"What's your inquiry Ms G?"

At our most recent collaborative planning day, the Elementary Connected Classroom (ECC) team spent some time looking at the focus for our professional development next year. I left the planning day feeling super excited that the focus for our professional learning next year is going to be centered around inquiry-based learning.

Thinking about that prompted me to write this post outlining a brief history of the Inquiry Project in the ECC. There is so much more that I want to write about this; I'm having a tough time deciding what to write next! But, before anything else, I need to thank Evander. It's important that I do that first.

Evander is a student in my class (not his real name). Recently, at the start of an inquiry block, I led students through a quick demo to show what a new, deeper layer of inquiry questions could look like. Afterwards, Evander came over and asked me a seemingly simple question.

"What's your inquiry Ms G?"

I thought for a minute. I stopped and honored that question - the first telling aspect to this little story is that I did stop and listen and think carefully before responding to this bright-eyed, curious, eager-looking ten year old standing in front of me. I started to say that two years ago I did my own inquiry for my Masters Degree, and then I started to say that a few years before that I did a few inquiries about technology in the classroom, but then I stopped myself. Again. The second stop? Also very telling.

I stopped and thought to myself, you know, that's a good question. Why don't I have an inquiry right now? And so I looked at Evander and answered him: "You know Evander, that's a great question and you know what else? I'm going to start an inquiry project right now and my inquiry project is that I want to learn more about the inquiry project."

That answer absolutely satisfied and thrilled him like it could only have satisfied and thrilled a ten year old. His serious and complete acceptance of my answer was absolutely precious - he was so excited, and so proud to be the one to have asked the question that prompted all this - have I said I love my job lately? I LOVE my job. That moment when he showed me how happy he was for me and his sincere acceptance of my response reminded me yet again that I love what I do each day.

So, Evander stood there and watched while I typed out a list of ten questions, ten things that I wonder about and want to learn about the Inquiry Project. He and I were both amazed at how quickly I was able to pour out ten decent questions; obviously this is something that's been on my mind and, interestingly enough, since writing out those ten questions, I have felt SO much better. I must have been overdue for some inquiry about inquiry.

I thanked Evander. He smiled one of those big, genuine smiles that fixes the world, if but for a second. And then off he went to work on his slideshow about poisonous snakes. He's WAY ahead of me, already working on his presentation while I've just written out my first set of questions. Guess I have some catching up to do...

Inquiring about the Inquiry Project

Similar version of this post is cross-posted in my own professional blogging space here.

For three years, the Elementary Connected Classrooms (ECC) project has run a year long, collaborative inquiry project. At my first planning meeting, as a brand new, member of the ECC, I was handed the article, 'Learning in Depth: Students as Experts' written by Kieran Egan. This article was the first piece I'd ever read on Egan's take on inquiry-based learning. While I had constantly enjoyed project-based learning before reading that article, and I had read An Imaginative Approach to Teaching, another of Egan's popular works, my practice since reading that article on 'Students as Experts' has not been the same!

The ECC team read through and discussed how we could integrate the whole idea of an inquiry project into our collaborative learning space. We decided to devote each Friday's video conferencing lesson to the inquiry project. We would take turns planning lessons and being the lead teacher, which meant that every three weeks each of us would be responsible to teach the next lesson in the unit. Student choice was built in as a crucial ingredient and we quickly realized the the context of the inquiry project would also be a great way to teach students a variety of other skills such as how to effectively search for information online and how to evaluate websites. We also recognized we could merge curricular content from Social Studies, English Language Arts, Science and more to create a truly cross-curricular learning opportunity full of multiple ways for students to connect ideas and experience deep learning.

One area that still proves to be a challenge is explaining how this all works to parents. They want to know how it's marked, what subject this fits into (a whole bunch depending on the topic the student chooses and the way in which they decide to learn about their topic!) and where this way of teaching/learning comes from. It's great to have all the questions and communication lines opening between home and school and it sure keeps me on my toes as far as being able to articulate exactly what we are doing, how it all comes together as the year goes along and why we are doing it.

A quick and accessible document created to help parents understand what the inquiry project is all about can be found here. It needs to be updated as the project has evolved each year based on the students but that document has proven to be an invaluable starting point for planning purposes as well as communicating with others. Thanks to my colleague, Brooke Haller, for giving me permission to share that as she's the one who originally wrote it up.

One tricky aspect to all this is that the inquiry project never looks the same two years in a row; it doesn't even look the same from student to student within one lesson, not to mention from week to week and class to class. Inquiry is a path of learning that leads into the unknown every, single time. It can be really challenging to lead thirty students down thirty completely separate learning paths, and it's about as non-traditional as any method I've explored as a teacher, but it is amazing when the learning starts to deepen and kids start getting super excited about what they're learning. It's the palpable positivity of the learning process during inquiry working time and the pride and ownership that students show once they get rolling along that makes it a tangible, worthwhile project to embark upon.

