This past weekend, I attended The Inquiry Educators Summit hosted by Toddle.
It was totally free and totally worthwhile with a lineup of the best international
speakers in the inquiry space.
Today I want to pick out some of the most pertinent points from the summit
to share with you in this episode.
In fact today, I'm just going to focus on what Trevor
Mackenzie shared in his session.
And in next week's episode, I'll unpack Kath Murdoch session, so
make sure you subscribe and follow so that you'll be reminded when
next week's episode is published.
Trevor MacKenzie's session was around his new book, The Inquiry
Mindset Questions edition.
And it really went to the heart of how we plan for curiosity.
If you've been following this podcast or you're a subscriber to my newsletter, Get
Curious, you'll know that asking questions really is the basis for curiosity.
And if you want to get on my mailing list and Get Curious, then I'll leave
a link for you in the show notes so that you can just sign up there.
I've spoken at length about how children's curiosity is waning over time.
And with that, unfortunately comes fewer and fewer questions being asked.
And if children, or we as adults aren't asking questions.
Well, then unfortunately it's an indication that their, and our
curiosity is not particularly healthy.
Trevor highlighted the fact that our values shape our teaching.
And in fact, everything we do.
The common set of values that inquiry educators share are, curiosity, agency,
independence, skills, and relevance.
And these are the values that I've been talking about in just about every episode.
Curiosity drives everything we do.
Without curiosity, life is just plain dull and boring.
And if there's no curiosity,
there's no interest in learning.
And I've said it before.
And I'll say it again.
If you aren't curious than the children you teach, aren't
going to be curious either.
Curiosity is infectious.
The way we get children more curious, is through modeling our own curiosity.
And the way we trigger children's curiosity apart from modeling it,
is not just by asking questions, but getting children to ask questions and
to wonder about the world around them.
And when we think about those other values: Agency, independence, the
learning of skills, and relevance to our lives today, these are all
values that every good educator should be bringing into the classroom.
If children don't feel they have agency, that what they
think or value doesn't matter.
That they've never given a choice.
They are not going to be engaged
are they?
If someone were to walk into your classroom or teaching space
today, would they clearly see that agency and independence and
relevance is something you value?
Because our spaces, our environment, the third teacher, reflects our values.
So perhaps as you sit down today, I look around your space with curiosity,
and take a moment to reflect and ask yourself what you value about teaching
and learning and what does your space and the children's work that is up
there, reflect about your values.
Are you being true to your values?
Or perhaps by looking at your space, you realize that it doesn't reflect
agency or curiosity or independence.
And what a wonderful realization opportunity
this is then to make changes to the way you approach your teaching.
These are the moments to celebrate.
These breakthrough moments that reflect our own curiosity and thinking.
And imagine sharing these light bulb moments with students so
that they too can reflect on and apply it to their own learning.
Now that's real learning and that's also a little bit of metacognition going on.
As educators, our whole mission should be around how to keep
the children in our care
curious.
And I actually have a little free resource about how we naturally keep
children curious when we're doing simple things, like just going for a walk.
I'll leave a link to it in the show notes.
I also have another free resource for you, which I'm going to
mention at the end of this episode.
So you've got to keep listening because it's a biggie.
Trevor, furthermore simplified the inquiry cycle, where basically
the way we spark that curiosity is through the provocations we set up.
And this is exactly what I discussed with Victoria Crossan in episode
42, where we unpacked the difference between provocations and invitations.
And also in episode 33, where I chatted to April Zajko about provocations.
Go and listen to those episodes after this one, I leave a link in the show
notes so that you can be reminded.
It's our provocations that spark questions and wondering.
Of course, it all starts with knowing our curriculum first because our provocations
should be linked to the curriculum.
Trevor's book gives us 10 questioning routines that we can use to
get students to ask questions.
And of course, as he says, the stronger, our provocations are
the better the questions are that we're going to get from kids.
The questions that the children ask are basically our formative evidence.
We base our next steps and our planning on the types of
questions that the children ask.
Their questions will tell us what they need.
