Building A Culture of Inquiry

So, we are nearing the end of our Prep Phase with the Problem Based Learning model that we propose to staff for this 2014-2015 school year.

We have been struggling to define what it might look like at our school given our class rotation schedule, extra-curricular early dismissals, space, and of course the whole reason for the shift. Since we only met once every two months (it seemed, this year), it was difficult to work out anything solid.

(My previous blog has a link to the proposal we made to our staff.  Click here to see it again.)

Anyway, with administration's support, we decided the following:

• We will use a split Inquiry Hub, PSII model for PBL at St. Pat's.
• We will switch from calling it problem-based to inquiry-based learning.
• Inquiry time will be every afternoon.  In my school, we only have one teaching block after lunch (except on Fridays) and we decided to sequester all the grade eight learners* in one area of the downstairs hallway.
• Learners may work individually or in groups.
• The learners will report to a "Home Base" room for attendance and emergency procedures if necessary.  Teachers who teach a grade eight class in the block after lunch will take a Home Base, take attendance, and foster inquiry.  One of my colleagues worked on schedule to move non-inquiry classes to other spaces in the school.
• Learners will be free to move around the school to access technology and work space.
• All learners will write a guided check-in (via Moodle) and write a journal-style check-out (via Mahara) every afternoon. 
• The final product does not matter - all learners will exhibit their learning in the media they choose on March 4, 2015.
• The members of the PBL learning community will serve as advisors to the learners.
• As a PLC we will meet three mornings a week to discuss projects and logistics.  We will also change the language of learning in our school. (Change the language; change the attitudes. Ergo: learner v. student.)

#isrosemao

Last week, three members of my PLC and I visited the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) in Victoria, BC.  What an amazing place! It's probably what solidified our plans to actually figure out the logistics of our proposed whole-grade inquiry on water.

The school is one big open space with smaller break-out rooms around it. There are learners' inquiry maps posted on every wall; there is a schedule of all the seminars for the coming weeks (learners choose to attend only the ones they need); there is a kitchen where learners can create recipes and cook; there is a workshop for building things; there is a dress-makers work space; there is a 3D printer, for goodness sake!  The thing that has the most impact though is that the learners have a ton of freedom to move and work where they wish.

And, don't get me wrong: teens are still teens. Not all learners were "on task" all the time, but ALL of them recognized that they eventually did have to document something about their learning. Everything that we talk about as educators when it comes to 21st century learning and best practise exits at PSII... self-regulation is an understatement.

I had the opportunity to chat with two learners: one is in "Grade 11" doing podcasts on pop-culture connections to literary classics; the other one is in "Grade 9" whose inquiry centres around the Heroes of WWII.  Both were able to tell me what curricular outcomes their inquiry met. The Grade 9 boy said:

"Part of my inquiry is fulfilling some History 12 outcomes; the way I'm choosing to present everything is covering Information Technology; and because I've decided to actually do the training program the military does, I'm doing my DPA (Daily Physical Activity, a ministry requirement at each grade level)."

I was struck by the incredibly purposeful and completely personalized learning going on, and by the absence of any desire amongst the learners for a letter grade or a percentage.  In fact, when I asked Jeff Hopkins, the founder of PSII about how the report card looks, he told me the percentages arrive out of a conference with each learner and all the learners know that they will be assessed on the learning outcomes they fulfill and how deeply they fulfill them.  Learners are responsible for documenting all their learning electronically, via Quio.

There are so many more anecdotes I can share, but maybe the twitter feed of our experience is better "real time" reading. Check #isrosemao.  Rose Pillay, a consultant with the CISVA liased with Jeff to arrange the visist - the hashtag is a tribute to some of her wise words.

PBL or Bust!

Okay. I figure I'd better document this whole "grade eights do the Inquiry on Water" thingamabob in January.

The story of how we even decided to attempt Problem Based Leaning at my school goes back to the Building Expert PLCs our previous principal created.  You can read all about it on his blog. Anyway, a few of us had spent the better part of two years learning about inquiry / problem / project based learning - we even tried versions of PBL in our own classes.

When Johnny left, we got stuck in limbo. We had always planned on implementing PBL school wide, but we didn't know how. More correctly, we didn't know how it would be received and none of us were ready to take the fall out. All we knew was that by September of last year, we had reached the apex of our learning around PBL and inquiry.  We needed to actually put the theories in action.

We hummed and hawed about even continuing to meet as a PLC and even toyed with the idea of letting the dream die.  Even the two administrators who were in our PLC were ready to move on - they were still supportive, but the business of helping to run the rest of the school no longer afforded them the time to think about the logistics of actually "doing" inquiry.

I forget exactly how it all got decided, but I remember a colleague saying, "We just need to do this now!" We eventually came back together, talked more, and planned an actual proposal for the staff.

And now, here we are... in the supposed "Prep Phase" fumbling our way through tech issues and questions from other staff about room switches and course content and logistics of space and I'm still trying to accept the fact that it's going to be messy!