Innovation - Part #1

The reading and videos both opened my eyes up to different aspects of a classroom. I had watched the Ted Talk on are schools killing creativity. I enjoy that video talked about giving students more creativity and finding out what works best for each student. That leads into what Part I of the book had to talk about. The author, George Couros, brought up a lot of the same points. The first one that stood out to me was turning our students not only into problem solvers but problem finders. In the Ed Puzzle video the speaker talked about how the students raised their hands and told the professor that he was suppose to give them the problem. I feel that I would get a lot of the same responses from my students if I did this. I am looking forward to doing this in my Entrepreneur class for sure. The next point that really stood out to me were the questions. Asking myself if I would be interested in the lesson opened up a new way of looking at the lessons. I am always up for change and making my classroom more interesting, so the thought process of the questions really stuck with me. Teachers need to not only think out of the box but also inside the box when creating lessons. I like how I do not have to completely change my content, but just add to or adapt a way to give the students more power and control over their learning. The final topic that I will talk about here is the content being taught in the classroom. A statement that Couros used that stood out to me was, we need to teach students for jobs that have not yet been created. At first the instinct is, how do I do that, but then you begin to understand the concept of innovating your classroom and teaching collaboration and empowerment to the students.

The readings and videos have opened my eyes to a different way of teaching. I believe my classroom was on the edge of being innovative but not fully committed with an understanding of what it should look like. The book has already given me a better direction to go while becoming a better teacher. I am excited to get into the next chapters and put together a plan and structure I can better use to empower and motivate students to learn in my classroom.