Welcome to another episode of Blooming Curious.
So last week I attended this free online Inquiry Educator's
Summit, hosted by Toddle.
And last week I shared my takeaways from the session with Trevor Mackenzie.
All about how we plan for curiosity.
And if you haven't listened to episode 44, go and do that after this one.
But in Kath Murdoch's session, which was titled, don't call it inquiry, unless
you really mean it, or she expanded later, unless you really understand it.
She went to the heart of our values as inquiry educators of really being true to
authentic inquiry, and asking ourselves whether inquiry is in our hearts.
Because of course, if you're not someone who's curious and asks questions,
how are you going to teach children to be curious and ask questions?
As inquiry educators Kath warned us against the blind spots of inquiry.
We need to remain curious and open, not only about ourselves,
but about our learners too.
We need to view our teaching with a critical eye.
And check our sources, be informed and question everything.
We also need to be willing to try new things.
To take risks and change our perspective.
Not to get stuck.
And as educators, so many of us start with units of inquiry, but
these are a good place to start,
but as Kath pointed out, It's not enough.
It's not sufficient.
There's more to inquiry than just using it as a strategy for a unit of inquiry.
Inquiry is in our everyday experiences, too, in those spontaneous
teachable moments that the world naturally presents us with.
Whether it be a storm or a news article or a bird that flies into our classroom.
As educators, we need to respond with open minds to the provocations that
the world naturally throws at us.
Kath Murdoch also reminded us that inquiry is not a separate subject.
It's just a stance, a lens through which we teach.
And as I've said so many times before, it dovetails with
direct and explicit instruction.
It's not an either or situation.
As educators, we choose the most appropriate strategy to meet
an instructional requirement.
It's not all about inquiry as so many educators incorrectly
think.
In fact, if you listened to episode 43, I debunked, some
of the common misconceptions from educators about inquiry.
Kath spoke passionately about these being the qualities of inquiry educators.
But I think these should be the traits of all educators.
Surely our job as educators is to be curious.
To be open.
To be questioning.
And willing to change and try new things.
If not, how can we be truly giving children rich learning experiences?
In her workshop, Kath also spoke about the language of the inquiry educator.
Basically it's the language we use with children that illustrates whether
or not we're inquiry educators.
She urged us to move away from the, I more towards the you and the, we.
So instead of saying, I would like, perhaps you can rephrase that to more
of how could you, or instead of these are my success criteria, how about these
are your, or even our success criteria?
The other thing she highlighted was that we need to bring our learners
to the center of our activities.
We need to ask ourselves, how can we get our learners to connect with
this activity that we're doing, how can we actively involve our learners?
And this reminded me of episode 39 where I unpacked some important
considerations as educated when we're setting up and planning for lessons.
And lastly, the phrase that Kath used that really stayed with me was this.
Don't be seduced into the shallow waters.
And that got me thinking as it, should you.
How often do we as educators plan lessons that are easy for us.
Quick for us.
Easy to clean up for us.
Lessons that are minimal work for us.
That busy work.
That is actually quite meaningless.
That worksheet that doesn't teach kids anything except
how to fill out a worksheet.
That video that you put on that actually has no educational value at all.
I wrote about that and linked some research evidence into how little
video benefits the developing brains in a blog post entitled Lesson
Planning with Picture Books and I'll put a link in the show notes for
you, so you can have a read of it.
Teaching is damn hard.
And like all things that are worth doing, I believe it's worth doing well.
Our children deserve that.
And that brings me to this.
I saw a meme on social media the other day that showed these two
guys were having a little dance off.
And that it said, this is how teachers feel after PD, knowing it was good, but
they're never going to implement it.
And I know that's how it is with inquiry.
You might just have had that PD and you're excited about it, but you
actually don't know where to start.
Or, you're keen to start, but you just need a little bit of help and direction.
Well, that's where my free little e-guide comes in.
I created this free guide to help you get started.
Just to dip your toe in and have a go.
I laid it out in easy to follow steps.
With examples so that it's easy for you to just pick one area and get started.
I've given you all the tips that I successfully used in my very own
classroom with my very own students.
So just click on the link that I'll leave in the show notes and get
that free guide and just have a go.
I'd love you to send me an email and let me know how you get on.
I hope you enjoyed this really short episode today, and that Kath Murdoch's
wise words have really got you thinking.
If you did, please share this episode with a friend or two, and
don't forget to follow and subscribe
so you get reminded each week when a new episode is published.
With that I'll love and leave you and remember.
Curiosity, isn't just a trait, it's a super power.
So stay, blooming curious until next time.