Skip to content

Workshop & Teacher’s College Speaking Engagements

A week and a half ago, I attended a two-day workshop in Toronto, entitled, "Making Authentic Inquiry Work!" This was my fourth workshop, hosted by Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF).

inquiry-workshop

The workshop cleared up some misconceptions about inquiry-based learning, provided a flexible model around which teachers can plan inquiry projects and gave us time to share ideas.

2015-02-27 001

2015-02-27 003

2015-02-27 004

At the end of the second day, I was invited to make a presentation to the group; to share the outreach-based learning projects in which our class has engaged this school year.  I used this blog as the basis for my presentation.

After the workshop, I received a follow-up e-mail from the organizers, inviting me to author a brief paper or Power Point presentation explaining in detail the theory and practice behind one of our wildlife centre outreach projects. The organizers would like to share this information with other workshop participants.  I will work on this presentation over March Break.

---------------------------------------------------------

A few weeks ago, I was invited to make a return trip to Lakehead University Teacher's College, Orillia campus, to make similar presentations to three classes of teacher candidates.  Today was the day!

2015-03-09 001
Following one of my presentations, teacher candidates were given time to work in groups, brainstorming and sharing curriculum-based outreach project ideas.

2015-03-09 002

Here are the great project and project-partner ideas generated by "Cohort A" (click on any photo to enlarge it):

2015-03-09 012

2015-03-09 013

2015-03-09 015

2015-03-09 011

2015-03-09 014

2015-03-09 010

I have been absolutely sold on the idea of outreach-based learning since my class and I first began to explore this concept, three years ago. I'm very excited to see other teachers now taking an interest in connecting classroom learning to outreach. Such projects teach curriculum and build learning skills, are highly engaging and empowering for students, and help others in the school community and beyond. Learning doesn't get much better than that!  🙂

Margaret Black
Grade 4/5 Teacher
Rama Central P.S.

---------------------------------------------------------

RESOURCE LINKS

My class' previous wildlife and Yukon Quest tracking project resources, etc. can be accessed here: http://www.blackdeer.ca/index.html#Teaching

This page contains a number of links to Project-based Learning resources: https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/free-project-based-learning-resources-that-will-place-students-at-the-center-of-learning/

There is an free, online Project-based Learning course available at this link:  http://www.intel.com/education/video/pbl/content.htm

---------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for visiting our class BLOG.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free e-mail me (Margaret Black):  mblack@scdsb.on.ca or to add a comment to this page.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to toolbar