How To Be a Successful Inquiry Teacher

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Hello everybody, and welcome to another
Episode of Teaching with Inquiry Live.
Tonight we are going to be talking about--
maybe something that you don't want to
admit. But, I want to throw it out there
especially two weeks ago I talked about
why I am NOT a perfect teacher and why
that's okay. I've gotten a lot of really great
response from you about how it helped
listening; that it resonated with you.
I wanted to talk today about some of the
things that have held me back and some
of my limiting beliefs that have kind of
gotten in my way. I'm gonna look at
five things that are holding us back to
becoming better teachers. I think we
all start teaching and we want to become
better teachers, but the problem is we
compare ourselves to those stock photos;
those teachers that are standing in the
front of classroom and all of the
students are sitting there with huge
smile on their face, all engaged with their hands
up. I just don't think if that what
we're comparing ourselves to; that we're
really comparing ourselves to a
realistic expectation. We can all be
better teachers and believe that we're
great teachers, but some things that
probably are standing in our way that
might also prevent us from using Inquiry
effectively as well. I'm Patti, and I'm
the teacher blogger behind Madly
Learning. I am here on my Facebook
page every single week talking about
using Inquiry in your classroom and
sharing all of the adventures and
mishaps that I have had in my classroom,
so, that hopefully, by sharing my story, it
will help you to fit it all together and
make teaching with inquiry just a little
bit more accessible and fun for both you
and your students. Like I said, we're
gonna be talking tonight about the five
things that are holding you back
that will make you become and feel like
you are a better teacher. I think
that some of them might be a little
surprising for you.
The first one that I see
is when teachers are struggling with
doing something new in their classroom,
and you'll see this in staff meetings or
even in the staff room. You hear a new
idea and the first thing that you do is
you say, "Oh my students could do that," or
"Yeah, that might work there, but my
students can't do that," or "Do you really
think that is realistic?" I'm guilty
of this especially when I am presented
with something new. I will often have those
negative limiting beliefs for myself
that prevent me from moving forward and
from tackling something new. I think
it's important for us as teachers to
trust our students and trust ourselves
and our own abilities so that we can
take on new challenges, and have those
high expectations for our students so
that we can say, "my students might not be
able to do it
now, but I can get them there.
That growth mindset for both the teacher
and the student; that they might not be
able to do something now, but the belief
that we can get them there because we
are competent and capable teachers.We've
got to teach who's in front of us and
that doesn't mean that there isn't going
to be our set of challenges, and what
works for you isn't necessarily going to
work for the teacher in the room next to
you. I think it's important to take
every single new idea that you get and
to incorporate it to what you're
currently already doing, and make slight
changes along the way that helped to
move you forward. I think that
is something that I have struggled with
myself is understanding that just
because one teacher shares the way they
do something I don't then have to go
ahead and replicate exactly what they're
doing, but I need to find my own way of
doing that thing that's going to fit
authentically with who I am in the
classroom, and what kind of teacher I am.
For example, when I was first presented
with the concept of a Wonder
Provocation; it was in a table form.
Realistically, I thought, "who has time to put a
table together of all of these artifacts
and who has room; where would I fit this
in my class?" I had 36 students that year,
and I really didn't think that was
gonna work for me. But, having somebody
say to me, "Well, what would that look like?"
How could you incorporate the big idea
of that into your classroom?
