Hello, and welcome to another episode of blooming curious.
I'm going to start off by telling you a warning.
You rather that my voice might not be so great today as I am
really in a, quite a battle at the moment with family stuff going on.
So if this is your first time here and you think, oh my
gosh, this woman is so boring.
I'm not usually, it's just some stuff that I'm battling with so you might want
to go and listen to other episodes too after this one, just so that you can see
what I'm like when I'm actually fabulous.
So today, are we going to start with your new school year.
Many of you are going to move into a new academic year or, you know
what even tomorrow is a new day.
Every day brings a new set of opportunities and a new challenge.
And of course the starting of a new year brings all sorts of new
opportunities and challenges.
I have been talking in the last two episodes about how we start
planning our classrooms, how we set them up, how we get organized.
So this is your first time setting up a classroom, those two episodes
might be really, really helpful for you to have a listen to once
you've listened to this one.
But really when we start with our children, with our students, I think
the first and most important thing to think about is getting to know them.
Is our relationships with these kids that we're going to be
teaching for the next year.
So to get to know them, we obviously need to know what's happening in their
lives, their families, what they're coming to school with, their schema,
and of course, what their interests are.
Because if we are inquiry teachers and we're teachers who really are
interested in getting kids to think, getting kids to be curious, getting kids
to question, getting kids to problem solve, then we need to know their
interests so that we can tap into that, to get them excited about learning.
So that's the first part is get to know your students.
I can't stress that enough.
And you know, that there is data and I, I can't remember the exact
percentage of what it was, at a recent conference where I was Trevor
MacKenzie actually spoke about this.
That did you know that when you welcome kids at the door, when you're
standing at the door in the morning to welcome them to your classroom,
they are more likely to perform better in your classroom and work better,
than if you do not stand at your classroom door and welcome them.
I would say then,
If you are struggling, if you already started and you're struggling to connect
with your kids, maybe get up from your desk or even better, don't have a desk.
A lot of teachers now don't have desks in their classroom because
they find it actually makes them sharper and better at their job.
So don't have a desk or don't be sitting at your desk, stand at the
door in the morning and welcome each child individually into your classroom.
And then of course, you also want to start off in the morning with
a mat session or morning circle.
Find out what's happening, have something to chat about.
Because these are the things that build that relationship with your kids.
You get to know them, they get to know you.
And it goes a heck of a long way.
And then for me, It's curiosity, right.
Kids, unless they are curious unless they love learning, we've got a battle
on our hands and if we want children to come to school with a smile on
their dial and they are happy and enthusiastic about coming into our
classrooms half our battle is won.
But if you've got children who stand at that door and do not want to step
over that threshold that on bawling their eyes out in the mornings.
Or kids that are just not interested.
They're not enthusiastic about learning.
We have to get through to them.
We have to find a way to get them curious.
We've got to find a way to switch them on.
Because once they are curious and they love learning.
We're done.
Then the real learning can actually start.
And I have actually created a really great little resource.
I think.
And I think many people think so too, because it's been downloaded off
my website, many, many, many, many times it's called how to encourage
natural curiosity in children.
And it's just a simple e guide that shows you that it's not hard to
encourage curiosity in children.
It's actually something really easy and very natural.
It just means that we ourselves have to be curious too.
And we've got to be thinking on our feet in terms of when a kid comes
to you and they are going to come to you, when they're on the playground
or you're out for a walk, they're going to come to you with a dandelion,
with an earthworm, with a snail.
What do you do at that moment?
Because your words and your facial expressions at that moment are
going to make all the difference.
If you say yuck, throw that down, it's disgusting.
That's it!
Done!
You've lost.
You've lost these kids.
That's it, you've done nothing to encourage curiosity.
So really your mindset has to change, your language has to change.
You've got to really be curious yourself and you really need to ask questions.
Questions are the basis, asking questions rather is the basis of
curiosity it's the basis of inquiry, it's the basis of getting kids to think.
And so I do have a PDF, simple PDF with some simple questions, you know, there're
loads of questions online that you can find, pages and pages and pages and
pages of all sorts of fabulous questions.
