What happens when you align your curriculum and learning experiences and you get blank stares?

Questions are synonymous with inquiry. They are very thing that help us co design the learning with our students. They are the very thing that help us learn what’s important to our learners.

Questions have a way of being more than just a single voice. When we shift our mindset about the purpose of questions, the students do the heavy lifting in our classrooms and questions then become the vehicles we use drive the direction of learning. But, how do we get to this space?

I had the pleasure of visiting an elementary campus today. It was the culmination of work I had been doing with the coordinator and school over the last few years and the purpose of the in person visit (such a treat now!) was the celebrate their growth in inquiry.

Reflection. An action at the heart of an inquiry practice and one that I am quite often drawn to in my work with teachers and leaders. With the ever elusive time that we all seem to not have enough of, I’ll be sharing more about the transformation that this move has within our roles as leaders during the 2022 TIES event.

In recounting the dynamic ways in which using the leadership lens of inquiry has brought about changes to our teachers, campus culture and even ourselves as the leaders, we center ourselves on reflection throughout the process of change.

From staff shortages to pressures of performance, the pandemic has put many of us in response mode, turning towards checklists and falling back into routines as way regain a sense of normalcy.

Perhaps a final step isn't exactly what I mean to convey to you as it relates to inquiry, but it's the final one I will share with you in this series of blog posts.

In my past newsletter, I shared one of my most revisited moves as an inquiry teacher, provocations. I spend a lot of time coaching inquiry leaders, co planning with teachers on my campus, and engaging in rich and meaningful professional learning sessions with schools around this concept.

One of the questions I get asked the most is, "Where do I start?". And while there is a depth and complexity to inquiry that gives me the opportunity to do the work I do in schools

I’ve been hanging onto this special event for some time now and am so very excited to finally be able to share more about a unique event that’s occurring next spring!

It’s the start of a new school year and while the excitement of a fresh beginning is one that is synonymous with this time of the year, there are still schedules to make, classrooms to set up and routines and systems to transition into as we say goodbye to the ease and flow that summer days typically afford us.