Inquiry Staff Meeting

Last Tuesday we has an inquiry staff meeting where we discussed a number of issues related to how we were going with Inquiry.
Inquiry Learning – Where are we at???

What is good
Internet access – instant feedback/information is accurate.
Good teaching skills/ framework
Good buy in by the kids; motivated to find stuff out.
Wonderings are child generated.
Questioning skills.

What is not?
Lack of knowledge
Low skill level of children when knowing how to access information and interpret this.
Time constraints with CRT days etc
More time needed for children to reflect.

What Does it look like in class?
Organised chaos
Wonder walls
Interactive
Independent
Collaborative
Noisy
Busy
Motivated

How do we assess Inquiry currently?
Tick sheets
Rubrics
Self Assessment

Where do Thinking Skills fit in?
Hats enable us to think form different viewpoints
Develop higher order thinking
As a tool to analyse findings/ideas

Ou Lady of Lourdes

On Thursday Nick and myself (Roger) went to Our Lady of Lourdes school in Palmy with the rest of the ICWC cluster. It was an interesting day looking at their Inquiry Journey and meeting some wonderful children and staff. There was a really great atmosphere around the school with all the children open, helpful and enthusiastic. What a great school!

Main points noted:

• Whole staff PD focus
• Computers as a tool for learning
• Restrict the range of software
• Paid someone to maintain the website (actively collect material from staff and upload)
• Digital camera/ MP3 as class consumables
• ICT aspect to all assemblies
• Inquiry Modelling Book like Maths and Literacy
• What happens when ICT Lead Teacher moves on?
• Internet Safety taught in context
• Curriculum Planning- Inquiry focus whole school units
• Strategic ICT Plan with benchmarks and linked to Literacy and Library plans
• Inquiry Newsletter to inform parents
• Teacher's documentation of planning (unit plan, daily plan, inquiry book, student inquiry books)
• Fantastic AppleBook!- Publish a book of photos and text as a hard back- approx $2 per page...)
  

Action:

• Purchase an MP3/webcam for voice/video recording for podcasts and blog/vlogs
  
• Blog and comment with people outside the school (Buddy Class)
• Look at the steps within our Inquiry stages... (see Coley St visit)
• Whole school inquiry units... or least syndicate/ buddy class units
• Planning shared and displayed
  
• Blog from camp with images- keep parents and school inform and happy! This might need mobile 3G internet broadband connection...

Creating The Thinking Classroom

On Thursday, 4 members of staff went to see Eric Fragenheim (Rodin Educational Consultancy) in Palmy. Nick and Kirsty went to one of his presentations previously. Eric's presentation was excellent being very practical and applicable to classroom action... Some key points included:

• RAS Alert- tell your pupils what they are learning, why it is relevant and what to look for.
• Perception Check- find out what pupils are thinking, understanding...
• Imprecise question leads to imprecise thinking.
• Intelligence is a behaviour...
• Reflection and transfer of new ideas is essential for better understanding.
• Multiple Intelligence Model and Learning Styles.
• Blooms Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinkings Skills.

Some Specific Tools:

• Scavenger Hunts- gets pupils involved and primes/ introduces ideas, texts...
• T-Chart
• PMI
• Extended PMI
• PMImprove
• SWOT
  
• KWL- learning log, teacher assessment
  
• CAF- Consider All Factors
• Extent Barometer
  
• Tournament Prioritiser
• Decision Making Matrix
• SeeSaw
• Y Chart
• Silent Card Shuffle

Thoughts, ideas and questions raised:

• Look at our Inquiry Model and align it to Blooms Taxonomy including; HOTs, thinking skill verbs, thinking strategies...
• Add "Create" to the end of our Inquiry Model- Create- action, inform, make, publish...
• When planning a unit- consider how Blooms and thinking strategies can be integrated...esp HOTs
  
• Linked to "Hooked on Thinking..." Deeper Questions leads to Deeper Thinking...
• Goal Setting using Tournament Prioritiser/ PMI/ SWOT
  

A great day and so much to think about... BUT I have some activities and ideas I want to use in my class tomorrow!!!!