White Bear Lake Innovation Spotlight.

Today's classrooms look eerily similar to the classrooms that I experienced in my own K-12 education. That's not bad per se. I mean, I know a lot of great people that are products of the traditional, factory-style, approach to teaching. This model is tremendously successful at preparing workers for an industrialized society. 

By and large, today's educational workforce are products of the industrial style of education. We teach learners how we were taught and we don't know what we don't know.

The rub, for me, is that our world has enough adults that show up on time, tie a Double Windsor, and color inside the lines. That doesn't cut it, anymore. We require world changers. Young people that are creative, gritty, well spoken, critical thinkers, innovators, and problem solvers. An approach to teaching that is direct-instruction-centric, with assessment valuing regurgitation of googleable facts, will fall short of our ideals. If we continue to teach the way that we have always taught, then we can expect the same results that we have always got.

What does it mean to equip students to be future ready? In the name of overused clichés, take inspiration from the immortal words of Walter Gretzky, as passed on to the world through his son Wayne: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

If you accept that education would benefit from a makeover, then how do we promote change? Dean Shareski, insightful educational thinker, thought that investing equal parts promoting ideas with highlighting innovation that is happening would be a good start. 

Our district is filled with innovative people, spaces, and ideas. The innovation spotlight highlights innovation worthy of replication.

The first installment showcases Michael 'Mick' McCollough using a Google Forms, Google Docs, and a Google Sheets add-on, AutoCrat, to efficiently create a behavior and effort self-assessment for students used to drive conversations at parent-teacher conferences. 

My next effort highlights Amanda Vernon and the innovative process that Amanda uses to prioritize content mastery in her math class. Her students were so focused on points that they seemingly forgot about the learning. Instead of using homework completion to determine grades, she assessed on whether students could tangibly demonstrate understanding.