These are just simple little questions to keep in mind when you're dealing
with kids on an everyday basis.
Things that you can remember just easy stuff.
So you might want to go to the website and download that list of questions, I'll
put a link in the show notes for you.
Now we also know that there's all this data right with about kids losing their
curiosity as they go through school.
And isn't that just the saddest thing.
They come to us very early on because we all are born innately
curious, and as they go through school, their curiosity dwindles.
So I think it's up to us, especially in early childhood to keep that flame
of curiosity burning really brightly.
So I've got loads of blog posts on that and I'll put links to all of
that in the show notes for you to go and have a look and go rummage around
and really just read and interact with these things so that you can just start
thinking about perhaps how you could better ignite curiosity in children if
that's something that you need to do,
cause we're always going to have those kids in our class that come there,
and sit there with those blank stares.
We need to spark curiosity in those kids.
We need to put a fire under them.
So I've got loads of strategies and posts for you on the website
that will help you with that.
Now when children come to us right with that slug or bug or snail on their hands.
What do you do?
You're going to ask questions, as I've just said, I've got some questions for
you to download, but I've also got on the website, a nice little handy free
resource called backyard inquiry, and what that does is it just lays out for
you, if you want to just do a quick inquiry project on the go, you've now
seen your kids are interested in, and this could be something really handy for
you to spark that curiosity, and take that child's interests further, into a
project that could actually lead into a whole class project, but certainly it's
something that you could use just to do some incidental learning with children.
So I'll link that in the show notes for you as well, Now another great,
very popular resource on my website is a little resource that accompanies
the little story book I went walking.
And the story is about.
Uh, child who goes walking and sees all these different things, and there's
a lot of repetition of sight words.
But one of the things that I've done and that I recommend is especially now in the
beginning, when you're starting, is take children on a walk, if you're able to
access a natural space near you, a park or river bank, or any of those things.
Fabulous.
If not just go on a walk around the school.
You can either take an iPad or camera take photos of everything the kids see
the kids name, or you can pick up objects and bring them back to the classroom.
And when they're back in the classroom, you can either print off all these
photos or put them on your white board.
Or if they're objects, you can have all the objects displayed.
Objects and photographs, actually all fabulous resources, especially
if you print the photos off.
'cause then there's loads of other activities that can
follow on from just this one
I went walking activity.
So I'll leave a link to the, I went walking activity resource
in the show notes for you.
Then we come to integrating what I think is the ultimate strategy, the ultimate
strategy, and I've spoken so much about it on the on the podcast, is inquiry.
So many educators I come across are afraid of inquiry because
they think it's going to replace
direct instruction or explicit instruction.
And this is not the case at all.
Inquiry dovetails with it.
Inquiry is not something you do twice a week or on a Friday afternoon.
Inquiry is a mindset it's ingrained in you, it's ingrained in your students.
It's a way of thinking.
It's a lens through which you teach.
And on my website, I have loads and loads of blog posts that talk about inquiry,
how you get started and other interesting articles on curiosity and inquiry.
Which I think are all great resources for you to go and have a look as
you start your new school year.
And that might just be the perfect opportunity for you
to start thinking about doing things a little bit differently.
Remember.
Inquiry is not your run of the mill chalk and talk strategy.
Children have moved past that.
We are now dealing with children who are digital natives.
These kids are on
iPads and phones and they know how to navigate their way on a computer.
We're up against that.
We cannot just be standing there in front of a classroom anymore, just
talking or just sticking on a video.
And by the way, I also have a podcast and a blog post talking
about what research has found about children's brains and how they learn
when we throw up a video on the screen, as opposed to
actually reading a book to them.
So that's something else that you might want to consider
as you go into the new year.
Is perhaps.
Not just using technology willy-nilly, but really being very, very intentional
about your use of technology.
Because there's a lot coming out that it's not actually
as great as everybody thinks.
It has quite a detrimental effect on a growing brain.
I'm not talking about older kids.
