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.
