Inquiry Based Learning

In her key note address, one of my brilliant colleagues used a quote:

"If they can Google the answer, maybe we are not asking the right question."

This quote is the essence of learning and inspiring students in the digital age and I remembered this quote as I engaged on an exploration of inquiry-based learning with Jill Colyer and a number of like-minded educators from the GTA area. 

Watt, Jennifer Gail, and Jill Colyer. IQ: A Practical Guide to Inquiry-based Learning. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

IQ: A Practical Guide to Inquiry-Based Learning

In this one week long learning module, we focused on creating inquiry rich classrooms, asking deep questions and fostering natural curiosity among our students. The module is based on a book "IQ: A Practical Guide to Inquiry Based Learning" by Jennifer Watt and Jill Colyer and it explores instructional strategies and activities that foster a culture of inquiry and wondering in the classroom. The text, clearly and succinctly, explains what inquiry-based learning is and why it is important. It describes the various aspects of inquiry-based learning (IBL) and gives authentic examples from the classrooms on how IBL can be implemented. In addition, the authors included a number of reproducibles that can be easily modified for different grade levels (or used as is) and used to teach critical thinking and literacy skills to students. The suggestions provided in the book allowed me to challenge my thinking and understanding of IBL and I think I will be able to use these suggestions in my library program next year.  As an exercise in shifting my thinking, I composed an outline of my current planning process with a couple of activity ideas and infused it with strategies that support IBL. Here is the doc that I'm still working on, comments welcome!

Unit Planning Process

Learning with Google Classroom

Google Classroom is yet another brilliant tool developed by Google. After previewing and testing it last June, I couldn't wait for it to become a part of my school board's suite of GAFE. In October, Classroom was open to students and teachers across the TDSB. The slideshow below captures a few activities and highlights the possibilities made possible by Google. Google team continuously improves this tools and makes changes based on suggestions offered by users. Can't wait to see the new changes and upgrades in September.

Minecraft in the Classroom - Getting Started

My students love Minecraft!
They spend hours playing it, talking about it, living and breathing it. It is incredible to listen to their stories and the excitement in their voices. My fascination and interest in learning more about the game, began a couple of years ago, when I heard Liam O'Donnell (Gaming Edus) talking about gaming and literacy outside of the game. It has been a huge learning curve for me and it all started when I met my grade 2/3 students last year and used Minecraft as a vehicle to get the very active boys in my class to write adventures. This year, I have finally began to feel more comfortable with integrating the game into my program more regularly. Our latest assignment focused on measuring area and perimeter, students in my grade 4/5 class used Minecraft to create a blueprint for a house with a garden, complete with measurements. Our learning and reflections were captured in this slide show below. (NOTE: All work was posted with permission from my students)