Although I am familiar with inquiry as a method of teaching, our visit to George Jay has given me a number of resources that I want to explore further explore. Rebecca was kind enough to provide us with a link to her presentation along with examples and sites and ideas. A few of the major ideas that I took away from our visit were:

a) inquiry can and absolutely be scaffolded. As shown in the top pool photo illustration, there are various levels of inquiry and students need to feel confident and comfortable at each step as they work toward a free inquiry, or the benefits will be negated.

b) provocations are key, not only to the start of an inquiry, but also throughout the process to maintain student engagement and encourage depth of though.

Rebecca’s classroom was full of provocations that were not related to any specific inquiry, but simply available to incite curiosity and wonders. She mentioned the need to value questions and model being inquisitive to help foster an environment conducive to inquiry.

I was especially interested in her work with Padlet as it relates to my seminar inquiry question. This is not a program that I was familiar with before, but I can see it having a really positive impact on collaboration and connection making at all age ranges. I hope to have some time to get familiar with Padlet.

Here is a video that outlines how Padlet can be used by teachers.

I would also like to explore Canva a bit more to see if it would be a valuable tool for me as a student and potentially as a resource for my future students.