# data[].attributes.body
I liken how Blended Learning creates opportunities for students to have more one on one time with the teacher.

# data[].attributes.body
I love the idea of my students being responsible for the time, place, path and pace they take when learning content. Teaching this way, I will be more successful with conferencing. (tool - Conferencing forms)

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I loved how excited the students were for their own learning! 

# data[].attributes.subject
I loved how excited the students were for their own learning! 

# data[].attributes.headline
De Kennard - student teacher @ Thornton 

# data[].attributes.subject
De Kennard - student teacher @ Thornton 

# data[].attributes.body
My college education was based on Competency Learning (Flex . I feel that I learned much more than I would have in a traditional environment. I am excited to learn more about BL!

# data[].attributes.body
How many bars of soap do you need?

# data[].attributes.body
Hector P. Garcia
Blended learning creates a more effective way to engage more students during every lesson.  Teachers and students are happier.

# data[].attributes.body
I liked the Ten Tips article. I think it is important to ask the 'why' and the 'what if..' questions, because it fosters creative thinking and purpose.

# data[].attributes.body
I am learning that our students will thrive with the freedom of choice with their learning as well as more group work and collaboration.

# data[].attributes.headline
We have to be willing to be learners as well while teaching our students. 

# data[].attributes.subject
We have to be willing to be learners as well while teaching our students. 

# data[].attributes.body
I want to help them change their story, be motivated & interested in learning & success.

# data[].attributes.body
One mindset that needs changing in students is that fun and rigor are mutually exclusive. How do I plan consistent lessons that are both? And how can I convince students that both are possible

# data[].attributes.body
Blended format is so easy to customize based on what your school mission is.  I like the flexibility of changing my class to fit what I am teaching.

# data[].attributes.body
Take risks and be willing to "get messy"
I feel like this has been apart of my process in incorporating blended learning.

# data[].attributes.body
Bonham MS
Today, I have learned that blended learning gives the teacher and students control over their time, place, path, and pace in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.headline
It is important to define a culture of innovation.

# data[].attributes.subject
It is important to define a culture of innovation.

# data[].attributes.body
Students are allowed the freedom to learn at their pace. To take ownership and keep up or track their progress.

# data[].attributes.body
I liked point #6 on this list. As an introvert myself, it is very important to me to have a way to express my ideas without the pressure of large
group interactions. I think many of my students feel the same way.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Recently it seems that innovation is a buzzword on the tip of everyone's tongue. Need happier employees? Innovate! Need bigger profits? Innovate! Need better leadership? Innovate!

Over the past six months I've explored hundreds of news stories, white papers, and blog posts focused on why and how leaders might foster a culture of innovation. Unfortunately, innovation is too often be touted as a silver bullet solution without even defining what innovation is. Some folks have taken a stand against innovation , given its use as a catchall strategy. Yet I stand firmly in support of innovation as a focus for making better organizations and happier teams. I believe that what is most important is not that we "innovate" for innovation's sake, but that we create cultures of innovation in our organizations -- cultures that supports risk-taking, reflection, and real collaboration. Out of the hundreds of strategies for and stories of innovation, I believe there are ten key lessons we can draw out to support us in creating cultures of innovation in schools and districts. Why ten lessons? David Letterman , obviously.

TEN TIPS FOR CREATING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

1. Innovative organizations, from Google to Apple, are places where every team member knows about and is inspired by their vision and values. At Otterbox, a Colorado-based company I visited last year, the "otter" way is evident on everything from the way teams are organized to the awards that are celebrated, the way news is shared, and even in the otter slide at the center of their corporate headquarters. Think about how to engage all of your team members with your vision and values in big and small ways throughout the year.Know who you are.

2. shares the power of simple questions like "why?" and "what if?" in changing the culture of your organization. Challenge your team to ask 50 "why" and "what if" questions in the next two months.Encourage your team to ask questions. This NY Times article

3. , we want to move our staff towards engagement that is based on creativity, relevance, and meaningful relationships. Reflect on your current structures for communication and collaboration- how can you make these less about compliance and more about authentic engagement?Move beyond compliance-driven structures. Just like we want to move our students from compliance-based engagement

4. Engage in R&D. By developing a cycle of experimentation and experience you can develop a research and development group within your team or building. Some districts we work with think about innovations in sprints, a term borrowed from engineering, focusing on a key problem every six weeks.

5. Don't drop everything. Too often when we say innovation we mean "let's scrap everything!" True innovation is about iterating on what already exists. The best way to find an improvement is to name both what is already working and what needs tweaking and attention. Use a stoplight protocol to identify what you want to keep, rethink, and stop doing for the next quarter or year.

