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Week 5 & 6: Innovation as New AND Better

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Week 5 & 6: Innovation as New AND Better

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As part of my #IMMOOC Weeks 5 & 6 reflections/project, I created two Word Clouds using Wordle. The first word cloud I created featured text from all of the reading responses I posted here on Padlet. I love how the word "students" immediately jumps out at you, and that it was the most common word used in my reflections. At the end of the day, it's really all about our students and how we create more empowering & innovative learning experiences for them. The second Word Cloud I created was from all the phrases & sentences I highlighted while reading The Innovator's Mindset. Unsurprisingly, the biggest words in this Word Cloud could essentially form the definition of innovation that George Couros outlines in his book.

In thinking about the idea of innovation as new and better, I wanted to write about a recent experience I had teaching animal habitats & adaptations to my 3rd graders. A few weeks ago, as students were working on their habitat posters, I noticed that a group had drawn a Pokemon (a Bulbasaur) in the middle of their forest. My immediate response was to scold my students by saying in my most annoyed & exasperated voice, "That is NOT a real animal! You need to erase it." (they tried to convince me it was a turtle). However, after this experience, I began thinking to myself...how can I use my students' love of Pokemon (because, for all intents and purposes, these Pokemon are just as real to my students as any other animals) to TEACH science content?

I went home and examined my own collection of Pokemon cards that I had as a child (because I was just as into Pokemon at the age of 8 as my students). As I was flipping through my cards, I started to note all of the physical traits & behaviors/powers that were listed, and began to see an opportunity to use Pokemon to study physical & behavioral adaptations. I could even have students CREATE a new Pokemon that would have specific adaptations to help them survive in the habitats students were researching. OR I could use Pokemon as a jumping off point to discuss the complex concept of evolution. The possibilities were endless! When I told my students that I would be giving them Pokemon cards in order to have them identify the Pokemon's physical & behavior adaptations, their faces lit up! They were so excited and engaged.

This experience really drove home the idea that innovation doesn't have to include the latest and greatest technology...that it truly is "a way of thinking that creates something new and better." Instead of closing off all possibility of Pokemon, I decided to harness my students' passions & interest to create a new & more meaningful learning experience. In doing so, students were able to transfer their knowledge of adaptations to something that interested them.

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As I was reading "Part 3: Unleashing Talent," one of the "foundations for innovation" that resonated with me was the idea that "less is more." More specifically, I started thinking about how this idea connects to the use of social media websites, like Twitter, to share our ideas.

Through the use of Twitter to expand my PLN this past school year, I've found that it can be easy to get overwhelmed with all the ideas and new "trends" happening in education. Yes, Twitter (and other websites like Pinterest) are a great source of inspiration. BUT...I'm often left feeling like I should be doing EVERYTHING that other teachers are doing. So I end up trying all these new things, but not doing any of them well. In addition, one of the dangers of social media is getting lost in that awful comparison rabbit hole. I see all the amazing things other teachers are doing, and instead of feeling inspired, I actually start to feel bad about my own teaching because I'm not doing all of those amazing things. So...how do teachers find a balance between being inspired by what others are doing and feeling overwhelmed (or even incompetent)?

"Educators cannot feel like they are a 'jack of all trades, master of none.' Having a laser-like focus on a few things allows us to go deep and push our thinking, while creating new ideas to move forward. Less should definitely lead to more."

This is where the idea that "less is more" comes in. At the beginning of the school year, I wrote down some teacher growth goals (or things I want to incorporate into my teaching practices) in my lesson planner. These included:
* Depth & Complexity "Thinking Tools"
* Socratic Seminars
* Global Goals
* Problems of the Month
* Novel Engineering

While this list may seem like a lot, having it all written down in my planner has helped me narrow my teaching focus. So, I may see an idea on Twitter and if I can't somehow use it to help enhance the teaching of one of the things written on my list, I say to myself, "Great idea...but not for this year!" There's definitely something to be said about depth over breadth (I mean, this was one of the key features in the shift to the Common Core State Standards, right?). Instead of trying a million different things and not doing them very well, I've been working on trying a few things that I'm passionate about in order to become an expert at them.

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Week 3: "At the heart of innovation are people, not stuff."

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Week 3: "At the heart of innovation are people, not stuff."

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Last week, I brought up the idea of creating a classroom Twitter account for my students to use to our School Based Resource Teacher, Lorrah Hogue (@lorrah_hogue) and principal, Dieter Swank (@dswank40). We had just had a staff professional development on getting teachers on Twitter in order to build our school's brand (#CoyotesConnect) and PLN. While I was already adept at using Twitter to showcase what was happening in my classroom, I wanted to put this technology in the hands of my students so THEY could share what they were doing and connect with other classrooms on a global scale. In doing so, I would not only engage students in their learning, but EMPOWER them to take ownership & pride in their learning. Lorrah & Dieter immediately and enthusiastically jumped on board with this idea...and even though we knew that some parents would be hesitant to allow their children to engage in social media, they still encouraged me to give it a try!

