First 20 days

I have been thinking a lot about the first 20 days and how I would set up my inquiry classroom next year. I think some important class norms need to be in place for inquiry to occur as there will be a lot of group work and collaboration.

Thinking about students as learners. I think it would be valuable to spend a week on an all about me, where students are addressing questions others have about them (addressing how these are factual questions and are needed for the basis of inquiry). There will be a lot of modelling and self discovery during this week to guide them to delve deeper into understanding themselves as a learner (how can you best demonstrate your learning, how do you learn best etc...).

Thinking about collaboration within the classroom. I think a set of classroom norms, rules and expectations need to be co constructed and established early so that students will feel safe enough to take risks but also attempt to change their mindset and their thinking.

Thinking about how inquiry based learning should be meaningful for students and guided by the curriculum, I am considering presenting the students with the curriculum topics and have them unpack the unit expectations and record their wonderings so that all the topics will be known at the beginning of the year (long range plans from the student wonderings and perspectives).

Ideas for IB classroom

- a video corner where students can 

record their wondering a and reflections and at the end of a unit create an iMovie 

- inquiry stations where groups work on the task and then present their work at the end of class and get feedback from class, next day rotate centres and new group works on yesterday presentation refining and adding info as well as addressing questions that were asked or feedback that was given,

- photo journals/iPad documentation

- inquiry buddies

- author board: each student has a board where they can post their most "prized" inquiry work on then when unit is done publish the work into a spiral book they can read in class or take home

- literacy stations could be: researching their wonderings, writing about their inquiries, iPad explain everything, creating writing using technology, reading about the inquiry subject

Thinking about IBL...

As we embark upon this IBL journey keeping in mind the ML framework, a few key ideas that resonates throughout is intentional cross curricular planning, guiding questions and co-construction of knowledge with students. These all seem very interesting as it would me a shift from teacher constructed units and lesson delivery to empowering students to direct and control their learning journey with the guidance from teachers.

Co-constructed Lessons

When thinking about how the process can unfold in the classroom, some idea have inspired my thinking. One is to document the journey as a teacher in terms of class set-up, daily schedule, shift in teacher mind set, shift in teacher instructions, reflecting on practice and re-evaluating the focus of teaching. Some questions that have come to the forefront: how to inspire questioning, how to document the journey for teachers and for students, what will IBL look like in The classroom and is this really a possibility?