6. Support all voices. Creating a culture of innovation within your organization requires building systems to ensure all voices and ideas can be heard. As Ken Robinson says, "the role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas, it's to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they're valued." Many tech companies in Silicon Valley, where EE is based, have an online form for employees to share ideas for improvements. Employees know that these get reviewed by their leadership team once a month, with a guarantee that the best idea will be implemented (and celebrated with awards!) and that all ideas will be recognized and responded to. Think about how to best set up this kind of inclusive feedback system.

7. Train your team to think like intrapreneurs. Too often staff feel like if they want to do something new and different they have to take on a new role or a new organization. Channel that energy and desire for change into creating new systems and structures in your own organization. Inspire your staff with these strategies for creating a maker mindset to support them in beginning their "intrapreneurship."

8. Break down silos. Innovation requires diverse and new perspectives on existing challenges. Find ways to help people work across grade level, subject, or functional teams at least once a month. Focus these heterogeneous working groups on a specific problem, starting with something small like "how do we improve lunch distribution," and moving to something larger like "how to we better support our Tier 2 students?"

9. Be willing to get messy! Trying something new means that sometimes you will flop. Take inspiration from a district like MSD Warren Township . The district team gave a bar of soap to every teacher trying personalized learning for the first time. Teachers could trade in the soap if their principal or superintendent came into their room when they were trying something new. The soap signified that it was okay to get messy and that district and school admins wouldn't be evaluating or judging teachers for trying something new.

10. Be willing to get REALLY messy and even fail. Often innovation takes more than just getting a little messy, it also required frequent, fast failures that you learn and grow from. As a recent Harvard Business Review article on leadership and innovation shared, " Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, has said that if his people have a one-in-ten chance of making a 100x return on an investment, he wants them to make that bet every time. But that means that to reap the reward Amazon needs to be willing to tolerate someone failing nine out of ten times."

And that's the top ten list. I will continue exploring how education organizations can develop a culture of innovation over the next year. Please write to me if you have questions or stories to share about creating this type of culture in your own school or district. In the meantime, I hope these ten lessons help kick off 2017 as a year of true innovation!

Keara is the Director of Design and Implementation and leads Education Elements' consulting work across more than 500 district and school partners. She focuses on bringing the best thinking to each partner so we can ensure every district, school, and classroom is a dynamic, personalized learning community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ten Tips for Creating a Culture of Innovation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recently it seems that innovation is a buzzword on the tip of everyone's tongue. Need happier employees? Innovate! Need bigger profits? Innovate! Need better leadership? Innovate! Over the past six months I've explored hundreds of news stories, white papers, and blog posts focused on why and how leaders might foster a culture of innovation.

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Personalized learning forces you to consider every aspect of a student's situation, background, and personality.

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Take risks and be willing to "get messy" :

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Take risks and be willing to "get messy" :

# data[].attributes.body
Teachers in Warren Township were given bars of soap to give to visiting admins when they were trying something new. If we wish to create a culture of innovation (for students and teachers), it needs to be acceptable to fail or flop from time to time. This is especially true when the risks (failure, reteaching) are heavily outweighed by the potential rewards (true differentiation and engagement).

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Personalized learning is beneficial to all students and helps maximize teaching time. With small groups or stations, students are able to take ownership of their learning and have accountability of their learning time. I am definitely looking forward to working in small groups and love the idea of an alarm as a timer to remind students of their time in each station. I want to motivate my students to be excited to learn and share with other students what they have learned.

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Independent learning allows students to be at their own levels and meet the needs of personalized learning.

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Student ownership and tracking progress.

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Student ownership and tracking progress.

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Providing authentic learning opportunities. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Providing authentic learning opportunities. 

# data[].attributes.body
I really like the idea that students are able to find any answer, but it is the job of the teacher to make that answer relevant to the world they will be entering. We are becoming the facilitators of learning, providing students with a deeper understanding of what to do with the information they are finding instead of telling them what they should be thinking.

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BL meets the learning needs of all students

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Changes the game for accommodations and reteach for Special pops.

# data[].attributes.headline
Be willing to get messy. Be willing to get REALLY messy and even fail.

# data[].attributes.subject
Be willing to get messy. Be willing to get REALLY messy and even fail.

# data[].attributes.body
...Don't give up!!!!

# data[].attributes.body
In previous BL training, we have made empathy maps about students to better drive our instructional design.  As leaders, however, we should also make empathy maps about teachers participating in the cohorts.  Just as the teachers in the blog post illustrated a compliant student v. an engaged student, we should illustrate compliant v. committed teachers.  We could support them more deeply if we had a thorough, empathetic understanding of their position in this journey.

