Teaching as Inquiry

One of the things that we discussed during our professional development was teaching as Inquiry. Effective leaders play an important role in establishing and promoting inquiry approaches and in emphasising the deliberate nature of teaching as inquiry .Students can also give teachers  useful information about the impact of teaching practices on their learning and engagement.
This is some of what I took out of our discussion. 

What am I missing?


Teaching as Inquiry

What is it?
 Effective pedagogy requires that teachers inquire into the impact of their teaching on their students. Modifying your teaching practices in order to best suit the students.

What are the gaps and what are the strategies used in order to fill in these gaps?

In the focussing inquiry teachers identify the outcomes they want their students to achieve.
They consider how their students are doing in relation to those outcomes and they  ask what their students need to learn next time in order to achieve them. 

 "You need to know exactly in your mind where that student is and where they need to go next" 

Teacher ProfessionalLearning and Development


Helen Timperley - 10 key principles
1. Focus on valued student outcomes
2. Worthwhile content
3. Integration of knowledge and skills
4. Assessment for professional inquiry
5. Multiple opportunities to learn and apply information
6. Approaches responsive to learning processes
7. Opportunities to process new learning with others
8. Knowledgeable expertise
9. Active leadership
10. Maintaining momentum

"You need to continue to be a teacher of Inquiry."

"We are all on a learning journey. You do not arrive, you just get better."  -  Sarah Valentine

What happened as a result of the teaching?
What are the implications for future teaching?


Is there something I need to change?
What are the next steps for learning? 

The key question for the focusing inquiry is: What is important (and therefore worth spending time on), given where my students are at?

"Inquiry teachers  should ask more than they tell."

Kathleen Murdoch

What is your reaction to the clip?

Do you agree or disagree?

Does something challenge you? Inspire you?

Is there anything helpful to reflect on?

Some questions to we were asked to consider after our discussion were: 

What did I already know about teaching as inquiry?

What did I learn or develop understanding in relation to teaching as inquiry?

What is my next step?

In relation to teaching as inquiry, I understand that I really need  to know my learners on a deeper level in order to accelerate them. As a continue with my practice I see how I can implement things for next year so that I consistently have in my mind: Where are they at? What is working/what isn't working Why isn't it working, Where to from here?

It's not about Reading, or Writing, or Maths. It's about your approach to your teaching

For our Teacher only day, we had Tony Burkin talking to us from Interlead. 

Interlead is organisational learning and leadership. We have considerable experience working in the education sector and are able to match best practice approaches to educational development.

Tony Burkin

Director – Leadership and Learning

BSocSc Economics (Hons), Dip Tching, GradDipBus (Human Resource Management)

Without meaning to Tony has over the last decade developed specialist expertise in growing school leadership in ways expediting the development of schools as Professional Learning Communities.

The following are some highlights that I got from the day:

Pedagogy is a child-focused teaching approach, whereas andragogy an adult-focused teaching approach; or, formally, pedagogy is the art and science of helping kids learn, whereas andragogy is the art and science of helping adults learn.

"A tool is only as useful as those who use it." 


When we talk of our practice  what are we referring to ?

"Inquiry involves intuition , passion and emotion 

Teachers  who are inquirers will never announce that they "do" inquiry thus separating the activity from their professional being."

Professional Capital

Michael Fullan

What is it?

PROFESSIONAL CAPITAL :

Human capital

Social capital

Decision making capital

ALL 3 need to be in place in order to have professional capital.

"We can't be great teachers if we cannot be honest with each other."

"If you can hold yourself to accountability, you don't need anyone else to hold you to accountability."

It's not about proving how good you are as a teacher. 

Would you like your students to light up when you enter the room?

OR

Would you like your students to light up when you leave the room?

Interesting question. What would you choose?

OPIWA

Outstanding performance in the wrong area

An Everyone Culture

The reason people burnout is the extra effort people put in to 'hide'

"In an ordinary organisation most people are doing a second job no one is paying them for. in businesses large and small; in government agencies, schools, and hospitals all around the word. Most people are spending time and energy covering up their weaknesses, managing other peoples' impressions of them, showing themselves to their best advantage, playing politics, hiding their inadequacies, hiding their uncertainties, hiding their limitations. Hiding."

Managing risks to image.

Ensuring I don't look.

• incompetent 
• ignorant
• negative
• disruptive

This hit the nail right on the head for me. SO worried about not looking competent.

It's not about your work, it's about your learning!!!!!!!!

I thought about this a bit more. Does that mean I need to be willing to share everything in an effort to show I have nothing to hide?
I believe there are some things that we do not wish to share and it doesn't mean we are hiding but maybe that's me hiding from the fact that I am hiding...

The last thing that I got from this workshop are the three rules regarding Growth/Fixed Mindset.

Three Rules - Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset

The biggest challenge for me has been to slow down on the judgement I make of myself as a teacher and as a learner.  As long as I have a commitment to reflect on my practice and to learn from what I have done, then things will come in time.
It is important to acknowledge that we cannot rush the progress.

I am still learning....

Music is good for the soul

Get rhythm when you get the blues

Come on, get rhythm when you get the blues

It only cost a dime, just a nickel a shoe

Does a million dollars worth of good for you

Get rhythm, when you get the blues

      

RAD RHYTHM

 Whenever I hear the term Rad Rhythm, the track 'Get Rhythm' by Johnny Cash begins to play in my head hence why I started this post with one of the verses from this classic song. 

Today our music specialist Caleb Strickland explained the basics behind the Rad Rhythm course. 

The Rad Rhythm course is a program that:

1. Enables teachers without musical skills to teach music.
2. Offers schools an affordable and effective music program.
3. Provides an online, relevant and highly interactive learning platform that is in line with what the children of today expect and deserve.
4. Teaches children the fundamentals of music and encourages them to think outside of the box.

I had some experience with the program last year. The kids LOVED it. Yes, it was loud but the kids were engaged. Rad Rhythm has both a theoretical and practical component to it. 

I will do most of the lessons with my students. I will take this on as another way to bond with them as we both learn.

Music has a funny way of bringing people together 😊 🎶

The First Step Towards Change Is Awareness

Today I went to a toolkit PD on Google Sites. Everything seems so simple when things are being explained. There is a lot of information and I KNOW that when it comes to me sitting down to my site, I am going to forget how to do everything... argh! It is so frustrating.

As I look around, I feel as though everyone is aware of what to do except for me. There are lots of short cuts on how to do things but I am not even familiar on the proper way of how to do things. Now there are short cuts and I feel quite overwhelmed with needing to learn how to do this in order for the students to have a site up and running so they can get the most out of their learning while I plan and meet the various other deadlines required of me.

As I sit here, I begin to to wonder how many other people in this toolkit feel as I do?
Who feels as lost as I am?

It makes me think about the learners in my class who are trying their best to listen to what I am saying but end up feeling lost. Those who seem disinterested might not have anything to do with them not wanting to learn but more about the way that things are being taught isn't in a way that they can relate to.  Even the speed that something is being taught might be at a pace where they haven't fully processed what was just said and already the teacher has moved on to the next thought.
This has made me more aware of how I need to be with my learners.

It is so important to remember that everyone doesn't learn at the same rate. Yes it can be frustrating at times if someone learns something in 2 minutes vs someone else who has yet to learn that same concept. In a perfect world, we would all learn things the moment we are exposed to them and it would stick. That isn't always the case.

I am still learning...