Visits by classroom teachers and administrators from our board has ended and we loved having everyone in the room working and engaging with the kids.  Our students did a remarkable job explaining how the inquiry-based teaching methods have affected them this year.  We heard echoed back to us the very goals we hoped to accomplish.  The kids love the group work, being able to select from a variety of topics, exploring concepts in detail, using technology, and developing problem-solving strategies.  We know we are on the right track.
One particularly rewarding element was a simple technique I've been using for years called 'responding to text'.  The 'text'  is anything the students are currently working on.  It can be in any form: print, website, podcast, video, or live performance.  What's really magical is how they learn to discuss the topics at hand in a mature, fun, and respectful way.  Here's how it works (it's very simple):
Following a lesson or experience, four to five students stand in a casual line in front of the class.
One member is chosen to provide an introduction in which the main idea or focus is summarized in an exciting way.
Each member is expected to follow a simple set of rules.  First, only one voice is ever speaking at a time.  If someone is explaining something and begins to 'run out of steam', it's the responsibility of the other members to fill in any awkward pauses with fresh material.  In this way, the students learn to work collaboratively and to care for each other.
Lastly, a different member is expected to conclude with something for the listeners to think about or a good wrap up statement which summarizes the main ideas put forth.  This is followed by a quick thank-you.
Try it with your class.  You'll be amazed at how effective it is and how easy it is to gauge your students understanding.  Great for assessment, too!

The best PD is embedded in the classroom, not on a stage.  The excitement of professional teachers engaging with each other is profound when it occurs in the real world.  People need to see models to feel comfortable with new practices.  To this end, it was so great to hear fellow teachers say they loved visiting our classroom and having the time to study inquiry-based methods IN THE REAL WORLD!

    Louise and I have been very busy in the past few weeks as we roll out the demonstration classroom, thanks to our TLLP project.  Teachers from around our board were invited to come spend the morning with us and experience our class in action.  Our project budget allowed for supply teachers to free up our guests and it was therefore a relaxed and fun morning of joining the kids and later talking about the experience.  Our colleagues arrived in groups of two to four over a number of days and the format was simple:  Introduction to Inquiry-based learning, join the students in the classroom in action and ask questions of the kids while circulating, return to have a small group discussion, a presentation of work from the students, followed by a question and answer period (with the students), and finally an open-ended exchange of ideas.
    I was very impressed with the level of enthusiasm the guest teachers exhibited.  It was exciting to see the students engage so maturely with the adults as they shared their honest feelings about the inquiry process.  Because we are so completely sold on this learning method, it was not difficult to talk about our successes and challenges.  Alleviating the concerns about inquiry-based teaching was helped along by all of the good work the students presented and the caring concern they showed each other.  After that, it was more a matter of helping the teachers see how they could implement the techniques in their classroom rather than convincing them it was a solid system.
    Many teachers are hesitant to adopt a new format without seeing it in action.  It was suggested that we 'take the show on the road' and offer to visit fellow teachers at their schools and help them get started.  We are  pursuing this goal with our board administrators for next year. 
    Teachers found it fascinating to see how well the students effectively used technology.  Whether it was the comfort level of the students using modern tools or the creativity of the presentations that resulted, the feeling amongst the guests was that a skillful use of modern learning tools created a basis for dynamic learning.  I felt it important to point out that any inquiry-based classroom is surely to benefit from good use of tech but that it wasn't a requirement.  Asking great questions and working in a group do not rely on technical aids.  What does help is the creative use of visually rich presentations.  This can occur with or without tech. 