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In pre

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You cant grow if you aren't willing to get messy - failure teaches us.

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The student voice in time, pace, path and place should inspire our learners. Both the teacher and the student will be taking risks as we move to this model but the teacher time gained for small just in time groups will be powerful.

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Encourage your team to ask questions and know who you are are important to create a culture of of innovation.

# data[].attributes.body
I like how students are able to take ownership of their learning while using the blended learning model.  I wonder how this model works with the "unmotivated" student.

# data[].attributes.body
Give each teacher a bar of soap. If admin comes in when trying something new (innovative), hand them the soap. Soap = OK to get messy - no judging/evaluating for trying something new!

# data[].attributes.body
I am reminded how important student reflection is to this way of learning. If students are allowed to think about what they know and have learned, they can make better choices on the pace, path, etc.

# data[].attributes.body
An idea out of the model we used this morning with the Simulation: Our back to school campus PD days have had a model of rotation, but now I see how teachers and resident experts can lead the stations.  It may require more frontloading, but it also may be more powerful.

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This is a great way to accelerate our learning. This fosters the teacher's ownership of what they are teaching, inspires innovation and is very reflective, which helps us to articulate our beliefs and values about good pedagogy.

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H. Venus:  Blended Learning is student-centered, and allows students to take charge of their learning. Blended learning enables teachers to tailor the learning environment to students' individual needs.

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H. Venus:  Blended Learning is student-centered, and allows students to take charge of their learning. Blended learning enables teachers to tailor the learning environment to students' individual needs.

# data[].attributes.body
I really enjoyed the creating a course of innovation. It really starts with establishing a trusting environment. Trust is the beginning. I also like the independence of the student.

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I really enjoyed watching the videos in that it makes me feel more comfortable in incorporating a blended classroom. The benefits of this type instruction are amazing and I really feel that each one of my students will benefit from this model. They will be able to control their pace, path, and time of their learning.

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I liked the videos that showed how students take responsibility for tracking their learning.

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Blended Learning is integrating technology with classroom learning.  It is not just technology. The videos helped me realize I can do this!

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JEFF STICE - THS I really enjoyed the 10 tips for creating a culture of innovation. A few of these are very obvious, but honestly the first tip hit me the hardest. "Know who you are", your vision, and your values.

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Blended learning is personalized learning using tech to assist students in taking ownership the learning process.

# data[].attributes.body
I like the independence that is fostered in this model. It allows the teacher the be around more for struggling students and questions. It also allows the teacher to be able to see more things.

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I liked the video that clearly defined the difference between BL and a "technology rich classroom." I'm most excited to see how BL allows our students to take ownership of their learning and see the true potential in using their knowledge to make a change within our community and beyond. The idea of personalizing learning to maintain student engagement is so important for students to continue being life long learners.

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I like how blended learning fosters student independence, choice, and ownership. Flexible pacing seems to create a relaxed classroom environment. I plan to use menus, templates, and task cards on a more regular basis. I like how BL is similar to what I already do, but I'm just going deeper.

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I enjoyed the videos and the collaboration of the guiding principles. I am excited to incorporate the rotation stations and differentiated instruction into my classroom.

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The one thing that I truly grasped onto was the fact that BL allows for self management. Student's needs are met without disrupting the learning of another.

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The idea of trying new things and being bale to do so without being judged and instead being allowed to formulate what works for you and how to make it the best for your classroom.

# data[].attributes.body
I watched a video on TED Talk about blended learning. I learned that there is no really right or wrong process it is all about what works in your classroom. Blended Learning gives a 1 to 1 ratio, your student has a teacher 24/7, 365.

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I enjoyed the section on creating a culture of innovation. I see admin doing this at the district level and I want to use many of these practices to create a similar culture in my classroom.

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Blended learning is a multi-faceted tool, proven effective in different classroom settings. I enjoyed seeing the many ways it can be used and hearing from students themselves how they benefit.

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I liked What Does Blended Learning Look Like in the Classroom. The idea that it will look different in every class and there is no right or wrong... Also don't be afraid to get messy, you may fail, but keep changing and trying new things!!

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I found the article "Five Mindsets to Change About Schooling" to be very interesting. I'm glad we're moving to blended learning as a district, because I think that in many ways, changing these mindsets is not something that just one teacher can accomplish on their own. This requires not only buy-in, but also participation, from administrators and the community as well.