We're talking here about children's whose brains are still developing.
It's not a great option.
So go and listen to some of the previous podcasts.
I'll put a link in the show notes and also go and have a read to some
of the posts that I've put up, which shows you the evidence so that you
can really make some intentional considerations before using technology.
So inquiry.
Why do we do inquiry?
Well, we do inquiry or it's, I'm just actually made a mistake there.
When I've said we do inquiry.
We don't do inquiry.
Inquiry is part of us, as I've just said.
But inquiry is the strategy that gets kids thinking it's the strategy to teach
kids how to use their brains, how to think it's the strategy for metacognition.
In other words, teaching us all how we think, how we learn best.
And no matter what the naysayers say if we are to teach the whole child
inquiry has to be part of that.
And I have had another episode where I've spoken intensely about John Hattie's
research and where inquiry fits there.
So I'll put a link to that as well.
And when you really think about it, Inquiry is really the only
way to go nowadays because we are going into a new world.
It's a new age, where information is freely available to all of us.
We have to teach kids how to use that information.
How to be strategic.
How to look for bias.
Where do they go look for answers to their questions.
What kind of questions get you the best answers.
We need to teach them these skills.
And so inquiry is the strategy that does that for them.
And so I would
ask you to go and have a look at the blog posts and the other
podcast episodes I have on inquiry.
And then of course comes the big question.
You don't know how to get started?
Neither did I. Inquiry is just a strategy that we employ.
And it's messy at the beginning.
And of course the big fear for teachers is that you don't have control.
And sometimes that's true.
You have to relinquish a little bit of control, and give it back to the children
and that's what gets them excited too.
This does not mean it's a free for all.
This does not mean kids are just all Willy nilly, doing whatever they want.
It is a strategic step by step process that you specifically
and explicitly teach children.
And I have a broken down those steps of how to get into inquiry, and
how to specifically teach kids the process of inquiry, in a very handy,
little easy guide that I've put together called inquiry 1 0 1, which
obviously is exactly what it says.
It's for those of you who want to just get started.
Dip your toes in.
And I would urge you, you know, if you listened to some of my episodes
where I have guest speakers that are also inquiry based teachers
you will hear the excitement and the passion in their voices.
If you want to really inject, not just enthusiasm for learning in your
students, but also in yourselves and in your approach to your job,
Because teaching is damn hard.
Let's not even fool ourselves.
Teaching is a tough job.
You have lots of balls to juggle in the air and it's
becoming more and more difficult.
So make your job a little bit easier by injecting some fun into it and the
way you do that is through inquiry.
I promise you have a go.
It is, will be the base thing you ever do.
Get away from the worksheets.
Get away from talk and chalk.
And start enjoying your job and start getting kids interested in
learning so that they can become curious adults who love learning
and can become lifelong learners.
So I will put a link to inquiry 1 0 1 in the show notes along with the blog
posts for inquiry 1 0 1, and I'd urge you to go and have a look at those.
And I'll also put links to the books that I have used to death in my own classroom
that I use to teach myself how to
implement inquiry as a strategy in my own classroom.
I urge you to rethink the way you do things.
We need to change education.
We all know that, but we can only change education if we are all brave
enough to do things differently.
You know, Einstein said.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and
expecting a different result.
Well, that's exactly right.
We cannot be doing the same things over and over and expecting kids suddenly
to love learning and become excited.
We have to do things differently and now is the time don't wait for tomorrow.
Next year.
Next week.
Get started now.
And so with that, I will love and leave you for today, and
I thank you for being here.
I thank you for listening to blooming curious.
It means so much to me.
And I'd love you to leave a review if anything, I ever say resonates with you or
you like the kind of stuff I talk about.
Please leave a review.
But for today, there's one thing I would really, really urge you to do.
And that is to click the share button and share this podcast episode or
any other episode you listen to with two friends or colleagues that you
think will appreciate getting curious.
And so I urge you to look at all the links that I'll place in the
show notes, follow them and have a good read and a good listen.
And I will see you again next week.
And until then stay blooming curious.