I very much enjoyed this conversation hosted by the Learning Pioneers between friends Kath Murdoch and Anne van Dam about the intentionality of co-designing learning spaces with students.

This short 11 minute video is richly packed with morsels of ideas as well as foundational inquiry language, concepts, and moves we can all learn from to impact student agency and inform our constructivist practice.

I am very much looking forward to reconnecting with the global inquiry community at the Toddle Inquiry Educators Summit 2022. This year I will be facilitating a masterclass on inquiry and assessment (see below). This event has quickly become a highlight of my year. The collection of speakers and inquiry friends as well as the truly global audience of educators who attend make for a dynamic learning community that I deeply appreciate connecting with.

In my work with supporting schools around the globe implement inquiry I have come to see that one of the most powerful identifiers of a culture of inquiry in a school or organization is the act of reflection. Exploring curiosities of our teaching, the belief that we do not know it all nor do we do it all right, the value that we are “not there yet” and that on this path we seek out our blind spots, we hold a mirror up to our practice, and we unpack what we teach, how we teach it, and what we value in this process.

Reflection. What are the conditions where reflection thrives?

Co-designing learning can be a challenge. How do you partner with students to create personally relevant next steps for everyone in the room? How do you ensure the curriculum is learned while also honouring student interests, passions, and curiosities? How do you engage students in becoming learning designers themselves?

There are many ways we can explore this landscape of shared learning. One manner that I utilize is a 4 quadrant activity that helps make student thinking visible and guide our next steps.

Here is a special gift for you all: the introduction to Inquiry Mindset Assessment Edition.

I wrote this book for a few reasons.

One, I had noticed something startling in how some of the teenagers I worked with were impacted by their assessment experiences throughout their schooling. They saw themselves as not capable. They saw their learning as a mix of letter grades and percentage scores. They compared themselves with those around them. Constantly. These experiences were having a huge effect on how they viewed themselves, their potential, and their future. It was distressing.

This is so very exciting!

I am reconnecting with inquiry pals Kimberly Mitchell and Kath Murdoch for another conversation around the fire and the best part is, you’re invited!

Our focus will be exploring ways in which we can build a culture of and for inquiry in your classrooms.

I am so thankful to share this piece with you, an article I penned for STEM Ed Magazine. I have adored the conversations, sharing, and community that STEM Ed Magazine has been cultivating the past while. Always keen on engaging the learner (whether students or educators), each offering of podcasts and digital/print magazine issues are invigorating for my practice.

In my contribution to Issue 4 I share some thoughts on the ties between STEM and inquiry and unpack some of the skills of student agency that allows learners to feel be confident and prepared to take on new and exciting roles in their learning and in life.

This is an exciting resource!

This PDF was created by the global #inquirymindset community in response to a tweet I shared recently. The tweet called on educator to share their thoughts to my question: what specific language do you use to invite students into learning, thinking, going deeper, and reflections? I’d love to hear some of your most trusted and sharpened language. I’d love to see a long stream of beautiful replies to this tweet.

Here is a new to you resource that we have been using with teachers to support their inquiry planning when collaborating with one another and working towards bringing more intentionality to the experience of inquiry with their students.

It is such an amazing gift to see the sketchnotes from Dive into Inquiry and the Inquiry Mindset Series reach educators far and wide. Recently one of our Portuguese partner schools and Rebecca worked on translating some of the resources for their teachers. Here are a few of them for you to use as you like. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks! To download, simply click on the high-res image.