The Speakers

When kids are curious, everything shifts: students are more engaged, more enthusiastic, and deeper learning occurs. I get really excited when my students are really excited. Creating the conditions for curiosity, agency, and student questioning are passions of mine.
-- Trevor MacKenzie

You will learn to answer questions like these:

• How can we plan for curiosity as an entry point into our curriculum?

• How can we capture student generated questions and have these provide us a clear direction for learning moving forward?

• How can we scaffold for agency, independence, and collaboration?

• How can we embed cooperative learning strategies to help students share their understanding and move towards doing rather than merely knowing?

• How can we facilitate assessment exercises and conversations more consistently in our classrooms and in our teaching time so students take on a more authentic role in the assessment process

• How can we facilitate meaningful conversations in student/teacher assessment conferences?

-- Trevor MacKenzie

I hope to learn about the specific contexts and challenges each person in attendance faces on a day to day basis and responsively use this information to plan next steps in my sessions in real time. Showing examples of what others teachers, schools, and districts are doing when facing similar challenges is one way I hope to design the learning to best meet the needs of those in attendance.
-- Trevor MacKenzie

I love the authentic spaces that inquiry invites demonstrating the value of all voices when it comes to learning in the classroom. The playful approaches create opportunities for more connected and therefore deeper learning about ourselves in our practice and who we are as curious human beings!
-- Jessica Vance

Participants will explore the seven dispositions of an inquiry leader, identifying how these attributes empower all learners. Participants will be called to further consider the balance of our mindsets and moves as both inquiry and managerial leaders engaging in an inquiry process that compares systems and reflects on the cultures that we are trying to cultivate. 

Some big questions we’ll tackle:

• What dispositions and mindsets are necessary for our roles as we lead with a lens of inquiry?

• What are the ways we empower ourselves and our teachers towards a more reflective practice?

• What are the small and big ways we nurture an environment of inquiry?

• How can we honor the agency of “our learners” while moving our programmes and schools towards sustainable growth?
  -- Jessica Vance

I hope to learn more about the experiences, challenges & celebrations from other educators. This dynamically different approach to a conference is one that is unique and leverages the opportunity for us all to think differently about our roles as inquiry educators.
-- Jessica Vance

I love creating learning environments with curiosity, agency, and joy.  When educators center student ideas, questions, and thinking, we share power with our students and encourage them to become responsible for their own learning.  When power is distributed, agency and brilliance emerge.
-- Amy Chang

To empower our students, we have to disrupt institutional norms and practices that prevent them from thinking. Our students have always been capable thinkers, we just need to create conditions that liberate their thinking.
-- Amy Chang

I am eager to learn more about the ways that we can cultivate curiosity for adult learners, educators, and leaders.  How can we nurture our own sense of wonder and excitement and bring that energy into our classroom practice?  The collective enthusiasm of this conference will provide us with lots of opportunities to explore this together!
-- Amy Chang