're hoping to visit classrooms for "A Day of Inquiry" and we will explore with teachers the 'Steps to Inquiry.'  Pete and I will also be available to continue to support through our website, email and perhaps more visits. We are very excited about being able to continue our learning and appreciate the professional development opportunity.

 Thanks to the TLLP team for the creative and open-minded thinking.  Their willingness to allow teachers to take their Professional Development into their own hands, deserves to be congratulated. 

It's PD that is revolutionary!

Reading in Kindergarten!

Students love to read in Kindergarten. The bean bag chair is a favourite spot!

The bat cave is another great place to read.

Vimy Ridge

The students had an opportunity to Skype with a staff member from the Vimy Ridge, Canadian Memorial Site in France. To prepare the students for the chat, we discussed the... who, what, where, when and why we have monuments and memorial sites.

We traveled to Northern France using Google Earth and studied the area. We also looked at the city of Arras, where the Canadian staff and university students live.

Our students had a chance to watch a slide show of the site, clips of culture and war from the BrainPop app and video clips from the National Film Board (NFB) app. Once they had a basic understanding they were able to ask effective questions.

The students were well prepared for a great Skype chat.

Do you Skype with your students?

Steps to Implementation!

The iPads are here!

We have 10 iPads in our school. They are being used in classrooms as supplement to the school's laptop (20) cart.

There were so many things for us to consider when setting up iPads for the school. Our beginning steps started with:

1. Set up with school network
2. Purchase covers to protect the iPad
3. Purchase a rack to store and carry iPads to classrooms
4. Open a school gmail account and a iTune's account
5. Assign a number to each iPad

On each iPad in settings, under general, we changed:

1. Restrictions- Installing Apps-off and Deleting Apps-off
2. Accessibility - Speak Selection - on
3. Location Services - Find My iPad-on

Apps purchased:

Keynote for presentations
Pages for word processing
iMovie for movie making
ComicLife for writing and sharing

Stay Tuned---More to Share!

Inquiry Learning in a Primary Classroom

This inquiry began with a read-aloud about animals in winter. The students had many questions and while their teacher had other plans she decided to let the students drive the inquiry. It turned out to be a successful week long investigation with lots of learning!

Twitter - My Virtual Staffroom!

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Funny thing about Twitter, you either love it or well, snicker at it! I must admit, I once thought it was a trivial tool...who cares about what I've had for breakfast? But that's not it at all!  I now consider it to be one of the most valuable and powerful tools, that I use for personal and professional development. 

Twitter is my virtual staffroom! It helps me keep up with the latest trends and ongoing professional discourse. A quick skim through my tweet thread can lead me to more relevant Professional Development than a day or two sitting in a workshop. This online community provides me with a unique opportunity for quality learning that is ongoing, timely, interactive and personal. It is where I find great links, resources and ideas. It's where I share my work, communicate and collaborate with amazing and inspiring people from around the world! 

While I continue to build my network, I enjoy following and learning from:   @dougpete @Stephen_Hurley @shareski @cybraryman1 @tomwhitby @heidiSiwak @tonyvincent @techieAng @acampbell99 @royanlee @SNewco @whatedsaid @web20classroom... 

If you’re resisting Twitter- DON'T- give it a try. Open yourself up to the possibilities of what a professional online community has to offer. You won’t regret it. 

Tweet Soon! 

Steps to Inquiry

Step 1: Teachers gather and collect as much information as possible on the subject in order to help students with research, investigations and inquiries. Our grade one teacher gives each group, small clip boards to take notes, a basket to organize material and sticky notes to post information on charts.

Finding great websites for research

 

Step 2: Teachers help to develop background knowledge for students. Creating a graphic organizer such as a Know-What-Learn-Find (KWLF) chart can help build knowledge. This process helps a student develop questions and helps to develop a curiosity for the subject.

Gr. 1 What I know & Questions I have

Grade 5/6 KWLF

 
Step 3: Teachers share mentor texts and model lessons. Pete and Danielle spend a good deal of time building background knowledge, asking questions and demonstrating the inquiry process through mini-lessons.

Mentor Text

Teacher Models

Step 4: Teachers give students a choice of what they would like to learn more about. In the grade one class students were learning about animals. They brainstormed a list, then each student selected the animal they wanted to investigate. 

Student selects an animal for inquiry project

Step 5: Students explore and track their thinking around their understanding and learning of a subject. During the grade one animal study, these boys were focused, engaged and very excited about working on their inquiry project. It's interesting to note that even though the text was beyond their reading level, they were able to use charts and graphics to learn about their animal of study.

Step 6: Students collaborate and work together to gather and share information.

Collaborating!

Engaged and Motivated

Step 7: Students present and share their learning. As peers listen to presentation, they take notes and list their questions on post-it notes and prepare to give positive feedback.

Listing questions for presenters

 Step 8: Public sharing! 

Sharing our learning!

Celebration!

Check out the movie clip I made about the grade 1 inquiry using the Animoto app - http://animoto.com/play/dh39oAbzuCsVdtpZZfrwnA

Inquiring minds want to know! Please share your steps to inquiry!