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I watched a video from Fulton County Schools in Georgia. It was more of a overview of the implementation of BL, but it generated some ideas of how I can use the technology we already have in place at FWEA to push students towards taking command of their education.

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I watched "What blended learning looks like in a classroom"; I think that stations would be a good idea for our students, as they're used to digesting information in shorter chunks and it gives them an opportunity to alternate between independent work and checking in with the teacher.

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I enjoyed the videos about student centered learning and that a great variety of schools were shown.  I liked that students can complete a learning prefernce card that allows them to identify their learning style so the teacher knows at the beginning of the year what is best for each student.  At this point BL seems very cumbersome to me and a bit unnatural.  I'm sure that actually using  it will make me more comfortable with the process and build confidence. I am excited and looking forward to using this in my classroom!

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I liked the Idea of personalized learning where students learn at their own pace and are challenged to raise their level of understanding

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I found the "Designing Your Own Home of Learning" article most compelling, particularly the bit which describes how a team would formally "empathize" with their students as the first step in their planning. The categories of students as well as the expectations specific to those categories were a bit superficial, but it is impossible to argue with the practice of beginning any interaction with another person with empathy.

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I enjoyed the activities on Creating a Culture of Innovation. There was a lot of emphasis on failure and the need to be comfortable knowing that not every risk will have a positive outcome. I think students are often afraid to fail, which holds them back. I want to create the culture of risk-taking and innovation in my classroom, so I need to get them ok with that idea.

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I read about Ten Tips for Creating a Culture of Innovation - I want to change students' compliance-based engagement to engagement based on relevance and creativity.

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The 10 Tips... article was very informative in how to support the BL development process. I love the idea of a "maker mindset."

# data[].attributes.body
I like the idea getting really messy and being willing to fail in the process.

# data[].attributes.body
I liked the 10 things for creating a culture of innovation. Teachers are afraid of failing and/or getting reprimanded if their scores decline. I love how it encourages teachers to get messy and accept possible failures and use those experiences s learning experiences and try something different or expand on things that worked.

# data[].attributes.body
All of the videos I watched had a common theme. Districts were able to implement blended learning to meet the diverse needs of their students.

# data[].attributes.body
I enjoyed the infographic on 5 Ingredients to create a culture of innovation. It acknowledges that there's not a one size fits all solution to stagnation in innovation and gives guidance on where to start based on what leaders are experiencing and observing. I also enjoyed watching the Hartford Public Schools video; the quote about "reshaping the students' stories" really resonated with me.

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The article Ten Tips For Creating a Culture of Innovation  was welcome in its stress on failing being a tool to growing and learning.

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Recently it seems that innovation is a buzzword on the tip of everyone's tongue. Need happier employees? Innovate! Need bigger profits? Innovate! Need better leadership? Innovate!

Over the past six months I've explored hundreds of news stories, white papers, and blog posts focused on why and how leaders might foster a culture of innovation. Unfortunately, innovation is too often be touted as a silver bullet solution without even defining what innovation is. Some folks have taken a stand against innovation , given its use as a catchall strategy. Yet I stand firmly in support of innovation as a focus for making better organizations and happier teams. I believe that what is most important is not that we "innovate" for innovation's sake, but that we create cultures of innovation in our organizations -- cultures that supports risk-taking, reflection, and real collaboration. Out of the hundreds of strategies for and stories of innovation, I believe there are ten key lessons we can draw out to support us in creating cultures of innovation in schools and districts. Why ten lessons? David Letterman , obviously.

TEN TIPS FOR CREATING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

1. Innovative organizations, from Google to Apple, are places where every team member knows about and is inspired by their vision and values. At Otterbox, a Colorado-based company I visited last year, the "otter" way is evident on everything from the way teams are organized to the awards that are celebrated, the way news is shared, and even in the otter slide at the center of their corporate headquarters. Think about how to engage all of your team members with your vision and values in big and small ways throughout the year.Know who you are.

2. shares the power of simple questions like "why?" and "what if?" in changing the culture of your organization. Challenge your team to ask 50 "why" and "what if" questions in the next two months.Encourage your team to ask questions. This NY Times article

3. , we want to move our staff towards engagement that is based on creativity, relevance, and meaningful relationships. Reflect on your current structures for communication and collaboration- how can you make these less about compliance and more about authentic engagement?Move beyond compliance-driven structures. Just like we want to move our students from compliance-based engagement

4. Engage in R&D. By developing a cycle of experimentation and experience you can develop a research and development group within your team or building. Some districts we work with think about innovations in sprints, a term borrowed from engineering, focusing on a key problem every six weeks.