I wrote a blog post, titled How Questions Lead to Curiosity and Knowledge, which
I'll link for you in the show notes, you might want to have a read of that.
Trevor spoke about the importance of co-designing open and closed questions
with our students, using word banks so that the students can use that
vocabulary, which of course is linked to your curriculum in their questions,
and also adding in our own questions.
So you can see that inquiry, isn't a separate thing.
It's actually linked to our curriculum.
So it doesn't take up any extra time.
It's part of what you're already doing.
And he reminded us that that an important part of inquiry is to
plan for movement collaboration and give kids time for thinking.
That means the children need to get out of their seats.
Yep.
They do need to get out of their seats.
Using strategies where they have to move.
For example, to put a sticky note up on a chart, or perhaps if you're using
a technique, like four corners where children have to move to a corner where
there's a statement, I agree with.
Basically, not just being glued to a chair, but having opportunities
that allow our students to move.
Collaborative learning is also really big in an inquiry classroom.
And actually this technique prepares children for the future,
where everything we do now is in teams, even university assignments.
We have to learn to work with others.
And it's a soft skill that employers really look for now.
And then giving children that space to think.
He spoke about the power of the pause.
For us to be quiet because, you know, teachers love talking and
listening to their own voices.
That's why perhaps some of us have become teachers because we just love to talk.
But we have to give children a moment so that they can think.
And then provide for them an opportunity perhaps to turn and talk
or stop and jot, or do a four corners where they can show their thinking.
Trevor then also gave us some examples of questioning routines from his book.
These examples are all practical, they're all doable, and not only do they align
with the values of inquiry, but they also value collaboration, movement,
and giving children that thinking time.
I'd really recommend you get the book, if you haven't already got it.
I'll make it super easy for you.
Just click on the link in the show notes.
It is an Amazon affiliate link, which means that I'll get a few
pennies at no extra cost to you.
So go ahead and click the link and start implementing those question
routines in your classroom.
A S A P. I mentioned earlier that I have a free resource for you.
You know, we all stand on the shoulders of giants before us.
When I started teaching early childhood, I was actually
teaching through an inquiry lens.
It was something so natural to me, but I didn't know that it had a name.
I then started reading Kath Murdoch's books and I went on Claire
Warden's course, and I started noticing that my implementation
was actually quite structured, even though it's always been very fluid.
When other teachers started visiting my room to check out
how I was implementing inquiry,
I started realizing that perhaps I was onto something.
Which of course has led me to Blooming Curious and starting this podcast.
And I've come to realize that so many of you actually really want to
implement inquiry based learning, but you just don't know how.
Or you're afraid it's going to add to your already overwhelming workload.
Or you're worried that it's going to be chaotic.
So, what I've done is I've created an e-guide to help educators, just
like you get started with inquiry.
It takes you through the steps that you need to consider to get started.
And funnily enough, it's exactly the steps that Trevor talked about.
The e-guide is called inquiry 1 0 1.
It used to be for sale on my website, but I've decided to give it away to you for
free so that you can just get started.
Because ultimately we're educators, because we want the best for children.
And I truly believe inquiry is what's best for children.
I've seen a time and time again.
It will change the way you teach and the way your students learn.
It will be the very best and most exciting thing you can
do for your teaching practice.
So to download inquiry 1 0 1, and get it delivered right into your
inbox for free you just go to resources.bloomingcurious.com/inquiry-1
0 1.
I'll leave a link in the show notes for you.
And if you have this guide and you have Trevor's book, you'll be
onto a winning recipe for success.
I really appreciate you sticking around.
And can I just ask that if you enjoyed this episode, you click
that share button and share it with a fellow teacher or parent.
That's the only way this podcast can grow.
So please share it.
And if you could also leave a review, that would be amazing.
Reviews really help push podcasts higher up the rankings, where
more people will see them.
And that's really something the world needs to see, a podcast
about keeping kids curious.
Don't you think?
So until next week when I'll be sharing what Kath Murdoch shared at
the summit stay blooming curious.