Implementation of Innovation Teams

The 2015-2016 school year was my first year as a Technology Integrator. When I first began, both the position and I were new to the district. My understanding when I started was that some schools had "Tech Teams" and some didn't, and even the ones that did couldn't really tell me what the purpose was. Until I could get a handle on what was happening in the schools in regards to technology and innovation, I decided to hold off on beginning any kind of team.

This year, following in one of our high school's footsteps, I decided to start teams that focused on personalized learning and different innovative s, and I called our teams Innovation Teams. Currently, I am the Technology Integrator at three elementary schools, and each school has teachers and administrators that are a part of the team (one team, three schools). Teachers are on the team on a completely voluntary basis, and they are receiving no additional compensation of any kind for their extra work. Everything they do is to make themselves better for their students and profession, and I am super proud and humbled to be working with such a dedicated group of educators.

We began with a book study on what I knew to be a fantastic read in The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros. I've read the book multiple times, as well as assigned it as a class textbook for my UWO class, and I strongly felt that the mindset that the book describes was exactly what I wanted my Innovation Teams to embrace. We are almost done with the book, and there have been many ahas and that's-what-I-was-thinkings along the way. I think that the idea of being open to new experiences, the characteristics of the Innovator's Mindset, discussing an innovator's mindset versus growth mindset versus fixed mindset versus a false growth mindset has been eye opening and has set the teachers on a self-reflective journey prior to really digging in to what we wanted to accomplish.

Once the book study was underway, we also pulled up articles and research on Flexible Learning Spaces, how to create one, what to expect from students, and the benefits of implementing them. For me, I felt like Flexible Learning Spaces was a fantastic way to create teacher buy-in. Considering I was a former elementary teacher, I knew that I gravitated toward initiatives that I could both see and that would make a difference in my classroom immediately if not sooner. My thoughts were that studying and implementing Flexible Learning Spaces would hit both of these targets. In order to allow for the purchasing of flexible seating options, each principal in my three schools decided to pitch in some funds for purchasing, and each teacher put their classroom up on GoFundMe to get additional monies. There was a variety of success, but all Innovation Team teachers have made modifications to their classroom in various degrees. Some of the teachers who have made the biggest changes have plans to blog on their new classrooms and successes in our new collaborative blog: Teaching, Learning & Innovation.

As teachers began working on their classroom design and figuring out what works for their students, we also began looking at personalized learning and what it means for students to have voice and choice in their learning. We have decided to put pacing on the back-burner for now since set school schedules don't allow for as many pacing options in elementary, not that we can't get there eventually, but voice and choice are easier to implement within the elementary curriculum. Currently, we are implementing the practice of creating a rubric with standards and allowing for choice based on the rubric. Our goal is to create more authentic learning experiences for the students. We are working our way there.

In one school, we implemented our version of a student led edcamp, which we plan on doing again with some tweaks to make it more edcamp-like. We are also looking into Genius Hour and what that looks like in elementary. Each of the Innovation Team's teachers have gravitated toward a different part of what we have studied, but they are all moving forward. What has happened is that we are ending up with teachers who have become "experts" in different areas and it will allow our team to be stronger as everyone brings something different to the table.

I knew when I began the Innovation Teams that there were pockets of innovation and elements of personalized learning already going on in classrooms. I by no means think that I have brought innovative thinking to these teachers, but rather have put them together in order for them to feed off from each other and grow. I just provide them the support they need to move forward and the resources that challenge their thinking. My hope is that once others see what these teachers have accomplished (and in a relatively short period of time!) there will be a shift in thinking and we will be working toward a culture of innovation where innovation and personalized learning aren't the exception or a special occurrence, but happen everyday and will be known instead as simply learning.

I Just Met You But I Love You

I often joke and say I "don't keep friends". Really, I mean that I put so much effort into my profession and my family that I often don't have time to really cultivate relationships with others in the way that, in the past, I would have considered someone to be a friend, which really begs the question, what exactly is a friend?

