Today was a special day at school - we had Kath Murdoch on campus to give us some inquiry tips and share with us how to create an inquiry-rich classroom setting. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kath Murdoch, she's the inquiry guru and the creator of the "Inquiry Cycle" which has been a part of my teaching since I began student teaching in Australia back in 2007. She's an Australian lady and the Australian (at least Queensland) education that I received was very inquiry based which I think is why I was able to move into understanding and grasping the whole PYP curriculum when I began teaching it.
Kath Murdoch travels around the world visiting schools and educating educators (a tough job!) about how inquiry can happen, be powerful and is the most effective way to teach children. We were very lucky to have her visiting MIS today and I was fortunate enough to have two opportunities to speak with and learn from her today, followed by a second PE targeted chat tomorrow that I'm really looking forward to! Undoubtedly, teaching students using inquiry is the best way for the students to learn. Inquiry helps students to have a stronger and deeper understanding on what they're learning by allowing them to make their own connections to a subject/topic/idea/lesson. Traditionally, in PE, inquiry doesn't have as strong a correlation as it does in the classroom...and I don't think the research, tools and evidence of inquiry in PE has made its rounds enough to educate teachers that it IS powerful, that it IS necessary and that it NEEDS to happen. Traditionally, PE (including my own experiences growing up) involved a teacher (varying levels of scariness) barking orders at students in a gym. In my years growing up, my teacher would show us how to throw, catch, kick and stop a ball, then make us do it AND yell at us to run faster, jump higher and be quieter. The latter part, we weren't even sure how to do as she never told us or gave us the tools to figure it out...so was this actually inquiry?! :P I do have to give credit where credit is due though - in Grade 4, we were required to come up with a skipping routine to music of our choice and that did involve some legit inquiry action. In the whole of my childhood education, though, my inquiry opportunities were very limited, especially in PE.
My undergraduate degree from +Acadia University in Canada was in Kinesiology so I have a pretty solid understanding of the human body, how it works, what happens when we exercise/move and (most enthusiastically) about what it looks like after an injury, how to fix it and help it heal. I never thought that I'd be revisiting this knowledge from a teaching perspective though as I had fully intended to become a chiropractor after a gap year teaching in Korea. Needless to say, I kinda liked the idea of teaching children and decided to pursue it as a profession. In 2007, I started my Graduate Diploma of Primary Education at +James Cook University in Townsville, Australia and I again revisited PE (after my K-12 education experiences and undergrad sport experiences) but now, it was called HPE - Health and Physical Education. And get this, the classroom teacher taught this subject - not a single subject or 'specialist' teacher. Now, I have to say, we had a lot of inquiry moments here as well as a lot of fun. We got to treat our classmates like elementary/junior school 'students' and teach them a variety of games that focused on different skills...but there still wasn't much inquiry going on on the 'students' end. Of course, in game and sports situations, kids/athletes are forced to be inquirers and thinkers in certain situations but I still think the potential to create these opportunities can be broadened and maximized. But hey, I wasn't a PE 'specialist', I wasn't going to stay in Australia to teach and the majority of my training was about how to be a classroom teacher.
Sure enough, I left Australia and JCU and went back into the classroom. I spent a year and a half at a 'hagwon' (private after school academy) back in Korea as an EAL/ESL teacher where the idea of inquiry was unfathomed. This didn't stop me though, I created summer camp classes that allowed children to tap into their creative side and didn't require the use of a text book. I also volunteered at kindergartens where I sang songs and had students create songs and new lyrics to tunes they already knew. Then, I moved on to my first 'International School' job in China, at EtonHouse International School - Wuxi, where I really got an eye-opening glimpse into how education could work with the IB PYP. It was fantastic to have my own class, my own classroom and to initiate Units of Inquiry with the kids and really see them take control of their learning. I was so proud of myself for seeing the way education should be, but even prouder of my students who took ideas and flew with them! As I began to understand the units, the central ideas and the transdisciplinary themes I began to see the potential for transdisciplinary planning and teaching...but this wasn't happening at my school. When I spoke to my principal before leaving, I posed the idea of teaching PE so that I could tie classroom units into the physical education program. The next day, I had an email from Paula Baxter at +Munich International School proposing a job interview for the position I had just discussed with my then boss, Rob Stewart. When I got the job offer, I knew that it was something I had to accept.
