Mrs.+L's+Diary+2+Day+5.....

Day 5 - I am quite excited about the inquiries, but not nearly as excited as the students! They are at the tables before school, during transition times or any time they can get to them. I have allocated every second afternoon as the official time for our studies, but students are very drawn to the materials. So far it has been enjoyable to watch their curiosity. If the tables become too much of a distraction during non-inquiry times I can put sheets over the tables.  Today the students received their passwords for the wiki so we will be able to start logging them in to share their learnings. Robert Nystuen, one of our Digital Learning Consultants will collaborate with me and offer support in the classroom with using some technology applications to help students express their discoveries in a variety of formats. Lisa Nystuen, our EAL consultant has worked with our class periodically with vocabulary activities. She will work with me to integrate strategies for learning vocabulary specific to the inquiry areas. Day 6- The class is excited to see their videos and photos on the wiki and are anxious to show more! Day 8- Robert was able to offer some good ideas for setting up the wiki so that students can edit while not being able to change pages that I have created. Students are able to logon on their own now. We have set up GoAnimate as another method for students to express their learning using animation. Some students have already posted cartoons. I am finding the current challenge is to move students into deeper exploration. They like the "play", but need a little prodding to dig deeper into the subject. When Lisa and I coteach some of the vocabulary words tomorrow, that may take them in new directions. One of the initial challenges I faced was gathering equipment. We have now purchased some new equipment that should motivate more exploration. The students have had opportunities to view some of the websites that were linked to my homepage. They need further opportunities.

Day 9-  Robert and I worked as a team today and were able to help the students create their very own cartoons! They are all very excited about this. The class was set up with rotating activities. While some worked on their animations, others were still writing their scripts on paper. Those who were finished the cartoon activity or who were waiting for computer time worked on a visual representation (poster) about something they have learned about their topic. Everyone was engaged in some form of composition. The room was a hive of activity with a buzz of excitement. The next visit from Robert will focus on getting each student onto the Wiki so that they can edit their own page of the Inquiry Diary.

Day 12-  Whew! Much water under the bridge! Robert helped all students access their webpages for editing. They were not sure what to do when they had the opportunity to edit, even though we discussed what they might do. So I had to do another session on what kinds of information they might put on their webpages. They seem more comfortable now...we'll see! I was able to nudge students into deeper inquiry by posting questions on the main pages for light, magnetism and static electricity. Students have also been encouraged to peruse the binders I gave them which contain ideas for activities and experiments. Some students are planning to do more complex tasks such as creating a lemon battery or creating a potato battery. Some have created boats which they must propel through water without physically handling them. Several have completed posters. They are beginning to plan for presenting information to the class. Grade 4's have been experimenting with shadow tag outside. They are struggling more as the magnet table for the Gr. 3 inquiry is so interesting! If they were given a choice they would prefer to explore magnets I think. Shared reading times have given students the opportunity to explore books on their topics. They have also had more time on the netbooks to look at the websites I organized for their viewing. I would like to give them a bit of time to explore information in the Science texts as well as there is appropriate material in that resource. One student has become particularly interested in how magnets work in electric motors. At home he designed a demonstration of this with his dad's help. So cool! Mr. Nystuen will join us one more time to help students create some web content. <span style="background-color: #ede4c0; color: #3818bf; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Students have been given a deadline, so will need to get busy at preparing to share their learning. <span style="background-color: #ede4c0; color: #3818bf; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">So far this has been an engaging learning experience for all of us!

Day 14- <span style="background-color: #ede4c0; color: #3818bf; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;"> Time flies when you're having fun! We are nearing the end of the time allotted for our inquiry. Students have made huge leaps in their understanding of the topics and of how technology can be used to learn and to share learning. As I am reflecting on how I might improve the facilitation of the inquiry I think that I would have been wise to introduce materials and ideas more gradually. The way I did it was more of a smorgasboard of questions and materials. But for some this may have been too much. Introducing things more gradually would have given the students more motivation to explore a variety of topics. As it was, once the magnets were out, that was what everyone wanted to explore, so I had to work at interesting the students in various concepts!

<span style="background-color: #ede4c0; color: #3818bf; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Assessment has occurred on an ongoing basis through discussions and demonstrations. As we complete our inquiry experience, students will present their learnings to their classmates, which will allow further assessment of their understandings of the concepts. One of the learnings has been that it is good to talk about the trials and errors that were encountered through the inquiry processes. I talked to students about the WD40 project (WD40 was the 40th attempt at creating this well known product) so they would realize that trial and error is a part of inquiry.

<span style="background-color: #ede4c0; color: #3818bf; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">**//Thank you for traveling on this inquiry journey with us!//** <span style="background-color: #ede4c0; color: #3818bf; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">