In our team, iExplore happens in the morning from 9.05am - 9.45am. This is where we as learning coaches come up with ideas that our learners would be interested in learning about that are current and may be happening in our world. For example, we had a group that focused on making Jewellery to sell at the Ormiston Market Day.
This group had to research ideas of what they would like to learn about, create and share. Within this big group, there were small groups. Some learners focused on making: necklaces, bracelets, headbands and hair clips. Once they created their products we had to think about how we were going to present and sell them. We also had to price our products and talked about what a profit meant.
In iExperience, I have designed, delivered and taught children a whole range of different inquiries which I hope has sparked thought and interest into their learning. Activities included: light, colour, Cook Island culture, science experiments, Samoan culture, Matariki, Waitangi Day, Easter and a whole range of other topics. We have taster sessions over two days, usually Monday and Tuesday. We have each hapu for 30-35 minutes. Then, the learners get a choice of what they would like to learn more about. So, they choose based on what the learning coaches have designed.
I've never taught inquiry topics like this before and this I think is a great way to learn. This has changed my pedagogy in the are of inquiry and teaching it based on our school's learning model. You can find out more on our Habitat Site here. iExplore here and iExperience here.
Well done Priscilla on working so hard to understand iexplore and to make it successful for your learners. The learners enjoy this part of the day - do you? What have you found successful when supporting learners during this time. What is still challenging you? Have you considered on your CRT days going into different habitats and observing how they run their iexplore workshops. Observing how different learning coaches present their iexplore will confirm the journey you are on with your learners and will give you some different approaches you can trial. We are all on a journey at Ormiston Primary exploring different ways of making our learning interesting for our learners, great to read your positive experiences for both you and your learners.
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