Term four Inquiry Staff meetings 1 and 2

Two of the lead teachers have been facilitating meetings to develop a Koputaroa School Inquiry Model. The teaching staff feel empowered by the involvement they are having into developing a programme that changes the strategic direction of the school curriculum. Inquiry learning focuses on modelling processes and skills needed to be 'life-long learners', rather than concentrating on content-based topic learning.

The Koputaroa School Inquiry model is based on its school logo that has a 'Kereru' or wood pigeon on it. The six stages of inquiry are based on using the word Kereru as and acronym.

Michael Pohl

Michael Pohl ran a workshop with the 'I can we can' ICT cluster on 11 September. He ran a second smaller workshop for other members of staff after school. Michael demonstrated how different thinking models can be used to enhance students thinking. He used different models such as 6 Thinking Hats, the revised Bloom's Taxonomy and Tony Ryan's Thinker's Keys. Michael talked about how ACRONYMS can be useful as can Graphic Organisers. He also talked about how teachers and students need to ask the right sort of questions.

Jan facilitates Inquiry Development Day

On 1 September 2008 Jan Thomas led an Inquiry workshop at our school in a Teacher only day. This workshop was all about immersing the staff in the concepts and language of Inquiry, and them discovering that the theories behind Inquiry Learning reinforced what they themselves believed about what and how students need to be learning in the 21s Century.