This is my third year teaching, and my second year teaching at Ivey Ranch with Lorrah & Dieter. While I loved the experience I had my first year of teaching, I don't think I would have had the courage to bring this idea up if I were still at that same school. Lorrah & Dieter have worked hard to create a culture of innovation that encourages risk-taking, learning from mistakes, reflection, and growth. The idea of creating a classroom Twitter account (which was in no way a revolutionary one...but was innovative for our school & district), wouldn't have been possible without first building a relationship of trust, support & guidance with my administrators. In a profession that thrives on collaboration and taking risks, building such relationships is essential.

As a self-professed perfectionist, it's sometimes difficult for me to relinquish control & hand the reins over to my students...but I'm really excited to go on this new Twitter venture with my 3rd graders this year!

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I truly enjoy how you equate innovation with risk taking! Far too often in education risk (especially if the results are not as expected) is not supported. I can see a corelation that since risks are not taken by the teacher, they will not be taken by the student either! Thank you for your post and your insight!

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One of the ideas that resonated with me from "Part 1: Innovation in Education" was the idea of innovation "inside the box." So often when we think of innovation, we think of the people who thought "outside the box." However, innovation does not need to be about totally reinventing the wheel. As educators, we teach under certain constraints (e.g. curriculum, standards, lack of resources/technology, etc.), and it would be a Herculean task to create something new and better in EVERY one of our lessons. But...what if we just change one thing?

One instance where I felt that I created a more "learner-centric" experience for my students was when I introduced my 3rd graders to the Global Goals (http://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/). I wanted my students to sort the Global Goals (all 17 of them!) into Big Idea/Themed categories. The lesson plan on the website already named categories that students could sort each of the Global Goals into. I kept going back and forth between wanting to just give my students the categories provided OR having them come up with their own categories. Finally, I thought to myself: Wouldn't it be more INTERESTING to see how my students made sense of the Global Goals themselves? I took a risk...and my students rose to the challenge!

I told my students that it didn't matter how they sorted the Global Goals, as long as they could justify why they put them in a specific category. As I circulated the room, I noticed that one group had a category called "Health" and the goals in this category were: No Poverty, No Hunger, Good Health & Well-Being, Clean Water, and Good Jobs. I asked, "Why did you put 'Good Jobs' in this category?" (because it seemed a bit out of place), and my student reasoned, "Well, if you aren't healthy you won't be able to work." It made total sense! In changing this one part of the lesson plan, my students created a much richer learning experience for themselves.

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The Innovator’s Mindset defines innovation as “a way of thinking that creates something new and better.”  There are two things in that statement that I think are really important.  First, innovation is a way of thinking.  It isn’t about technology, but rather it is about examining our teaching to fit the needs of our learners.  It doesn’t matter how many flashy new pieces of tech we have (or don’t have) if we can reimagine the learning experiences that we are bringing to our students.  I remember when our school first started to delve into the importance of 21st Century skills.  We were learning some really cool ways to incorporate tech into our teaching, and I was frustrated with the slow rollout of iPads and an infrastructure that couldn’t hold up to the demand of any new devices that we might get.  I thought to myself, “How are we supposed to innovate without the necessary tools?”  What I didn’t know yet was that I didn’t need the latest iPad or the coolest new app.  I needed to think differently about the things that I was already doing, in order to design lessons that got my students collaborating and thinking critically.

One of the most powerful and innovative things that I did with my students that year was Genius Hour.  I heard about another amazing book in the Burgess Publishing family called Pure Genius by Don Wettrick (@DonWettrick).  I was excited to begin, but really nervous to try something so different!  In #IMMOOC’s Week 2 Live show, George said that our kids are conditioned to a certain kind of system and they are sometimes reluctant to move away from it because they are good at it.  This is SO TRUE!  My first week of Genius Hour was incredibly eye opening as I asked the students to think about their passions and their interests in order to decide on a topic to research.  I told them to think big and choose whatever topic they wanted to know more about.  These 3rd graders didn’t know how to proceed.  They weren’t used to being asked what they were truly interested in, or figuring out the questions that needed to be answered, without direction from their teacher. They offered up research topics that they thought I wanted them to choose, and not one kid told me that they wanted to learn more about Minecraft, robotics, or YouTube.  After a week of investigations and discussions, many students finally realized that I wasn’t kidding and that I wanted them to be the problem-finders.  Some students, however, were begging me to just assign them a topic and put them on the path to success.  This was such an important struggle for them to work through!

