Elements of Successful Innovation - Part 3 - Embedded Support and Community

The post from Jon Bergman's Twitter account came across my feed months ago, but when I look at the list, I'm still grateful to work at GRACE where almost all of these things were part of our culture before we adopted the one to one program.  As we talk about other innovations, we are blessed to still have all the things on this list.

Two of the things Bergman finds critical to flipping that are also important for any innovation are Embedded Support and Community.

By Embedded Support, Bergman doesn't just mean a strong IT department - although that is important and will be featured in next week's post.  He means people with knowledge of both technology and its pedagogical use.  The first step on my road to tech was bringing in my own laptop.  While that went well, it was not particularly innovative; I was using slides and video rather than the whiteboard and overhead projector.  It was not a bad first step, but it would obviously not be enough to have stayed there.  The school bought a few SMART boards, and we were given a day's training on HOW to use them. What we were not given was training in how to incorporate them into a lesson.  I think we did a pretty reasonable job of figuring it out, but we could have implemented it far better if we had someone dedicated to learning as much about the pedagogy of the smart board as possible.  For that reason, when I served on the committee that was choosing our one to one devices, I beat the drum of training.  A board member expressed concern that he didn't want the one to one program to be like the SMART boards.  I knew what he meant.  Those are very expensive devices that were not being used to their fullest potential, and I was one of the people using it.  I said frequently on this committee.  Teacher MUST be trained, not only in the use of the device but in how to best use them IN the classroom experience.  If you want us to innovate with them, we can't rely on what we learned about books and expect it to translate.  Without training, you can get a chisel and stone or an iPad.  The innovation level will be about the same.  The school stepped up in a big way.  Not only did our IT people constantly seek out tools and pass along articles, our administrators sent links to ideas and articles.  Our media specialists became technology coaches and even created a program for our improvement.  There were also a few teachers who were more tech savvy than others who were identified as those you could go to with questions.  We even got special training from Apple (who are better at teaching you how to use it in school than Microsoft - Sorry Microsoft, but your trainers don't see the difference between education and business).   Everywhere you looked, there was support.

In addition to that, we were a community learning together.  It's hard to describe the power of that in the first year of a new, widespread innovation.  We shared ideas all the time, at meetings, in e-mails, on our lesson plans, in online discussion boards.  We were in this together, not just as teachers, but with students.  Students gave me some of my best tools, and they suddenly felt comfortable e-mailing teachers.  They had the ability to do it before, but now they experienced a culture shift that made them feel they could (and boy do they - like all the time).  Our school is already strong in community, but it really showed during this time.  That doesn't happen by accident.  It happened because a culture had been cultivated for years and was intentionally strengthened even more during this time.  Our innovations now are not as widespread.  They tend to be within a grade level or department, but that community still exists.  In an earlier post, I mentioned our project brainstorming meetings.  English, science, art, math, history, and foreign language teachers sitting in small groups have a lot of brain power.  We were able to view projects from such a variety of angles that we couldn't help but get results.

You can innovate alone if you don't have these things in your school, but you should at least seek out support and community online.  There are lots of communities out there.  Search education-related hashtags.  Find teachers to follow on Twitter.  It is better to have it in your building, but if you don't have it in person, have it online.  It makes a difference.  Next week, I'll address technology specifically, but innovation isn't just about technology.  It's about doing something different, whether that uses technology or not.

Elements of Successful Innovation - Part 2 - Time and Focus

This is the second post in a series of thoughts on the elements required to innovate in the classroom.  Last week's post was on the importance of leadership and acknowledgment.  This week, we look at the next features of Jon Bergman's list - Time and Focus.

Time - Everyone wants to innovate.  It is in our nature as human beings.  We don't want to repeat the same things over and over, whether or not they work, as the world changes around us.  We want to take advantage of new research and technology.  The reason we often do not is that doing what we have always done doesn't take any time, and doing something new does.  We have discussed various innovative ideas in our school many times.  We made progress as individuals, but doing it on a large scale takes a lot of committed time, particularly if you want to implement things in a cross-curricular fashion.  It requires discussion with other teachers, writing instructions, constructing rubrics, and figuring out how to answer questions from students and parents, etc.  One of the things we found helpful this year was a series of brainstorming meetings.  A teacher would present a project that needed help or an idea for something new and allowed other teachers across different disciplines to give their input.  For some, it led to joint work between teachers.  For others, it just brought a set of fresh ideas for how to improve.  I enjoyed being part of these meetings both for my own work and as the input person for others.  The side benefit is that you have a better idea of what is happening in your school as a whole and can talk to your students about the things happening in other classes.

Focus - In Bergman's original post, he describes a school-wide focus this way. "The change is a focus of the school, and the school does not have many (if any) competing programs."  I would say this depends on the size of your innovation.  If it is for one unit or only affects a few classrooms or one department, you can have several innovations at once.  If you are doing something big, like implementing a one to one program or trying to create a flipping culture, you should focus on it for at least one year before adding anything else.  No one wants to be a mile wide and an inch deep.  To keep that from happening, there must be time to focus on the best ways to incorporate the innovative idea without competition from other tools.

