Guided Inquiry Design

Teachers & School Librarians—

In your typical PD, when do you actually get to work on your own teaching?

When do you get time to think about how to apply new ideas in meaningful ways?

When do you get to sit with colleagues and wrestle with your real questions?

Because honestly… this is not how most professional learning is designed.

The GID Inquiry Studio changes that.

I created a space where educators come to think, design, reflect, problem-solve, and grow together. ✨

A space where your work matters.
Where your questions matter.
Where your students matter.

Summer sessions are for planning ahead:
☀️ refreshing something good and making it great
☀️ applying ideas from recent learning
☀️ turning inspiration into action

Fall sessions are for real-time problem solving:
🚀 This lesson.
🚀 This challenge.
🚀 This moment.

You try ideas right away, come back, reflect, refine, and keep growing alongside other thoughtful educators.

This is professional learning where you are actually seen.

Come breathe life back into your practice.

Link 🔗 in comments

And this photo- well, because we all need a little ✨ sparkle!✨ 🩵💜

Inquiry is not a circle. Or even a cycle.

New blog

Inquiry Is Not a Circle: What Research Reveals About How Students Actually Learn – Guided Inquiry Design Search 'inquiry process steps' and you'll find pages of cycles and loops. But is a circle the right shape for learning? Here's what those diagrams are missing.

Inquiry studio is open for registration. Summer and fall sessions. Join us!

Somewhere between the sessions, the noise, the AI demos, the strategy decks, and the urgency of education right now…
I entered a space that made me realize:

“We never actually get time to think.”

Not superficial planning.
Not rushing through another initiative.
Not reacting.

Real thinking.

About students.
About learning.
About what actually matters.

That’s why I created Inquiry Studio.

A small virtual space for educators who want structured time to slow down, reflect, design, and think deeply about learning again.

Not perform innovation.
Actually design for human learning.

One hour a week.
A small group.
Two educators on the design floor each time.

Real conversation. Real coaching. Real inquiry.

In a world accelerating with AI, speed, and constant output, I believe thoughtful design matters more than ever.

And maybe the most radical thing we can offer educators right now…
is space to think.

There’s a difference between planning for learning… and designing with learning in mind.

That’s what the Inquiry Studio is becoming.

Not a webinar.
Not a sit-and-get PD session.
Not a place to collect more ideas you may never use.

It’s a live design space for educators who want to think deeply about student learning — and create inquiry experiences they can actually implement.

The Summer Inquiry Studio is intentionally different from the school-year experience.

Summer gives us the rare opportunity to slow down.

To linger with the thinking.
To realign to design principles.
To rethink the conditions that actually make inquiry work.
To build with intention instead of reacting in survival mode.

Then during the school year, the work becomes more agile and responsive — designing in real time with students in front of you.

Both matter.

One helps you see the landscape more clearly.
The other helps you move within it.

If you’ve been craving thoughtful professional learning that honors the complexity of teaching instead of oversimplifying it… you’d probably feel at home here.

✨ Inquiry Studio Summer Sessions are now open.

Comment “studio” or message me if you want details.

The Perfect 🐝 buzz
These takeaways from April’s edition of Educational Leadership are just the things we should hang onto.

Tell me…
How does curiosity show up at your school?
in your district?
How about your classroom or library?

Curiosity is the seed of learning- let’s foster it! Together!

🙌🙌🙌 congratulations team VMS
on this major accomplishment - getting your work published in ISTE EdLeadership and sharing the amazing work of GID with your 6th graders.
I know the best part is watching the students faces light up with their knowledge and new learning.
But it’s nice to be recognized too!
People from around the world are noticing and we are all so proud of you!
Thanks for all you do! 🙏🙏🙏

AI isn’t coming to classrooms.

It’s already there.

Students are using it to generate ideas, find information, and shape their work.

So the question isn’t “Should we allow it?”

It’s:

Are we designing learning well enough to keep thinking in human hands?

Because without that—

AI doesn’t support learning.
It replaces it.

I found myself feeling genuinely sad about how AI might be used in the world this evening, especially in ways that could cause harm.
And then I did something interesting… I asked AI about it.

Not for answers.
But to think it through.

What struck me wasn’t the technology.
It was the realization that this moment isn’t really about what AI becomes.

It’s about who we are while we use it.

Because no matter how advanced these tools get, they don’t hold values.
We do.

And in that moment, it became very clear to me:

The work I’ve been doing all along, helping educators design for curiosity, for reflection, for deeper thinking,
isn’t separate from this conversation about AI.

It’s central to it.

If we want AI used for good,
we need humans who know how to:
question,
pause,
analyze,
and care about meaning.

That doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s designed.

And maybe that’s the real work in front of us.

Not just building better tools.
But building the human capacity to use them well.

Congratulations to Pennington on being named a 2026 School Librarian of the Year Finalist!
There is nothing better than seeing this kind of impact in action.

What I love most about her story is the full-circle moment. As a district leader, she championed inquiry and brought Guided Inquiry Design® into her schools. And now, back in the library with students, she’s living that work every day, supporting learners, building connections, and making a direct impact where it matters most.

That’s what this is all about.

When inquiry becomes part of a system, not just a one-time initiative, it stays with educators. It shows up in how they design learning, how they support students, and how they lead long term. 💜

And the bottom line is that it reaches kids in the best ways.

So proud to see this in action.
Congratulations again, Cherity! 👏

Cherity Pennington: Collaborator | 2026 School Librarian of the Year Finalist Shawnee (OK) Middle School librarian Cherity Pennington is a tireless and creative collaborator.

My copies arrived today!!
We made it into Ed leadership y’all!!

Title: Designing for Curiosity.
You knew design had to be in the title because that’s what I do!!!

I’m so ready for the EL readership to say hello to GiD
Hello to teacher partnerships
Hello to intentional design for
Hello to student curiosity and voice.

stay tuned… lots more to come

Oooooh.
Educational Leadership April 2026
Hellllloooo GID

Hello librarians playing a central role in learning design.

Hello deeper collaboration.
Hello students engaged in really cool research!!!

Cannot wait for y’all to see this!!!

So grateful to Dr Lucy Santos Green and the Equip study. These are the exemplars the fruits from our efforts. the work doesn’t stop after grant funding. Sometimes it’s just the beginning!!

Even more Stacey Fulton and Rachel Lewis from Voorhees NJ for digging in, not giving up, and doing what’s right and best for kids!!!