The Teac{HERR} Way - Explore, Create, Discover

You may have been keeping up with K. Janae's High Fives lately, and if not, don't stress! Here's the latest. In that blog post, I stressed the importance of this desire I have to create a culture of curiosity in my classroom. I want my students to feel like they have the ability to create, discover and own their learning. 

Our contextual lab for this week helped me develop the skills to do just that. We dove into Inquiry-Based Instruction this week, and as always, I'll share my Gems (the good stuff), Opps (areas where I need to work on) and my Targets (my goals for next time). My targets for this lab were to Teach for the Modalities and Direction Follow-Ups. I'm sensing growth in some areas, but am fully aware that I've still got plenty of work to do.

 Gems - 

• Discovery Sheets. In efforts to help ease the process and be sure that each step of the inquiry process (question, evidence, explanation, connection, communication) was completed. I gave them pieces of what would then become their "discovery packets" as we continued throughout the class. This help guide and organize thoughts, and though we didn't get to the last step of communication in the lab, this packet will play a pivotal role in helping students share their findings.
• Literacy Connection. I didn't even plan this part! I paused the learning process at one point to talk through and review some key points and connect vocabulary to what we were doing that day. This led to continual opportunities for check-points, where I paused the learning and created 'marbling' as our word of the day. I also used effective questioning to help establish this cross-curricular connections. 
• Student-Led. I felt fairly good about my ability to allow my students to create their own question for the day. I was able to give them complete power to explore as the "experimenters" that day. Quite honestly, I had the fun part, I got to sit-back and watch and listen as they made observations and discovered differences in fat content in meat.

Opps -

• Student Frustration. This instructional method is so student-led, I become simply a facilitator. I need to be cautious not to rush my students in the process, but to help by asking guiding questions. I don't want my students to become frustrated or unmotivated in the process, I want them to be empowered to feel as though their learning is their own!
• Scientific Content. Inquiry-Based Instruction is built upon the scientific method. Though I had my students create a hypothesis and record data, I didn't follow through in my content with some "scientific" connections. If I was doing this particular lesson again, I'd want to utilize some of those check-points to talk about chemical changes that are occurring or the structure of lipids/fats.
• Felt Need. I want to be continually asking myself if I am truly being purposeful with my activities in my lessons. Looking back, I should have spent more time revisiting the responses the students shared on the board before we dove into creating a hypothesis and helping them understand the power they have as "experimenters" and connecting what was learned earlier in the unit to this discovery day.

Targets - 

• Learning Check-Points. As I practice Problem-Based or Inquiry-Based Instruction, the more I realize that there can be some power in freezing the process to connect where we've been, where we are and where we're going. It's a tool that I hope to continually implement in my classroom. 
• Higher-Level Thinking. Inquiry-Based Instruction takes patient conditioning of my students to be comfortable and aware of the process. However, I think that this method is a great way to enhance and develop critical thinking and creativity in my students and push them to make cross-curricular connections and think a higher level.
• With Purpose.This has been a target a few times for me in this contextual lab experience, but it's something that I want to continually work at. Am I being purposeful in my planning? My students absolutely deserve it!

Simply put, this lab was different then others, a little trickier too. But I am confident in my desire to create a classroom environment where my students are conditioned to discover and explore. 

Simply put, I am excited to play a role in the uncovering of student's passions through teaching methods like Inquiry-Based Instruction. 

Until next time, K. Janae

K. Janae's High Five - Cultivating a Culture of Curiosity

I long for my classroom to be a place of discovery. 

Discovering career opportunities, passions, relationships, abilities, leadership, potential. 

As teachers, we ideally want to be engaging. We want our students to want to be in our class - what if our class is the only reason that our students even come to school?! A fantastic way to add variability to the classroom is through inquiry-based instruction.

One of my favorite definitions of inquiry-based instruction is this one... 

Three cheers for student-centered learning environments!

There are five steps to the inquiry process. Hence, this week's High Five: Learning Through Inquiry.

