There are several ways to be innovative and still maintain excellence. If we take the time to get to know our students and their learning styles our innovation will also result in excellence. If we create an amazing lesson but does not meet the needs of our students, will it be excellent? Probably not since the students will not be able to relate to it. "An innovative educator is very uncomfortable with doing business as usual, especially when it yields no result. So they go to work brainstorming ways to make things better." I believe that if we are meeting the needs of our students we can innovative with excellence.
Rachelle Wooten suggests that there are seven characteristics of an innovative teacher:
- Reflective
- Learners themselves
- Creative
- Connected
- Collaborative
- Inquisitive
- Principled
Innovative teachers are also inquisitive and learners themselves. Education is every changing field and innovative teachers are constantly researching what will work best for their students. They are always asking questions and refining the classroom experiences based off the needs of their students.
Thomas Markham (2013) discusses the ever changing world we live in and how there is a need to be innovative in more then just education. He gives tens ways to help students become innovative themselves by creating a dynamic learning environment. He discusses ways such and using Project Base Learning, and teaching concepts not just facts. "Innovation is mightily discouraged by our system of assessment, which rewards the mastery of known information." (Markham) I am not sure I fully agree with the statement he makes. I believe it to be true but if we are teaching students using innovative strategies that match their needs we can provide them with the tools they need to be successful on all of these assessments. By teaching with excellence and using innovative strategies we are providing students more chances of being successful.
David Burgess-Teach Like a Pirate
http://teachamazing.com/7-characteristics-of-an-innovative-educator/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/04/10-ways-to-teach-innovation/
Sara,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that we need to take the time to get to know our students. Getting to know our students is the first step in finding out how to reach them. As you mentioned, teachers will NEVER have a classroom filled with students who all learn the same. I am sure, even in our graduate classes we all prefer to learn in a different way. I find it much easier to find information on my own. Sure I can listen to a lecture, but I have to revisit the information later in order to retain it.
Once we get to know our students by estabilishing a relationship with them, we will be better equipped to engage our students. One piece of information I have taken away from the research we have done thus far is that our students really do want to be creative. When we tell them "what to learn" and "how to learn it" we are crushing their creativity.
I watched an interesting Ted Talk given by Ken Robinson. He discusses how children are naturally creative. Children will naturally explore things they don't know if we give them the tools to explore them. (Robinson, 2006).
I also like that you discussed project based learning. When project based learning is well-organized and the teachers give students the tools they need, then these projects allow for extendend learning opportunities. Students are able to see a real world application to the skills they are learning in school. Suddenly learning becomes important and useful.
Being innovative is by no means easy, but it sounds like you are off to a great start! Thanks for sharing.
Ken Robinson. How schools kill creativity. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Extended Learning Opportunities. (2014). Keena State College. Retrieved from beyondtheclassroom.org
Sara,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy the Ted Talks, never heard of them until last semester.I know that I would love to do more project based learning with my students. Like you said they need to be well-organized and the students need the correct tools to be successful. I think that is where they are still a work in progress in my classroom. This the first year I have taught students older students and my students are not use to that type of learning. So in a sense it is a learning process on both of our parts.
I appreciate that everything on your list turned it back to the students. I feel like we're fighting so hard against this "Sage on the Stage" mentality. It sounds so simple, yet it's hard to empower someone and then stand back. Sometimes, it's just easier to do it yourself! But that's not why we're here, now is it? We're teaching students how to think, not what to think.
ReplyDeleteTiffany-I love what you sad at the end about how we are teaching student how to think! The battle I am fighting is getting my students not to be afraid of thinking, they are so use to somebody telling them what to write. Child are naturally inquisitive we just have to find a way to tap in to it. I am always remind of a quote by Maria Montessori, "Education is a natural process carried out by a child and is not acquired by listening to words, but by experiences in the environment."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymontessori.com/maria-montessori-quotes/