What drives me as a teacher?  What do I wonder about?  What is driving my interests of passion?  Participating in teacher inquiry allows me to explore what I want to do professionally to grow and allows me to explore my passions in education.  

Last year, Bonny and I participated in a teacher inquiry project thanks to a grant from the BCTF, which was matched by our local, the LTA, and our school district #35.  This year, we were fortunate enough to secure another PQT (Program for Quality Teaching) grant through the BCTF which has also been matched by our local LTA (Langley Teacher's Association) and SD35.  Just before Christmas, we excitedly attended our first session for this year with our fabulous facilitator Henry Lee.  By having a second year to work on teacher inquiry, we are able to have more opportunities to reflect on our own teaching practice and grow as a community of learners.  Having time to collaborate with other teachers and have our own Inquiry Buddies is so valuable to helping us support our students and improve our teaching practices.

This year, Bonny and are continuing to pursue inquiry with our students using Inquiry Buddies as one of the ways that we ignite learning in our classrooms.  In addition, I am excited to have time to think about and collaborate with others around my new question.  

How do I authentically utilize technology to engage students in ways that were not previously possible?

The planning stages have started and we are excited for what is to come in the next few months!

It is half way through October, and we are slowly easing into our second year of inquiry buddies at Willoughby.  This year began with Bonny and I searching out a new ‘buddy’ to join our inquiry buddies.  Another big change was that Bonny was no longer teaching primary, and so together we debated the pros and cons of having primary buddies in the mix or seeking out a fellow intermediate teacher to join our team.  In the end, Brian, a grade 6/7 teacher was easily convinced to join our learning journey as we explored muli-age buddies.

Just like last year, we found the initial organizational stage time consuming and at times an interesting negotiation.  There seems to be at least 2 or 3 students each year that do not match up under a larger umbrella group.  Finding a place for them to collaborate on their learning journey was a hurdle that we definitely anticipated, and were quickly able to solve. 

The one big difference from last year to this is that we are working with 5, 6’s and 7’s; therefore, their base skill level is different.  They have all, presumably had exposure to how to take notes, how to brainstorm ideas and how to formulate basic questions.  Therefore, the skills we have been focusing on in individual class lessons have been teaching them how to have ‘accountable’ talk and how to formulate quality questions.  We have been modelling how to be an active listener when working with group.

When they meet in their groups, we are trying to help them narrow down their questions and move beyond simple easy to answer questions like “How large is a space shuttle?” toward deeper, broader inquiries such as “Should governments spend money on space programs?”  It is very rewarding as an educator to watch students move away from the first level of questions and start to develop better, deeper questions.

The biggest hurdle this year, though, continues to be time.  Time to collaborate with one another as teachers.  It is great that we have built into our timetable a block of time each week where the kids can meet with their learning partners; however, the three of us are often struggling to find time.  Eating lunch together, chatting on Edmodo at night, and emailing back and forth.  For effective communication and learning to take place each week, we as facilitators of their learning need to have collaboration time.  We need opportunities to debrief, talk about what has worked and what is not working.  So often this is done on the fly, and one or more of us is left perplexed or uncertain of where we are going next.  That said, I often take a deep breath and think back to last year, and remember the inquiry process last year left me often feeling uncomfortable, but that the end results were spectacular.