#gcsinnovates - Part 2 - Innovative Relationships

I have mentioned before that our school has a great position - technology coach.  We had one on campus.  Then, she moved, and we had her by Google Hangout.  Then, she decided to work where she lives, so we added the job of technology coach to our media specialist, Daniel O'Brien.  He was actually doing quite a lot of tech coaching before, so this really formalized and added to what he was already doing with us.  He has taken the baton and run with it.

Teachers learn from watching each other, so Daniel instituted a Pineapple Chart.  Pineapples are a long known symbol of welcome, so when you put your name on the Pineapple Chart, it means anyone is welcome to come observe your class that day.  Whether it is technology related or not is up to the individual teacher.  I put my name down when my kids were designing aluminum foil boats, a thing that has only a little tech.  Another teacher invited us in to see her kids use Google Docs for peer editing of AP Language papers. Another has invited us, both physically and digitally, to observe a Twitter chat she is doing with her students.  Our AP Psychology teacher invited us to be sharks in a Shark Tank-style presentation her students did on developmental toys.  It has been great observing other teachers, especially those outside my own discipline area.  Thanks to Daniel's willingness to manage the chart, we get to see the innovations of our teammates and get ideas for our own classrooms.

Another great thing Daniel has done is send out a weekly tech digital newsletter.  It is essentially a vlog.  He talks to us about events of the week, reminds us who is on the pineapple chart, and chats about new tools.  One of my favorite parts of the newsletter is the point/counterpoint videos he includes.  Each week, there is a youtube link to an EdTech related video.  The first week was Digital Aristotle, in which the case is made that schools will soon be radically different as each child will follow their own digital path of learning.  The next week was a video that countered that one, called This Will Revolutionize Education.  In that video, the presenter pointed out how many technologies that statement had been applied to (pretty much all of them) and discussed why technology doesn't change education in quite as extreme a way as we expect.  These were great for me to discuss with myself and my friends.

One Friday of each month, Daniel hosts Innovation Pods during our lunch.  This is when teachers who have the same grade levels (and therefore, usually the same lunch periods) can sit together and talk cross-curricular projects or brainstorm ideas with him.  The first one didn't have a ton of attendance, but those who did attend got some great benefit.  I encourage people to come to the next ones.  On a different Friday, he set up our new VR Goggles in the library and encouraged us to come learn about them so that we could explore different ideas for their use in our classrooms.  That was super fun, and I personally had dozens of ideas, not only for my classroom but ones that I could share with my colleagues as well.

Basically, Daniel is making an effort to give us as many venues as possible to spark as many ideas as possible.  Way to go, Daniel.

I think the greatest innovation GRACE has isn't really an innovation itself; it's the openness to innovation.  It isn't at all unusual for an English teacher and a science teacher to collaborate on a project.  If I need to talk through an idea, I have administrators and IT people that I can sit down and brainstorm with.  We set aside meeting times specifically for the purpose of discussing innovative ideas that we have.  Our students may not know to call it innovation, but they know that we are working together and are not stagnant.  Thank you GRACE administration for allowing and encouraging all of this.