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Innovation to me means stepping out of my "normal" and trying something new. Opening my mind and perspective, being willing to try something different. Being willing to take risks, and hopefully achieve great things because you are able to reach students in more ways. The goal is to make connections with students to get them to "buy in", by being innovative you are changing your thinking, and theirs.

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I agree with the comments made by many on here that innovation is really about getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new to improve.  It includes risk. I can be more innovative by working to give up more control to my students and allowing them to have more choice in their own learning.

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Innovation, to me, means putting a spin on something that grabs a student's attention and sticks in their brain. I don't think idea and concepts have to be totally new; the ideas and concepts may just be new to the learner...but I do think they have to be backed up by research. I think that differentiation is the heart of innovation. Making
connections and tailoring instruction to ALL students is innovative.

Ithink I could be more innovative with the way I was teaching vocabulary... or even my lack of teaching vocabulary. I got some great ideas from the fabulous staff members here at DMS :)

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Questioning what we know that works and then transforming that process into a new and different approach that may not feel normal or easy.  All this to in order to achieve increased clarity and connection for kids is my idea of innovation in education.

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Something new and hopefully an improvement over existing practice.  May be more attention grabbing or engaging.

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Rene'e                               Innovation is looking at something differently hopefully causing a connection leading to success, or understanding, or clarity.  It is a way to keep things new and exciting.  Working with Megan and Emily has made me look at the things I do and why I do them and make them better and more engaging for students. Finding ways to connect what I teach to what students are learning and using in other classes is important.

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Rene'e                               Innovation is looking at something differently hopefully causing a connection leading to success, or understanding, or clarity.  It is a way to keep things new and exciting.  Working with Megan and Emily has made me look at the things I do and why I do them and make them better and more engaging for students. Finding ways to connect what I teach to what students are learning and using in other classes is important.

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"in-" = in, "nov-" = new. Innovation involves looking at something from a different perspective and using critical thinking and creativity to come up with a new solution or idea. I need to work on being a better example of an innovator-trying new things myself despite the risks involved so that my students see how innovation can involve struggle, fear, imperfection, and failure, too.

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Innovation means stepping outside our comfort zones and outside the box. There are so many ways our students can learn and we need to challenge ourselves to think for them. This could include something that appeals to their interests, their learning styles, their reading ability, etc. It might mean that the set-up of our classroom looks different. I don't necessarily think it means to use technology to enhance our lessons. I think of it more as how can I think outside the box in order to help my students master a learning goal.

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Innovation means trying something new. Not something that is easy but something that challenges you as a teacher as well as the students. Shaking things up a bit and looking at a problem from new angle.

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I believe that innovation is stepping out of your comfort zone and pushing students out of theirs in order to try something new. It is often when we step out of our "normal" that we achieve at the highest level. This can be as simple as questioning students at a higher level. Innovation does not equal the use of technology in all situations. I believe in our day and age that people think in order to be innovative I need to incorporate technology and make my lessons more "jazzy." I will strive to be more innovative this year by putting more control in the hands of my students as THE innovators. It's amazing what WE can learn from our students when we give them more ownership in their learning experience.

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Innovation is my best defense against boring my students :)

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Innovation is coming up with a new, creative and useful way of solving a problem that will be successful with reaching the kids who are hard to reach.  Collaborating with David has forced me to be much more innovative in my creating activities to excite students and reach the ones that are hard to reach.

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Innovation is coming up with a completely new way of approaching a problem which yields more success than previous solutions

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Innovation is sometimes banging your head against the wall in a different way to come up with a solution for an immediate problem.

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Thinking out of the box. Giving students choice and voice. (Not starting this post with the words "innovation is..."!

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Innovation is not the norm.  It's not what is comfortable.  It's trying new things in order to reach the kids.  When something doesn't work, you try a new approach.
Innovation is happening in my classroom this year as I experiment with Workshop Model.  Giving up some of my control and putting it into the hands of the students.

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I think that people often confuse Innovation as "technology" because the word innovation was often used when we first implemented greater use of technology. To me, it means to find different ways to do the work that we are currently doing. How do we do it better?  How do we differentiate to meet the needs of all of our students? I would like to help teachers look more closely at what their students can do so they can meet their needs.  We can't keep doing what we've always done.

