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#IMMOOC Week 2

9/28/2016

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Great Scott!​

via GIPHY

As a teacher trying to become more innovative each year, I often feel a bit like Doc Brown. If you're unfamiliar, you should probably just stop reading this because you're obviously from a different planet. Kidding. But seriously, you might want to stop reading right now. Go watch Back to the Future then come back. You're welcome.

Okay, now that you're back...

In the film, Doc Brown is the inventor of the first time machine. He's a bit crazy, eccentric, zany, and yes, his hair is out of control. 

In The Innovator's Mindset, George Couros says that innovation is, "A way of thinking that makes something new and better." Doc Brown is a great visual reminder of this for me. Sometimes innovation is scary, and you're not sure of the roads it will lead you down. Fortunately for us, and Doc, we become truly successful or effective when we change, update, reevaluate, reinvent, and use our resources wisely. (Let's not forget he fueled the DeLorean with, what some would call, garbage!) 

Doc's mission was to create and recreate this time machine until it worked better than it had before. That is our mission as teachers. We create and recreate in hopes that our innovations will not only be new, but also better. These innovations will serve our students better and take them to new places on their educational journey.

My latest Doc Brown, "Great Scott!" innovative addition was the Figurative Language Exploration I sent my students on last week. While it' wasn't perfect and completely innovative, it was the next step for me to take in becoming MORE innovative, and I think that's often the key. Sometimes you have to take baby steps into innovation, and that's okay. It's better than staying the same!

So normally, when my 7th graders review figurative language before diving into poetry, we spend about two days of me, up at the front, guiding them through a powerpoint with some videos, funny pictures, and helpful information. They take guided notes and watch some things here and there. By the end, they've been somewhat entertained and they have figurative language notes to reference. They've also heard me talk a lot. It wasn't the worst. But it also wasn't the best.

This year, I decided to innovate a little. I took myself out of the equation. They didn't really need me. All of this was review information anyway, so why was I wasting my time, and theirs, by thinking that I had to direct the learning. They are capable, and I have to remind myself of that sometimes. I took my powerpoint, turned it into a Google Presentation, added some interactive elements (YouTube video activity), created a self-paced guide, uploaded it to our Google Classroom, and Boom! It was SO much better! Basically, I just said, "Okay, use this guide and explore the Google Slides today. You'll need your headphones and a pencil to add to your guide as you figure things out and practice." That's all. I. had. to. do.

(Granted, it took me about 6 hours to figure out how to create and update my original review in a more engaging way.) But now...I love the lesson! Even better, I heard students saying, "This is fun!" I saw students dancing and singing to the music videos. I heard students ask me if they could finish next week! It couldn't have gone better, which was really rewarding. I even Rick-Rolled my students on one of the slides. It was hilarious. 

Overall, there was time to review, practice, identify, and analyze figurative language...all the objectives I needed to cover... rolled into one interactive self-guided activity.

It wasn't the most innovative of all innovations, but I took a lot of steps and time to make sure it was better. That's innovation, right? If you're struggling with being innovative because it seems overwhelming, I totally understand.

It might help to look at it from Doc Brown's perspective: turn your garbage into fuel!  Generate those 1.21 gigawatt lessons! Use what you've got. Tweak it. Add to it. Take away. Make it better. Your lessons will lead your students and you to new destinations!


Megan Gordon
​7th Grade ELAR
​




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#IMMOOC Week 1

9/21/2016

8 Comments

 
Picture
  So, I recently decided to join George Couros’s Innovator’s Mindset Massive Open Online Course. (#IMMOOC)  After reading his book and writing a little review of it on this site, I decided it was the next logical step.
 It was a great read, and I’m excited to put into practice some of the suggestions and changes he writes about. Each week, I’ll be blogging my thoughts on this page of the site.

Week I- The Introduction
  This week’s assignment was to blog about the introduction of the book. There was also a video posted to inspire thought and dialogue. Here are my key take-aways and thoughts about the first week of #IMMOOC . I decided to focus on the idea of change.

  1. Last year, my school read Teach Like a Pirate over the summer. This summer, our assignment was The Innovator’s Mindset. Along with that, I was fortunate enough to have Dave Burgess come speak at my school’s convocation last year, and my school district has already booked George Couros for next year! So...it would be safe to say that my school district is very supportive of being innovative, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s also safe to say that my brain has kind of exploded over the past two years. Serious mush over here. From the moment I began reading both books, I was hooked.  I seriously told my principal, “These are my people!” It has been really nice to hear from people whom I feel have similar core educational values as myself. I’m in my 9th year of teaching 7th grade ELAR, but for the first four years, I felt really defeated, and I didn’t understand how to reconcile my creativity and innovation with the teaching practices that were already in place. Obviously, you learn a lot as you teach, and I’m happy to report that I now realize that it’s okay to let go of historic practices to design activities for my students which are creative and innovative. It was a hard path to find when everything around me was telling me that it’s not worth it to try new things: administration, standardized testing, standardized grading, and the way that the modern education system is set up. I guess that’s the thing that stuck out to me in the introduction of The Innovator’s Mindset: you might have to go through dramatic changes to create opportunities for yourself and your students. I know I am.
  2. The first change I made, was changing school districts. I’m now in a place that appreciates taking risks and being innovative. That’s a great feeling to know that you will be supported when your ideas might sound a little wacky and unconventional.
  3. The second change I made was to really hone in on what it means to engage and design for students. I like how George and Katie mentioned in the video that student current level achievement is not as important as aptitude, and we really need to be offering students opportunities that show them the value of what they’re learning in the real world. So that has been my focus these last few years. For example, I’m not going to teach you about writing these certain types of papers because that’s what we do in English class, I’m going to offer you various ways to communicate with others because that’s what life is all about. Giving a life-value to what is going on in the classroom is super important to me, so I decided to change things for the betterment of my students and myself.
  4. My final change is that I am never done changing. I used to think that all the REAL teachers had these systems that they created over time so that eventually, they didn’t really have to do much. It was like a rite of passage to signify a REAL teacher. And I was hoping that someday I would be good enough to be in that spot. Wow. Wrong. A real teacher is constantly changing, giving up, and adding in. Not for the sake of change, mind you, but for the betterment of learning. At the beginning of the year, during the school year, at the end of the year, and over the summer, my brain, along with my teammates’ brains, are constantly churning, assessing, re-evaluating what was done, what could be better, and what needs to be changed so that it’s better for our students’ learning experience.

 I’m really excited to be a part of #IMMOOC, and I hope you’ll check it out and leave some feedback or join in the fun. It’s great to be a part of an educational community of movers and shakers. Whether it’s #IMMOOC, #teacherdesign, #2ndaryELA, or something else, if you’re not connected to other educators whom you feel are inspiring, that’s probably the first change you can make for the better. Get connected!

See you next week!

Megan Gordon
7th Grade ELA
8 Comments

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