As someone who gets bored easily, I cannot imagine teaching the same way year after year. This tendency I have to seek out new ways of doing things has allowed me to change the way I teach all the time. I am constantly designing new projects to try, testing the latest technology available, and learning new ways to teach. Not all of these changes have been innovative; they have just been different ways of covering the same material. Yet, it’s those new and better ways of doing things that my students get the most out of.
In The Innovator’s Mindset, George Couros defines innovation as “a way of thinking that creates something new and better.” (19) Changing the way I teach because I get bored teaching the same lessons all the time isn’t enough. I have to strive for the new lesson to be better than the old ones.
Case in point: One of my second grade teachers recently came to me with the goal of planning lessons that promote the 4Cs in her students through the relevant use of technology. I applauded the last part of that: relevant use of technology. She wants to use the tools available to enhance student learning, but not as the focus of her lessons. We created several math centers that used apps designed to allow students to create something. Our first center involved creating videos to teach first graders the concept of even and odd. This activity became an example of innovation for this teacher. Her new center allowed her to promote the 4Cs (Critical thinking skills, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity) into math for her students in a new and better way.
Notice, in this example, the technology is not the focal point. Yes, students are using the technology to create a video, but their focus was more on how to teach the concept of even/odd to a group of first graders. These students were focused on teaching their content, not on the video they were making. Through their videos, the teacher was able to check for deeper understanding than she would have with her traditional center activities. She used this insight to guide her small group instruction during centers. As a side benefit, the teacher also noted that this year students have taken less time to learn the center expectations and rotations than her past experiences! Students are excited about going to math centers, so they listen to directions better and do what is expected.
In what ways are you going to be innovative this week?
I have been collaborating with a 4th grade teacher who wanted to do something “different” with the watershed. After much discussion we decided to have the students break into groups and each group would be responsible for a different area of the watershed starting with the mountain area. The groups would then use the engineering process to create their area. Plan, design, test, redesign, retest and reflect.
That’s one of the reasons I love my job because each day is a new adventure and technology is always changing. I like to challenge myself to become better and better each day, but I think it’s important to start small and work your way up to greater and greater things. I like to help myself and others improve by posting updates, tools, tricks, etc… to our school Google Classroom page.