Professional Inquiry Introduction

I am a 4th grade teacher in Bar Harbor, ME. My learners are aged 9-11. All students in the school have a one on one device. Up until 4th grades, their device is an iPad. Once they enter 4th grade, they will use a chromebook. Most of my 4th graders are pretty efficient with their chromebooks and can navigate them without my help. Others are still learning and need more support accessing materials I have posted for them. Prior to last year, I was on the fence about technology in the classroom. With my students being younger and knowing that they play video games, watch tv and youtube outside of school, I thought it was beneficial for them to have school be mostly non screen time. Once we were teaching remotely, I realized that other 4th grade teachers in the district had been using google classroom and other now necessary tech tool all year long. Their students pretty seamlessly transferring into remote learning, while my 4th graders had to learn how to use gmail, google classroom, etc. This year, my co teacher and I have both been working hard on introducing technology tools that we know they will need if we should go back to remote learning.

One of my biggest strengths as a teacher is connecting with the students. I believe that in order for students to learn what they need to, they need to have an environment that they feel safe and happy in. I'm also very reflective. I am not one to repeat the same lessons year after year without reflecting on how they went and how I could change and make it better. When planning units, I try to engage every type of learner in some way by including visuals, audio and a hands on portion. 

This will be my 3rd year in the school and I would like to improve upon making engaging and meaningful science and social studies units. When I started, there wasn't much for me to work with beyond the topics that 4th grade should cover. I have been slowly piecing together units, but would like to make them more in depth, use more technology and promote student inquiry. A goal that is more specific to this year would be to find a safe way to meet in groups of 2 or 3, especially for math. 

1. Flipped classroom- I initially learned about this last year during remote learning. I participated in a twitter chat about this topic and have wanted to learn more. I am interested in continuing to learn more about this and how to implement it. I think it would allow more opportunities for student inquiry and exploration.

2. Coding- Coding is something I have always been interested. On our students clever accounts they have the CODE app. I have always thought that it would be a very engaging activity for students to do. I am curious of the possibilities that would come from students learning about coding. 

3. Math workshop- I have used the math workshop model for a while. I would like to further explore how to differentiate math workshop. I want to make sure the activities planned for each group/student fits their need and is the best use of their time.

4. Maine Native American History- This is a 4th grade unit that we are asked to teach. We have not been given any resources and my own personal knowledge is minimal. I feel that since I do not know much that I am unable to teach it well. I would like to learn more about the history of Native Americans in Maine so that I can plan a unit for 4th graders that would be historically accurate and interesting. 

5. Genius Hour- I heard of this through another teacher, who teaches middle school. This seems like a really cool idea to try out because there are so many interests that students have that we never have the time to explore. It would be interesting for me to give learning over to the students and exciting for the students to have the freedom to explore their own interests in their own ways. 

I don't have a certain direction that I want to go, but I am really interested in genius hour or flipped classroom, so I am leaning in the direction of one of the two. 

Below is the central question I think am in most alignment with:

B	How might we use technology to enhance real world, collaborative, learner centered education?