Hello all: 

We just wanted to, once again, welcome you to this journey to Northern Arizona. Both, Ms. Borbón and I are incredibly excited to travel and learn with all of you. We have been working hard to ensure that you all have a valuable, safe, and everlasting learning experience. 

This following Monday we will meet at 9 00 am (make sure you arrive on time). We will be going over some essential details for our trip and more importantly, we will create some spaces (activities) through which we will get to know ourselves better and establish our goals for the trip. 

One of the things we will be doing is creating essential questions for our trip. Maybe, if you have some downtime before Monday -NOT required- you could begin to think about one essential question you would like to share with the group. Perhaps about traveling, learning from other communities, etc. 

In case you have forgotten what an essential question is (we know it has been a long week of finals) here is a brief description: 

What is an Essential Question (EQ)?


Essential questions get students engaged in the kind of thinking it takes to truly understand a subject. They help students see the connection between content standards and important questions through inquiry and thoughtful conversation. That means students learn more than just the subject matter but why it’s relevant, too.  They are provocative and generative. They are catalysts for in-depth discussion and bring absolute truths into question. 

Essential Questions: 

  1. Are Open-ended – Do not have a single, final, and correct answer.
  1. Are Thought-provoking and intellectually engaging – Often sparking discussion and debate.
  1. Require higher-order thinking – Cannot be effectively answered by recall alone – analysis, inference, evaluation, and prediction. 
  1. Develop transferable ideas – Across subject or unit topics, as well as other disciplines.
  1. Sparks additional questions – Inquisitive-based learning is a crucial feature.
  1. Use support and justification – Claim, support, conclusion – not just a singular answer.
  1. Evolve with time – Questions revisited, new approaches taken, and new ideas brought to the table.
Have a great weekend and get some rest. 👍
Cheers, 

Your Northern Arizona Team

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