Written by 
Here I am on the eve of the Cohort 21 F2F trying to post my latest blog post in the nick of time.
This year I am teaching a completely different grade, jumping from Grade 4 to Grade 7&8…and a big jump it is! This means learning two new programs, working with new colleagues, and adjusting my practice. It has been such a terrific learning experience for me, but at the same time a big learning curve. I want to make the most of this learning and ensure that I am delivering a program that my students connect to. My colleagues and I are trying to redesign our units to become more inquiry based. I decided that I wanted my Action Project to reflect the changes I want to make in my program. In the last session, I really enjoyed using the Design Thinking approach to work through our action plan. It really helps to hash out and tweak ideas. Although, I don’t know that I have completely fine tuned exactly what I want to do….
So far, my HMW looks something like this:
How might we engage our students through inquiry?
What actions have I taken since the last F2F?
- Redesigned existing units
- Redesigned learning engagements
- Developed essential questions for units
- Incorporate more choice for students into learning experiences
I am looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring.
Hello @amatera! Looks like we are both thinking about the same things – how to engage our students and revamp our classes so that students are driving g their learning through inquiry.
I just finished an inquiry unit in grade 9 geography, I’ll have to seek you out and tell you about it! I’d love to hear what you have been doing in your classes, too.
It was so great to read your post and know that I am not alone! Looking forward to connecting today.
@amatera Did you get closer to refining your Action Plan on Friday? Hopefully you came away with some new ideas and a clear plan on how to embed inquiry into some upcoming units.
Hi Alessandra,
I love that you are bringing the inquiry approach into our work together as colleagues. Your curriculum design question has led to many more questions: How can we build our boys’ collaborative skills through our Humanities unit on revolution? How can we build our students’ ability to ask good questions? How can we teach our boys to read, write, think and act with empathy in Humanities? Not only are you building inquiry into the units of study, you are bringing this mindset to our planning meetings. Thank you!
I am eager to know about your project and please let me know how I can support you.
Anna
Hey @amatera!
Looking through what you had planned, there is no doubt that there is enough there to keep 3 people busy, let alone 1. Looking forward to hearing more about your action plan and where it has led you.
See you on Friday!