It’s week 2 of inQuiring minds, and once again we’re providing you with a snapshot of blogs, articles, ideas, opportunities and interesting thought pieces we’ve discovered on the web. Let us know what you think—share your comments below, post on our Facebook page, or tweet @RightQuestion!
We start off this week with a recommendation from our former intern Matt Missett. He directed us to Liz Dwyer’s inspiring blog post about Mission Hill School in Boston, where school culture is “focused on building students’ collaborative—rather than competitive—abilities.” Sam Chaltain, writing for Start Empathy Blog, calls Mission “an unfamiliar revolution in learning” that “demonstrates what’s possible when adults commit to meet the full range of needs — intellectually, socially, and emotionally—that children bring to school each day.” Watch a video about the school at the bottom of this post.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
- Gordana Goudie provides an honest reflection on her son’s experience with inquiry-based learning. It was only when he was taken out of the inquiry-based system that she realized how important it was—not only for his academic success, but also for his “development as a person.”
- In his recent post on Edutopia, Mark Phillips writes, “Although using student input for teacher evaluations is a complex and potentially tricky challenge, using student input to help guide instruction and curriculum is a no-brainer.”
- For his blog, The 21st Century Principal, J. Robinson writes that we can’t be afraid to ask the tough questions when it comes to our education system. “Asking tough questions is not a sign of insubordination,” he says, “It is a sign of courage.”
- In analyzing the art of questioning, Karen McDaniels says, “Both teachers and students should pose questions that are open-ended, probe for deeper meaning, invite further exploration, and have more than one ‘correct’ answer.” She also states, “learning conversations, prompted by good questioning, make available different angles with which to view information presented in text.”
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Thursday, June 14th The Martin Institute’s 2012 Conference, “Synergy – Questions are the Waypoints on the Path of Wisdom” features a double session hosted by Bo Adams and Jill Gough of The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, GA. If you’re attending, let us know how it goes!
- August 24th – 25th Mobilize.org’s Millennial Civic Engagement Summit on the 2012 election cycle. Mobilize.org will use GOOD Maker, the online voting platform of GOOD, to crowd source ideas of civically active Millennials in California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. They will invite Millennials to vote on their favorite projects in which Mobilize.org will invest awards totaling $25,000. To submit your idea, visit the competition page for your state.