Week 3 Maintaining Excellence as we Innovate #etlead

Amber Hanson

Ed Tech Leadership

Week 3 Blog

Essential Question: How do we maintain excellence as we innovate?

“All of the great achievers of the past have been visionary figures; they were men and women who projected into the future. They thought of what could be, rather than what already was, and then they moved themselves into action, to bring these things into fruition.” -Bob Proctor

            Action; such a simple word to say; yet to some educators, so complex to put in motion. Why is that? Why is it that when so many of us are so close to success, we stifle ourselves so frequently?  To me, it appears to all come down to this one syllable word: fear. We fear failure. How then, can we over come this?             

In our quest to becoming an innovative teacher within our classroom, we face many obstacles.  The largest of those obstacles, tends to be our own self. Sadly, “some people don’t start what they know is in their best interest and what they really, deep down want to do, because they think their efforts will be wasted in failure” (Burgess, 2012).  Largely this fear we’ve built up in our head, has stemmed upon that one lesson.  That one lesson we finally got the courage to step out of the box for.  That one lesson we were confident would be successful.  But, it wasn’t.  As a result, our confidence shrank and we went back to what we’ve always known, what we’ve always done.  This has to change, and it has to change now, with you and will me.  As quoted by Steve Maraboli, we need to “stop walking through the motions of a conditioned routine and start consciously taking action on [our] visualized intent.”  

I’m not saying it’s going to be easy either, in fact to be honest, it’s going to be difficult but if we commit ourselves to think “beyond the lesson or classroom [and] find ways to extend learning opportunities” (Clifford, 2013) and actually put those thoughts into motion, our actions will be rewarded.

In a conscious effort to start and maintain excellence as we innovate, the first logical step would, and should be getting to know the needs of your students.  This can be done in a variety of ways. Some examples include: observations, formal and informal assessment, as well as surveys. Also taking inventory of your students learning styles, as well as your own “in particular can help you plan assignments and activities.” (Tewksbury, Macdonald, 2005). Once you’ve assessed the needs of your students, it is necessary to develop clear and attainable goals/expectations for yourself as well as your students. To do this it would be wise for you to first get to know the standards.  Knowing the “standards inside and out helps find creative solutions in approaching a lesson.  Teachers can adapt them and work within the current framework.  Some topics allow for flexibility and use of creative approaches” (Clifford, 2013). 

Once you’ve established clear and attainable goals within a particular area, it’s time to pull out all the stops in order to develop an activity/lesson or project that is unique to your student’s needs.  While developing this lesson, you must insure it is not only relevant to the focus topic and selected goals, but also created in a way that it enhances the existing knowledge the students already have about the topic.

Compiling these ideas can be done in a variety of ways.  To help creativity and innovation flourish, one should be “comfortable enough to admit that one doesn’t know the answers” (Gordon, 2002). By collaborating with other educators, members of the communities, as well as others in your PLN you open up the floodgates to let ideas fly freely. To “explore new ideas and learn how to apply them one must be receptive to them. We can always think of a million reasons something won’t work. But, if we open our minds to the possibilities, we can also find many ways new ideas can work. But, simply being receptive is not enough… we must be “mindful”. [This] means being constantly attentive and exposing our minds to many different perspectives. We are able to see more ways new ideas can work if we equip ourselves with a vast repertoire of perspectives and ideas” (Clay, 2010).

Once this innovative lesson is developed, it is time to finally take that huge step and actually teach the lesson! Be confident in your own ability. Teach in a way that the passion and excitement you expend energize your students.  Teach in a way that directly involves your students.  It has been proved that “environments where students are actively participating and engaged with the material are crucial to student learning” (Tewksbury, Macdonald, 2005).  

After you’ve officially completed the lesson/activity, it’s important to gather data to evaluate the effectiveness of your lesson. Take note of all successes and failures of that lesson, but do not let it stifle you!  Mistakes happen, not all lessons work out the way you imagined.  In order to maintain excellence as we innovate we must NOT let our mistakes define us! Mistakes are merely the “stepping stones to wisdom. We learn from trial and error; we become wise by understanding problems.” –Leon Brown.  Don’t let failed lessons discourage you.  As inspired by Frank Sinatra, We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again.   Really, it’s all a matter of the perspective you choose to hold.  Use your experiences as motivation to make modifications and try again. 

To conclude this post, I want to leave you with a few of my favorite quotes by a man named Thomas Edison…you may have heard of him. 

 Enjoy! :)

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
― Thomas A. Edison

“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this - you haven't.”
― Thomas A. Edison

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.”
― Thomas A. Edison

           

Resources

Burgess, D. (2012). Teach like a pirate. San Deigo, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

Clay, B. (August 10, 2010). Six Characteristics of Highly Effective Change Leaders. In Innovation Excellence. Retrieved September 19, 2013, from http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2010/08/20/six-characteristics-of-highly-effective-change-leaders/.

Clifford, M. (January 10, 2013). 30 Ways To Promote Creativity in Your Classroom. In Innovation Excellence. Retrieved September 19, 2013, from http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/01/10/30-ways-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/.

Gordon, J. (2002). Top 10 Qualities of Excellence. In Quality Coaching. Retrieved September 19, 2013, from http://www.qualitycoaching.com/Articles/excellence.html.

Tewksbury, B., Macdonald, H. (2005). Teaching Strategies. In Designing Effective and Innovative Courses. Retrieved September 19, 2013, from http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/coursedesign/tutorial/strategies.html.