I thought, well, I've got all the bulletin
board space in my room, how could I take
those things that are on a table and
move them onto my wall? That's kind
of how I started developing the
wonder walls that I'm currently and
still using in my classroom, and
something I talked a lot about through the teaching with inquiry live show each
week here. It's about taking an idea that
you're given and making it your own, and
something that fits with "who you've got
in front of you and what you're doing",
and you've got to trust that you know
what's best for your students, but you
can also take those risks and try new
things. Another big one and this is
particularly for inquiry. It's something
that holds most teachers back I think in
starting inquiry or really going
full-blown into inquiry, and that's the
idea losing control. This is a huge
one for teachers; is the idea that you
are going to lose control of your
classroom if you try Inquiry. I think the
fear comes in as you can picture a class,
I know for me I picture the class
you know maybe very first supply job
that you ever had and you're in a tough
school, you walk in and there's kids
standing on desks and they're throwing
things. Okay, but maybe that was just
my first experiences as a supply, but it's
chaos and mayhem. I think that there's
that fear and anxiety that gets on us and
attacks us and says," it might let go of control,"
then, it's going to be absolute chaos and
I'm not going to be able to come back
for that or manage that. I think
that's us taking what inquiry is; taking
it to the extreme;
because inquiry is not necessarily about
letting go of all control and sitting
back and letting anything happen. It's
about really responsibly listening to
the voices in your students, it's hearing
their ideas, it's allowing them time
to speak and share, and, then, being
responsive to what they say. If they're
telling you in say a community
circle that there's something that they
don't like or something they want to try,
hearing that voice of their and, then,
acting on it and making the voice in the
classroom matter, is the very first step
I think when we're tackling, trying
inquiry in our classroom. As teachers we're
control-ist generally; we're highly
planned individuals. I mean it's part of
our job to make a day plans as to what
our duties looks like. So, it's just
ingrained in us that everything must be
planned down to the minutiae. I mean
that's what they train us to do in Teachers
College; is to make these six page
lesson plans where we're planning out
absolutely everything. But, Inquiry
asking you not really to come down and
plan every last thing but to be a bit
more open-ended and flexible, and where
you might be going in a lesson and
responsibly listening to your students,
but that doesn't mean that you're
totally letting go of your classroom
management. Your classroom management
still has to be there, and it comes down
to you setting up routines and systems
you put in place; it keeps that
structured. So do students know that
during you know science time that we're
sitting on the carpet, we should be
sitting in a circle. That we're having
conversations, what does it look like, how
do you listen to one another, one person
speaks at a time, that control of what
the conversation looks like in terms of
the management. You're still in a lot of
control so that inquiry can actually
happen, but what necessarily we're talking
about you're allowing to your self to go
on a tangent or you're listening to
where students take the conversation. And
you're letting it go off on that
tangent if you're comfortable doing so
and if your students are still engaged.
It's finding that spark, then, allowing
them to go forward with it; you're not
losing control in that. Just because they
don't do every single thing in list
order on your planner; that's ways so
much planning that you're spending
countless hours going over in all of
that detail and you can save that time in
maybe planning for your students
in different
avenues that they can explore. But, it's
being responsive to them and conducting
this the three-ring circus that
sometimes happens in your classroom.
That does mean for a lot of us we don't
like noise in our classroom, you do have
to get used to talking and noise the
level of volume goes up, but as long as
you're monitoring those
conversations are conversations that are
on task, that you just have to talk
yourself out of that discomfort when
that noise level goes up that they are
on task; they're doing what needs to be
done, and they're getting through and you
can check off those learning
expectations.
So, it's baby steps.
One of the third tip I have as to one of the
things that gets in your way of being
a better teacher is you try to do way
too much too soon. So, you try to do an
independent inquiry before your students
are ready. This is where you
really need to kind of pace yourself and
not set it up where you absolutely have
to go full-blown into what it's that you're
doing. You don't have to go full-blown
into independent inquiry. You can take it
slow and do a guided inquiry and spend
that time training them in the routine
and the systems that you need to have in
place. That's really important for down
the line. Starting your unit at the
beginning, there's gonna be a lot more
modeled and guided inquiry. And as you
get to the end and students are more
comfortable with the content and they
understand and how you built some of
that background knowledge for them, then,
they can start experimenting with a bit
more independence and look at a variety
of projects. You don't have to plan every
detail when it comes down to that, you can give
them a bit more freedom and choice so
that you can listen to them and be
more responsive. You don't have to go
straight into the independent inquiry.
You've got a judge and use all of your
assessment, techniques, tricks to say,
they're not ready for that yet and it's
okay for me to take baby steps towards
this. That's where I'm going, but I don't
have to be there quite yet. Number four,
and I think this for me, this is
one that holds me back a lot, and that is
that you're afraid of failing or looking
like a fool in your classroom because
you don't know the answer. This is
just something that comes I think with
practice if you don't know the answer.
