No Time To Waste, Let's Reflect on Learning That's Inquiry Based!

 Last Thursday and Friday, I had the amazing opportunity to attend an Inquiry-Based Learning Institute presented by Mrs. Jessica Grundy! Going into this conference, I had a "textbook" understanding of what Inquiry Learning looked like, however through immersive labs throughout the conference, I was able to better understand what this learning looks like in a classroom. 

On our first night, we spent a lot of time getting to know each other and what inquiry-based learning was. I really enjoyed setting goals at the beginning to think about what I wanted to gain from this conference and how I would apply that in the classroom. 

          

There are many things that I liked about this experience. The first part that was very helpful was that I was able to fill the role of student and teacher throughout the activities! I think that was especially helpful as a young teacher as I was able to experience the labs to process the questions like my students will have to do. This was also very helpful as I was able to see where some extra clarification could be given for each activity. 

The second thing that I liked about this experience was that I was able to interact with current and veteran teachers. This was very helpful as I was able to see what worked in their classroom and gain endless advice as I enter the classroom in the next few months. Being able to see how they process the labs, ask questions, and reflect upon how they could incorporate the activities in their classroom was very inspiring for me to see! 

The main component that I loved from this conference was how engaging the presenter and activities were. As the labs were being taught, I was not only observing the. content, but how Mrs. Grundy was speaking and managing the room. Oftentimes managing students can be overwhelming, but I was able to take note of the numerous strategies that she talked about and demonstrated throughout the conference. The activities were applicable to a variety of classes and I cannot wait to incorporate these ideas and my own next semester! 

                                  

After reflecting on this experience, I did a little research about literacy strategies about how to engage students. One of the most common factors that I found and that was also taught in the conference was about giving students the autonomy of their learning. Whether it's how they take notes in their learn journals or what project they want to research, giving students the opportunity to choose the direction they want to follow is a very effective strategy to increase learning! All in all, this Inquiry-Based Institute and research about literacy strategies was very helpful in my preparation for the classroom and I am looking forward to applying this content soon!