Professional Learning Goals

• Took advantage of the technology available within our schools
• Used resources that were free to our school, which removed barriers to learning
• Emphasized inquiry-based learning through the use of technology
• Focused on the revisions in the social science curriculum
• Provided teachers with time to understand and implement the inquiry model and test the legitimacy of its outcomes

Activities and Resources

1. Book lab time, including sharing Chromebook carts
2. Sharing Google Docs, Sheets, Slides
3. Inquiry model templates and worksheets
4. Reading/sharing the following resources:

a) Hacking Project Based Learning – Ross Cooper, Erin Murphy

b) Teaching Geographical Thinking – Bob Sharp, Kamilla Bahbahani, Niem Tu Huynh

c) The Building Capacity Series – Ministry of Education, Ontario

Unexpected Challenges

• Teaching inquiry to the students is challenging and a slow process
• Creating and using the proper assessment tools for evaluation of student work is a challenge
• Incorporating checklists/daily anecdotal notes to assess “for” learning student progress is challenging

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

• Developed critical-thinking through daily practice
• Developed ability to synthesize information
• Learned how to ask questions to lead an inquiry
• Learned how to draw conclusions after analysis of data and information
• Leadership in small group discussion and sharing
• Ideas are the main “ingredient” for the inquiry classroom
• Increased student collaboration
• Sharpened student research skills
• Sharpened student’s time management skills
• Emphasized student responsibility

Sharing

• Google Suite – Slides, Sheets, Docs
• Professional Development Day – in school and with other social science teachers in the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board
• Board-wide Professional Learning Communities
• Best practice sharing at social science teacher professional development

Project Evaluation

Yes, our project was a success. The group took advantage of the time to collaborate and this had the biggest impact on our success. We shared what worked and what didn’t simply with our Google Suite. The project encouraged the group to work towards similar goals for student learning. This project is a starting point for future collaboration to implement inquiry throughout our courses in September.

If we did it differently, we would have focused on only one course of study. While we accomplished a great deal for one unit of study per course, a concentrated effort on one course (Grade 9 geography) would have been better organized and simpler to present to our colleagues.