Are your students asking and pursuing questions to drive their own learning?
PD for teachers, school, and district leaders
Our workshops help schools increase the level and quality of inquiry from both teachers and students.
Our Workshops
Creating A Culture of Inquiry
This workshop gives teachers tools they can use to grow a culture of inquiry in their classrooms. Participants will experience multiple questioning and inquiry strategies that they can use in their classrooms immediately. Engaging in scenarios on sometimes contentious topics but with clear expectations, participants will develop and practice their own inquiry skills. Learn how to pull profound thinking and problem solving from learners using questions to contextualize content and knowledge.
Starting Young: Infusing Inquiry and Project-Based Learning into Early Childhood Classrooms
Children are full of excitement to explore the world around them. Knowing how to harness that natural curiosity at a young age can set children up to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners. This workshop is intended for PK-2 educators looking to integrate an inquiry-driven, project-based approach into their teaching practice. Participants will discuss research-based benefits of inquiry, and focus on concrete strategies that create an inquiry-rich practice in all three components of teaching: planning, instruction, and assessment. Teachers will apply new strategies to adjust existing lesson plans, activities, or assessments towards more inquiry-driven practice. Finally, teachers will collaborate to build a project that can be implemented in their classroom.
Early Childhood STEM: A Project-Based Approach
Science is all about exploration, investigation, and finding answers to our questions. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)–based projects can transform your classroom into a space where children are constantly learning by doing. Through this approach, education becomes hands-on and active as students are playing, experimenting, asking questions, trying out ideas, and working together to solve problems. Teachers will learn how to create ongoing STEM-based learning experiences that scaffold approaches to learning, executive functions, and socio-emotional development, and that integrate rich literacy, art, movement, and other domains into everyday learning . The workshop is hands-on and interactive – participants will be given concrete examples and strategies of how to put the approach into practice, and will have opportunity to adjust activities to their own classroom and students.
The Art of Inquiry
This workshop will introduce the Pyramid of Inquiry, a simple yet effective framework for teaching with works of art, and provide participants with the inspiration and tools they need to integrate art into any subject area. The Pyramid of Inquiry was developed by K-12 teachers and museum educators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during a three year program that explored how experiences with works of art can foster meaningful student learning. Participants will discover ways to deepen their curriculum and support higher order thinking through this research based approach to art integration.
Question Formulation Technique
Participants will experience the QFT as a means to better understand the art of questioning. This workshop gives teachers tools they can use immediately to increase the quality and quantity of student inquiry in their classrooms. Exploring this inside and outside of the context of course content this workshop helps teachers create a culture where students feel safe and rewarded by asking more beautiful questions.
*QFT is also an integral part of our PBL Workshops
Facilitating Engaging Discussion
Being able to present one’s ideas verbally is critical to success in school and in the workplace. However, in many classrooms, students speak very little. Engaging classroom discussions can spark engagement, allow students to wrestle with content, propel them to create logical arguments, and boost divergent thinking. In this workshop, explore how to increase productive discussion in your classroom. Learn best practices both for frequent, informal student talk and for less frequent, more formal discussions like those using Socratic dialogue.
