What happens when we put our students in the driver’s seat? Harvey “Smokey” Daniels says; when we let kids be curious, they dive deep. They persist longer when they’re curious. Smokey says if we can activate a student’s curiosity, they no longer need to be forced into action. So where do elementary teachers fit inquiry and curiosity into their day. How do teachers harness the power of curiosity? And how do we hand over the reins to students in a well-structured environment? 
 Smokey Daniels covers all of this and more in his newest book, The Curious Classroom: 10 Structures for Teaching with Student-Directed Inquiry.
 
We talked about this and more on today's podcast. We started out our conversation talking about why Smokey is so excited about this new book?



See below for a full transcript of our conversation

​Smokey :    I spent the last couple of years embedded in several awesome elementary schools, and I saw such great teaching there, kids making incredible progress, leaps and bounds and gains. I just couldn't wait to get it all in a book. What I saw when I would go in those classrooms is these brilliant structures that teachers invented or created or adapted. Great time, great time use, doing things really efficiently and briskly. Kids super engaged and curiosity activated. The schools and the districts that we worked in had some good results, too. There were some good test score gains and places, and so all that put together made me just want to get that into a book. For me, The Curious Classroom really is a dream come true.

Brett:    Sometimes the inquiry can feel daunting. How is this book making getting started with inquiry easier?

Smokey :    To begin with, I think sometimes just the word inquiry is a little hard for people, it sounds kind of abstract and a little bit technical, but all it really means is posing questions and seeking answers to them, so it doesn't have to be that exotic. 
    Then, we have our own fear of losing control, that sometimes I think people make pictures in their heads of kids going wild, if they're released, to say, pursue answers to their own questions for a while. What people have to understand what the book is all about is that this is highly structured. It's very highly structured. It's a tight ship. A lot of teachers say, "Well, I run a tight ship." But it is a tight ship, but it's a different kind of ship. When we have kids buy-in, when we have their engagement, when they're committed to the process because they own the inquiry, they're participants in creating the agenda, then those problems disappear.
    We engage kids by tapping into their good old-fashioned intrinsic motivation. Our fear of losing control is sometimes overrated. All we're trying to do really here is we're trying to make school more interesting. The great thing about that is that when we do these student-directed inquiry, not only the school becomes more interesting for kids, it becomes more fun for us too, as teachers.

Brett:    How does your approach differ from other kinds of inquiry or project-based learning?

Smokey :    Right now, these days there's a resurgence of project-based learning. It's almost we call it a boom. That's great. That's great for all of us. I think people who do this work are all one family. One thing I see that makes my work different and my book is different because a lot of project-based learning that I observe around the country, not all of it,