    We don't want our students to ever become cynical or jaded.  We began this exploration with a fascinating look at the story of Shannen Koostachin, who at a very young age took on the Federal government of Canada to help bring educational equality to the Cree of Attawapiskat.  Shannen's story of the difficulties of having to go to high school in a completely foreign town, the moldy portables in which she and her friends learned, and the staggering drop out rate of the youth in her community all touched a cord in our students.  We tried to emphasize that Shannen didn't just complain and throw her hands up in frustration, but worked to get her message out in positive ways by speaking to many groups whenever she could.  Being young had a benefit in that it caught the politicians' ears and and sparked the imagination of those willing to help.  We want our kids to see that her success is not impossible to achieve.  Speaking out in an intelligent way works.  People will listen, no matter how young you are, if you are committed to making change.
   This exploration of native cultures proceeded in the now-familiar rotation style in which the students were responsible for creating a presentation each day for the class.  Imovies, podcasts, Keynote presentations, book creation, and Comic Life graphic stories provided the kids with many ways to express and promote their work.  After two very exciting weeks, a grand total of 32 projects had been created and presented and the students really expanded their knowledge of and appreciation for First Nations people.  One of the interesting side pieces was a series of discussions about giving positive feedback.  We practiced giving a comment that supported the presentation, followed by a respectful, clear comment that suggested areas for improvement.  The students did a great job presenting their work and truly appreciated the fair-minded comments.

Our classroom is not very racially diverse, so I wasn't sure how this exploration's theme was going to play out.  I didn't need to worry.  One of the great accomplishments of our times is embedding a sense of narrative into all areas of modern life.  We tell stories for almost every facet of teaching and this is especially true when we tackle a massive issue such as the abolition of slavery or the contributions of black culture and heritage.  It was fascinating to share with my students the stories about the underground railroad, the abolition of slavery, the rise of the civil rights movement and the contributions of key individuals in the search for equal rights.  I loved the chance to see the indignation in the kids' faces when they learned of the terrible treatment of slaves through the great stories we shared.  It certainly affirms your faith in the human soul.  And in this way you also get a chance to experience anew the same feelings of outrage when you first learned of the horrors of slavery. It's not a pleasant experience but it is memorable and that's what I was hoping to accomplish. I wanted the kids to remember these stories so that they would always recognize the signs of racism and discrimination

Our unit on Flight allowed me the luxury of pursuing some of my own personal interests.  I'm so glad the grade six curriculum includes it as a science unit because you can do so much with it.  We began simply by studying the concept of an airfoil and exploring the physics behind how planes fly.  We worked on many activities exploring lift, drag, gravity and thrust and kept these ideas in mind for our many explorations in this two week unit.  I managed to book a class trip to our local airport and we were fortunate enough to get a truly thorough tour of the Control Desk, airstrips, hangars, and a navigation equipment manufacturing company that had a facility on site.  The kids got to see all types of personal and commercial planes up close, examine the parts of aircraft and ask questions about their function, and meet some of the people who work at and maintain the airport.  It was fascinating.

The next part of the tour was superb.  We visited the production facility of Zennair, a local light aircraft producer.  These wonderful planes are built as kits and shipped around the world.  Our host, Chris Heinz, walked us through the plant and the kids stopped at each part of the assembly process.  The workers were happy to see us and put on a good show by doing their work efficiently and precisely. This very successful company highlighted for the kids that small businesses can thrive on hard work and high quality manufacturing.  Many of the students expressed a keen interest in pursuing an aviation career following the trip.

Our last component of the flight unit was to create rotating group work stations for further exploration in class.  The students created names for their groups and began a five day rotation.  (See more about this excellent teaching technique in the lesson plans section of this website.  Overall, the Flight unit was one of the most rewarding and stimulating units I've taught in a long time.  If I can figure out how to hide an ultralight in my back yard, I'm all set.  I'll tell my wife it's a lawn ornament.

