The Thrill of Learning 

I have had the most invigorating experience watching my students the last two weeks. From the excitement around our outdoor exploration and how the students used photography to capture images, to watching a mapping inquiry emerge as students question what types of maps we can use and why pirates needed maps to find treasure. All of which have deepened my learning and left me with new wonderings.

During our outdoor exploration the students worked with a partner to capture photographic images of items that they found interesting. I had the pleasure of listening and observing during their exploration as I walked around in small groups. I was inspired by the children’s innate ability to ask questions. Some that I heard were, “why is the leaf brown?” “How did the butterfly die?” “Why is that fence here?” I have always believed that questioning was natural for students when not forced upon them through content knowledge first. This was evident during the outdoor exploration time.

What took me to my own new level of learning as an educator was not the children’s ability to question.   It was their ability to be happy in the state of wonder. They would sometimes add reasoning to someone’s question, but they did not seek a definitive answer. They didn't need me, the teacher, to give them a final answer; they were happy with their reasoning and understanding.

Empowering learning for me was that questions don’t need to have immediate answers. I think immediate answers would have taken away from their learning. So now I am wondering, when is the” right” answer required and is it required? Or what makes it the right answer?  I feel like my head is spinning.....

Another inquiry that is starting to emerge in our class is around maps and why we use maps. I mention this as a learning experience for me because for the last three weeks I had been wondering;

“How do you know when an inquiry is naturally taking place in the class?”

I guess I was still unsure whether the students in kindergarten would open an inquiry up or would it be driven by the teacher. This particular inquiry started with one student bringing in his compass and talking about how to use a compass to find directions. The next thing my colleague and I noticed was that some of the children were creating maps. One map was a fire exit from our classroom to the front of the school, another was a map on how to get to his house and one was a map of how to find items out in the yard. Others started to discuss treasure maps and how pirates use them to find treasure. It seemed the right time for us, the educators, to look at enhancing this inquiry by bringing items that would provoke further questions and wonderings about maps.

I am now in this space where the students are driving the inquiry while the educators add provocations. We spend time capturing the knowledge students bring to the inquiry and continue to gather his/her wonderings along the journey. An intriguing process to see evolve.

What we know and wonder about maps

I see..... "pirate ships"

I see.... "castles"

Deep observation has not only honed my listening skills, it has opened my mind to the possibilities that there is so much more to learn about how children learn. I can’t wait to dig into some literature that will help me to continue to question, to allow me to be still for a while in the beauty of wonder and to seek further questions to deepen my understanding around how learning happens.