Course Reflection

Before this class started I was feeling a little apprehensive due to the fact it was a condensed course occurring over one of the busiest times of the year. After watching the introduction video by our professor (Darcy McNee), however, I felt a little better. I found that these weekly video updates were very useful in planning my week and also helped me feel comfortable approaching Darcy with questions or concerns.

The textbook for this course, Why School? by Will Richardson was easy to read and discussion flowed naturally. I appreciated that the textbook was short and that it was used for the discussion each week.

This was my fist time completing a blog based course which took a week or two to get used to. Putting my thoughts out there for all to see made me nervous but the comments of my classmates helped me to see that what I had to say was appreciated and worth while.

I loved that for the final project we were given freedom to research an area of interest. As I've mentioned many times, I don't yet work in the library so this gave me an opportunity to choose a crossover topic that I could use both in the classroom and in the future as a teacher librarian. I feel excited about the resource I have created and feel like I have learned something new about ways to present information.

One of my goals in taking the TL Diploma program is to learn new technology and web based resources. I have definitely accomplished that goal through this course using Lucidchart in my first blog post to create a flowchart, and then using Symbaloo and Adobe Spark in my final project.

I think other than the academic benefits of taking this course one of the biggest things I have noticed is that I feel more confident sharing my ideas. I am thankful that Darcy required us to post and share our ideas. I wouldn't have done anything like this on my own.

Curious About Inquiry - My Final Project

It's hard to believe that it's time to publish my final project! This class has flown by and has been my favourite so far. Thanks for sticking with the blog, I am excited to share with you my digital artifact.


I have enjoyed this course because of the freedom I had in choosing my direction of study. In the past I have struggled with this but for whatever reason this course it just clicked. I think it has been harder for me because I am a classroom teacher which can make it harder to complete library specific assignments. This course opened things up a bit so that my topic of study could relate to both the library and the classroom.


This year has been challenging for me moving from TTOC work to teaching full time Kindergarten. I say challenging, but not at all in a bad way. I found that trying something so outside my comfort zone like Kindergarten has made me try new things and made me grow and stretch in many positive ways. Through this stretching I have begun to explore new ideas and since I am new to Kindergarten I need to find my passion in teaching these young children. That is where my interest in Inquiry Based Learning for Kindergarten came from. I was seeing all of these things like loose parts, and provocations, terms which I was not familiar with, and I could see potential in them. I wanted to know more and as I started to research I realized I would need to keep track of what I found which brings me to the purpose of my project.


I knew that I wanted to try something new for this project, to work with a website I hadn't used yet. I also new I needed to find a way to organize my resources. At one time I suppose I could have used recipe cards but that would be very hard to share with you all!

After asking around I settled on using Symbaloo as an organizational tool and Adobe Spark as a platform to explain my organization of the resources.

Here are the two parts of my project with the links in the titles.

Part 1 - Symbaloo

The first thing I did was go through the list of bookmarks I had collected on my computer. These were sorted, sifted, added to, and then organized by type onto Symbaloo. 

Part 2 - Adobe Spark

Once I started organizing my resources I realized that I also needed a way to share my method with others. I understand how and why I chose each symbol but not everyone would. By using Adobe Spark I was able to create a web page which explains how to use the Symbaloo. This is also linked on the Symbaloo page by clicking the compass square.

Works Cited

A complete list of the works cited in my project can be found on my Adobe Spark page.

Reflections

Once I completed my project I decided it was time to share it with other teachers in order to reflect on my learning and the usefulness of this project. I started out by emailing a few kindergarten teachers I know. Then, I took a risk and asked for help on the Kindergarten Connections Facebook page.

I have had a lot of positive feedback on the project so far. Teachers mentioned the Symbaloo is attractive, well organized, and easy to navigate. The Adobe Spark page also had positive feedback with teachers commenting that it is clear and helpful.

I did also have a few suggestions which helped me improve the project. One of my friends found some link errors, and another teacher suggested moving the guide button so it is on it's own (a fabulous suggestion). 

Sharing this project with others was scary. I have spend a lot of time with this and to release it to others made me nervous. At the same time I knew I had to otherwise what was the point of creating this resource? 

What Now?

I hope that after I publish and share the final draft of my project that I will continue to receive feedback and even suggestions of things to add or remove. I want this to be a living resource, something I can revisit and use as I hope to teach K again next year.