5. Don't drop everything. Too often when we say innovation we mean "let's scrap everything!" True innovation is about iterating on what already exists. The best way to find an improvement is to name both what is already working and what needs tweaking and attention. Use a stoplight protocol to identify what you want to keep, rethink, and stop doing for the next quarter or year.

6. Support all voices. Creating a culture of innovation within your organization requires building systems to ensure all voices and ideas can be heard. As Ken Robinson says, "the role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas, it's to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they're valued." Many tech companies in Silicon Valley, where EE is based, have an online form for employees to share ideas for improvements. Employees know that these get reviewed by their leadership team once a month, with a guarantee that the best idea will be implemented (and celebrated with awards!) and that all ideas will be recognized and responded to. Think about how to best set up this kind of inclusive feedback system.

7. Train your team to think like intrapreneurs. Too often staff feel like if they want to do something new and different they have to take on a new role or a new organization. Channel that energy and desire for change into creating new systems and structures in your own organization. Inspire your staff with these strategies for creating a maker mindset to support them in beginning their "intrapreneurship."

8. Break down silos. Innovation requires diverse and new perspectives on existing challenges. Find ways to help people work across grade level, subject, or functional teams at least once a month. Focus these heterogeneous working groups on a specific problem, starting with something small like "how do we improve lunch distribution," and moving to something larger like "how to we better support our Tier 2 students?"

9. Be willing to get messy! Trying something new means that sometimes you will flop. Take inspiration from a district like MSD Warren Township . The district team gave a bar of soap to every teacher trying personalized learning for the first time. Teachers could trade in the soap if their principal or superintendent came into their room when they were trying something new. The soap signified that it was okay to get messy and that district and school admins wouldn't be evaluating or judging teachers for trying something new.

10. Be willing to get REALLY messy and even fail. Often innovation takes more than just getting a little messy, it also required frequent, fast failures that you learn and grow from. As a recent Harvard Business Review article on leadership and innovation shared, " Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, has said that if his people have a one-in-ten chance of making a 100x return on an investment, he wants them to make that bet every time. But that means that to reap the reward Amazon needs to be willing to tolerate someone failing nine out of ten times."

And that's the top ten list. I will continue exploring how education organizations can develop a culture of innovation over the next year. Please write to me if you have questions or stories to share about creating this type of culture in your own school or district. In the meantime, I hope these ten lessons help kick off 2017 as a year of true innovation!

Keara is the Director of Design and Implementation and leads Education Elements' consulting work across more than 500 district and school partners. She focuses on bringing the best thinking to each partner so we can ensure every district, school, and classroom is a dynamic, personalized learning community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ten Tips for Creating a Culture of Innovation

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Recently it seems that innovation is a buzzword on the tip of everyone's tongue. Need happier employees? Innovate! Need bigger profits? Innovate! Need better leadership? Innovate! Over the past six months I've explored hundreds of news stories, white papers, and blog posts focused on why and how leaders might foster a culture of innovation.

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The amount of time needed to frontload and get everything ready will be time intensive. However, the payoff will be huge. This can easily be used in our Back to School Professional Development. Learning can be personalized based on the expertise of each teacher, and the topics that must be presented, can be provided in an interactive model and not just sit and get.

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Share your favorite resources you found or any questions/ideas you while at the independent station.
[Name: School: Favorite resource or something you learned]
*add a picture or link if you wish!

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Candice--Western Hills Elementary--All of the videos that I watched really stressed how the learning, pedagogy and school/classroom culture changed.  It wasn't necessarily the technology that was provided, it was HOW instruction was being provided.  When asked, the students at Syracuse didn't love the computers the most, they loved the one-on-one time with their teacher and the learning they received. <3

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Ashley Hine (Raye-Allen)-- individualized learning.  I started this about 4 months before end of school and I love how it freed me up to personalize the learning for the students. Pacing for specific students. Encouraging my higher learners to go and keep learning. Along we the videos to go back for struggling students.

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Ursula Fuentes (RAES)  I am really enjoying seeing how I can use this successfully!  Learning how to do the station rotation is super...I already use this but not in quite the same way so it is nice to see all the examples and videos!

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Casey Holler (KP) love the fact that Blended Learning is just extending what I am already doing in my stations. It's going deeper and giving the students more accountability.

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Denise (MDECA)So far I am embracing the big picture of Blended Learning and how I can give students the control over their learning. After today, I want to feel confident to implement in the classroom.

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Stacy Fulton (KP)  -learning is mastery-based, personalized, active not passive, provides instant feedback for students as well as parents, "democratization of education"  questions I still have are what are the best programs?  How to define mastery of learning?

