What Does Innovation Look Like?

What is Innovation?

Innovation: a new idea, device, or method (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

So, what does that mean?  Can you rethink some lesson you've done in the past and try teaching it differently?  Yes!  Can you use technology to modify/redefine an old lesson? Yes! Can you just add "giving voice and choice" to an existing lesson? Yes!

So, innovation is not that complex, difficult, or unreachable.  All of us can do it!

I've been in several classrooms lately where teachers are "failing forward" and trying new things. One teacher turned her "California Regions" project into a "new" project.  In the past,  the students created a postcard showing the four regions of California and wrote their own story about when their family first arrived in California.  She rethought the way she'd been doing it for years and invited her students to design their own Google slide on a collaborative slide deck (so each student would see the others) and then used Doink (a green screen app) to film them actually telling their story with props, costumes, and their personally designed background!  To make it even more accessible to an authentic audience, she uploaded all presentations to Seesaw for students and parents to view.  She came upon stumbling blocks and took more time than she planned, but she never gave up. She gave her students voice, choice, and ownership... isn't that what they all want anyway?  She's empowered now and sharing her success with colleagues who now want to try it!  Now that's innovation!