Space Exploration has to be one of the most intriguing topics imaginable.  We started like we always do, asking great questions and finding out what we know, want to know and how to find out.  The overriding question this week was a classic:  Are we alone in the universe?  I was surprised at how many of the students just assumed that, given the vast expanse of the universe, we are not likely to be the only intelligent life form in the cosmos. I thought they would be more naturally skeptical, needing to see hard and fast evidence that our planet had been visited by other beings.  This lead me to do some very interesting research on scientific inquiry that pointed to earth's unique nature and the almost infinite 'just-right' conditions that have to occur for life to develop.  We explored some of these areas using a rich resource bank of books, internet sites and my new favourite, Learn360 videos.  I absolutely love using this resource because it quickly narrows topics by subject and grade and you don't have to worry at all about inappropriate content. 
In the end, the feelings of the students hardly budged at all.  After exploring pro and con arguments and viewing a few tremendously informative videos, the students remained pretty much fixed in their original feelings.  About ten percent felt that life was unique to earth, and an overwhelming ninety percent assumed extraterrestrial beings existed but hadn't yet made contact.  More and more, I'm falling into the habit of getting so engrossed in the subjects we're covering in class that I find myself looking forward to personal reading time after school to continue studying.  The great

This week's new exploration is a bit of a catch-all because I realized that the students are working very hard, but are often hampered by the often slow process of putting their ideas down on paper.  I'm always looking for efficient ways for the kids to produce work on their projects and the old 'hunt and peck' computer skills are clearly not fast enough to avoid frustration.  In our school board, typing and keyboarding skills are not offered any longer, so the students may never learn to touch-type.  I think my old grade ten typing course was one of the most useful educational experiences I've ever had.  Add all these ideas together and the solution seems to be that we need to slow down to speed up.  I need to take the time to encourage keyboarding skills, so every day for the next few weeks we are taking forty minutes to practice the basic touch typing techniques.  The kids are encouraged to practice at home and I will run a contest for most improved (not necessarily fastest or best) typist.  In the end, they may avoid the bad habits and inefficiencies of hunt and peck.  One of the challenges is going to be to make it fun.
The rest of this week is devoted to learning all sorts of communication skills.  Here's a short list:  creating podcasts, making iMovies for 'how to videos' similar to those seen on YouTube, writing stories using the voice dictation program Dragon Dictate, and blogging.  I'm afraid to go to lessons on Facebook and Twitter just yet until I have a good feel for safety and online security.  We intend to debate the value of texting versus talking on the phone.  Wish me luck.

The art exploration worked beautifully. We started the week with a great discussion about what art means to humanity, how modern art has changed people's expectations of what constitutes art, and what is the value given to artistic expression.  We then explored a wide variety of art forms and participated in all kinds of project work. Luckily, I was able to have a local modern artist come in and display his work for the kids.  The experience was truly memorable as the kids had a chance to ask all kinds of quirky and fun questions.  The works displayed were really challenging and it made for an engaging activity as they tried to figure out what the artist was up to in the piece, and then be able to ask him directly!  I bought three canvases each for the students and purchased a wide variety of acrylic paints.  The students were challenged to create three pieces: an abstract, realistic and self-portrait. They dove right in and made some beautiful canvases.  Next, we walked to a local art gallery that has formed a collective of local artists.  Here the students got to practice their newfound art appreciation skills and to work with another local artist on clay sculptures. The gallery even sent us home with a box full of paints to finish their sculptures in style!  By this time the students had really caught the bug, so we invited a professional photographer in to run a workshop on taking great pictures.  He displayed his amazing large-scale photos, discussed how he sets up shots, and told stories about working safely with wildlife.  We met him a few days later at a local lake and took pictures using his techniques.  All in all, it was a superb experience for everyone involved. 

We are in the middle of an art exploration unit this week that is ideally suited to inquiry based learning because it allows the students to really examine their own tastes and respond to conscious and unconscious motivations.  The week began with techniques suggested by Eric Jensen to stimulate the brain and get it into a state of readiness.  I began the lessons with games and physical activities to get the kids up and moving and thinking.  My experiences at the ASCD conference were profound in that I learned you really need to monitor and adjust to the the states of your students.  You need to have a handful of simple techniques at your disposal to deepen their thinking and learning.  I liked trying them with the class because it made my teaching much more self-reflective and forced me to constantly put myself in my students' shoes and anticipate their needs.  One great way to further comprehension and long-lasting learning is to consistently provide a sense of ANTICIPATION in your class.  When the students are constantly wondering what's going to happen next, they tend to pay much more attention and their retention of material is greatly enhance.  Superb stuff and it really works beautifully.