EDIM 513 - Inquiry Reflection

We do not fully understand situations, issues, and problems until we are able to reflect.  Inquiry was first introduced in college, and as theories were introduced I could never see myself as that 'good' of a teacher.  I did not understand the practice at the time and had very little knowledge of anything related to pedagogy.  As my education course notebooks gathered dust, so did the idea of inquiry.

Now, fast-forward 8 years. In reflection, I am not the teacher I once was, and that is a good thing.  Through collaboration, being a large part of a PLC, continuous work on my Master's degree, and overall aging and growing up I find that I am more than just a teacher of earth science - I am an educator for tomorrow and the greater good.  This career is not what I thought it would be and I am appreciative of that.  This course was meant to be my last in my Master's program at Wilkes University as it has allowed be to reflect and know that there is always growth.

Unit 6 - Fresh Look on 5Es

This unit gave me a fresh outlook on a model that I used to think was incredibly mundane - the 5E lesson plan.  While readjusting my focus on elaborating on the 5E model and also analyzing and assessing new information about it, I was able to look reflectively upon my past few years of teaching in a very affirming way.

5E lessons were first introduced to me in college.  At this time I had taught two lessons in front of a group of students, and they were not lessons that I had fabricated.  During lectures, all was theory and not really relative to my growth and development as a teacher.  They say you never know how something works until you try it, and perhaps now I can say you never know how something works until you've tried it and then reflected upon it.  

To no surprise, I really set 5E on the back burner and have been developing lessons to my districts template for 5 years now.  At the heart of everything, it really is not about the template, but your professional commitments to your students and your own pedagogical theories and styles that encourage you to develop stellar lessons.  Through the support of my collaboration team at school and many professional development sessions, I feel that even though I do not label my lessons through the 5E system, I am a product of this type of lesson fabrication.  The flow just makes sense, it is inviting for teachers and students, and produces the most enjoyable lessons.  Thanks unit 6 for reminding me to look at my roots, reassess what I have done, and realize it is all just good teaching.

As I look to the final unit of the class, I am still interested in learning how inquiry types of products and assessments and even use of Web 2.0 tools fosters and supports a development of applications that are useful in being successful on standardized test.

Images: http://www.ilovegenerator.com/i-love-5e-1773353

Unit 5 - Reflections After Midway

Over the past two units, we have been tested to place theory into practice and question what we may have thought was set in stone with tradition lesson planning.  Through unit 4 I have successfully developed a greater understanding of concepts and facts and ways to help students develop investigable questions.  The discussions on concepts and facts have developed a foundation for an inquiry unit plan on Plate Tectonics that is constantly morphing into something very different than my usual lessons.  These lessons are beginning to take shape as we develop questions pertaining to the unit that can be investigated, and are even forced to turn bad questions into those that are more suitable for a inquiry classroom.  This unit was incredibly helpful for unit planning and also gives me confidence that I can institute more inquiry lessons that are student centered into my classroom.

Unit 5 felt somewhat redundant in the things I already know category from other classes I have taken at Wilkes.  I did find several new Web 2.0 tools to introduce into the classroom and also enjoyed ways that other classmates were integrating them into lessons.  Many of their ideas were worthy of stealing and implementing into my own class.  Some of them were so inventive, I found myself saying, I want to teach that!  The most resounding information that I found during this unit was from Discovery Education's Web 2.0 15 page Crash Course.  I found their essence of these tools easy and simple to digest and helpful.  I only wish they gave more application ideas.  Here is a blurb that I found very meaningful at its core:

“Teachers must become comfortable as co-learners with their students and with colleagues around the world. Today it is less about staying ahead and more about moving ahead as members of dynamic learning communities. The digital-age teaching professional must demonstrate a vision of technology infusion and develop the technology skills of others. These are the hallmarks of the new education leader.”

— Don Knezek, ISTE CEO, 2008

Also during unit 5 we were pressed to add Web 2.0 tools to our unit plan.  I did find that the possibilities were endless, but many of my classmates had the same idea and it seems that polleverywhere provided  a good platform for introduction to new content.

It feels as if the only thing left is to plan full lessons, a timeline guide, and assessment to finalize our inquiry unit plans.  The only thing that I question is - is any assessment truly inquiry in nature and quality? and does it support the standardized testing that we as teachers are now assessed on?

Inquiry Developments - Three Units Down

Over the past few weeks of the course the idea of inquiry has 
changed. As I began to understand that inquiry looked different from teacher to teacher, lesson to lesson, and class sections and levels, I also developed the idea that inquiry could have a different definition and meaning every 80 minutes of my school day. However, at its core are questions, investigations, and curiosity. These things drive the lesson and allow students to develop a greater level of knowledge by simply following the steps like the scientific method. I felt that inquiry was taken to another level in some example lessons as students applied what they learned to real life situations or information that they already knew.  

As we looked at several case studies and categorize them based on what we learned about different types of inquiry, I could not help but critique lessons that I felt did not meet the set standards and objectives.  These flaws are easy to see from the outside looking in, but were probably difficult for the teacher to identify until the class was over.  I also worry that looking reflectively and after the classroom time allotted: are there things in the lesson that should have been diverted differently; is it too late to go back and fix these flaws; is there enough time in the school year to redo what went wrong?  The greatest thing that I learned looking at several examples of inquiry lessons is that you have to be ready to anticipate students’ shortfalls or wrong directions and be ready to redirect them, but in a way that does not give them the answer.  With proper planning and an end goal in mind, it is possible to master these skills.  Overall, I enjoyed looking into classrooms and realizing that I am an inquiry teacher to different degrees, and that is great because it provides an engaging environment for the students an also myself.  When a student is genuinely interested and engaged, it reminds us of why we became teachers in the first place.

