Services
Inquiring Minds Consulting helps schools and non-profits develop and implement comprehensive educational programming that is informed by inquiry-based (project-based) learning methodology, instructional technology research, and youth development principles.

IMC offers:

Download Rebecca Renard's curriculum vitae
A young journalist filming on Lower Beaver Dam Creek, one of the tributaries of the Anacostia River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professional Development Workshops for Teachers

Inquiring Minds Consulting offers interactive, “hands-on” professional development workshops on a broad range of teaching techniques and technology. These include workshops on how to meaningfully integrate technology and the arts into the curriculum across disciplines; how to create video, web, and new print-based media; and how to design and implement project-based learning units. All of the activities and approaches offered in these workshops are created to meet your state or district's learning standards.

In most workshops, participants are engaged in the same process that they will lead their students through. This ensures that the highest level of success is reached, because teachers have the chance to experience the process themselves from start to finish, and can anticipate their students’ frustrations, questions, cognitive disconnects, etc. Teachers then have the ability to share and discuss their findings with others in the group and get ideas for how to personalize the project/process for their own classrooms.

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Integration of technology into the curriculum across disciplines

Whether it’s knowing how to use hyper-text and creating web pages for literature classes, using computer-based graphic design software to teach math principles, or shooting and editing video stories to bring history to life, IMC works with principals and teachers to meaningfully integrate technology into the curriculum in all subject areas.

We understand and can meet the needs of teachers who are not proficient in technology and technological applications, as well as those who are adept and who are searching for new ideas. Trainings can be designed for basic concepts such as how to effectively utilize the internet in the classroom, and for advanced concepts such as how to edit video on Final Cut Express.

We can train teachers and students in how to use software applications such as iMovie, Final Cut Express, and Adobe Photoshop, and hardware such as electronic whiteboards, and video cameras.

A young editor develoops a short video using storyboard cards he created.

 

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Integration of the arts into the curriculum across disciplines

IMC works with schools and teachers to help them learn ways to meaningfully integrate the arts into the curriculum across disciplines to bolster student motivation and creative development, and to support different modes of learning. We especially target reluctant readers, youth with lower-level literacy abilities, and young people identified as having “attention deficits”. Theater, mixed-media, photography, dance, and video are all considered in the development of curriculum.

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Youth Media Program Development

Youth Media is media conceived, developed, and produced by young people. It is an incredibly exciting tool that young people find empowering. Successful youth media programs often foster civic engagement and support literacy development. New technology has made the production of media (video, radio, and web) both financially accessible and easy to learn.

Inquiring Minds Consulting specializes in the creation of youth media programs for schools and community centers (day programs as well as after-school programs). We can create a structure, budget, and curriculum for your school or center’s needs, as well as serve as a coach—training teachers and staff in equipment use, and modeling lessons to support successful implementation of the program.

Rebecca Renard was a lead teacher in the creation of the Educational Video Center’s Youth-Powered Media curriculum, which is unmatched as a youth media program resource.

A young journalist interviews a community resident.

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Media Workshops

Inquiring Minds Consulting can design and lead a short-term media arts program for your classroom, school, or organization, focused on discrete video products. These workshops can range from 2-hours to a few months, once a week or everyday, depending on the organization’s needs and resources. Ideas for these workshops include creating:

• Community oral histories
• Video diaries documenting a year-long project or theme
• Web sites around issues that the young people are exploring
• Personal video stories integrating film, video, music, and narration
• Short documentaries
• Multimedia “novels” or interactive stories

Media workshops are ideal for organizations that have been wanting to use video or create a community-centered web presence. Rather than contracting with an outside company to shoot, edit, or design your media for you, the workshops empower you with the skills and ideas to do it yourself and share your new-found knowledge with others...and they are fun!

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Youth Development

IMC uses and advocates a teaching technique that addresses not only the intellectual, but also the creative, social, and emotional needs of youth. This technique follows nationally-recognized youth development models, such as the Academy for Educational Development's Advancing Youth Development program. Projects and curriculum generated by Inquiring Minds Consulting always include opportunities for young people to make meaningful contributions, to learn the skills to make those contributions, and to be recognized for their contributions.

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