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Ashleigh Colvard -KPES- I like how it's a personalized student based learning process where students can track their own data throughout the year to gain that ownership.

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Aleesha-MDECA; As a Pre-K teacher, we want to put a lot of focus on building social skills and creating that foundation of learning for students in a jam packed day. I liked in the article attached that the focus for students to be successful life long learners happens at the foundation level and thru blended learning we should be able to do so much more during the day.  "When students are engaged in individualized material, teachers have the time to form those personal relationships and offer the feedback that deepens and extends play."

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As a former teacher and current member of the eSpark team, I'm intrigued by all things education. Preschool teaching is especially fascinating as it's full of misconceptions-even more so than the teaching profession itself. Many people incorrectly assume that preschool students are incapable of learning math, reading, and abstract thinking at such an early age. In actuality, early learners are more than capable of learning these skills if lessons are purposeful and connected to child's play.

Another misconception is one I am embarrassed to say I was guilty of myself. As a high school teacher, I had a limited understanding of what early childhood educators need to do or know in order to teach preschool.

How can we nurture a love of learning?

How can we best teach preschool so that every student can receive developmentally appropriate early childhood education? First, we need to understand preschool teaching is not just about play or math and literacy content; it is about facilitating a starting point, a love and understanding of learning. Herbert Ginsburg , who teaches a course at Teachers College for early childhood education students called The Development of Mathematical Thinking, says, "preschools (are) caught between a "false dichotomy" of structure, assessment-oriented lesson plans and free play." Rather than embracing a dichotomy of play and education, a successful preschool lesson is one that inspires students with the potential of learning and uses play to teach young learners math or literacy content.

Preparing students for the Common Core State Standards does not mean that students shouldn't also be collaborating, playing outside, making art and learning to deal with their emotions and socialize. Karen Nameth, director of the NAEYC says , " Nothing in the standards forces us to teach preschoolers as if they were older students." Exploratory, hands-on and creative play is what allows children to build a strong foundation to later have success and demonstrate mastery of standards. For young children, play is the most developmentally appropriate method of instruction, and if students are not taught in a developmentally appropriate way, it's unlikely that they will develop a love of learning.

So how we move past this false dichotomy? The answer lies in being purposeful about our respect for the learner and the teacher.

What does a successful preschool teacher look like?

As children develop, they follow well-documented sequences. By using playful games to introduce preschool students to counting or writing letters, teachers give students the foundation to understand numerals and to begin to communicate with the written word.

Preschool teachers can make small, purposeful changes to reconcile the false dichotomy of free play and content-driven teaching. Instructional changes as simple as providing specific feedback and acknowledging student creations can be transformative. Preschool teachers can use affirmation as sites of metacognition, praising students with prompts such as "Great, you did that because...." or "Great job. Why did you do that?"

How can we find the time to challenge and support all students?

So, instead of thinking about blended learning as passive for students and as a "replacement" or "teacher proofing" tool for teachers, I now think about how blending allows a teacher's role to be elevated to that of facilitator. When teaching preschool means blending learning, we are actually creating the time that teachers don't have. When students are engaged in individualized material, teachers have the time to form those personal relationships and offer the feedback that deepens and extends play.

When looking at interactive media use in the early childhood classroom, The Fred Rogers Center offers various "active ingredients" that promote engagement such as "characters who children build relationships with, elements that promote guided play and avoidance of distractions." So, in thinking about blending learning, certain foundations must be in place. Content must be personalized for students. Students need scaffolding just above their current mastery level. Carefully chosen, individualized content can help ensure that students are introduced to the sequences of math and literacy concepts they need.

This type of interactive technology use can give students new avenues through which to communicate ideas, feelings, investigate the environment, record a story, create a picture and document and revisit their work. Classroom technology will allow students to express themselves and to get practice in the four domains of language and literacy, and will allow teachers to create on-going portfolios to document a child's progress.

The Fred Rogers Centers also recommends that student screen time is active and limited to only about 15-30 minutes of focused attention to ensure students are engaged . Young children are still learning to focus and self-regulate, so short, purposeful use of interactive media can bring a creative advantage to children.

What can we learn from preschool teachers?

As a former middle school and high school teacher, I wish I spent more time learning from the men and women who teach preschool, who use play as a starting point to deepen content. This type of awareness across grade bands, specifically in grades PreK-3, would mean more student-centered teaching for all of our learners.

