This week’s guest speaker was Trevor McKenzie who highlighted student agency and autonomy. Trevor’s presentation focussed on centering students, and encouraging/enforcing collaboration in the classroom through things like group work and peer feedback in order to enhance classroom culture.
One of the big points from Trevor’s presentation was the emphasis for teachers to program and plan for students to become curious in the curriculum which in turn facilitates their own learning and growth. One way to do this is through inquiry-based learning where students co-design criteria for a concept or assessment in order to make students feel that their input is valued. Trevor’s mindset of inquiry-based learning closely ties to what we learned in Jeff Hopkins’ presentation about the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. While there are some large differences between the two teaching styles, they feel quite similar and it would be interesting to experience both environments where this is being used.
https://www.trevormackenzie.com/posts/2024/11/2/learning-labs-inquiry-in-action
I really appreciate Trevor having so much content open to the public. I believe he is a great resource for all teachers and he has everything from lesson structures, to YouTube videos, to Events and resources. This was such a great connection to gain and is definitely something that I plan on revisiting and keeping up-to-date with as I continue teaching. Below is one of Trevor’s YouTube videos that I think is helpful and effective as it is only a 10 minute long video!!