Written by 
I am nowhere near answering my How Might We Question.
I think I am one of the participants that has kinda fallen into the “comparing myself to others” camp; thinking my HMW question isn’t as exciting as others; my blog posts haven’t elicited as many comments/discussions as others; I haven’t done enough achieve my HWM goals. Reading @gnichols post I couldn’t help but think, ah shoot, I’m kinda doing that. The thing is,
in no way has anyone at C21 made me feel this way, in fact, I’ve been guided throughout this entire project very positively. The support and attitudes of all C21 members is incredibly inspiring and encouraging. (specifically @gvogt, @tfaucher, @sneesham, @jmedved).
I need to stop this thinking immediately! My C21 experience has been amazing. It’s encouraged me to pursue an area of development that is completely self-driven and an area that I know needs work at my school.
I set out to connect with classroom teachers to collaborate on work that would be engaging for students.
When I first starting chatting with teachers about this initiative, they asked me a lot of questions about what inquiry learning looked like and how it would work. I found that I wasn’t able to answer some of these questions. If I wanted to encourage this type of learning, I needed to learn more about it myself. I read a few blogs of C21 members that pursued inquiry projects in the classroom, I read Dive in Inquiry by Trevor Mackenzie (recommended by @pcobban) and I reached out to the C21 community for some more guidance. I hit some roadblocks that I still have not figured out – what is the Teacher-Librarian role in supporting inquiry-learning and how do I encourage more of this in the classroom, if I myself am not in the classroom?
Here is a link to my Action Plan slide deck that sums up more of my process as a student vs. my specific learning regarding inquiry.
So far, I have had meetings with all of the different levels at my school (kindergarten, lower elementary, upper elementary) and have begun plans for guided inquiry initiatives at each level. I also am going to be visiting Moncrest School (shout out to @sneesham) to see some inquiry rich classrooms and chat with teachers who lead these classrooms.
For me, I very much believe that this is the end of the beginning. I feel like I’ve just gotten started in pursuing these new initiatives and the C21 experience also has me thinking about a thousand other projects I want to pursue in the Library in the upcoming years. Unfortunately, (but also fortunately) I will be off next year on another maternity leave. It’s hard to put these initiatives on hold, but I know they’ll be waiting for me when I return!
Ahhhhh! Congrats, Nicole! That is such awesome and exciting news about baby #2. Now you definitely must let yourself off the hook of your Cohort guilt, you’ve done great work this year, made connections, and this blog is awesome evidence of all your thinking on a HARD topic. As a fellow librarian, I can’t wait to pick your brain about what you’ve learned about continuing to foster collaborative relationships with faculty and how best I can support inquiry in the Junior School at SCS. Plus let’s definitely collaborate on your scope & sequence goal, when you’re back from mat leave naturally 😉
Holy smokes! @nbrooksbank If I had to do an action inventory of your year it would be off the charts. Action can look different for everyone. For you it was little steps in many different directions. For others it was a neat and tidy project with a start, middle and end. No two action plans and C21 experiences should be the same because after all, none of us are the same either.
Kudos to you. You modelled inquiry beautifully. Your c passion to improve your practice and support your students drove to explore and ask new questions of yourself and others. If that is not authentic PD then I don’t know what it. Feel great about this growth and where you landed but also bottle that feeling and open it after your mat leave. It will be waiting for you 🙂
Congratulations!!!
First off- Congrats on baby #2! Such exciting news!
Second- Congrats on all the work you have put in this year, making connections, looking inward, asking hard (but important) questions.
For me, your “why” slide says it all and is so in line with the design thinking process. You continued to refine and seek answers so that you could get closer to the goal that you set out to achieve. You may not have directly answered your HMW question yet, but you certainly have set yourself up to hit the ground running when you tackle it again.
Not giving up on the process is the most we can ask for- of ourselves , our peers and our students. You have modelled this so well and will have such a strong foundation to help your peers find their way to having a higher level of inquiry in their classes.
I can’t wait to see you tomorrow and say congrats in person!
Cheers,
Tracy
Dear Nicole,
I echo the sentiments above, and it was great connecting with you on these thoughts during our face-to-face. What I appreciate the most about your thinking and journey is that you have highlighted that there are sometimes roles that you can’t help but play; and other times important roles that you have already been playing need to take a backseat. I’ve experienced this in the past as well, and I can appreciate when the tension between two roles (being a great teacher, being a great husband, or being a great administrator, being a great father, or being a great teacher, being a great student advisor, etc…) force us to make difficult choices. In reading your post, I think you are deepening your journey in to how to play important roles and balance the time and energy you devote to each. That is HUGE!
Congrats, and all the best for you upcoming newest family member!
Sincerely,
garth.