Today I had the opportunity to go to Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt classroom. I had never seen an inquiry-based classroom before. I was shocked at how intrigued her students were to learn. I love the idea of the wondering, her students have a wonder wall that changes throughout the year depending on what they’re learning about. The process that she uses for most inquiries is what do you know, what do you see, and what do you wonder. I think that this is a great way for students to come up with their own questions and to think about what they want to learn about. I asked Rebecca about how she creates a plan for inquiries. She stated that the first inquiry is more structured. She said that this year they have done three different big inquiries, one was about themselves at the beginning of the year, the second was about pets, and the third was about dinosaurs. I love the inquiry project about learning about themselves as people, how everyone is different and unique. She says that when planning the year she works backwards. She starts with the big idea and works through the curriculum connecting as many key ideas and content to the inquiry project. She also told me how she lets the students choose the inquiry. She says that the biggest thing to start the year with is relationships, really connecting with every student and learning about their interests. She will communicate with her students and because of her relationship with the students, she knows what all the students are most interested in and can start to brainstorm with the students about what they want to start the inquiry project about. She told us that when deciding on what inquiry the students are going to learn about for the next few months they take a vote. Also within those votes, depending on the inquiry subject there can be multiple different groups so the students can have a choice. The biggest thing that I took away from today’s visit was children are capable and should have a voice in what they want to learn about.
Classroom decor was a big part of today’s visit. I loved the feel of her classroom and the environment. It felt so warm and welcoming. She had neutral coloured shelving and desks which made the space feel really big, it was clean and tidy with toys put away but still visible for students to see and want to play with. The toys were natural and mostly made out of wood. They were so unique and hand made that the students didn’t care that they didn’t have lego or my little ponies. I am excited to go and buy her book that she wrote about inquiry-based learning and to pick up some of the children’s books that she recommended to us.
I loved visiting Rebecca’s class because after seeing inquiry-based learning in person, I want to teach my students through an inquiry-based way, this is what I want my classroom to look and feel like.
