Final Reflection

The topic of inquiry is something that was quite new to me when I first started the course. This course helped me learn that teaching was not all about content. These little things that we can do in the classroom can have a big effect on the student's futures. For example, my inquiry project topic about classroom layout has a huge relationship with how the teacher controls a classroom. We also talked a bit about grades and assessment and how to be more open to standard based grading. This is a subject that I'm still on the fence with because I find grades to be more concrete and it was the way I was taught. That being said, it is still important to understand the pros and cons of each side and consider both opinions. This inquiry class definitely helped myself open up to different perspectives and to see the other sides. Even the visits to the Orchard Gardens was something new to me. I didn't think I would enjoy it, but it was actually a fun learning experience.

Inquiry Project Reflection

At first I thought that my inquiry question may have been a subject that was already studied many times. To be honest, I think it is quite a common topic, but there were still new things that I learned. For example, I didn't even think of how we should accommodate to students with physical or learning disabilities. It was something that seems obvious but often forgotten. Another thing that I learned while researching this topic was how much of an effect the teacher can have on student's peer relationships.

When preparing my activity for the class, I was kind of lost on what I should do. I ended up deciding on having the class in 2 different layouts, and asking general 'inquiry' questions. I had a bit of conflict with myself on whether or not I wanted to include questions related to our subject matter, or just some silly questions that I found. I ended up going with the silly questions, and it worked out great. It generated a ton of discussion across tables that I almost didn't want to interrupt. I'm glad that our class has people with such strong opinions because it definitely helped.

I still have more to learn and research about this topic. There was a subtopic that I didn't delve into too much, which was if gender of the teacher matters in the layout. Although this topic of class layout has been researched quite well, it has a strong value for our knowledge as teachers.

Inquiry Project Slides

Slides

The slides are almost prepared fully, just finishing up the small details!