From the Principal's Pen!

We have done it -we have all successfully blogged on some aspect of our Inquiry undertaken this term! We have also successfully used chatzy - aren't we simply the best!!! Yes  the bribes helped us get through the process.....and yes I  have yet to master anti clockwise!!!!! Ponder...how could you use blogging in your room? what about chatzy...could they be two tools we use with our Inquiry model?

In dealing with looking toward term 2  - we have come up with some excellent suggestions in how we can continue to strengthen the STRIVE model here at Levin North! 

Bit of both by Neil

My kids got into research, albeit from a small range of sources. They were keen to look and are beginning to think as they go about the relevance of the information they find and relating it back to their questions in the Task stage. More work is needed on sifting and sorting and critical thinking - I think some explicit teaching and modelling of this with many repetitions - of course the ability to read and view and listen is a prerequisite to good Information stage work. Term 2 - well I'm really excited about the cultural idea - how cultures use dance, music, dress to express themselves.

Cluster Inquiry Model Celebration Day

Six schools presented their inquiry journey and while the models were different, there were definite commonalities St Mary’s – D Day, link with gospel values and community aspirations St Joseph’s – Opoutere model Foxton Primary – other STRIVE! Opiki – strands on the bridge – reducing number of these through reflection Poroutawhao – inquiry intersection Oroua Downs – organise, discover, share Common Themes • Passion and enthusiasm for the benefits and advantages of inquiry • Reflection – schools have been brave, dived in, got started and been to reflect on what worked well and what didn’t and then forging onwards and upwards. Some models have already changed somewhat, even in a short time span • Importance of relevance and ownership for students • Diversity and creativity of most models from within the cluster • Importance of school-wide practice/language/display • Need to develop higher order thinkers and questioners • Information processing skills – being able to do this seamlessly with information gathering • Importance of social action and making a difference for student engagement – the so what of inquiry • Importance of collegiality/support/sharing/planned dialogue for building teacher capacity in inquiry based learning • Recording/planning of inquiry - modelling books. Perhaps we need to look at range of planning approaches from cluster schools – got to be prepared for changing direction - can’t plan a whole unit 7 weeks in advance! • Idea of a blog or wiki to document inquiry process as a class/teacher/group/individual student • Kids have really stepped up, taken leadership and got fully engaged, taken on roles willingly • Evidence of kids working powerfully together, group work with a purpose and students of different ages working together • Expecting ICT component of inquiry sharing • What about depth and coverage? Needs to be considered • Assessment – skills, rubrics, student ownership • The power of clustering, learning from other schools • The power of just in time learning for teachers and principals • Inquiry has a great tie in with the introduction of the NZ Curriculum 2007 and the empowerment of schools to design a curriculum that meets the needs of their community • Some schools have used SOLO taxonomy and made use of Bloom’s, Michael Pohl, Tony Ryan, Art Costa work -perhaps need to do some more work and thinking around this

Inquiry Learning Launch

We've spent time with our staff at another staff meeting sharing an "Inquiry Learning Support Booklet", perhaps a first draft of our bible of inquiry learning! It sets out what is to happen at each stage of the S.T.R.I.V.E. model. This document was well received and should give teachers plenty of ideas, which of course will be built on with their own experiences and inspirations. Next we brainstormed how to launch our Term 4 Inquiry - Are We There Yet? The challenge to staff for our launch event is to have fun and participate with enthusiasm in the initial SPARK assembly! I suspect this challenge will be easy for some and more.... well, challenging for others! I'm not allowed to give away too much though. We've also shared our staff meeting presentation with the Board of Trustees on Monday night and it went down a treat - the board members were genuinely excited by the opportunities presented by the introduction of an inquiry learning approach.

Inquiry Learning 1st Staff Meeting

We had our first Inquiry Staff meeting in Week 5 of Term 3. Staff had been directed to readings on Inquiry Learning online at www.inquiringmind.co.nz. Several activities and discussions took place: 1. What is Inquiry Learning? i.e. What are the key features? What does IBL look like in the classroom? What do we know about it? 2. What are some of the features of a traditional teaching model in a classroom? 3. What are some of the features of an inquiry learning model? In an inquiry learning classroom, what is the role of the teacher? And what is the role of the learner? JPGs recording our thinking are embedded in this post for you to view. We were pleased with our team of dedicated teachers and what they came up with - they showed a good basic understanding of inquiry, essential for our launch in Term 4.

Launching S.T.R.I.V.E.

We launched our trial school inquiry model today - S.T.R.I.V.E. (Spark, Task, Research, Information, Voice, Evaluation). Over 2007 and 2008 we have looked at a range of inquiry models and seen some in action in schools. We wanted to create a model for us that would be easy for everyone to understand, especially the students and easy to remember (hence the acronym). Although we have a culture of kotahitanga and consultation at North, we felt the urgency of getting something up and running that people can get their teeth into soon, so we decided to draft a model for trial over the coming year, rather than have a full on process of school wide development. All of the staff will have a voice as we travel the journey together - planning together, discussing progress and of course having fun and showing enthusiasm together as we launch our first shared and directed inquiry - Are We There Yet? with the essential question "What Would Make a Great N.Z. holiday?