There's much more writing to come on this! I needed to start somewhere, but I'm thinking I need to stop somewhere too, for now, at least. If you have any experience teaching from an inquiry-based point of view, I'd love to hear from you. Or, send this along to anyone you think may have some thoughts to contribute. I'm officially embarking on my inquiry about inquiry-based learning, something I unofficially started three years ago when I read that first article. The fact that it's taken me three years to get to this point and actually write about it attests to the messiness of my own learning process here. I'm hoping that the writing will straighten out my path, just a little bit.

Imagery - Night Falls 3 by thebmag and Nature Trail #4 by Chalkie_CC, both accessed on April 15, 2013 from Flickr.com and used with Creative Commons permissions.

Second Gathering of the Year!

Time to get caught up on the ECC! Many things to share, but I want to start with the most important of the recent events - the Second Gathering!

The banner my students made to wave at our peers as they arrived! Students from all three classes signed it at lunch.

Back in October, the Smarties invited us to their school for the day. We spent that day running around a local pumpkin patch, finding perfect pumpkins and then enjoying a wagon ride and apples fresh from the orchards! We had a great time at the Smarties' school and were sad to leave at the end of the day. That First Gathering is always interesting because it's a time for students to meet face to face, often for the first time. Some have a few friends already as our communities are not too far apart and sports and other activities do bring kids together outside of school. It is interesting to see the interactions that occur as the students do come together as one large group for the first time.

The Second Gathering, always held at the Rec Center in my community, is a fun-filled day too! Students enjoy the pool, have lunch together and then go skating together in the afternoon before boarding the bus to head home. The neat thing about the Second Gathering is that the group has been connected and learning together via the video conferencing lessons, the moodle and in other ways for ~5 months and the peer-to-peer and student-teacher interactions are very different from those at the First Gathering. It is clear that learning relationships are developing and students interact much more between the three classes at the Second Gathering. They are also more trusting of the three teachers and it's wonderful to talk with my two colleagues and all the students face to face! I recognize the voices before the faces and do my best to attach names to as many students as I can so that I can continue to deepen that student-teacher learning relationship for the remainder of the year. While I try as hard as I can to attach names to faces at the First Gathering too, they never seem to stick as well as they do after half the year teaching and learning in our unique environment!

The other wonderful thing about the Gathering was that we had another great turnout of parents and other family members! First off, it was very helpful to have a dozen extra pairs of hands to tie on 80 pairs of skates!! Aside from practicalities though, it's great to bring families into the ECC. I was so happy to meet the grandmother of a student from Lytton and it was wonderful for the parents of my students to be able to meet Mrs. Sayenchuk for the first time. The connecting of not only the students and staff, but also the parents, of the three communities is powerful and wonderful to see in person. 

It was a great day and an important reminder of the reality of what we do in our Connected Classrooms each day. We are building a learning community. We do need the face to face to make it work, but the way we are teaching each day is building that community too.

Weekly Pro D

For 2 years now I have had Photoshop Elements sitting on my home computer.  Each time I turned on my computer I would look at it and tell myself that as soon as I got a chance I would sit down and learn how to use it. 

This year in Connected Classrooms Photoshop Elements was added to the student computers for them to learn and use in the weekly lessons with Errin.  Each week the students spend time exploring the different functions within the program while editing their photos.  Listening to the Errin's lessons and exploring the program with the students  has created a great learning opportunity for me, as well as the students.  I am now getting that time and instruction in learning the program that I had always planned for. 

This is the great thing about Connected Classrooms.  It not only provides the opportunity for students to learn from teachers with different strengths and from each other, it also provides the opportunity for us as teachers to learn from each other and the students.  During a meeting it was said that as teachers in Connected Classrooms we are experiencing Pro D every week with the lessons each teacher does.  This is something I truly believe.  Each week we are sharing our knowledge and passions with each other as well as the students.  While others have to plan for a single day of collaboration, we are incorporating this into our regular classroom schedules.

So often we look at the benefits for students when deciding to try something new in a classroom, and not at the effects and benefits for teachers.  The Connected Classroom project has provided a unique learning opportunity for the students and the teacher, something that I am very thankful for.

The Beauty of ECC!

I would like to formally introduce myself as the newest member of the ECC! I feel very lucky to be a member of such an amazing team of teachers. Errin and Aislinn have made me feel very welcome.

