Final Product and Reflection

 Final Product and Some Final Thoughts

Looking back at my first blog and the big ideas I came in with, it is clear that my understanding of inquiry was very simplistic. I think I had no idea what was involved in my inquiry possibilities when I wrote them. I had thought I would explore the realm of AI and its impact or influence in the classroom and learning commons. Ha! Great idea but what was I thinking? I'm a digital dinosaur, a full time teacher, and a mom to 2 wee ones who still expect their mom to show up from time to time. I love my life but these elements are hard to overcome when trying to learn about the latest and greatest tech in a limited time span. I realized quickly that I would need to pivot. And pivot hard. Much like a certain couch on a certain show... 

So I did. I very quickly came to realize that as a teacher, I do not have the time or resources to properly develop this kind of inquiry. Perhaps when I am a TL and have more non enrolling time to delve into these topics and could work with the technology teacher or other like minded colleagues I could do a much better job as understanding these powerful tools. As this course progressed after the first few blogs, I came to realize that I needed to be aware of my immediate needs and limitations.

I needed my professional learning to support my teaching which is why my final inquiry project took on a more specific and useful tone. I am using this unit in my classroom at the moment and so I feel like I fully met or fulfilled my personal learning objectives. I had created my own learning objectives in September which were: 

1.     Learn more about being an effective and capable TL

2.     Develop my inquiry skills to better improve both my teaching and librarian skills

3.     Investigate the values and appropriate uses of AI both as a teacher and TL

I try to keep my goals a little bit on the generic side as I begin a course, whether I am a student or teacher simply because I like to follow the curveballs that may come with the discussions and readings. A new idea may strike my fancy and I will no longer be as keen on learning more about a particular subject as I thought I was. Perhaps a conversation or collaboration with my TL will prompt me to start looking at one aspect of inquiry in more depth than I would have originally thought. There are so many moving parts to any course that my goal is simply to learn as much as I can from my classmates, the instructor, and the material as I can in the time assigned.

As I predicted could happen, I did switch interests as my class demands became greater and I needed to make my professional learning fit my classroom teaching more directly.

I think that I have developed a much richer and more nuanced understanding of the inquiry process and Indigenous ways of learning, both of which will inform my classroom and TL practice significantly in the future. I am feeling more willing and capable of allowing student designed learning to occur and I am more confident in my understanding of the process to be a strong guide so that their learning can be as meaningful and curriculum related as any unit I would create from a teacher driven perspective.

I did meet my learning objectives as I did try to learn as much as I could from my classmates (the blogs were amazing!), my instructor and the materials. There was a rich development of information provided on inquiry which allowed me to create my own deeper understanding of the process and ultimately implement it into my classroom. I was able to take the ideas I learned to my TL with whom I began a really strong collaboration on this unit and it has turned into a well developed resource that she and I can share with others.

My Artifact: (I really hope this link works... do you know how impossible pdf links are in blogger?!)

I created an inquiry unit that can be use in senior English classes. I attempted to use elements of the creationist model that we has used this semester as the framework while ensuring that the curricular expectations of the Ministry have been met. I've explained it all in the rationale embedded in the pdf so I hope that others find it useful. I have been working with my TL in a collaboration to create this unit and am currently using a trimmed down version in my EFP 12 course. The results are.... interesting. But there is promise. I will be sharing this resource with my department and the TL at my school will be hosting it in her shared resource drive as well. It's no fancy TikTok or AI created video as I had dreamed but it's real and useable which are no less valuable.