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Innovation means making a change, not simply because it's different and I'm bored, but because said change will benefit my students' education progress. How? I ask Carrie!

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Julie Ayers

Innovation is using your imagination and creativity explaining and teaching a new or old concept.

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Innovation is using your imagination and creativity to

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Innovation means taking risks and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. In order to "innovate" we need to have a "let's try this" mentality regardless of how it turns out, while at the same time holding true to tried and true methods that have proven to work because I remember when "Whole Language" was an innovative idea too.

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Innovation is trying something new to reach a goal successfully. I love teaching art because we are always trying new things to create artwork. Some of our outcomes are successful and some of them are not. This year I am incorporating more literacy and vocabulary exercises into my lessons.   It is fun to see the students making connections to other subject areas with what they are learning in art.

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Innovation is giving up on the past.  Innovation is tearing down preconceived notions and ignoring the questioning scoffs of those who think everything was better “in my day.”  Innovation is a machete engraved with the words “Truth & Understanding” wildly cutting though the tangled vines of an overgrown forest called educa…  Sorry.  I was really getting into it there for a minute!  Anyway, that’s innovation in my class.

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Innovation is implementing something new; outside the box. For me that looks like allowing students to share ideas and work collaboratively . Like Carrie said, teacher as facilitator and as a resource. My daughter's favorite math teacher this year teaches a new concept (because let's face it, we DO need to do some teaching and modeling) and then circulates around the room to see if kids need help. She loves that he makes it clear that he is available and willing to help while allowing students to try on their own.

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Innovation involves creativity and new ideas to improve upon already existing ideas.
I can be more innovative in my teaching by challenging my students in different ways and not always using the same methods to teach various concepts in math. I also like to get feedback from my students on how they learn best to come up with innovative teaching strategies.

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Innovation is taking a different approach to improve outcomes.  It is thinking outside the box.  I have tried to be more innovative in my teaching by introducing more PBL's and student directed lab investigations.

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I can certainly be innovative in finding new and exciting ways to work with our kiddos to help them to achieve greater success.
I loved the innovative way that Mr. Holthus taught our kiddos about whole, half, and quarter notes yesterday.  We played Candy Land and the kids did great!

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I see innovation everyday at DMS!  For example, Amber and Bobbie did a Math review scavenger hunt a few weeks ago!
What a fun, new way for the kids to learn!

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Innovation is stepping outside of the box and trying something new or different in order to achieve a better result or outcome.

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Innovation is breaking away from your 'norm' and trying things new to receive better outcomes. I have to remind myself not to get stuck with the thought of "what I do works..." and instead change my thought to "how can I take what I do that works and make it fantastic?" As Jamie mentioned, taking a step back from being the traditional teacher and becoming a facilitator is something I'm really trying to work on this year. Also, I'm planning on flipping some areas of class so that we can dive deeper into our learning and answer questions together through activities done in class.

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Innovation is breaking away from your 'norm' and trying things new to receive 

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Innovation is breaking away from your 'norm' and trying things new to receive 

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Innovation is breaking away from your 'norm'

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Innovation is breaking away from your 'norm'

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I can be more innovative by allowing my students to choose the ways in which they will display their knowledge of the curriculum standards.  I am attempting to allow more choices for students by "layering" assignments according to what they are interested in performing.  It means a re-write of most lessons, but they seem to enjoy knowing exactly what makes up a C-layer, a B-layer, and an A-layer on an assignment.

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Innovation is making something in a different way in order to improve upon  the result.

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Being innovative means, to me, using what we have in a unique way OR finding and effectively using new ideas.

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Innovation is new, different, and better. I love Jamie's post about stepping back and allowing the students to be in charge of their own learning. Being a facilitator of their leaning is "better" than being their teacher or lecturer. I try to be a facilitator as much as possible.

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New and novel--something that will be remembered. It's important for me to not let my presentations get stale but to infuse them each

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Innovation is having new ideas and not being afraid to try, revise, and try again. It is much like "failing forward." I have tried to be more innovative in my teaching this year by letting the students be more in charge of their learning and just being there to help them along.