Hutchinson: Who are we? Where are we starting?

Welcome to the beginning of our Inquiry Notebooking project.  Since teachers from Van Arsdale and Hutchinson will be working on this project and sharing ideas throughout the year, it makes sense that you should know each other and each other's work.

Hutchinson 6th grade Team
Corey Meurere-Lynn (Left: Reading, Writing, and Science)
Cori Bachman (Right: Reading, Math and Social Studies)

Corey and Cori both have 35 students, (WHEW!) and are starting off the year with Outdoor Lab in the near future (Sept. 3-6). As a team they bounce ideas off of each other and complement one another very well...kind of a Yin-Yang thing.  Corey Meurere-Lynn says he's conceptual, spontaneous and  creative.  In contrast, Cori Bachman is more concrete in her thinking and likes to bring organization and structure to their team and to their students. At this time, here's their daily schedule:
9:05 - 9:55        Art, Music, P.E.
9:10 - 10:40      Science/Social Studies
10:40 - 11:25    Science/Social Studies
10:45 - 11:05    Reading cont.
11:25 - 12:25    Reading
12:25 - 1:10      Recess/Lunch
1:10 - 2:10        Writing/Math
2:10 - 3:10        Writing/Math
3:10 - 3:25        Closure with focus on literacy

Focus for Inquiry Cycle One

Corey and Cori are going to focus their exploration on essential questions. This might include considering how essential questions frame the learning for students, how daily activities point back towards essential questions, or how they're utilized within the classroom.

Chalk Talk: "Why use notebooks?"

As we begin this year's project (Inquiry Notebooking in Science and Social Studies), we're starting to explore the tool that will be used to capture thinking and work of students.  The tool (the notebook) can be used in a variety of ways to support student learning.  Consider taking a look at the charts created during Van Arsdale's chalk talk. It reveals their thinking about the question, "Why use notebooks?"  Feel free to add additional thoughts, now and in the future, in the comment space below this blog post.  Let's see how our understanding and ideas grow throughout the year as we examine the notebook as a tool for learning.