#gcsinnovates - Part 1

According to my computer's dictionary, innovation is the act of making changes to something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.  Contrary to what we are told at education conferences, educators have been involved in innovation for the past two hundred years.  Yes, I've seen the side by side pictures of classrooms that appear to have undergone minimal change, but the photographer in me knows that those pictures show one momentary snapshot of seating.  They do not reflect the whole story.

If you walk into a classroom, no matter how traditional the desk setup, you will hear discussions among students and teachers that you would not have heard even ten years ago, much less one hundred years ago.  In fact, a person from one hundred years ago might believe you were speaking a different language.  The use of youtube as a teaching tool and students creating work rather than simply consuming it was something that couldn't have happened in my own schooling because the tools had not yet been invented.  The focus on collaboration that has taken over education is a massive change from what the parents of current students will remember.  Schools have definitely changed, and I don't think they are given enough credit for it.

I teach in a one-to-one environment, and my school has been growing in our application of this program for the past six years.  We are asked to use technology in our classrooms but not just for the sake of using technology.  We are asked to consider what technology makes possible that wasn't possible without it.  For example, our students who are reading The Scarlett Letter participate in Twitter chats.  The teacher of this class didn't choose Twitter just because she likes Twitter.  She chose it because it allows the students to communicate with each other (normal before technology), students in other classes (difficult before technology), teachers across other grades and classes (difficult before technology), and anyone in the world who catches the hashtag (impossible before technology).  This is a case in which the use of technology not only improves the lesson but actually makes parts of the lesson completely different than they would have before.

This summer, our faculty all read The Innovator's Mindset by George Cuoros.  Despite my irritation with Cuoros' abrasive personality in live workshops, there is much to like in this book.  He asks the question, "Would you want to be a learner in your own class?"  He poses the challenge to think of yourself as a learner so that students can see your learning process and realize that learning doesn't end when school does.  We are asked to think about innovation, not for the sake of innovation, but for what it can bring to your students.  Our theater department is putting on a production of Peter Pan this year.  We cannot use the traditional cable system to allow our students to fly, so our theater teacher innovated.  She asked her students what ideas they had about alternative "flying methods."  One of her students is proficient in a program called Blender.  He creates incredible works in it and suggested that the students could be scanned, animated, and projected in flight.  If she were not courageous, humble, and innovative enough to ask the students, we might not have had the ability to fly our students to Neverland.

One thing that I most appreciate about my school is the recognition that sometimes technology is the best way, and sometimes it only makes sense to use paper and a pencil.  Sometimes, an innovation is best, and other times the time-tested way is the best way.  We are given freedom in our professional judgment to do what we believe is best for each lesson in our classroom, but we aren't left to figure it out alone.  Our media specialists are also technology coaches.  Since this post is getting a bit long, I'll talk about how our new technology coach is innovating next week.