If teaching preschool means integrating blended learning to support student voices and developmentally necessary math and literacy content, the benefits of early childhood education can be an even more impactful force for educational equity. We just need to look to the success we've seen with programs like Head Start, the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge , and from states like New Jersey that have created comprehensive preschool standards . New educational policy means that in 2016, more students will have access to high quality preschool, and hopefully this change will reflect public education's growing appreciation of early childhood education.

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How We Teach Preschool: Respecting the Student and the Teacher

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As a former teacher and current member of the eSpark team, I'm intrigued by all things education. Preschool teaching is especially fascinating as it's full of misconceptions-even more so than the teaching profession itself. Many people incorrectly assume that preschool students are incapable of learning math, reading, and abstract thinking at such an early age.

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E. Martinez (Garcia  ES)  The websites that I accessed were informative and helped with content of student background knowledge.  This would benefit me, as a teacher,  to help place students in learning groups.

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Christina Blair (WHES) I love that this is a gradual change and not huge revamp of everything teachers have been doing for years. I love the change and am so excited to grow along with my students, take risks and have fun learning in a positive new way!

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Kayla- KPES- Blended learning doesn't mean to drop and change everything that you are already doing in your classroom, it means to build and be willing to get a little "messy."- We are teaching our students to put themselves out there and yet we, as teachers, are having to do the same. Growth together.

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Beverly Mesecke (RAES) - The Implementation framework looks like what we are doing. Getting volunteers, ready to experiment.

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Tracy Meyer

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Kathy Davis (KP) - I took away that Blended Learning is personalized, mastery based, high expectations, and student ownership.

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Alyssa Conner: Western Hills ES: The Khan Academy definition of the blended learning models.  Its an easy way to see how blended learning is implemented in daily classroom routines. How could we use the flipped learning model with little parent involvement?

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Beverly Mesecke (RAES)

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(Megan McNeill, Scott Elementary School) I really liked the part of this article that talked about how it is okay to get messy! When trying new things it is not always perfect and pretty. We have to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to make mistakes.

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Recently it seems that innovation is a buzzword on the tip of everyone's tongue. Need happier employees? Innovate! Need bigger profits? Innovate! Need better leadership? Innovate!

Over the past six months I've explored hundreds of news stories, white papers, and blog posts focused on why and how leaders might foster a culture of innovation. Unfortunately, innovation is too often be touted as a silver bullet solution without even defining what innovation is. Some folks have taken a stand against innovation , given its use as a catchall strategy. Yet I stand firmly in support of innovation as a focus for making better organizations and happier teams. I believe that what is most important is not that we "innovate" for innovation's sake, but that we create cultures of innovation in our organizations -- cultures that supports risk-taking, reflection, and real collaboration. Out of the hundreds of strategies for and stories of innovation, I believe there are ten key lessons we can draw out to support us in creating cultures of innovation in schools and districts. Why ten lessons? David Letterman , obviously.

TEN TIPS FOR CREATING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

1. Innovative organizations, from Google to Apple, are places where every team member knows about and is inspired by their vision and values. At Otterbox, a Colorado-based company I visited last year, the "otter" way is evident on everything from the way teams are organized to the awards that are celebrated, the way news is shared, and even in the otter slide at the center of their corporate headquarters. Think about how to engage all of your team members with your vision and values in big and small ways throughout the year.Know who you are.

2. shares the power of simple questions like "why?" and "what if?" in changing the culture of your organization. Challenge your team to ask 50 "why" and "what if" questions in the next two months.Encourage your team to ask questions. This NY Times article

3. , we want to move our staff towards engagement that is based on creativity, relevance, and meaningful relationships. Reflect on your current structures for communication and collaboration- how can you make these less about compliance and more about authentic engagement?Move beyond compliance-driven structures. Just like we want to move our students from compliance-based engagement

4. Engage in R&D. By developing a cycle of experimentation and experience you can develop a research and development group within your team or building. Some districts we work with think about innovations in sprints, a term borrowed from engineering, focusing on a key problem every six weeks.

5. Don't drop everything. Too often when we say innovation we mean "let's scrap everything!" True innovation is about iterating on what already exists. The best way to find an improvement is to name both what is already working and what needs tweaking and attention. Use a stoplight protocol to identify what you want to keep, rethink, and stop doing for the next quarter or year.

6. Support all voices. Creating a culture of innovation within your organization requires building systems to ensure all voices and ideas can be heard. As Ken Robinson says, "the role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas, it's to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they're valued." Many tech companies in Silicon Valley, where EE is based, have an online form for employees to share ideas for improvements. Employees know that these get reviewed by their leadership team once a month, with a guarantee that the best idea will be implemented (and celebrated with awards!) and that all ideas will be recognized and responded to. Think about how to best set up this kind of inclusive feedback system.