This is where I come to the other important part of the definition of innovation:  “new AND better.”  Genius Hour was certainly new, but how did I know that it was better than other research projects that I had tried in the past?  These kids did more communicating and collaborating in the first week than in any other research project that I had ever done.  They worked in pairs to develop essential questions to guide their research, with some students deciding to pair up because of similar passions.  Google Classroom became an incredibly useful tool for organizing research and facilitating communication.  Students would post weekly reflections on their research into Classroom, inviting comments and questions from the class.  They collaborated on shared Google Docs from home when their excitement extended beyond the school day.  When it came time to create some kind of presentation of their research, students created videos, slideshows, models and posters, but all of them learned a great deal about thinking for themselves, learning from failures, and persevering when navigating uncharted waters.  What I learned about my students through this process was immeasurable, and I was able to use this knowledge to help me to work with them across all subject areas.  One student (a boy who was hard to motivate, didn’t like to talk much, and really disliked any assignment that involved writing) decided to research Dr. Seuss.  As I worked with him to help him with his essential question, I asked him why he was so interested in Dr. Seuss.  He told me that he really wanted to write children’s books when he grew up and he would like to know more about how Dr. Seuss got his start.  I was blown away that this child who seemingly hated writing wanted to be a writer!  He researched Dr. Seuss’ difficult road to publishing his first book and it led to the most valuable discussions about failure leading to success! I realized that without this innovation in my teaching practice, I would never have known about his goal or been able to use this knowledge to make connections to his own work in school.

Innovation ISN’T about specific technology or devices.  In my experience, technology has been a game changer in the ways that it has enabled me to organize and facilitate collaboration and feedback.  It has created new opportunities for my students to connect globally and to share their ideas in new ways, but the true innovation lies in the way that we change the experiences to make our students more engaged and empowered.  My initial frustration with the slow roll out of devices didn’t keep me from innovating.  Instead, I realized that I needed to change my way of thinking far more than I needed a class set of iPads.

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"Change is an Opportunity to Do Something Amazing"

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"Change is an Opportunity to Do Something Amazing"

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Change is something that I didn’t used to enjoy.  I became very comfortable with pulling out materials and activities that I thought were successful, but didn’t push myself outside of my comfort zone very often.  A couple of years ago, with a little push from some some pretty awesome educators, I decided that my students deserved more from me.

It started with some discussion around 21st Century Skills with our district’s partnership with USD MTLC and the fabulous Dr. Katie Martin (@katieMTLC).  Was I skeptical?  No.  But was I hesitant to take the plunge?  YES!  It is scary to take on new challenges, and to feel okay with sometimes failing spectacularly in front of your students, peers, and administrators!  And even more than that, it feels overwhelming to think that your practice needs a complete overhaul.  But here is what I learned:  Teachers are already doing some really amazing things in their classrooms.  Change doesn’t happen overnight, and small changes add up to great things when we start examining the learning experiences that we are creating for our students.

At first, I made small shifts in my instruction, trying to increase collaboration and critical thinking.  I have never shied away from using technology, but it was definitely a different experience to use it to promote these ideas.  What I found was that I didn’t need to be the expert in the room.  My 3rd graders were incredibly adept at learning the technology, often teaching me things that I wasn’t aware existed. They needed my guidance in collaborating and communicating effectively throughout the process.  Taking myself off of the “stage” at the front of the room, and putting the kids in the driver’s seat made it possible for me to facilitate deeper discussions and encourage them to question and problem solve.  Before I knew it, my students were teaching other teachers on campus how to get their students collaborating using GAFE!  These first small changes got me excited about the possibilities and made me want to share my experience with others.  Doug Kriedeman (@OUSDAssessment) was an incredible mentor through the process as he encouraged me to not only share my successes, but also my struggles and complete failures.  This led me to share my process with the teachers at my school, but it also led me to the world of Twitter and the expansion of my PLN.  If I was going to understand the importance of having my students connect globally, then I was going to have to get myself on board as well.

Embracing change can lead to innovative experiences for our students!  We can’t expect to keep doing the same old things, when the world is changing so dramatically.  Start small, but START!

Posted in Education | Tagged #IMMOOC, @lorrah_hogue | 1 Comment

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The thing that resonated with me the most this week was the idea of "Be More Dog". I've always been someone who absolutely hates change and is hesitant to leap fearlessly into the unknown. I love being in my comfort zone and struggle mightily when forced to step out of it. However, I've found that teaching is the one area of my life where change has never seemed as scary because I know that taking risks & trying new things will benefit my students in all the best ways.

I'm lucky to be at a place in my teaching career where I'm not so set in my ways (and to be at a school where teachers aren't afraid to try new things); I'm still figuring out what teaching style works best for me & my students. I also went through a teaching credential & M.Ed program where the idea of having an innovator mindset and allowing students to wonder, inquire, create, problem solve, connect, and innovate were greatly valued. At the end of the day, I want to feel like I've given my students the tools & skills to successively navigate and contribute positively to this increasingly technology dependent and globally-minded world.