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 Did Curiosity Really Kill the Cat?

Over the summer I read “Inquiry Mindset” by Trevor Mackenzie and “The Power of Inquiry” by Kath Murdoch. I was totally inspired to start this type of learning with my students and I could see real opportunities for co-teaching in my current role as Teacher-Librarian. After consultation with my school’s administration, I have decided to divide the year and my time for support and co-teaching between grade level groups, starting with the grade 7 team. Have I ever taught grade 7? No! Do I remember much about the curriculum? No! Does this bother me? Not really. Thankfully, there are 4 more teachers on the team who are the curriculum experts. My role is different in this situation. My role is to provide support to teachers in this journey to learn more about inquiry.

Here are some key words and questions that I would like to explore in literature searches:  Which type of inquiry should be explored in a French Immersion grade 7 classroom? How to craft an essential question that captures the students’ curiosity? What are the four pillars of Inquiry? How to foster a spirit of collaboration and communication between students and teachers? And of course, what about assessment?

The digital platforms currently being used to support learning from home in our division are Edbsy and Microsoft Teams. Part of my job includes providing support for teachers not familiar with these platforms. As I recently made the switch from an elementary to middle school, Microsoft Teams and Edsby are relatively new to me. I would like to explore these two platforms as a way to “Dive Into Inquiry” (another book by Trevor Mackenzie) with the grade 7 students and teachers. I feel that this will have the most benefits for my current role. With the current COVID situation in Winnipeg, it is a very real possibility that students and staff could be sent home if there is a case in the school. Having access and experience using these two platforms would be an excellent way to jumpstart learning from home.

Join me in this learning journey as I explore if curiosity really killed the cat.

Comments

  1. D.McNeeSeptember 23, 2020 at 8:27 PM

    This is a good first post. I appreciate your narrative structure and personal connections. You have an excellent title and your post is engaging to read. I can tell that you are passionate about the topic you have chosen to explore. I look forward to following your journey. For your next post, you may want to include some multimedia elements such as images, links, or videos. These add another layer to your post and further enhance the reading experience for your audience.

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