Foreword to Inquiry Mindset

Undeniably, one of the most influential educators to my inquiry practice is Kath Murdoch.  Her work simultaneously affirms and stretches my thinking around how we can harness the curiosities and wonders of our learners and leverage these into powerfully authentic and meaningful experiences in our classrooms.

I am honoured that Kath has lent her voice to Inquiry Mindset.  Her foreword sets the stage for the work and draws attention to the role of teacher as inquirer, one that questions, models, and explores together in inquiry with their students.

Today I am thrilled to share some exclusive content from the book with you here on the blog.  Have a read of Kath's foreword and cue the excitement for the release of Inquiry Mindset.

Flipgrid Webinar

Hi there friends!

This month Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt and I will be hosting Flipgrid‘s February webinar aptly titled “Building an Inquiry Mindset”.  

Expect a vibrant discussion all about inquiry-based learning and how teachers can powerfully personalize learning for students using Flipgrid!  These takeaways will be a mix of ideas and activities you can do tomorrow in your class as well as BIG ideas that will truly transform your teaching.  We will also share some exclusive content from Inquiry Mindset to the #FlipgridFever community that hasn’t been released to the public yet.  We’ll also be giving away some copies of both Dive into Inquiry: Amplify Learning and Empower Student Voice and Inquiry Mindset: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders and Curiosities of Our Youngest Learners!

Be sure to join us by registering here and participating in the twitter chat using the #FlipgridFever hashtag.  We are super excited – see you there!

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The Power of the Provocation

A powerful start point to inquiry is the use of provocations.  In the inquiry classroom provocations are prompts, artifacts, images or videos that spark wonders, curiosities, questions and potential inquiries in our learners.

Each and every Monday I publish a provocation as part of a series titled #MeaningfulMonday.  Check out how it all began here.

As a sneak peek into Inquiry Mindset I’d like to share with you all one of the amazing sketchnotes from the book.  All of the sketches have been created by my talented co-author Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt.

Provocations allow us to spark learning opportunities.  Powerful discussions, engaging questions, and meaningful learning pathways are inevitabley created when we begin learning with a provocation.  Look for more in Inquiry Mindset as we share how provocations can be used in the inquiry classroom.

Rube Goldberg Machines

This week’s #MeaningfulMonday is a lot of fun!  Huge thanks to friend Alec Couros for always sharing interesting content.  Y’all know how much I LOVE Rube Goldberg Machines (find out more about these fun creations here) and the below two are absolute gems.

This past weekend I was in Georgia working with some amazing educators and I had an inspiring chat with a technology teacher as we brainstormed lessons with her grade two kiddos in mind.  These two videos surfaced from our discussion.

Try this on for size no matter what grade or subject you teach: challenge your students to create a Rube Goldberg Machine of their own.  You can make this activity fun by limiting the time they have to create their machine, determining how many steps must be in their project, and even requiring them to plan and blueprint their machine before they experiment.

This activity really drives home the importance of process rather than merely the product of learning.  As students experiment they must also make observations, reflect, revise and try again and again until they achieve succeed.  Powerful stuff!

Make your Monday Meaningful y’all!

Announcing the Release of Inquiry Mindset!

I am extremely excited to announce the release of my next book Inquiry Mindset: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders and Curiosities of our Youngest Learners co-authored with the amazing Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt!

This project truly originated from my travels around the world.  The more I spoke at events and supported teachers in their adoption of inquiry, the more I realized this second book was needed.  Inquiry Mindset focuses on nurturing the skills and understandings necessary to maximize the power of personalized learning.  The book explains how this is done in the elementary years with a specific focus on the kindergarten to grade 7 setting.  Inquiry Mindset is accessible – it’s written by teachers for teachers.  It is actionable – each and every chapter is PACKED with takeaways that you can adopt over your lunch break.  And it’s meaningful – the changes we propose will create the most inspiring and powerful shifts in your classroom for both you and your students!

My Edutopia Post

Here is my latest post on Edutopia titled Bringing Inquiry-Based Learning Into Your Class: A four-step approach to using a powerful model that increases student agency in learning.

Here’s a snippet of what to expect…

“Adopting an inquiry-based learning (IBL) approach in my classroom has been the most meaningful change I have made in my teaching. The benefit of increased student agency in learning, the authentic connections we make to the world around us, and the 21st-century skills IBL nurtures are great reasons to explore how inquiry can enhance what you are doing in your classroom.

Moonshot Thinking

“People can set their mind to magical, seemingly impossible ideas and then through science and technology bring them to reality.”

Not a bad hook, eh?

Share this with your class today.  Discuss the impossible.  If you could do one thing tomorrow without fear of failure or worry of risk, what would it be?

Cue Moonshot Thinking.  Check it out.

Make you Monday meaningful y’all.