Building My Final Vision Project

As I have been working through my final vision project there have been a number of challenges.  The first and biggest problem was being healthy enough to be able to work on my project!  It has been a rough couple of weeks with our book fair, student conferences, report card printing problems, being sick and then having to take care of my kids who were sick afterwards and not sleeping the night.  Now that I am finally able to work on my project I have found the process for the most part relatively painless with a few bumps along the way.

I have chosen to use Weebly to create my website on inquiry based learning (click here to view my work in progress).  I have used Weebly in the past and I am quite familiar with it.  Since the last time I worked with Weebly there have been some changes and after searching for quite some time to find the missing features that I was used to using, I found a tutorial online and I was able to adapt easily to the improvements made to the program.  I have had a few other formatting issues but nothing particularly troublesome. I had thought about trying out a new program to gain some experience using different programs but I am happy that I didn’t because I could not afford using any extra time to learning a new program.  I would still like to try using other programs in the future to see if they have different features and design that may be more appealing.

I am still amazed at how long it takes to do the research!  I had already started collecting some links but deciding which sites to use can also be time consuming.  Due to lack of time, I have not even begun searching for sites in French.  My goal was to provide links in French and English but I will have to work on that at a later time.  It was also difficult selecting sites that would appeal to a larger number of teachers and not to just a few teachers.  It was important that the information was easy to read and not too academic or tedious.  If teachers have to work too hard to find the information they are looking for then they will give up.  The key word that I keep referring back to for this site is user-friendly.

The last struggle I had was finding ways to make the website visually appealing, professional looking, and easy to navigate.  This part of the process can also take up a lot of time.  The appearance of the website can be almost as important as the content.  Teachers may not want to explore the website if it is not easy to navigate and visually appealing.  Since I am not a designer, it has been a bit of a slow process. In the end, I opted to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible.

I truly enjoy creating websites but finding the time to make it the way I want is a struggle that will always be there.  I have to keep in mind that websites are a work in progress. They need regular maintenance like checking links as well as adding new links and making sure that the information is up to date and relevant.  I need to keep this in mind as I’m finishing up my website!

Final Vision Project- Rationale

Why inquiry based learning?

 “We have to stop delivering the curriculum to kids. We have to start discovering it with them.” (Richardson)

This statement has stuck with me since reading Will Richardson’s book Why Schools? Students need to be prepared for the world after school and simply memorizing facts and listening to teachers deliver curriculum is not going to motivate and engage students in their learning.  They need “to engage in questioning that provoke authentic exploration with the characters of academic rigor typical of real work with real ideas.” (galileo.org) I feel like this is so important in today’s education system.  I see so many students going through the motions and never experiencing the excitement or sense of pride in discovering something new.  Inquiry based learning is an approach that can help teachers and students accomplish this goal and create rich and engaging work.

With the creation of my inquiry based learning website I hope to provide a place that will have explanations, links, resources and videos that are easy to use and access.  I want the teachers to easily find what they are looking for and to be inspired to continue their own research.     

“Schools ought to be communities where students come to do rich, engaging work–work that inspires, develops insight and stirs the imagination.” (galileo.org)

With this website I intend to provide links, information and sample lessons in the following areas:

• What is Inquiry? Why is it important?
• BCTLA Points of Inquiry
• Inquiry Literacy Skills (Non-fiction reading and writing)
• Inquiry Resources and Links
• Tools for Inquiry
• Assessment rubrics
• New BC Curriculum- to assist teachers in making the transition while looking through the lens of inquiry based learning 

Target Audience

Since this website will be the starting point for introducing inquiry based learning in my school, it is important that this website is made for teachers.  Once they have an understanding of inquiry based learning then they will be able to transfer the knowledge to the students.  The main goal of this website is to make the learning process as easy as possible with practical resources.

In May, the teacher librarians of my school board have a professional day together and will be meeting to discuss inquiry based learning. I plan on sharing this website with them so that they have a bank of resources and information to assist their staff members in exploring this approach.

Now it’s time for me to get to work and start creating!

Works Cited:

Richardson, Will (2012-09-10). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere (Kindle Single) (Kindle Locations 414-415). TED Conferences. Kindle Edition.

"Why Inquiry?" Galileo Educational Network. Web. <http://galileo.org/>.

Final Vision Project- Post 1

Since the beginning of the course when I read through the syllabus and saw what the final project would be, I have known that I wanted to focus on inquiry based learning.  It is something that I am exploring myself as a TL and I would like to help the classroom teachers learn how to use it in their classroom. 

I have wanted to explore inquiry based learning with the staff at my school for a number of years.  It is something that most teachers have not explored yet and I would like to create a website that will guide them through the process of discovery and help them unpack the layers.  Since the teachers are busy and not all find it necessary to explore websites for hours finding new ways of teaching research, I want to create a space where they can get most of their questions answered along with sample lesson plans, how-to videos, curriculum links, etc.  Most importantly I need to find resources in French since we are a French Immersion school and it is always a challenge finding French resources.  When I want to present a mini workshop or have a discussion I can simply refer to the website and this also allows the teachers to explore the links on their own.   

My goal is to personalize this website by meeting the needs of each teacher and hopefully include information that specifically relates to their curriculum.  The new curriculum has a new focus on inquiry and since we will be required to make changes to the curriculum I think this would be a great opportunity to integrate both the new curriculum and inquiry based learning as the change is being made. It can be harder to change something that you've been doing for a long time but when you are forced to make changes hopefully it will be easier to explore different ways of teaching this new curriculum.

I plan on using the BCTLA Points of Inquiry as a guide and throughout the last few months I have found a number of very good sites that I look forward to exploring further. As I do my research my main focus will be to make sure that all links are easy to use and easy to understand.  

Sometimes I feel like my staff can be a bit spoilt and they want everything clearly laid out for them to simply follow, so that’s what I hope to give them!  I hope to create an inquiry based learning website nicely gift wrapped and ready to be opened and explored!