Images:

http://www.worldpgl.com/en/inbound-inquiry-handling-solutions/inbound-solutions-multilingual-inquiry-handling-services-wpg.html

https://iarslceproceedings2012.wikispaces.com/Optimizing+reflection+as+a+teaching+and+learning+tool

EDIM 513 - Inquiry and Me

As I learn to define a term, analyze it, and eventually utilize it, the term begins to have life and meaning.  This is essential and true about Inquiry Based Learning.  Through my undergrad courses and even in my professional learning communities, I always thought learning through inquiry was unattainable to 'new' teachers.  How could new teachers possibly generate student-lead lessons without leading to disasters, and do they posses enough 'magic' to instill curiosity and excitement into the normal routine of their classroom atmosphere?
My co-op, when I was student teaching, was always placing emphasis on 'mastery teaching' and the 'mastery teacher' that it has been my goal for over 6 years, but I realized one fault in my goal - I do not know how to measure it.  In some instances, I thought that when I was a teacher that utilized inquiry in my classroom everyday with every lesson, I would be this established master teacher.  Another fault with my goal is that I could not simply define inquiry.  This week, I feel different about this goal of mine and even inquiry teaching - there is a new light and moment to this thing as I simply read a single word of the definition multiple times.  That word was static.  As I began to think about the word static and reflect how this relates and fits to my classroom, a new description of inquiry came to me.  I feel as if the word dynamic means so much more to my classroom and my student when trying to personally seek and define Inquiry Based Learning.  Dynamic to me is many working parts that continuously mold and change.  Lessons are not about the plans, myself, or the students - it is about all of these things colliding in the learning process and under a pretty cool atmosphere.  When I plan something or create a new resource, assignment, or lab for the classroom, I do not sit back and think, now, how can I make this an inquiry product - it just happens.

The process of redefining inquiry this week has allowed me to reflect on lessons and how that lesson fits the inquiry cycle shown to the left.  Many of the labs that I have redesigned over and over utilize this type of model, and even lessons that are still in the works have this type of end in mind.  To say that I do not have any burning questions about the inquiry process and my classroom would just be treason; that is not the community that I have established and does not go with inquiry.  However, I do have curiosities of how to make inquiry lessons more effective; can inquiry lessons be compacted; and am I using the best assessment tool when wrapping up an inquiry lesson. I have to give myself a pat on the back, because as I became my own type of master teacher, I thought that I was giving up on my goal as an educator.  It seems that one threaded itself into the other and became innate.  It is just what great teachers do, I just had to see it and define it for myself.

References:

The Inquiry Page. (n.d.). The Inquiry Page. Retrieved June 26, 2014, from http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/

Inquiry Based Learning. (n.d.). . Retrieved June 28, 2014, from http://www.neiu.edu/~middle/Modules/science%20mods/amazon%20components/AmazonComponents2.html#components

Image Credit:

http://www.cii.illinois.edu/InquiryPage/

EDIM 508 - Whatta Trip!

This was not my first self-created Google Earth lesson (see my former post), but definitely one of my first lesson resources that I geared the objectives to cover more than just the Earth Science standards.  This summer has brought my graduate studies full circle with a Globalization course.  At first, I thought that I was going to highly dislike this course due to its political roots, but reflectively I feel that I have learned the most from this course.  While creating this lesson, I kept many of the ideals of globalization and my students' probable futures at the forefront while still maintaining the rigours of science standards.  This lesson is something that I dreamed of and planned for, but just never had the time this summer to develop the materials.
This lesson was a great way to end this course because it gave me the time to dedicate towards materials needed to execute this lesson.  Tools that were relatively new for me to develop were mainly synthesizing the online resources into stops; creating links, embedding images and educational simulators; and assigning an online assessment tool all within the Google Earth application.  I found the aggregation of resources the most time consuming aspect of this activity.  The most difficult part of this process was figuring out how to post the file on a blog format - so hopefully it works!  Generally, when I create a file like the Google Earth tour, I find that I can actually upload the file to my classroom website and wiki with ease.  A blog only allows you to link to web files instead of uploading, and therefore, I had to find an online file host, Google Sites File Cabinet, to upload the file and then link to that from this blog.  My research on how to do this was not a waste.  During my time on forums to answer this question, I also found out that you can embed a Google Earth widget into many of the blog spaces.  I feel that this will be very useful when I am linking something that is not as interactive as the current file.  I could see embedding it on a blog when I am just trying to create a relevance to distance or one single image instead of a tour.  I am not sure that our schools server could handle 30 computers trying to access the same blog with the same overloaded widget.
I feel that Google Earth is a supreme application with its versatility and availability to download for free.  I am hoping to take this same idea of a lesson on global warming via Google Earth and modify it to fit the link on the top 10 causes and effect of global warming.  This website was a great resource that I discovered while finding resources on the internet for this project, but I already had the idea for the other stops in place.  I also like the fact that the Discovery Education Assignment Builder allows a paperless transaction.  I plan on integrating this into my case studies lesson that I generally print materials out for.

Enjoy the Google Earth tour below :)

KMZ File

EDIM 508 - Integrating the Five Minds Video Blog