The Octagon: Embodying the 8 Characteristics of an Innovative Mindset

To put into practice what I'm reading in "The Innovator's Mindset" by George Couros, I'm applying the eight characteristics of an innovative mindset to create this post. The following graphic is the result...

It definitely took a lot of problem-finding and resilience!

I can't image trying to rewrite every lesson that I have ever created so I am looking at my lessons through the lens of the eight characteristics to see how I can improve them.

Keith Pedzich wrote a blog called "Is There a Rubric for That?" https://keithpedzich.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/is-there-a-rubric-for-that/ In the blog Keith asks "is there a rubric for innovation?" I have decided to use the 8 Characteristic of an Innovative Mindset as a rubric to measure whether or not my lessons are innovative. The rubric is pretty simple. I ask "Is my lesson __________________?" (Fill in the blank with one of the characteristics) and then answer "yes", "no", or "somewhat".

To help me remember what the characteristic are I have rewritten them in a way that I can understand

Empathetic: Look at teaching from the learner's perspective
Problem Finder: Learners finds problems without being presented them and then find solutions to
     them
Risk taker: Going out in a limb to reach ALL learners
Networked: Connecting with others,  The more the merrier
Observant: Looking for connections in unexpected places
Creators:  Making a personal connection
Resilient:  Stick to it even especially when challenging
Reflective:  Thinking about what has been done and deciding what worked, what didn't, and how
     it could be changed

Academic Epidemic

If Einstein's maxim "once you stop learning, you start dying" is true, then I know children who show the early symptoms of congestive academic failure (CAF) and if left untreated, can lead to cognitive death; and I teach elementary school! I could suggest that teachers face a crisis of epidemic proportions, but that's a little melodramatic. However, many children do come to school each day with minds tuned out because of an obstinate character or from the environment they face outside of school. Is there a way for teachers to combat the ailment of congestive academic failure? Yes, with innovation, a holistic approach to CAF that treats the whole child and is administered by a loving academic physician.

Just like a medical physician treats sick patients with a combination of technology, medicine, and therapy, an academic physician treats children with a variety of innovative tools. Interventions include...

1. Providing new and better opportunities for the patient
2. Cultivating curiosity in the patient
3. Teaching the patient how to ask the right questions
4. Opening doors in the mind that will lead the to patient explore new cures

In order for the treatments to work on a patient, the academic physician must change the way they conduct their personal practice. A few suggestions for change include...

1. Changing the individual physician's practice with the change of the world
2. Replacing treatments of compliance with those of empowerment
3. Collaborating with other academic physicians around the world to create new and better cures
4. Replace telling the patient with listening to the patient
5. Replacing ego with unconditional love
6. Replacing focus on diagnostic tests with a focus on creating a spirit for life in the patient

The world is filled with "cemeteries" of broken minds and broken lives. Let's do our best as academic physicians to keep as many lives out of these baron wastelands as possible.