That's gonna happen, and it's okay
that you don't know the answer. We live
in the age of Google. At one point-- I
know when I was a kid I thought my
teachers knew everything about
everything because I didn't have the
accessibility to all of the information
at my fingertips. I think now it's
okay for us-- it's also impossible for us
to know everything about everything
because there's so much information out
there. It's okay for you to not know
the answers to all your students'
questions. You can pause on a question
and not dig deeper into it and then come
back the next and reflect on it; that's okay.
It's also okay to fail in front of your
students and to get something wrong, and
use that as a learning opportunity. That
you also have grown your thinking and
you are leading them in that direction,
and you have to come at that in a very
honest and professional way, not in this
way that you might lose respect with
your students that you're constantly
making mistakes. But, it's okay that
you're making a mistake in front of your
student or that you are learning things
along the way. That they see as a learner
and they see that you're trying and that
you might not know an answer to
their question but how do you model for them
how to find that answer and it's okay.
Using a growth mindset and modeling that
for your students because those are the
skills we definitely need our students
to have as grit and perseverance. So,
modeling that
for them as well and not
letting that fear of failure hold you
back into not taking risks as a teacher
in your classroom. I think finally the
biggest one is worrying that you're not
good enough as a teacher. And I think
this is a big one. We're constantly
comparing ourselves or comparing
ourselves to that stock photo of who we
should be, what our classroom is supposed
to look like, what this perfect classroom
is supposed to be; that every student is
on task, every student is learning, and in
reality that never happens. It never
happens in my room, it never happens in
any classroom I've ever been in. It's
never going to be stock photo perfect,
and it's not like the movies that's just
not the reality. There's going to be
times where you've got kids off task,
there's going to be times where you have
some kids doing great, and some kids not
doing so great, you're going to have bad
days, you're going to have days where you
are like, "Why did I put this on the
lesson plan today, today was not the day."
It's okay. Just because you're
not that; you're not that stock photo
doesn't mean that you're not a great
teacher. You are probably an amazing
teacher. The fact that you are looking
for new ideas and you're seeking new
information probably that leads me to
believe that you're on the right path to
being a great teacher. You don't need
some fancy lesson to pass your TPA.
I bet you're probably doing just
fine every single day; that if you were
ever observed on a regular Wednesday, you
probably be doing a great job most days.
And because your students are learning,
they're gathering information,
they're trying; you're doing a good job.
I think we're really hard on
ourselves saying that you know we get
some time off, and we've got to justify
all the time we spend outside of our
classroom doing our job.
It's okay. It's okay you're doing a good job
and believing that you're doing your
best and you are a good teacher I think
stops us a lot of the times because
we're constantly questioning if we're good
enough. I think we have to start
believing that we are, because, that
limiting believe that we're not good enough
is probably doing something to hold us
back. Those are my top five things that I
think get in our own way from us
believing that we're great teachers.We're
great teachers. Our students probably
love us a whole heck of a lot. They will
remember us when they leave, and when
they leave our room we are making an
imprint on our students and that's okay.
That's great; that's our job, and
they're learning from us. I think we
need to take those risks, take those
steps, push the boundaries, try something
new, and take those risks so that we can
continue to grow and improve our
practice as teachers. That's all I
have for tonight. If you would like
transcripts from this episode,
to get the replay, listen to the
podcast or watch the replay on YouTube,
you can get links to all of that
including the show notes at
www.teachingwithinquiry.com
which is the website dedicated
to this show. If you want any of the
show notes from tonight's episode or
previous episode that's where you can go.
You can also get to that website
straight from my regular site which is
www.madlylearning.com
If you're not sure where to start,
I highly recommend you start on my website
www.madlylearning.com
And, you go ahead and click to join
Inquiry 101. That is the
place to start. So, get on the
page and all of the basic that you need to
start inquiry in your classroom; it's a
free course that I put together.
Before you start watching
the teaching with inquiry episodes, take
inquiry 101 course. It's a great
place for you to start kind of building
a foundation of what it is
that you need to get started with
inquiry right away in your classroom.
You can access that again at www.madlylearning.com
I hope that you have a great week.
I'll see you next week for another
Episode where we'll talk
all about Inquiry Based Learning
in your classroom so that you can
make Inquiry Based Learning/Teaching
accessible and fun for both of
you and your students.
Have a great week.
Talk to you later.
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How To Be a Successful Inquiry Teacher

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