So, here I am now, a year and a half into trying to make inquiry in PE happen. Trying to link units at a K-12 school that shares gym space on different time tables has not been the easiest task (sometimes it just doesn't work) but I have been trying with the help of my fantastic team of PE educators. I am excited to hear what Kath Murdoch suggests and has to share with us tomorrow and I'm sure I'll be inspired to write more! Until then, I must share this fantastic link for any PE teachers out there who may stumble upon my story and struggle with the idea of inquiry in PE:
http://www.iphys-ed.com/iphysed-inquiry-cycle.html +iPhysEd
Kath Murdoch travels around the world visiting schools and educating educators (a tough job!) about how inquiry can happen, be powerful and is the most effective way to teach children. We were very lucky to have her visiting MIS today and I was fortunate enough to have two opportunities to speak with and learn from her today, followed by a second PE targeted chat tomorrow that I'm really looking forward to! Undoubtedly, teaching students using inquiry is the best way for the students to learn. Inquiry helps students to have a stronger and deeper understanding on what they're learning by allowing them to make their own connections to a subject/topic/idea/lesson. Traditionally, in PE, inquiry doesn't have as strong a correlation as it does in the classroom...and I don't think the research, tools and evidence of inquiry in PE has made its rounds enough to educate teachers that it IS powerful, that it IS necessary and that it NEEDS to happen. Traditionally, PE (including my own experiences growing up) involved a teacher (varying levels of scariness) barking orders at students in a gym. In my years growing up, my teacher would show us how to throw, catch, kick and stop a ball, then make us do it AND yell at us to run faster, jump higher and be quieter. The latter part, we weren't even sure how to do as she never told us or gave us the tools to figure it out...so was this actually inquiry?! :P I do have to give credit where credit is due though - in Grade 4, we were required to come up with a skipping routine to music of our choice and that did involve some legit inquiry action. In the whole of my childhood education, though, my inquiry opportunities were very limited, especially in PE.
My undergraduate degree from +Acadia University in Canada was in Kinesiology so I have a pretty solid understanding of the human body, how it works, what happens when we exercise/move and (most enthusiastically) about what it looks like after an injury, how to fix it and help it heal. I never thought that I'd be revisiting this knowledge from a teaching perspective though as I had fully intended to become a chiropractor after a gap year teaching in Korea. Needless to say, I kinda liked the idea of teaching children and decided to pursue it as a profession. In 2007, I started my Graduate Diploma of Primary Education at +James Cook University in Townsville, Australia and I again revisited PE (after my K-12 education experiences and undergrad sport experiences) but now, it was called HPE - Health and Physical Education. And get this, the classroom teacher taught this subject - not a single subject or 'specialist' teacher. Now, I have to say, we had a lot of inquiry moments here as well as a lot of fun. We got to treat our classmates like elementary/junior school 'students' and teach them a variety of games that focused on different skills...but there still wasn't much inquiry going on on the 'students' end. Of course, in game and sports situations, kids/athletes are forced to be inquirers and thinkers in certain situations but I still think the potential to create these opportunities can be broadened and maximized. But hey, I wasn't a PE 'specialist', I wasn't going to stay in Australia to teach and the majority of my training was about how to be a classroom teacher.
Sure enough, I left Australia and JCU and went back into the classroom. I spent a year and a half at a 'hagwon' (private after school academy) back in Korea as an EAL/ESL teacher where the idea of inquiry was unfathomed. This didn't stop me though, I created summer camp classes that allowed children to tap into their creative side and didn't require the use of a text book. I also volunteered at kindergartens where I sang songs and had students create songs and new lyrics to tunes they already knew. Then, I moved on to my first 'International School' job in China, at EtonHouse International School - Wuxi, where I really got an eye-opening glimpse into how education could work with the IB PYP. It was fantastic to have my own class, my own classroom and to initiate Units of Inquiry with the kids and really see them take control of their learning. I was so proud of myself for seeing the way education should be, but even prouder of my students who took ideas and flew with them! As I began to understand the units, the central ideas and the transdisciplinary themes I began to see the potential for transdisciplinary planning and teaching...but this wasn't happening at my school. When I spoke to my principal before leaving, I posed the idea of teaching PE so that I could tie classroom units into the physical education program. The next day, I had an email from Paula Baxter at +Munich International School proposing a job interview for the position I had just discussed with my then boss, Rob Stewart. When I got the job offer, I knew that it was something I had to accept.
So, here I am now, a year and a half into trying to make inquiry in PE happen. Trying to link units at a K-12 school that shares gym space on different time tables has not been the easiest task (sometimes it just doesn't work) but I have been trying with the help of my fantastic team of PE educators. I am excited to hear what Kath Murdoch suggests and has to share with us tomorrow and I'm sure I'll be inspired to write more! Until then, I must share this fantastic link for any PE teachers out there who may stumble upon my story and struggle with the idea of inquiry in PE:
http://www.iphys-ed.com/iphysed-inquiry-cycle.html +iPhysEd
1 comment:
Hi Melinda,
I am glad you found iPhys-Ed.com and particularly my Inquiry cycle. Hope it has been helpful to you.
Thanks,
Nathan
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