Chapter 13: Lead from Where You Are

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Change can be hard and we have to make the choice to change. In this chapter, you will learn more about the importance of moving forward and how building relationships and understanding the journey ahead will help us as we move forward.

Further Reading

Questions for Discussion

  1. Identify one moment that you significantly changed your direction, personally or professionally. What happened and what change did you make because of it? Take the time to reflect and consider sharing it with colleagues.
  2. What is the “story” of your classroom, school, or organization? What is the one you can tell, and what is the one you want to tell?
  3. What are some of the “traditional” barriers to innovation in education, and how can you leverage them to create new and better opportunities for the learners you serve?

Chapter 12: Reflection

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Have you ever had that moment when you realize exactly what you should have done or exactly what you should have said, just way after the fact? That is reflection and it helps us better prepare ourselves for the next time a similar situation arises. In this chapter, you will gain strategies that will help you and your learners “reflect and connect.”

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. What do you feel guilty about as a teacher? Reflect on that and consider how to move forward. Make a plan!
  2. Consider every class period a process of “choose-do-review.” How will students be accountable for meaningful reflection
  3. In what types of assessments could you “highlight mistakes” to prompt student reflection?

Chapter 11: Resilient

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What is the difference between failing and failure? How do we practice failing and work towards resiliency? In this chapter, you will explore ways to build a mindset of resiliency within your learning community and take away opportunities to try this out with your learners!

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. What concrete strategies can you implement in your learning environment as you provide multiple means of engagement to increase student motivation and help them to embrace their why?
  2. How will you incorporate more discussions on the importance of failing and “bouncing forward” with students while activating their background knowledge of coping strategies?
  3. Students need models of resilience, yet many adults don’t acknowledge setbacks as opportunities for growth. How can encouraging student feedback about our teaching highlight our own struggles and help us to model resilience?

Chapter 10: Creators

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This chapter is more than just a tribute to George’s man crush on Ryan Gosling (seriously though, check out this link for a Google search to see just how serious this crush is). Read this chapter to learn more about how to provide opportunities for your learners to “meaningfully create” instead of just creating for the purpose of being a creator or instead of being solely a consumer. You will gain ideas to use today in your classroom to help your learners demonstrate what they know in non-traditional formats.

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. How can you adapt an upcoming assessment into an opportunity for students to create an authentic product? Remember to provide approximately five choices or less to inspire them.
  2. How can you help students to comprehend that creativity can be learned by teaching them four strategies for building creativity?
  3. How will you take action and promote creativity in your classroom using multiple means of action and expression?

Chapter 9: Observant

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With so much information and many opportunities to learn, how do we focus on being observant? How do we design learning opportunities that empower our learners without being overwhelmed with the amount of information available? In this chapter, you will learn strategizes that will help you slow down, listen, find great information and make deep connections.

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. How will you allow students to co-design a lesson with you using their powers of observation?
  2. Try the vocabulary activity yourself! Observe the world around you today and identify five words that you’re unsure of. What are they? Share them with us at #InnovateInsideTheBox or with a group of your peers/colleagues.
  3. How can you empower your students to build their powers of observation to identify resources that will help them meet their goals?

Chapter 8: Networked

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“Social media is like water. You can either let us drown or teach us to swim.”  -High School Student

This quote starts off the chapter, Networked, because it speaks to the needs of our learners from a student’s perspective. How powerful is it when we can bring the ideas of our entire learning network to our school site or work place? In this chapter, you will explore ways to be a digital leader for your learners. After reading this chapter, you will have a better understanding of the positive power that being networked can have on your learning environment.

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. How can you use cogen dialogues to collaborate with students about how to create more opportunities for them to work collectively and network in meaningful ways?
  2. Families provide an amazing resource to foster collaboration and networking. What strategies can you implement to network with families and provide opportunities for students to learn and share the best of the people who are closest to them?
  3. How can you design learning experiences that empower students to take action to create their own networks?

Chapter 7: Risk Takers

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We have to ‘jump first!’ As educators, how powerful would it be if we modeled risk-taking by doing things that are new and better than what we were doing before? In this chapter, you will see examples of educators who are taking risks and removing barriers!

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1.  If you knew you could not fail, what risks would you take to improve teaching and learning for all students?
  2. What will you give yourself a “risk-pass” to do in order to improve teaching and learning for all students?
  3. How will you “jump off the cliff” to ask for student feedback about your teaching and learning environment?

Chapter 6: Problem Finders-Solvers

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How empowering would it be to find a meaningful problem and explore ways to resolve or respond to the problem? When we care deeply about a problem, we are more likely to find a meaningful solution and enjoy the learning process. In this chapter, you will learn new ways to help your students become problem finds and problem solvers!

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. Think of one problem that is meaningful to yourself as an educator. How can you model the practice of problem-finding to your students while solving something that is significant to your own world?
  2. If you asked your students to identify the most heartbreaking aspects of school, what do you think they would say?
  3. How could you design learning experiences that would help students to solve the problems that prevent them from being successful in school?

Chapter 5: Empathetic

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This is the first chapter that begins to describe the eight characteristic of an innovator’s mindset. Empathy is more than simply feeling sorry, or being sympathetic, empathy is about understanding how someone else feels, recognizing their view on life and understanding what they want for their future. In this chapter, you will learn about how to create opportunities for students to develop empathy and what we can do to be more empathetic educators.

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. How can you increase moral courage by providing students with opportunities to speak out so they experience the importance of taking action when they feel empathy?
  2. How can you use Brené Brown’s list of core emotions to help to create a foundation of emotional literacy and empathy in your students?
  3. How can you design an assessment, like the Summer Language Exploration, where students work toward rigorous standards while also immersing in perspective-taking?

Chapter 4: Master Learner, Master Educator

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This is the last section of The Core! Here, we explain the difference between knowing and learning. Both attaining knowledge and being capable of learning are important to our success. This chapter covers the three types of learning that are crucial for educators. Throughout this chapter, you will learn ways to learn about your students, for your students and from your students.

Further Reading

Further Viewing

Questions for Discussion

  1. Growth is essential to our work as educators. What is something you used to do as an educator that you no longer do? Why did you stop doing it?

  2. In what ways do you learn about your students and how does that shift your practice?

  3. Share an area where you received feedback and used it to improve. What was beneficial about the feedback and how did it spark your growth?