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by Lu Gerlach Think back to your school days. What is an experience and/or person whom you remember the most? Take a moment to pause this podcast and write it down. Ms. YoungMs. Young was my fourth grade teacher and reminded me of the classic Hollywood star, Loretta young. She always wore a bun at the top of her head, carried herself gracefully, and wore long flowing skirts to school every day. More importantly, she was the first teacher who saw me not as a student, but as a person with unique gifts. Our school boundaries changed, and I soon found myself going inside a school I didn’t know that didn’t know me. Brownies was a major part of my school life and the new girl scout troop didn’t have room for an Asian girl like me. I was painfully shy and like most introverts strived to remain invisible. Invisibility was not a choice in Ms. Young’s class. Instead of letting me hide my talents, I was challenged to showcase them proudly to the world. Ms. Young emulated the Golden Circle that we talked about in our first podcast. She had a clear vision of why she was a teacher and it wasn’t to get students to pass an end of year test. Her purpose was to get students to see their inner light and get them to share it through the Arts, writing, speaking, and so much more. She built relationships not just as my teacher, but rather, person to person. She shared her love of literature with all of us and we became writers. More importantly, she found our inner passion, so we could manifest our own Golden Circle experience. Inquiry takes IntentionWhat does Ms. Young have to do with inquiry? She embodied everything about inquiry in her class, which made introverts like me find a purpose. Last time, we explored the terms engaging, challenging, relevant, and significant. Ms. Young used these terms to guide her teaching. She would often pose interesting questions to hook or engage our thinking. Then, she would challenge us by giving us problems to solve. She would ask us to respond by making relevant connections to our everyday lives. After we understood these concepts, she would invite us to find similar situations happening around the world to establish significance. I remember these things about Ms. Young, because she was an inquiry-driven teacher. I don’t attach the memory of her to worksheet packets, instead of our relationship and her passion for learning.. Inquiry is a different mindset about learning and teaching. Yes, Children have to learn facts, but how they learn them is largely up to you as a teacher. So, if you want to transition between a traditional teacher to an inquiry-driven one, how do you do it? You take a few simple steps to make a difference. One possible way is looking at your lesson planning. What is driving your purpose? If it’s standards, we need to change that to student interests and ideas. This can take some practice in transitioning, but it’s well worth it.  Let’s look at some questions you can answer that will help to make your units more inquiry-based.  Regardless of your school setting, we all have choices in HOW we teach. We are only mandated in WHAT we teach.
Something to Consider...If a child learns specific skills that help them to analyze problems and present alternative solutions, they will more than likely outperform those students who were taught to pass the test. You just need to trust the process. If you are a more visual person we will be having a 5 DAY INQUIRY CHALLENGE to walk through our guides. Join our Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1177890089215736/
See you in our next episode Remember, hold on to that passion
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