<=> Less is More <=> A Diet of Innovation

 I have a terrible sweet tooth! My biggest weakness; a potluck table covered by an assortment of various presentations of cakes, puddings, cookies, and anything else imaginable. When given an opportunity to grab sweets at will I can load my plate with pieces of this and that to the point where I have to balance my plate with two hands and slowly shuffle back to my seat to keep from upsetting the load. Consumption is even more alarming. I can consume sweets to the point where I feel bloated and sick. Soon, I have regrets and remorse for my actions and start to plan the next diet that I know I will eventually need to go on.

Unfortunately, I'm the same way when it comes to innovation. When I view the #IMMOOC Facebook or Twitter page I see a layout of tempting innovative practices that I want to load onto my plate and indulge in. Sometimes I even feel like I have to indulge in these to become a better teacher. Like when I eat too much dessert, I can feel bloated and sick by innovation overload. Hearing George Couros say that less is more is a real comfort to me. This week I've decided to start an innovation diet. I plan to cut my innovation practices down to those that I feel I can manage effectively and will not weigh me down. I still plan to sample innovation practices here and there but not try to indulge in so many all at once.

I love the idea of using a mantra and have adopted a few a these from "The Innovator's Minset"
for myself.

"Eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak"
"Focus more on depth than breadth"
"Quality should always override quantity"
Beware of "too many opportunities without a clear focus"
""At this point, choice no longer liberates but debilitates""

Although dieting is never easy it always leads to positive results. I'm looking to starting my innovation diet and reaping the rewards of a clear focus.

What if?

"What and If - Two innocent little words, and perfectly harmless on their own. But put them together and...

It's like unleashing the power of the atom"
      - psychology-solution.com/anxiety/what-if


I performed a Google search on the question "what if" and the results that came back were about psychology. In the field of psychology, "what if" is a question that leads individuals to stress, anxiety, and worry.

In education, however, the question "what if" is liberating. It leads to freedom, excitement, and innovation. I encourage educators to engage in "what if" thinking (the educational kind, that is) in order to experience its positive benefits. I will pose a psychological and educational "what if" question of my own...

What if we don't engage in educational "what if" thinking?

To help get started, here are a few "what if" prompts from George Couros...

What if we believed that everything that we had to make great schools was already within 
     our organization, and we just needed to develop and share it? 
What if schools operated as if we should all be “learners,” as opposed to students being the only 
     learners? 
What if we promoted “risk-taking” to our staff and students and modeled it openly as administrators? 
What if we hired people who did not look at teaching as a “career” but as a “passion”?
What if everyone in our organization, not just our students, was encouraged to pursue his or her 
     dreams? 
What if we focused on connecting and learning, both globally and locally? 
What if people were always our first focus, as opposed to “stuff”? 
What if we recognized and built on learners’ strengths? 
What if we empowered students to make a difference in the world today and in the future?"

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.