My Take on the ASCD Conference can be summed up best by stating that we are definitely on the right track with inquiry based learning.  I learned an amazing amount in a short time at the conference and was able to immediately apply the concepts to my classroom when I returned.  Grant Wiggins reinforced the idea that students need lots of timely and effective feedback to move their skills forward.  Being present and vigilant in the classroom and constantly letting students know how they're progressing with the learning is crucial to moving them efficiently forward. Nancy Frey outlined practical and supportive group work strategies that are crucial to developing a classroom that puts problem solving at the forefront of learning.  My favourite session was led by Eric Jensen who provided an outstanding activity-based workshop on techniques you can use RIGHT NOW to enhance learning in your students by stimulating their brains constantly and reading their STATES in the class.  Again, knowing your kids is absolutely critical to good teaching.  Finally, Louise and I attended a session on using technology with classroom instruction strategies that work.  Elizabeth Ross Hubbell's presentation highlighted great great iPad apps. The conference was an amazing experience, to say the least.

Pete and I attended the ASCD fall conference along with our principal Judith Gatt. The opportunities for learning were tremendous and we came back to school inspired and rejuvenated. Some of the speakers we heard from were Carol Ann Tomlinson, Robert Marzano, Grant Wiggins just to name a few. Two sessions I enjoyed the most were by Elizabeth Ross Hubbell and Alfred Solis. Elizabeth talked about using technology with classroom instruction that works. The potential to change our classrooms into dynamic and differentiated learning environment depends on our understanding of how iPads can be used to enhance the use of research based instructional strategies. Some of the apps she shared were: Infinote- for K-W-L chart, Idea Sketch - to create graphic organizers, eClicker, Mind meister, puppet pals...Amazing info all in two hours. Next Alfred Solis talked about Project-Based Learning. He is from the Buck Institute for Education. You can check out their website - www.bie.org/ for FREE material and resource for teachers.

This week was one I have been looking forward to for a long time.  I always loved studying the explorers as a kid and I was excited to be sharing some of my favourite memories of learning about all of these great and courageous people.  I decided to have a 'film festival' of great explorer movies to really grab the kids' interest.  I started with a wonderful resource that may be available to you or your school board called 'Learn 360'.  This comprehensive site has compiled thousands of videos on every imaginable topic and includes hundreds of movies about the explorers.  The magic of the site is that they've tied it to the curriculum standards, so you know you're not going to be viewing anything inappropriate.  I took a chronological approach, beginning with a short summary of the exploring accomplishments of the vikings and ending with a talk about modern explorers of the oceans and space.  The students formulated great questions to guide their inquiries such as "why were all the explorers men?" and "would the New World have been better off without having been discovered".  Next came a classic 'pick your explorer' research project, but we're doing it with a twist using our Smartboard software and Keynote.  Fantastic stuff so far! 

Truth in Advertising is a unit that the class is currently enjoying and it took the us a few lessons to explore how a carefully crafted a good advertisement is really the combination of a lot of factors.  First, we read some great articles on advertising in a unit from a Nelson literacy unit.  The kids didn't have a good sense of what motivates an advertiser to catch the viewer's attention in novel ways.  I was shocked to see how many of the kids had difficulty determining what was an ad and what was an article in the magazines I brought to class.  Two days of intense study of the core concepts in advertising left the students with a good general knowledge of the core concepts of point of view, gender role stereotyping, bias, target audience, and graphic techniques.  I was lucky enough to be able to use five interactive computer learning activities I had developed through eLearning Ontario.  These can be found on the eLearning site using the 'search' tool under grade five, English language, media literacy and finally the last expectation.  Check out these activities such as "Eye of Beholder", or "What's your Point of View?"
I really enjoyed using my own writing as a teaching tool. 

The Ontario elections are well underway and this was the perfect time to use a few inquiry-based techniques to enhance our government unit.  After some brainstorming, we decided to focus on the controversial topic of wind farms and wind turbines.  Ontario has an ambitious program to develop and expand wind farms in the province but it hasn't been easy.  There was a recent lawsuit launched by a family claiming that the local wind was causing major headaches and health concerns.  This soon led to some harassing of the family bringing the suit forward.  Our class spent two periods researching the evidence for and against wind farms.  The students then emailed the candidates and invited them to come to the class and discuss their views on the topic. It was fantastic! The kids did a great job on the letters and preparing for the visit.  They were engaged and respectful during the debate, bravely giving short talks about their views and asking some pointed questions to the candidate.  I was very proud of them and I know they enjoyed the experience.  All of the students were asking the candidate to sign their promotional brochures at the end of the session.  I'm sure our local candidate felt a little like a rock star!

Web Site Design and creation.  Louise and I have been trying to develop our web site to include relevant resources for teachers.  It's not easy.  Just deciding what to include can be a challenge and uploading content can be cumbersome, to say the least.  We're going to try to have a simple site where teachers can simply drop into to learn about inquiry-based teaching and to explore their interests.  Lesson plans will be provided to help people get started, pictures and video to see the work in action, and an ipod and ipad section to share how we use these tools in the classroom. 

The grade 5/6's have branched out into using group work for the math program.  I'm finding it energizing, but a little hectic.  I love the fact that the kids are really learning to vocalize their ideas and sharing their expertise.  The students are definitely more focused on solving the problem together and I've noticed an increased efficiency in pooling their resource.  In a recent class, one of my weaker math students had the best way to approaching the problem and he was able to confidently explain his solution.  You should have seen the smile on his face!  I think the constant practice of talking purposefully has allowed the more shy and intimidated students to step up and have their say.

The planning is a little tricky right now, because I'm often not sure of which direction the work might take us.  The groups may be really interested in a topic, which I've encouraged them to pursue, but it often overflows into other subject times on my daily calendar.  Oh well, it will work out!

Day Two went very well. The students enjoyed an activity about working well in groups.  I wanted to jump right into a research project, so we took the questions from the first day's activity and made an Inquiring Minds Want to Know bulletin board.  The students broke up into groups of four, brainstormed first for a topic selection and then began working on their first inquiry project.  As expected, there was a wide range of reactions and accomplishments for the work period.  Overall, the students did a fine job getting their projects up and running.  Because they created the questions, there was quite a bit of excitement and buy-in to the activity. 

Day Three consisted of taking the main ideas surrounding successful group work and creating a poster for the classroom that we can all refer to when working.  The posters were based on 7 solid principle for meaningful interaction in groups.  The students did a whole class activity to explore the seven principals, then broke into their respective groups to complete a poster.  I must say, in three short days, they've done a good job decorating the room!  The beauty is, the kids saw that their work was going to have an audience, so they tended to notch up the quality.  So far, so good!

We're off and running.  The grade 5/6 class came primed and ready to roll.  One of the first activities was to pair the kids and do a 'learn and present' game.  The students were first asked to listen as I  gave a short talk about myself.  Next, the students were to pair and share about their own lives and record at least 5 interesting things about themselves.  Finally, there was a contest between the kids and myself as to who could remember more.  The students won 15 to 10.  It was a lot of fun.  This activity helped to begin building community and make sure everyone had a chance to speak in front of the class and to get to know a little about their teacher.

Our next activity was more focused on inquiry based learning.  A short discussion about how we were going to use critical thinking skills all year was followed by a 'think aloud' in which I talked about how I created interesting questions for further inquiry during the summer months.  I had written these on my side whiteboard and the kids and I went through a discovery session together while I encouraged them to begin thinking about good questioning techniques.  I've included the questions the students came up with on the website.  I was really impressed and surprised at the depth of questions the students generated!