OhThisClassroomGlows

Create, Be Curious, Learn, have Fun and GLOW

May 5

Owning my own Professional Development – Making Authentic Inquiry Work

by ohthisclassroomglows

The past two days I have attended a PD called Making Authentic Inquiry Work. It was put on by Natural Curiosity (you can follow them on twitter @Naturlcuriosity). They are an institute based out of Toronto ON and have recently expanded their institute PD’s to all of Canada. This was their first time in Winnipeg and the attendance was great! Good representation of great teachers from all over and not just from Winnipeg either, some from as far away as South America, Wow!

They talked about owning your own Professional Development, so I really tried to be present and make the two days relevant to myself and my students.

The two days were great, it was nice to slow down, listen and collaborate together with others. We were learner citizens – a group of people ready to contribute to part of a community, our classrooms and outside community growth.  We came together, we were like minded, we taught in similar ways and if we were not teaching in similar ways we were inspired to.

When I signed up for this Professional Development I was looking for efficient ways to plan for student learning in inquiries. I wanted to learn different ways to assess student learning and show/report on student learning and growth. Over the course of the two days we were guided through an Inquiry approach on how to teach Inquiry learning. What a concept!! We do, you do.

So what is inquiry? “Inquiry is an approach to learning that is directed by questions, problems, and hypothesis or a challenge that individuals and groups of learners work together to address. At its best the learning is driven by student-generated questions. Students, assisted by the teacher, clarify the questions being asked and determine how to answer them. As knowledge is pursued learning is uncovered.” (Connecting the Dots, Stan Kozak and Susan Elliot).

Through the act of asking questions and seeking out answers, I was able to understand Inquiry in a deeper way. I was able to comprehend the process and how to take my students through the Inquiry process in a meaningful way. I saw examples of classroom Inquiries from around Canada and was deeply inspired.

I also shared Our Winnipeg Inquiry that Room 122 is working on. I got some feedback and suggestions on where to take it next and how to involve students in the process. I was challenged to put aside some of my own interests in where I would would like to take Our Winnipeg and guided to see more opportunity for student voice in the learning. It was fascinating and Room 122 students will all benefit from my teacher collaborations. I am grateful to have had a chance to be a part of them, to learn.

I am a learner.

It was a fulfilling, inspiring and challenging two days of growth. I loved it, but I COULDN’T WAIT to get back to my students! Missed you Room 122!

 

reflections

No Comments »
May 5

Oh Winnipeg Glows – learning from Mentor Texts

by ohthisclassroomglows

Hello from Room 122, this is our first blog post writing together. We are all here on the floor carpet and our minds and hearts are on, ready to share what we have learned. (Mrs. Thomas)

We are starting to learn with and use a book called An Okoboji Day, by Debbie Parks as a Mentor Text. (Hudson)

We are using the book for inspiration. (Giuseppe)

We are beginning to use the book to model how to create our own pages in our own books (Kevin). Today we read the book. We thought about it (Anton). We’re really proud of the learning (Harrison). We turned and talked about it the book and then we were separated into small groups to create our own short page about a place of our choice in Winnipeg. (Meadow and Julia) One of the things that An Okoboji day focuses on is greetings. We brainstormed 22 different greetings (WOWZA!!!)! We brainstormed: Aloha, Hi there, Good Morning, Excuse me and Hey peeps. Then we used those greetings to begin our writing and our Winnipeg Day. (Mrs. Thomas)

Three groups went to the zoo! One group went to 7-11! One group to Great Big Adventures.

After we shared  our writing we commented on what each group could add. (Jory) We noticed things and you could borrow ideas from other groups (Gus).

After we shared our groups writing it was lunch. We will continue writing more later (Luca C).

See you next time, have a good day! (Kevin) Thank you for following our blog, see you next time (Jory and Luca C). Bye, bye (Luca M and Anton).  We wish you had a good day! (Kate and Hanna) Bye everybody we really appreciate it! (Harrison) Bye, bye, see you next time! (Georgia) We’ll see you next time! (Meadow). We hope you comment on our blog!! (Quintin) See you next week (Matteo). We hope you subscribe, thanks (Giuseppe). We hope you could see our blog again (Janna). I would love if you would read it a bunch of times, because that is what blogging is for, to read it many times (Julia).

