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July 6, 2018
We forget that our responsibility isn’t solely to teach memorization or the mechanics of a task but to spark a curiosity that empowers students to learn on their own. To wonder. To explore. To become leaders.
We forget that if students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them.
As leaders, if we ask teachers to use their own time to do anything, what we’re really telling them is: it’s not important.
we must make time for our teachers to learn and grow.
We are spending so much time telling our students about what they can’t do that we have lost focus on what we can do.
When we tap into the power of we over me, we have the potential for what Steven Johnson refers to as the “adjacent possible,” creating new aspirations and a powerful vision of what school could and should really be for our organization as learners.
create the conditions where change is more likely to happen. As a leader, you can create those conditions by taking a strengths-based approach for learning and leadership and unleashing talent in your organization.
Leaders of the most innovative organizations in the world know there is no end to growth and learning.
If we can create school cultures in which values such as originality, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge are the norm of our students, our teachers, and ourselves, other organizations will look to education as an industry that leads in innovation,
change is an opportunity to do something amazing.
innovate or die.
committed to constant improvement and adaptation
Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. —William Pollard[13]
Shortly after I took on the position of Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning, I watched a TED Talk by Simon Sinek, author of the best-selling book Start with Why. In his presentation, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,”[14] he explained that all great organizations start with their “why” and then move toward the what and the how.
What’s my why? How will I get there? What are the specific steps?
I believe education’s why is to develop learners and leaders who will create a better present and future. When I use the term leaders, I’m not talking about bosses but people who have influence over and can make an impact on the world. Likewise, the term learner is not limited to students; educators must have the opportunity to develop both as learners and leaders. Anyone in any job or position—students, teachers, and administrators—can be a learner and a leader. But to develop these traits in our people, we must empower them; we must inspire innovation, rather than demand compliance.
I’m defining innovation as a way of thinking that creates something new and better. Innovation can come from either “invention” (something totally new) or “iteration” (a change of something that already exists), but if it does not meet the idea of “new and better,” it is not innovative.
Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk, explains in his TEDx talk “The New Rules of Innovation,” “Innovation is the process by which we change the world…. It’s the practical application of ideas and technologies to make new and better things.”[15]
The role of the teacher is to inspire learning and develop skills and mindsets of learners.
Establishing an innovative culture doesn’t require transformation. However, it does require leaders who will develop and sustain systems that support “optimal learning experiences” and who value the process of creating and refining ideas.
Iteration. Work is never done. Feedback loops.
the question that must be asked every day is, “What is best for this learner?”
The question that must be asked every day is, “What is best for this learner?” #InnovatorsMindset
Any time teachers think differently about who they teach and how they teach, they can create better learning opportunities. Questioning what we do and why we do it is essential for innovation.
When we think differently about the things that we are used to seeing daily, we can create innovative learning opportunities.
To help people change, it is important to understand what drives their habits in the first place.
We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for ourselves. —Stephen Downes (2010)[20]
The Innovator’s mindset can be defined as the belief that the abilities, intelligence, and talents are developed so that they lead to the creation of new and better ideas.
we need to look at the realities of our situations and create something new. And it’s crucial that educators see this “inside the box innovation” modeled by administrators.
Remix & repurpose
Having the freedom to fail is important to innovation. But even more important to the process are the traits of resiliency and grit. Resiliency is the ability to come back after a defeat or unsuccessful attempt. Grit is resolve or strength of character.
open to trying something that might not work.
Do your students have opportunities to learn in ways that connect to their lives and make an impact on how they engage with the others? Do the learning experiences you create mimic the type of learning you expect to engage in? Think about the classroom experience from your students’ perspective; establish a higher expectation for learning opportunities.
Because each individual learns differently, it’s important to ask, “How does this student
learn best?” and “What are some ways students can demonstrate their knowledge?” For example, for students who are trying to share their understanding of any curriculum objective, is writing it down every time the only way they can show what they understand? Could they create a video, share a podcast, create a visual, or do something else?
I remember hearing someone once ask, “Why is it that when kids leave school, they have a ton of energy and teachers are tired? Why isn’t it the other way around?”
By embracing the idea that everyone in the classroom is a teacher and a learner, we can create a community that learns from and teaches one another.
Teachers teaching kids, kids teaching kids, kids teaching teachers.
If we are going to help our students thrive, we have to move past “the way we have always done it,” and create better learning experiences for our students than we had ourselves. This does not mean replacing everything we do, but we must be willing to look with fresh eyes at what we do and ask, “Is there a better way?”
Although she wasn’t confident she could create the video herself, Lisa knew her students would be able to figure out the technology—and maybe she could learn from them.
Kids teaching teachers.
Effective leadership in education is not about moving everyone from one standardized point to the next but moving individuals from their point “A” to their point “B.”
High expectations are not bad, in fact, they can be used to our advantage. And it’s why I regularly ask educators to consider the question: Would you want to be a learner in your own classroom? Empathetic teachers think about the classroom environment and learning opportunities from the point of view of the student, not the teacher.
finding the problem is an essential part of learning—one that students miss out on when we pose the problem to them first.
stop simply telling students how to learn, and, rather, act as a “guide on the side,” we can support them in a way that encourages them to find their own solutions.
If we are to create new opportunities for the learners we serve, not everything we try will always work with every learner.
It’s also necessary to question our “best practices.”
An educator with an innovative mindset will find the balance between drawing on experience while maintaining a willingness to try something new.
Tom Kaneshige says, “Every idea is fundamentally a network of ideas… When you create an environment that allows the kinds of serendipitous connections to form, [innovative ideas] are more likely to happen.”[32]
every opportunity to share with others on a global scale makes you think more deeply about what it is that you are sharing in the first place.
Innovation (and enjoyment) flourishes when teachers collaborate to learn and practice new strategies. Isolation is often the enemy of innovation.
The Center for Accelerated Learning notes: Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is not something a learner absorbs, but something a learner creates. Learning happens when a learner integrates new knowledge and skill into his or her existing structure of self. Learning is literally a matter of creating new meanings, new neural networks, and new patterns of electro/ chemical interactions within one’s total brain/body system.[35]
shift in her classroom was from teacher-centric instruction to learner-centric creation. While many students in her class might have been able to regurgitate or re-share their understanding of mitosis, Lisa wanted them to really understand the concept and retain the knowledge. Creating something helped them make a personal connection to the information—an important key for deeper learning.
Constructionism
With access to a plethora of digital resources and information, it’s important to foster a culture of creation versus consumption.
