ASD Innovation Working Group by Kimberly Zimmer

Programming

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:05:33 UTC

Consider creating k-12 STEM/Maker/Design programs aligned and targeted with dedicated, experienced staff to run the program.

Innovation Center/ Lab

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:05:57 UTC

Create innovation lab around this program development

Social Emotional Learning

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:06:34 UTC

Consider the opportunity to be a leader in creating SEE curriculum k-12 that supports the whole child and tech innovation/ ie Wayfinder k-12

Community Connections

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:07:34 UTC

Leverage authentic community experiences to build relevant academic to work opportunities; projects and internships for curious and motivated students.

Community Input

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:08:54 UTC

Bi annual Innovation/Community input meetings

Create a team

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:09:13 UTC

Innovation team collecting innovation resources to share and tracking the most innovative education practices

Time Constraints

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:11:21 UTC

Regimented schedules might not foster innovation (traditional class schedules)

Culture of perfection

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:11:31 UTC

Need to be allowed/rewarded/not punished for failure

Culture Adaptation

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:11:45 UTC

Ability to not accept NO as an answer

Space

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:12:00 UTC

Rooms for collaboration, conversation, technology enhancements

Learning in the round

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:12:13 UTC

recognize that the students might have far greater technology skills. Learn from them. Instructors have better life/integration/communication skills. Learn from them. Understand who is teaching what

Proposal for school visits...

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 21:32:06 UTC

Project Based Learning/ PD

2025-04-01 23:24:14 UTC

Explore the Buck Institute for Education on how all teachers learn inquiry based teaching in a problem solving in the community.

AI to generate ideas

2025-04-01 23:27:26 UTC

Kids are doing this and using AI a lot. There is motivation already among them.

We do need to look into best practices and how to build the skills on using it constructively.

Student engagement

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 23:29:10 UTC

To get participation, the NEED has to be real. Incentives must drive action. Example: Deadlines. Or: We have to solve this problem!! How do we create something that gives everyone a taste?

Beyond Hour School

2025-04-01 23:29:50 UTC

How do we ensure access at all times.

Designing Student Centered Topics - District and Community

2025-04-01 23:31:43 UTC

We have loads of tech leaders, but kids do not want to sit in one more class. Students want more mini courses to equip them with skills for the real world.

These can be problem based and project based.

Grassroot Innovation within the Aspen or Pitkin community.

2025-04-01 23:34:57 UTC

Code will be 80% functional in minutes without learning coding for an entire school year....

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 23:34:59 UTC

How do we teach systematic organized thought within a framework and you can use any language to do this....giving this to kids in a non boring way is a tool but teaching kids computer languages is old school - systems thinking in a compelling way....

Robotics has a lot to offer. You need things that are tactile. A challenge with kids is the loss of any positive excitement - the way that our brains are wired, kids need to get positive feedback from dopamine so how are we leveraging that in EDU?

Self Directed course model -

2025-04-01 23:36:22 UTC

Solve a problem in constucted or guided context.

Keep constructing based on what students needed or ran into a problem.

There was a one-one or whole class discussion around this self-paced work.

Positive feedback

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 23:39:19 UTC

Kids need to receive natural dopamine so first thing in the morning, it might be interesting to give them normal healthy engagement.

Community Connections

2025-04-01 23:41:20 UTC

How can we support our students to solve problems in their own community?

Aspen Institute in Summer, seems like a great place to leverage an partner with.

Integration! With Professional Development

kzimmer6 — 2025-04-01 23:41:56 UTC

How are teachers creating opportunities for teaching science and technology and then integrating that into regular coursework

Valuation on "traditional subjects"

2025-04-01 23:44:42 UTC

Joey, Ada, George, Sheri - when we are bound to mastery in literacy and math as the "most important" subjects--those that seem to have been identified as the primary indicators for success--we lose the opportunity for action-based learning. Students who are bad at math have to take a 2nd math class, if they're not strong readers, they spend hours per day trying to learn to read. They don't get to spend any time with their hands, doing the work that may be most engaging for them.

Suspend their beliefs to try new ways of doing and being

2025-04-01 23:45:17 UTC

Our old successes are now becoming our constraints.

Competing Priorities

2025-04-01 23:47:02 UTC

If we are asking teachers to change their teaching practice in the classroom, and looking at offerings from a FTE perspective, we'll have to find a balance with this and external accountability metrics

AES recess?

2025-04-01 23:47:06 UTC

Can we have a space for students to choose at recess that allows for students to be explorers? Probably not the best time for a technology lab (of course, we need to recognize the physical benefits of recess), but what about a building/design lab? Large items that can be moved and changed and innovated with? PTO has been interested in funding new playground initiatives.

2025-04-01 23:49:49 UTC

2025-04-01 23:50:33 UTC

Portrait of a Graduate

2025-04-01 23:51:10 UTC

Instead of the school system telling students what they must demonstrate/accomplish/do via the Portrait of a Graduate, could students be responsible for reflecting on how they've exhibited the IB Learner Profile? This would give them agency and encourage their engagement with the LP

Engagement Profiles

2025-04-01 23:53:45 UTC

The profiles of students you shared made me think of these profiles of gifted learners... the action items in this chart feel relevant to this conversation. Engagement happens for humans when ability, creativity, and task commitment overlap-- the task commitment only happens when students are working in an area of interest. It's not going to be robotics for everyone, but we do need to be innovative to meet that need for each student.

Innovative creation

2025-04-01 23:56:39 UTC

Students are already held to the expectation that they must create... write essays, design labs, model mathematical computation. The push is that students are building off what someone else has already done to make it better (and justifying why it is 'better' based on a set of prescribed or created criteria). This is probably the easiest lever to pull for integrating innovation intentionally in all classrooms.

Group 1

kzimmer6 — 2025-05-06 18:34:44 UTC

Group 2

kzimmer6 — 2025-05-06 18:34:51 UTC

Instructions

kzimmer6 — 2025-05-06 18:37:22 UTC

Work with your group to identify 10 traits, characteristics, dispositions that would define a future ready student with an innovators mindset:

Group 1

kzimmer6 — 2025-05-06 18:37:30 UTC

Group 2

kzimmer6 — 2025-05-06 18:37:36 UTC

Instructions

kzimmer6 — 2025-05-06 18:38:51 UTC

Help us define innovation as it pertains to teaching and learning and, specifically, Aspen School District. Please share your ideas in the space provided.