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Although the format and tools have changed over the past year, the philosophy has remained the same: Unify learning at school, learning at home, and learning anywhere, anytime. Empower learners to engage in and reflect on their own inquiry processes. Encourage interest- and passion-driven learning. Integrate peers, parents, communities, and global networks into the inquiry process.

Educators can play a key role in assisting learners in building upon and expanding their self-regulation skills. Strategies include using metacognitive reflection questions both prior to and after learning tasks to assist students through a process of guided inquiry: What is the best way to go about this task? How well are my learning strategies working? What changes should I make, if any? What am I still having trouble understanding? What can I recall and what should I review? How does this material relate to other things I've learned or experienced? Supporting Self-Regulation in the Classroom)

I also feel it goes deeper than that. I feel I get a true opportunity to see my students persevere, problem solve and demonstrate their level of critical thinking. I am not hung up on the final results of an inquiry. I am enthralled with the process and where an inquiry will lead or fade out. I never fully know what will happen throughout an inquiry and that sometimes scares me but it also keeps me engaged and excited about the next pathways.

I have made a terrible mistake. I waited fourteen years to do something that I should have done my first year of teaching: shadow a student for a day. It was so eye-opening that I wish I could go back to every class of students I ever had right now and change a minimum of ten things - the layout, the lesson plan, the checks for understanding. Most of it!