This week our class had a long discussion with Miss Humphrys’ class next door about our Personal Inquiry time investigations. We have a huge focus on developing our creativity skills, along with many others. However, we needed to revisit what we are really passionate about, what interests us the most and what we want to investigate during our personal inquiry time. Miss Sporn had been to a Inquiry conference with Kath Murdoch and had some new suggestions and ideas for us getting back into what we’re really passionate about – not just what we might be interested in.

We’ve got new lists of what each of us love the most and plan to add to these lists often.  Our lists have reminded us what we love most and how we should use these passions to really drive our Personal Inquiry times. We’ve watched some Youtube clips and looked at Pinterest for new ideas and suggestions – we feel really excited about refocussing our passions and keeping our creativity alive.

This week’s session was really interesting. We had lots of variety in the models created and you can see stage 1 of a massive mural near the end of the slide show – we can wait to see the finished product.

Next week our topic is Earth Art – can you think of what we might be investigating? Can you make any suggestions for our next session?

On our last day of term we had the final Personal Inquiry time session. Each student planned their own inquiry into something they’re interested in. After last week’s ‘cardboard challenge’ everyone enjoyed using lots of different materials for this weeks session.  Once again, we had a wide variety of creations made – some of us were inspired by last weeks session and made similar models, e.g. box desk organisers, and we also had lots of new ideas presented. Our session this week was a lot shorter than usual – only 90min, including planning and packing up time. Some students used the session this week to finish creations that they’ve been working over a few week – lots of working models were shown that had so much detail.

Every student in our class is building  a wide variety of skills and each week are showing more and more creativity and individuality in their learning. It’s fascinating to see what each student comes up with!!

After the cardboard challenge everyone is really interested in having more specific challenges given to them – do you have any suggestions for us?

Our learning journey has continued during this term. We’e seen a lot of creativity and have seen how this time really allows for each student to show just how creative they can be.

This week we had the ‘cardboard’ challenge. We used Pinterest and some different websites to give us some inspiration. The cardboard challenge meant that our designs, models or creations needed to be based around using cardboard in some way.

WOW!!! The results were AMAZING!! This challenge really showed a different side to each students thinking and creativity.

When we reflected upon our session the students said they were a bit worried about a ‘cardboard’ challenge but by sharing ideas, looking online and having whole class discussions they felt inspired to try something new.  Now they’re asking for new challenge ideas – do you have any suggestions for us?

Here are all of our cardboard creations.

What could be our next challenge?

We had an AMAZING Personal Inquiry time session today. Our Personal Inquiry time is a direct link to the Genius Hour  passions you may have read about. The students in our class have loved having time to make, create, investigate something they are passionate about. Every week they’ve investigated new areas or revisited topics that they’ve loved and want to investigate further. When we reflected upon today’s session we thought today’s session was OUR BEST ONE EVER!!

We had lots of different creations – arcade games (inspired by Caine’s Arcade), models made out of popsticks, clay, cardboard boxes, paper, recycled materials, iPad presentations – after a bit of app smashing, Art works, shoe box dioramas, books, cooking – with a Keynote pressie to show others the steps to make Milo Balls – just to name a few!!!

Each week we reflect about our session and discuss our successes, disasters and what we can do next time. Our reflection sessions are a really important part of the process and it’s how we learn about each others creations and what inspired them to create it.

Here’s some snap from today’s session:

We had our third Personal Inquiry session on Friday. We had been planning all week – discussing and sharing ideas of what we could create. We discussed that this time is about investigating something that is important to you or something you’re interested in finding out more about.

This week was discussed how to raise the standard of our creations and make them the best that we can. We also had a huge focus on becoming more independent – relying less on adult help to complete creations.

We had lots of interesting Art creations – lots of experimenting with different Art forms, models, moving cars – with working axels.

To inspire us Miss Sporn showed us a clip of Caine’s Arcade – we loved it. Caine gave us lots of ideas about how to create something that’s personal to YOU and how to share your creations online.

This week we had our third Persona Inquiry time. This is a chance for students to investigate a topic/ idea/ art form/ sport/ etc,  that they really are keen to find out more about. They have 3 hours to complete their creation and present it to the class during a gallery walk.

As these sessions have progressed we have noted the many skills we are developing:

• creating
• co-operating
• collaborating
• sharing
• giving
• listening
• investigating
• compromising
• organising – resources, materials, work spaces, partners for activities
• explaining
• planning
• inventing
• constructing
• naming
• relating
• designing
• imagining
• predicting
• testing
• working
• examining
• recommending
• assessing
• finding
• listing
• prioritising
• communicating
• laughing
• and so so many more!!!

So many of these skills are needed by everyone around the world and they are skills we all need to continue to develop.

As the weeks have gone by I’ve noticed that students are being more thorough in their planning and organising of work partners and resources and that creations are becoming more detailed and of a very high standard. (As a teacher observing the students in her class.)

We have 1 more Personal Inquiry session for this term and then we will tweak our process and expectations for next term’s sessions – we need to reflect upon how we can improve our sessions, what have been our successes and our challenges, how can we ensure that every child is creating something important to THEM!

We loved finding out that our Year 5/6/7 students have ‘I’ time – this is their chance to choose their own investigation and follow it through. We were really excited to find out that our Personal Inquiry time will continue as we get older and move into different classes within our school.

Stay tuned for more amazing creations!

Personal Inquiry – Week 3 Session on PhotoPeach

Can you offer us any suggestions for our future sessions?