Weekly Reflection #3 : Inquiry based schools

This past Friday, I had the pleasure of visiting a technology and innovation high school in Victoria BC. Although I’m studying to be a an elementary teacher, visiting this high school gave me so much insight into the benefits that inquiry based education can have. In this school, kids were not formatted into neat boxes of attending specific classes to benefit and fit curriculum. Rather, they were given opportunities to study their interests and then teachers would do some work to help the student expand their ideas and interest to go across the curriculum. For example, they were working reading a science fiction novel and they would take apart the science in the novel to see if it was plausible, thus fulfilling their science requirement in an engaging way. They also had every creative persons dream located just downstairs. Students had access to a whole studio where they could work on a multitude of things, such as photography, ceramics, sewing, drama, music and whatever else they wanted to spearhead. This visit to this school has opened my eyes that there isn’t just one path and road to being a teacher. There are many different ways of teaching that aren’t bound by the same traditional modes of learning that I went through my elementary school years learning.

Photo by Carlee Cleveland