Ignite Your Teaching

Twenty-first Century calls for us teachers to implement teaching strategies that will incorporate the use of technology. Google Form has incredible features that you can utilize to your advantage. With this piece of technology, I’m able to automate most of the processes in my classroom for example; Formative assessment, quizzes, capturing data, conducting interviews and conferencing, and to top it all, my students love it.

Students and teachers alike love projects.  They can be engaging and rewarding.  They often create learning that lasts.  Think back for a moment into your own childhood school experience. 

Do you remember many of the day to day lessons?

Do you remember your tests?...okay maybe just the ones that made you cry!!

But I bet you do remember your projects.  

I still remember my project on the Yukon from Grade 3! They have a lasting effect.  

In this episode, I am sharing my 5 favourite inquiry projects that I have used in my classroom.  

It is these projects that made me buy into diving deep into inquiry and why I am so passionate about telling other teachers all about it.  

Making a change in how we teach and what our classroom looks like can be tough.  

Since inquiry is such an educational shift in the way we teach, it can be hard to shake off old habits that often create limiting beliefs.  

So one of the first things we need to do is acknowledge what these beliefs are and plan around them. It's time to challenge our ideas and silence that little voice in our heads that tells us 

- our students can't do it

- I'll lose too much control of my classroom...

and that's just the beginning!

In this episode, we are exploring what 5 common limiting beliefs teachers might have that are holding you back.  

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I have a favour to ask you...

If you like what you here and get value out of this podcast replay I would love it if you left the show a review!  It would mean so much to me if you did.  

~Patti

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After going back to work full-time part way through the year, I began using inquiry right away.  Good or bad this is what happened.  

I have been using inquiry for years now but that doesn't mean my learning is over.  There are definitely some growing pains with each new group of students but it is manageable and rewarding all at the same time too.  

In this episode, I reflect on what went well and what did not.  Use this experience to help to avoid these common pitfalls yourself when implementing inquiry in your classroom.  

One of the large components of using inquiry in your classroom is teaching students how to research.  

In our digital world with declining school library resources, much of this student research is found online.  

However, the internet is big and vast so sometimes we need to figure out ways to get our students researching in a fast and effective manner.  

In this episode, I am sharing my 5 best online tools that help to support student research.  These are the tools that I use in my classroom to make student research time easier.  

I cross my heart and pinky swear it.  This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  

"I am not a perfect teacher" 

Is anyone????

Nope, probably not but as teachers, we put on this enormous pressure to be perfect.  To reach every student to mark every paper, to all the things to everyone all the time. 

Not being perfect, embracing my faults has been something that I have come to realize is okay to do.  

I don't always want to share my highlight reel.  And it is not fair if you compare your reality to it.  So in this episode, I am throwing open the curtains and bearing it all so that you can see just how not perfect I am.  

So you may want to give inquiry a try but you also might not know where to start. The overwhelming feeling that you get when you think of letting go of some of the control in your classroom and the fear that chaos will ensue.  

All of those are normal feelings when you get ready to dive into inquiry.  In today's episode replay we talk about what you need to know to get started with using inquiry in your classroom and it is easier than you may think.