I would like to share a few things about myself. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. During my Education Program at UBC Okanagan, I did one practicum in Grade 2 and the other in Grade 4/5. I really enjoyed teaching both grades and when I graduated last spring, I was open to teaching any grade. The Okanagan area is very difficult to get into as a full-time teacher and I knew that if I was lucky enough to get hired as a Teacher-On-Call, I could easily be doing that for quite a few years before I would get a full-time teaching position.

Close to the end of the summer, my husband and I decided that I should try applying to some other districts to see what would happen. When I saw the posting for an Intermediate Connected Classroom Teacher in School District 74, I immediately started "Googling" to find out what a Connected Classroom was. I came across this blog and the Prezi made by the team last year. I was very intrigued and thought that this would be a great opportunity for me!

When I got hired, I honestly could not believe it. Within less than a week, I went from hoping to get a job as a TOC to having a full-time teaching position.

I first met Errin and Aislinn via video conference, which was an interesting experience because I felt like I knew them although we had not yet met in person. As soon as I met both Errin and Aislinn in person, I knew I had made the right decision by taking this job (which does not feel at all like a job!). I imagine that this is how our students feel, because they meet the other classes everyday via video conference before they ever meet them face-to-face. The students have now had one face-to-face gathering and I'm looking forward to seeing how they interact with each other differently at the second gathering!

The beauty of Connected Classrooms, as a new teacher, is that you have an extra support system. I have heard from other teachers that they often feel alone or isolated in their classrooms. With ECC, I have never felt this way. I think this is the benefit of the ECC for students as well. Our students are living in small, rural communities and with Connected Classrooms, they get to connect with students from other communities. They also get the benefit of having three teachers, which means three different sets of strengths, passion, and knowledge.

I have found that Connected Classrooms also increases the quality of student work. The lessons that we do where students get to share their work, either verbally or in a photo, produce a higher quality of work because students know they will be sharing it. Also, once they see the quality of work that other students are doing, I think it increases their motivation to improve their own work.

I look forward to continuing to learn and grow as part of the ECC team! I am excited to see the continued learning and engagement of the students in the New Year!

Always nice to hear positives from parents...

I cannot believe that four months have already flown on by this school year. I will do my best to post at least once a month for the next few months! For now, a lovely story I wanted to share that originated from a conversation with a parent of one of my students...

At the Christmas Craft Fair this week, I made a point of talking with as many parents as possible. One conversation was particulary enlightening. 

I was chatting with one of the students’ mothers. We were talking about a variety of things and somehow the conversation turned to the Online Literature Circles. She talked about how this was the first time her child had shown an interest in reading novels. This surprised me because if I’d had to guess, I would have guessed that this student has been reading novels for two years. Her mother was so pleased that we were encouraging students to read novels. She read both novels that her child brought home in the nine weeks of Online Literature Circles and she was very impressed with the quality of the literature for the students to read. 

It was great to hear such a positive experience for both a mother and child originating in the ECC! Finally, I think it’s very important to share that I made a point of crediting my colleague Aislinn for having such a flair for finding and choosing wonderful novels for our students (and their parents!) to enjoy.

Image used via Creative Commons license taken by Daryl Marquardt and accessed on December 13th, 2012 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/darylm/1134126132/sizes/z/in/photostream/.

Welcome to the ECC 2012-2013

It looks to be another exciting year in the Elementary Connected Classrooms (ECC)! This month marks the start of the project's fourth year and we continue to grow and evolve in new ways. Thank you to Brooke for the kind words in her last post - I am excited to be in my first official leadership role! While Aislinn and I are thrilled to welcome a new member (more information coming about her soon!), it was a sad day when Brooke Haller announced that she would be leaving the ECC last June. The Connected 8 project is lucky to have her and I am happy we can stay connected through her role as the District Technology Collaboration Teacher.

Once again we have the three classes full of early intermediate students. Cayoosh has a straight grade five class, and both Lytton and Ashcroft have grade 4/5 split classrooms. Each classroom has at least a few students that were in the ECC last year, and it's great to see those students stepping up as leaders already.

One thing the students in my class are talking about already is the inquiry project! Many students that were in the other class last year had heard about it and are eager to get started. Although we don't begin formal lessons until October, many students in my classroom went home on Friday thinking about topics of interest. I can't wait to see what topics the students will choose - that alone tells me a great deal about the students and offers a topic of discussion that is always sure to bring an excited tone to their voice! 

Ideas for future posts include the ECC Open House, the CES Fall Conference the team is presenting at this year, the inquiry project including the theory and academics behind it, and also, hopefully, an introduction to our newest member. The plan is to continue sharing in this space for students, families, colleagues and others to see all the great things happening in our connected classrooms.