7. Train your team to think like intrapreneurs. Too often staff feel like if they want to do something new and different they have to take on a new role or a new organization. Channel that energy and desire for change into creating new systems and structures in your own organization. Inspire your staff with these strategies for creating a maker mindset to support them in beginning their "intrapreneurship."

8. Break down silos. Innovation requires diverse and new perspectives on existing challenges. Find ways to help people work across grade level, subject, or functional teams at least once a month. Focus these heterogeneous working groups on a specific problem, starting with something small like "how do we improve lunch distribution," and moving to something larger like "how to we better support our Tier 2 students?"

9. Be willing to get messy! Trying something new means that sometimes you will flop. Take inspiration from a district like MSD Warren Township . The district team gave a bar of soap to every teacher trying personalized learning for the first time. Teachers could trade in the soap if their principal or superintendent came into their room when they were trying something new. The soap signified that it was okay to get messy and that district and school admins wouldn't be evaluating or judging teachers for trying something new.

10. Be willing to get REALLY messy and even fail. Often innovation takes more than just getting a little messy, it also required frequent, fast failures that you learn and grow from. As a recent Harvard Business Review article on leadership and innovation shared, " Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and CEO, has said that if his people have a one-in-ten chance of making a 100x return on an investment, he wants them to make that bet every time. But that means that to reap the reward Amazon needs to be willing to tolerate someone failing nine out of ten times."

And that's the top ten list. I will continue exploring how education organizations can develop a culture of innovation over the next year. Please write to me if you have questions or stories to share about creating this type of culture in your own school or district. In the meantime, I hope these ten lessons help kick off 2017 as a year of true innovation!

Keara is the Director of Design and Implementation and leads Education Elements' consulting work across more than 500 district and school partners. She focuses on bringing the best thinking to each partner so we can ensure every district, school, and classroom is a dynamic, personalized learning community.

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Ten Tips for Creating a Culture of Innovation

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Recently it seems that innovation is a buzzword on the tip of everyone's tongue. Need happier employees? Innovate! Need bigger profits? Innovate! Need better leadership? Innovate! Over the past six months I've explored hundreds of news stories, white papers, and blog posts focused on why and how leaders might foster a culture of innovation.

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Marci - KPES - From "What is Blended Learning"  We need to distinguish what is blended learning and what is a digitally rich environment layered over a traditional classroom model (an efficiency gain) and what is a good quality blended learning classroom

(although I would suggest that some of us have to start somewhere, and this might be the "toe-dipping" some of us need.)     A good reflection question to ask could be "Is the fundamental role of the student and teacher changing?"

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Samantha Bender: Kennedy Powell - What stuck out to me is that we are not going to have it all figured out. This will be process that we will need tweaking. It is process so breathe and learn from your peers. Use others as resources to help you in this new adventure.

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Katie Webb(SES)- I liked what one of the students said about personalized learning. She said it is giving students the tools to make their own ladder and set their own path, and then as the teacher stepping back and saying I am here to guided you as high as you want to go. I am excited to continue to help my kids take ownership of their learning through blended learning. I am a bit overwhelmed, but very excited to continue on this journey!

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(Rose Johnson: Scott ES)Something that really stuck out to me today was from the resource 'Five Mindsets to Change about Schooling.' The article mentioned how in order to promote innovation in schools we need to move past this idea of teaching based on grade level and age designation; basically stating that we need to start meeting students exactly where they are at. Learning also needs to move away from being compliance based and becoming more of an authentic engagement for each student. There needs to be freedom for teachers to gather together and ask, "What if....?" and to fail miserably.

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Lots information to take in. But good information.

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Kelly Madden KP

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https://www.edelements.com/blog/ten-tips-for-creating-a-culture-of-innovation

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(Laura Lopez; KP)   Ten Tips article                      5. Don't drop everything. Sometimes with new initiatives, teacher feel they must totally change everything they are doing in the classroom. When in reality, minor tweaks or adjustments that is needed.

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Chrystal Thomas  <3 Scott <3   I'm really anxious to get into the "HOW".  The videos left me wanting to know what this looks like on a day to day basis.  What processes are used?  How do you manage those processes?  What are our next steps?  What strategies can I use to prevent this from being an overwhelming experience....or at least to minimize the overwhelming feeling?

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Fran - I like the Culture of Innovation resource.  Each staff member comes in at a different place.  This resource gives some suggestions for how to support each staff member where they are.