Bye and be sure to follow us on Twitter! (Hudson)

 

**This blog was written authentically by Room 122 students with a little support from me. (Mrs. Thomas) ***

 

 

 

 

reflections Social Media Inquiry

11 Comments »
May 3

Blogging Feels….

by ohthisclassroomglows

I am not a person born in the 2000’s, but sometimes I like to talk like it!:)  And emoticon like it! :0 )

I have been blogging for about 12 days now and I am loving it! So far, it’s just been my own voice blogging… don’t worry, those grade 1/2 student voices are coming soon! They are excited! So excited! They can’t wait to share their learning in this way! So far, it has been fairly easy for me to blog. The blog post topics come kind of naturally. OK, to be honest I was kind of “winging it” with the first one and the next two I had written in my mind over the past few weeks. Today, I blogged about a Professional Development I will attend over the next two days. That one was easy.

As I do with all most new things I try (and totally have my students do ALL. THE. TIME.), I have begun the process of reflecting about my blogging journey. What have I liked, what have I discovered, what have I learned, what do I want to know more about. I plan to start blogging with my students on Thursday and I want them to know I have been thinking about it lots, learning within my blogging. I’m not an expert, not even close.

So here it goes, my reflections thus far:

  • I love how reflective blogging actually is. It helps me to clear my head a little. It reminds me of cleaning the kitchen after the kids go to sleep, when you actually get to think about the funny things they said or appreciate how crazy their hair was when they woke up in the morning. Blogging allows me to think about learning and put different things into perspective.
  • I love how it helps me to set learning goals for myself and my students. It makes me think about what the next steps will be and I’m blogging about them (ie. publishing them) so I think about the chronological order I need to do things in so we can complete our goals and make them happen! Yes, of course I always did plan for my students learning and I set goals for each and every one of them. But blogging allows me to re-visit my goals, it allows people to comment on the process, it enables parents and grandparents (and my parents; Hi Dad!!) to get excited about the learning that is and will happen in our classroom. We are able to recognize our own learning faster, see it and make next steps quicker. It’s the year 2016 and I am embracing this new way of communicating our “inquiries”, committing to our learning, listening to your comments about the process and living the benefits that come from all of this. 
  • I can’t wait to see what we have achieved! I can’t wait to look back and see the journey of the learning, the thinking, the guiding, see everything!! This blog is a digital memory box of our classroom. And it’s only just beginning!!
  • I want to introduce you all to the volunteers who tirelessly come in and read with Room 122 students each week.
  • I want to link articles that I read/watch/see so you can read/watch/see them too.
  • I want to know how to get headers at the top of my blog so I can categorize information (Upcoming events, Volunteers we love, A calendar, About Us, etc.)
  • I want to add more media to my posts and make them more interactive.
  • I want to get followers commenting more – Be a digital volunteer! Students love hearing the comments.
  • I want to continue to be honest and have you hear my own voice and the voices of my beautiful students.

 

We continue to move forward, thanks for following. Bet you can’t wait to hear/see what Room 122 students have to say in their first blog post!! Watch for it!

 

 

 

 

reflections Social Media Inquiry

4 Comments »
May 2

A time for me to learn!

by ohthisclassroomglows

I will be attending a PD over the next two days called Making Authentic Inquiry Work with some of my colleagues. I am always excited at the opportunity to learn and grow as an educator. This PD looks very interesting as it links well with my philosophy and ongoing learning plan. I will be exploring how authentic inquiry is being applied to address expectations in social studies, science, language arts and other subjects.

My hope is to gain confidence in planning authentic inquiry learning experiences and understand how to apply appropriate assessment methodology to show student learning.

It’s an exciting time to be a teacher! We are learning, teaching and collaborating so differently than we have even in the 11 short years I have been a teacher.

Will let you all know how it all goes!

**Big Hello to our new subscribers!! **

Uncategorized

1 Comment »
Newer Entries »
Brand New Day Theme by Caroline Moore | Copyright 2024 OhThisClassroomGlows | Powered by Edublogs
Skip to toolbar