Your lightbulb in your classroom?

Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow. - C. William Pollard

There is a danger that when we think of innovation we imagine devices that can turn salt water into drinking water, self-driving cars, or moldy bread that can charge a phone battery (yes, it does exist!). While these do fit the definition of innovation, to most of us, these types of new ideas are well beyond our scope. Innovation, as portrayed by the media, is usually big and life-changing, and sensational.

But innovation can be something you do every day!

When you consider that innovation is defined as "a new method, idea, product, etc", then your own scope for innovation suddenly widens. And innovation can be a personal thing! What is innovative for you doesn't need to be innovative for someone else. If what you are doing is new…

for you

- a new method, a new approach, a new idea - then you are being innovative.

So, as you consider your teaching today, what are you doing today that you have not done before? Where are those moments where you are challenging yourself with a new teaching idea, a new assessment practice, or a new approach to planning? If you have always taught a certain book or a certain unit a certain way, have always taught from a content perspective, or have always set a final exam, how can you innovate?

Can you take the big ideas of the book and allow students to choose their own books that address those ideas? Can you reconsider the content from a conceptual standpoint and teach from that new angle? Can you develop a rubric that covers all the elements of the final exam and give students the opportunity to choose how to demonstrate those understandings via a project?

Innovation carries with it a certain amount of risk. Will the conceptual unit be as good as the usual content approach? How will I assess students if they are all reading different books? Will a final project be as rigorous as a final exam?

Risk-taking in teaching is critical. Not everything is going to be fantastic first time around. It won't be the end of the world. You will be able to try again.

So today, how will you innovate in your classroom? How will you innovate in your teaching? How will you allow your students to innovate?