Inquiring Minds

Site Coordinators Feb. 28, 2020

I can’t help it but the words from the Disney song, A Whole New World , keep rolling through my brain as I sit to write. Yes, I watched a few of the different Duos (my goodness that word has taken on a new meaning for me in the last 3 weeks) performing the song since it was released in 1992. This math inclined brain of mine jumped to make a connection with that year. 

Gillian Kydd, in Edmonton we refer to her as the god-mother of Inquiring Minds, was early in her role as a science consultant for Calgary Board of Education. She met in the fall of 1992 with people at the Calgary Zoo. By January of 1993 she helped a teacher and class take the first steps onto that site every chilly day for a week. She began weaving a magic carpet of education, something with a “new, fantastic point of view". In 2002 she took me for a ride that showed me “a hundred thousand things to see” and left me all these years later saying “I can't go back to where I used to be”.

This "whole new world" we find ourselves in today, was not even comprehensible on Feb. 28, 2020 when the group in the photo above spent the afternoon connecting with teachers at GETCA. The opportunity to talk to teachers this way, was something new and from my observer's view point, a great success. It is safe to say, many of us hugged, shook hands and spoke to each other well inside the 2 metre acceptable circle of today’s in-person social distancing communication guidelines.

My heart sang, all afternoon.

I told everyone I just came for the T shirt. I LOVE the new logo. But I really came to see some of the old and new faces of the site coordinators. Being truly retired means I don’t go to those facilitators' monthly meetings and I do miss them. 

Great energy crackled down the long display table and the smiles on everyone’s faces spoke to an amazing current of connection.

I was inspired. I decided to write a fly-by snap shot on each of the 13 sites of Inquiring Minds and post them here.

Early in the week that was school spring break in Edmonton, I met an alumni teacher of Inquiring Minds in the Safeway parking lot. Standing at least 3 metres apart we discussed the strange new paradigm teachers found themselves in and he asked if I thought he should still apply for a site next year. “Absolutely,” I said. “We have no idea what the school year will look like in the fall. If you don’t apply you won’t have a chance to access that rich world of learning.”

Then I reminded him of all the skills his “inquiry focused” “blank journal” equipped students can bring to their remote learning for the rest of this school year.

For the next few posts, join me, as Inquiring Minds biggest fan. I want to “open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder, over, sideways and under, On a magic carpet ride”.

“I can show you the world, Shining, shimmering, splendid” of Inquiring Minds. 

I invite you to take a brief bird's eye peek with me. It will not be technologically wonderful; just words to hook you, set your teaching imagination in motion, glimpse a hidden gem.

You can start by checking out the application at the Inquiring Minds website. It could be your magic carpet to a "whole new world" of learning.