For the last two days we have be blessed with the presentations of this cohort.  Each presentation has been unique and interesting.  We have been honored with video and different discussion strategies and variety of topics.

Jim and I were the last to present today which caused the stress level to rise to near state of illness.  However, once Jim started singing my nerves began to subside.  Jim has been an amazing partner and his song was a hit.  I have been encouraging him to publish it on youtube, but to this point unsuccessful. 

A half hour presentation seemed lengthy last fall, but has now become problematic as to get enough time to present the information.  Jim and I chose an activity with play dough to represent the inquiry learning process.  By reflecting back through my teaching practice, I made connections with constructivism and inquiry learning through teaching art.  When I taught art, I loved the clay unit as that is my passion.  Students would easily get me side tracked.  This helped me relate to inquiry learning as I verbalized my tension with our instructor, Julie. 

I realized that much of the way I taught my art classes were inquiry learning.  Students were given a question or problem to work through.  We learned different process and strategies to present our ideas visually.  Often we worked in a collaborative setting, but would usually produce an individual project to showcase the learning.  When students worked in clay this was the most evident.  I am very passionate about clay.  I love the medium and find the plasticity gives such opportunity for creativity and expression.  Usually, students were first introduced to clay in my class which added to the intrigue, but I do believe in the importance of the teacher’s presentation of the information. We would often create three projects before I would realize that we needed to complete other units of study.  However, lots of the learning we experienced with clay transferred to other areas of the curriculum.

I need to transfer the clay unit to my English classes.  I have passion for teaching English just as I do for teaching with clay, but am not having the same successes.  Following research of the constructivist theory and inquiry learning strategies, I need to come up with the inquiry questions and guiding activities for my students to encounter the learning.  I think this will be best done through a thematic approach to literature (which is already present in my practice) providing students with access to multiple reading texts of varied genres.  I am excited about this venture and am finally ready to confidently embrace the inquiry process in my classroom.

As for the clay activity – which we did with play dough.  I was apprehensive completing this activity with adults especially with a different medium.  However, the play dough was very colorful and provided the same type of experiential learning with simple clean up.  I guess I need to thank the oppressive institution that made me question use of the medium.  Learning can still take place with another medium.  The learning isn’t as great as it would be with an authentic medium but did take place in a shorter time span.  (possibly similar to creating a project with paper and pen rather than learning a new technology tool).

To end the morning we had a discussion about the role of technology.  Technology is a loaded word and there are varied perspectives on this topic.  I believe that the one to one computer initiative provides wonderful opportunities for learning in my classes.  Technology is woven into my daily life and should be woven into my teaching practice.  Luckily, technology has become part of my tool kit as I was able to capture the creatures created today.  I am still confused about the purpose of this discussion, but firmly believe that technology plays a large factor in the learning of the 21st century citizen.