On February 26th we had the privilege of going to Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt’s kindergarten classroom at George Jay Elementary. Rebecca spoke to us about how she teaches inquiry based learning. Prior to her presentation, I was unsure how inquiry based learning would work in a kindergarten classroom. After the presentation I surprised myself by actually liking this method of teaching. I thought it would only work for older students but Rebecca’s approach made sense for younger ones. I believe it is important for students to have a say in their learning and for educators to base their lessons off of the students interests. I believe this is important because students need to enjoy learning at this age as it can have a large impact on how they feel about school for their remaining years.

Although I enjoyed her presentation on how and why she implements inquiry based learning, I highly enjoyed walking around and looking at her classroom. Her classroom was very natural and was minimalistic compared to others I have been in. In many courses we have discussed the importance of having different types of seats for students that do not work well in a chair or on the carpet all but I have never actually seen a classroom that implemented this before today. Her classroom was also very minimalistic which I think is better so it is less overwhelming for the students. The last thing that stood out to me was the Indigenous learning materials on the walls. This is another topic that has been brought up in many courses but I have never seen in classrooms. Personally, I believe Rebecca’s classroom is a perfect example of how I want my future classroom.