Inquiry meeting

The following day after our staff meeting with Jan, her and I met to discuss some goals etc and look at where we are at. This was a great meeting and I have since made some changes to our inquiry planning sheet to make it more relevant and teacher friendly. This included listing the thinking tools that might be used at each stage of our model during the inquiry. I have also modified our inquiry process model which I will take to the staff next meeting and see what they think. All is hmming along well, cheers Jan! TG

Inquiry Reflection Mindmap using Mindomo

Staff Meeting with Mrs Thomas

We had a great meeting yesterday with Jan. It was a good chance for the staff to go through the "Hats" and say how things were going. Our Junior teachers will benefit from a visit in Term 4 to Coley Street to see how they cope. We had a really useful round the table discussion.
We also went through various other things such as our model and the version 2 we have created. We also spoke about the Thinking Toolbox we had developed and how this is very much a starting point for us. We are looking forward to Michael Pohl's talk in a couple of weeks as well as ULEARN to firm up a few thoughts and ideas.
Assessment was something we are still coming to grips with and it was good to discuss this and how we will develop a matrix that will make this aspect easier as well as a shared understanding.
We also need to develop something for tracking and we liked Coley's MUSAC approach: nice and easy and very useful.
We have a long way to go but with Jan we sorted out some next steps. They do not look too onerous as long as we take them slowly. Jan was a real gem and we all appreciated the feedback we got from her and are excited about Inquiry and its future at Opiki School.

Inquiry Assessment Idea

I was discussing with my year 6-8 class how we would assess our current inquiry. Based on Muritai's 1-5 system, I gave them some options, eg, 1-5, A B C D, % etc. They all voted for an A B C D rating. Then I asked what an 'A' would look like and they came up with the criteria - they had some great ideas such as, excellent, relevant info and presentation , in depth answers to their wonderings, good evidence of some 'action', referencing etc... We then discussed a D and then filled in the B and C parts. Last time we peer assessed and this time they will self assess along with some feedback from me. We'll see how it goes!!

Muritai School- What an impact!

Tuis singing in the trees, blue sky and superb powhiri... What a great start to a great experience.

We had an overview of Muritai's 'Journey' into Inquiry/ Action Learning... There was a presentation by the children who answered questions and talked about their experiences, understanding and opinions. WOW!

Noted key points

• School Ecology/ Environment analogy...
• Do less but better in more detail
• Keep it simple- take small steps (for the staff and the children)
• Lead by example- model skills, behaviour and learning (for staff and children)

Other Inquiry Points:

• Start with a big picture then work smaller (Binoculars to microscope)
• eX... titles of stages- excite, experience, explore, examine, explain, express, extend...???
• Inquiry teaching at school- inquiry research... at home!!!
• Parental understanding and expectations
• Link to the wider world
• Current events/ issues
  
• Info-literacy skills
• Thinking tools
• Assessment!?
• Curriculum coverage
• Whole school/ syndicate- class units?
  

Children's Comments:

• Start of an inquiry unit is the hardest
• Questions a challenge
  
• What direction to take...
  
• Organising time and process
• Planning work- clear expectations and success criteria needed
• Next steps very helpful
  

A Blogging School?

• What we did/ found out/ learned today?
• Samples of work
• Photos of activities
• Teacher's Blog...
  

ACTIONS!

• Start a whole class blog as a record of our Room 2 inquiry process/ progress for our next unit
  
• Include as part of end of session plenary discussions
• Include the planning at the start- learning intentions, outcomes, links, resources...
• Use Voki/ Sound/ webcam movie... to enrich/ enliven
• Regular use should encourage regular visits