I chose to follow various types of people in education for this project. Many of the blogs and Tweets I read were interesting but I wasn’t drawn to their sites.
Jacqui Murray is an editor of technology curriculum and writer. She writes about various topics but the one that is most interesting to me is Inquiry Based education. In her blog post called, "11 Ways to be an Inquiry Based Teacher," Jacqui discusses the importance of using an inquiry based approach in education.
I work at an International Baccalaureate school and we strive to teach using an inquiry based model. Assessing student learning is more complicated in an Inquiry Based classroom. Performance based assessments are essential as they allow the students to creatively show their new knowledge. Many of our education technology tools can facilitate these assessments. Jacqui writes that you can’t just, “all you do is ask questions and observe answers.” She’s right. It is a lot more complicated than that. It also means that as the teacher you need to be willing to let go of the control in the classroom or at least, loosen the reigns a bit. I look forward to following Jacqui Murray through her blog.
Another post from Jacqui Murray, "How the Internet Neighborhood is Like Any Other Community" discusses digital citizens and how we as educators can help today’s students “thrive in the digital world.” Our students actively learn and share their knowledge using a variety of tools available. Many of these tools have only recently become available to the students. These tools will continue to evolve and change. Our job as technology integrators is to always be abreast to the current tools and to help the classroom teachers integrate their usage into the units. Murray discusses the importance being risk takers in their learning. This philosophy blends beautifully with an inquiry based education.
I was drawn to Matt Gomez for a few reasons. He is a kindergarten teacher and his blog is not only tech friendly but also geared toward the needs of kindergarten students. We don’t see too many male kindergarten teachers and I find it refreshing that he enjoys working with our youngest students. "Wonder Journal: First Activity of the Day" uses Wonderopolis.com is one of the sources Matt uses for his Wonder of the Day. This quick activity completed as arrival work gives the students an opportunity to stop and wonder about the image posted.
He notes that some times the discussions spurred by these “wonders” is the beginning of a group inquiry. The parents can also link to the site if they are interested also. As an IB teacher, we are encouraged to use provocations at the beginning of our units to help engage the students in the topic we are learning about. This is a great example of that. I can’t wait to try this with my class!
In another post from Gomez, he posted a link to an article from Teach Thought called “How Deductive Thinking Can Drive Student-Designed Research.” There is a big push in our district to increase the frequency of research done by students.
I found it interesting that our lower grade students were more likely to do short term multiple inquiries and research while the older students began working on larger projects but less frequently. Our media and research department is in the process of encouraging the upper grades to follow the practices of the lower grades. This article spelled out the basic steps to effectively researching a topic with students.
Seeing the effect that multiple resources can have on my ability to teach, I am looking forward to completing my PLN. This is a great way to further delve into subject areas that both directly and indirectly effect how I teach and how students learn.
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