1. Question
1. This is like the signal word of a direction set. This is the question that gets the gears grinding, that triggers the thoughts and explodes into exploration. So for example, students walk into the room and see two soybean plant samples. Why does sample A seem to be growing faster then sample B?
2. Investigate
1. Now we put our detective hats on. We get out the magnifying glasses, the yellow steno notebooks and trench coats. Using some previous knowledge, students run tests, monitor field and growth conditions and keep track of results.  
3. Use Evidence to Describe, Explain & Predict
1. Now, a few days later, like true researchers students will dig deeper and evaluate the data they have collected. They will rule out collected information that does not lead them closer to a solution and use other information to predict other causes
4. PLOT TWIST! 
1. In a really successful inquiry-based learning environment, steps 2 and 3 would keep happening until students reach a more solidified solution.
5. Connect Evidence to Knowledge
1. And this is where all the magic comes together! It's the ah-ha moment, where students discovery and curiosity leads them to a solution as to why plant sample A was growing faster then sample B.
6. Share Findings
1. This has been a learning process. It's important to share and celebrate what your students have discovered, uncovered and created. It's also crucial to reflect on the learning process. Do your students understand why they explored the difference in growth in the soybean plants? What new skills and knowledge did they gain from this experience?

**NOTE: The teacher did nothing throughout those five steps. The process happens because students are performing each of those steps. The teacher prepares the initial question, and follows students throughout the process asking guiding questions like "how do you know that?" "can you tell me more?" or "but WHY do you think that?"

Here's another cool resource that I thought tied nicely into the inquiry process!

Simply put, my students will be the ones that solve world hunger, cure cancer, preserve natural resources. I have to cultivate a culture of curiosity in my classroom. 

Simply put, I want my students to be life-long learners. I mean they have to be if their going to save up natural resources, produce a cure for cancer and feed the world! I want to use inquiry-based instruction so I can teach my students to learn to learn - a skill that will last them a lifetime!

Here's a High Five from Me to You, K. Janae

K. Janae's High Five - Open-Ended Learners

I want my classroom to be future-oriented and career-driven. That means we need application and discovery and failures and successes and room to make messes. All of that sounds like a recipe for Project-Based Learning.

I could have given you a "high ten" of all the great things about project-based learning and inquiry in the classroom, but for the sake of time, here's K. Janae's High Five on Project-Based Learning...

1. 21st Century Skills

• Project-based learning very naturally develops 21st Century Skills in its participants. Quite clearly, project-based learning enhances problem-solving and other Life and Career Skills. This teaching method also cultivates collaboration, technological, communication and other incredibly valuable and marketable 21st Century Skills that I want to see my students gain from my classroom.

2. Use and Need for Effective Questioning

• My last High Five discussed five points reflecting my readings on effective questioning, I found it interesting that much of this weeks reading credits a lot of project-based learning success to asking the right questions. Questioning can help strategically scaffold throughout the project-based learning process. Questioning can help make connections to real-life applications both in and outside of the content area. Questioning can help facilitate reflection and revision throughout the learning process.

3. Student Voice and Choice

• I love that project-based and inquiry based learning give my students total ownership on their learning experience. I love that it swings doors wide open for hands-on application, a concept that agricultural education classes do quite well, in my opinion. The discovery that happens in these instructional methods breeds student voice and student choice; I want for my students to feel as though they did the learning all by themselves. How exciting?!

4. Keep It In Context

• Project-based learning really only works when its context of what's being taught. Am I connecting the project directly to a real-life application or situation that my students will use down the road? This can be accomplished by aligning the process with goals, or essentially learning objectives. These goals can, and probably should be, student designed, in efforts to give the most ownership to the learning process. 

5. Am I Being Purposeful?

• There is a difference between doing projects and doing project-based learning. Quite simply, we can't just do the assignment to do the assignment. There should be no designing posters to design posters or PowerPoints for the sake of PowerPoints. The completion of the project should require that students are learning the material presented. 

Edutopia sums up Project-Based Learning well in this clip... (even if they kind of snagged my "high five" tagline)

Simply put, let's get our students to start thinking open-ended. Let's get our students to ask "what creates change?"

Simply put, I want my students to discover and apply and inquire in my classroom. 

A High Five From You to Me, K. Janae