Next time - Embedded Support and Community

 

Elements of Successful Innovation 1 - Leadership and Acknowledgement

This is the first post in a series on the successful implementation of any classroom innovation.  It is based on the list of elements needed for successful flipping (tweeted by Jon Bergman) that I referenced in my last post.  While the list was posted about the flipped classroom experience, it occurred to me that it reflects the elements needed for any innovation, from flipping to tech integration to project based learning.  Whatever innovation you are trying to implement, apply these needs to it.  I'm combining the first two - Leadership and Acknowledgement - because they fit well together.

If you going to innovate, you must have the support of your school's leadership.  When you try something new, it scares people.  When people get scared, they want you to stop the new thing and go back to what they are comfortable with.  In education, that means nice and safe lectures from a nice and safe textbook.  You will likely end up getting a lot of e-mails and having a lot of parent-teacher conferences.  You are going to need the support of your principal during these times.

The other reason you need a super-supportive administration is that you are going to need cheerleaders to make change happen.  Administrators, avoid the temptation to make this a measured accountability thing.  When GRACE was deciding to have a one-to-one program, there was a brief (thankfully) discussion of how to hold teachers accountable.  It was suggested that we require a certain percentage of time each week be devoted to the use of technology.  I get the desire to hold people accountable and make things measurable, but doing that would have been detrimental to teacher enthusiasm.  When it becomes "part of your job," you meet your minimum requirement only; and you do it without enthusiasm.  Instead, our IT department and administrators decided to be cheerleaders.  They told us what was possible with the innovation, gave us time to share with each other, sent us links and tools that they saw.  Because of this, we jumped in, each at our own starting level and grew.  We were encouraged to think of one big thing each semester, and my goal was to add as many little everyday things (google image diagrams, animations from youtube, collaborating using Google Docs, etc.) as possible every day.  In our faculty meetings, our administration set aside time for us to share our successes and ask questions.

We have been in this for six years now.  While things look different than they did at the beginning, we still take the time to cheer each other on.  This year, each teacher presented a new tool during a faculty meeting and shared how they had used it (or planned to use it) in their own classes.  Every year, we have an EdCamp, where teachers teach each other.  Innovation is exhausting.  It's that good kind of tired that comes from doing something meaningful, but it is exhausting.  A good administrator will recognize that and give you the support you need.  Sharing and acknowledging each other's achievements (and also laughing at your own failures) gives you energy in a great way.  If you want to innovate, but you don't have supportive leadership, make a little team of your own.  It will be harder, but it should not stop you from innovating.

Next time - Time and Focus

Successful Innovation - Coming Series

As a connected teacher and learner, I follow quite a few educators.  One of them is Jon Bergman, the most well known "flipped classroom" advocate and lecturer.

Some time ago, this list was on his Twitter feed.  This is the top ten things needed for successful flipping of the classroom.  I am not yet a teacher who flips (although I think about it a lot), but as I looked through the list, I realized that this same list could apply to any great change in the classroom.  At GRACE, we have just finished our sixth year of our one to one laptop program, and it has been, in my humble opinion, incredibly successful.  I've blogged before about the non-linear progress we made (four posts here, here, here, and here).

This summer, every teacher in our school is reading The Innovator's Mindset by George Cuoros, and I am noticing a lot of things on this list in that book as well.  Therefore, I have decided to write a post for each of these.  I don't know that I want to stretch it out over the entire summer, so I may post more than one per week or combine some of them as it seems some of them would go well together (Leadership and Acknowledgment - or Time and Focus - or Embedded Support and Community).

First one coming tomorrow - I'll start with Leadership and Acknowledgement.

A Laughing Community

GRACE Christian School is a loving community that spiritually and academically equips, challenges, and inspires students to impact their world for Christ.  That's my school's mission statement.

I've recently come to the realization that of all the evidence that we are a loving community (praying for each other, taking care of each other's needs, making food for each other), the most obvious is the sound of laughter throughout our building.

Students make me laugh every day.  They are witty and often sarcastic (an art I respect when done well).  I have an 8th grader who tells me every time it rains for some reason I don't understand, but it amuses me.  I have a student who I attempt to make laugh, and it is very satisfying on the rare occasions that I am successful.

Come to our teacher's lounge during lunch or the hallway after school or even to our faculty meetings, and you will hear a lot of laughter.  As we share stories of the day or make our own silly observations, we amuse each other a lot.  Some of our teachers prank each other; others have Nerf gun battles across the hall.  Our Head of School is hysterical, and our principles share in the fun as well.  They even give us "paper plate awards" at the end of the year based on some funny story that has happened during the year.  Brainstorming those is the best department chair meeting of the year.

Teaching is an intense job that takes a lot of energy.  It is important that you enjoy your students and your co-workers.  It is also important for your students to see you enjoying your job.  When I was in middle school, I was concerned that adulthood meant hating your job because so many adults I knew did.  When our students see that we enjoy our jobs, they feel more secure about the future.  They also see teachers as human beings, which can only aid in classroom management.  It also gives them a reason to think of teaching as a career option for themselves.

These are all important outcomes; so if your school isn't as fun as mine, find a few friends that you can enjoy and spend more time with them in a place where students can see you.  You need a laughing community; so if you don't have one, make one.  If you do have one, recognize what a blessing that is.  Thank God, and thank each other.