Inquiry based learning starts by posing question, problems, or scenarios, rather than simply presenting established facts or portrayed a smooth path or knowledge. The teacher acts as a facilitator, rather than a source of information. The article Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning by Tina Barseghian shows eight ways Diana Laufenberg suggests ways to incorporate inquiry based learning in the classroom. My favorite of the tips Ms. Laufenberg provides were “be flexible” and “embrace failure.” These two came in handy when I was student teaching in a middle school that would moving toward a more inquiry-based approach. The school that I student taught at was Liberty Middle School in Cumming, GA, and I taught 7th grade Language Arts on the iTeam (this is an outdated website, but the information about the team is still accurate).
Through my experience using inquiry-based and project-based learning, I felt that it took some time to adapt to, but in the long-run, IBL and PBL were much better for both the students I was teaching and myself. 
kc06778 FRIT 7234 Blog 
Wow! Your word cloud is very nice! What did you use to create it?
I, too, took heed to Laufenberg’s tips to be flexible and embrace failure. Those little tidbits go a long way in the classroom. I have found that sometimes it’s difficult for the students to embrace those tips. For so long, they’ve been taught that everything has to be structured and that failure is not an option so they lose confidence when everything doesn’t go just right or they don’t make straight A’s. Sometimes, I wish that grades would just go away and we could just teach to our hearts contents! (Shh, don’t tell anyone I said that :/)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think I used Tagul! I had been using Wordle for a long time, but I think I like Tagul better. I had to mess around with the settings, but I love this!
Sometimes, I totally agree with you! I feel like grades are sometimes limitations for some students because they constantly strive for an A. Totally not a bad thing at all – I do it, too – but I want to see innovation and creativity rather than what you think I want! This was something big that I learned during my student teaching, and I sort of had to “train” my students to get over it!
LikeLike
I really enjoyed listening to and reading Tina’s work as well. She has some great ideas on creating inquiring thinkers in our students. The tips mentioned in this week’s readings should really come naturally to teachers, but surprisingly they seem to fade away as the stress of the job sinks in, and I get that too. I think it’s time educators get back to these concepts and remember that really, these things will create more success in their students.
LikeLike
I too love embracing my students failures. It’s funny, I always find a creative way to explain to my Pre-K kids that their mistake is okay. I had to use Tagul as well, I ran into complications with the other two. I love that you can put your words into any shape. I found Tina’s tips to be helpful as well! I even included them in my infographic assignment.
LikeLike