Recently, Julie Smith posed this question in a Tweet: can you be friends with people online? People you've never actually met? Before really diving into Twitter, I might have said no. I mean, how can you be friends with someone you've never even made eye contact with. But, since reexamining what a friend means to me, I'd argue that you can absolutely be friends with people you've never met. Relationships can be formed online. Meaningful ones, even.

All my friends have certain roles. My best friend, Dawn, is the one I call when I need to vent or want to do something crazy (I dragged her with me when I got my first tattoo, for example). My friend, Kristi, is someone that if I ever got into a boxing match, she'd be the one that would let me tap out. She's a tough chick and also one of the smartest people I know. My friend, Anne, is someone that will guaranteed make me laugh until I spit out all my green tea to the point where I struggle sitting by her in meetings, and my friend Matt will help me with anything I need anytime I need it, sometimes even before I know I need it.

At first Twitter allowed me to fill the personalized PD void and connected me with others who both challenged my thinking and inspired me to be a better educator than I was. And it was great. I would see people Tweet about their "tribe" and how they "loved" other Tweeters, and I was all like, "What? You've never even seen that person?" Then, one glorious day, I found the #personalizedPD chat and my entire perspective changed. Instantly, I loved these people. I'm convinced that Mandy, for example, is my personality doppleganger. I think that God made one of us and said, "Whoa, that one turned out pretty well. I'm going to try that recipe again." (Of course, she must've been the second one made because he made some modifications to make her funnier - #jealous). Jason & Kenny have welcomed me with open arms and take my teasing and off-topic-ness like champs. They have even invited me (and by invite I mean I had to beg a little) into their Voxer personalized PD group.

So, my perspective on what constitutes a friend has changed. Sometimes I think people use the words "friend" and "acquaintance" interchangeably, but these people have definitely made their way into fulfilling a role in both my personal and professional lives. And really, when it comes down to it, what difference does it make what we label people as long as they make us happy and support us in our journey.

The Freedom to Fail

I have been failing for a long time. I've had loads of practice at it. I was failing way before it was cool to fail, and telling people that I had failed never bothered me even before it was "a thing". I'm the first one to admit that I have failed, have no problem pointing out to someone I've failed, and immediately look for ways that I can improve and grow from my failing. In every experience I've had with failing, however, I've noticed there is one constant: how you and your failing is perceived by those around you and their subsequent attitude can be drastically affected by their mindset.

We have one camp of growth mindsetters who believe that we need to fail in order to grow, and honestly, thank goodness. These are my people. They believe that failing is just a part of growth, and even though eventually you must have enough grit and determination to succeed in your endeavor, you will most likely fail on your way. But, that's okay! Each failure provides lessons that get us closer to glorious success.

Then there are the people who either don't feel this way or maybe just don't know any better. They are the ones who either falsely claim that failure is okay but don't really believe it, or just don't even accept failure as an option to begin with. I've worked with some of these people...admins, other teachers, instructional coaches, students (and who has modeled that for them?)...and inevitably what happened is I felt like I was seen as someone who was incompetent in whatever area I had admitted my failure. I was no longer asked questions or for help, no longer asked to mentor others, and definitely not asked my opinion. Even though they wouldn't change the way I believed regarding failure, I absolutely stopped admitting to anyone I didn't trust that I had failed. I kept it to myself and there were a few downfalls from that: 1) I no longer had the option to reflect on my failures by collaborating with someone and finding a better answer 2) I never modeled how to fail and grow for anyone who was not yet in that mindset 3) I no longer had the option to reflect on my failures by collaborating with someone and finding a better answer (that was an important one worth repeating). In effect, I stunted my own growth.

Sometimes, I feel like we talk about failure only in philosophical discussions, but in practical terms are not always willing to put it into practice. The freedom to fail should be something that is an expectation in classrooms. Not that failure is an expectation in all that we do, but that all educators and students are given the freedom to fail without judgement, taught how to take lessons and learning from the failure, and persevere in working toward success with the learning. Once we establish that kind of culture in a school, there will be no reason for anyone to adapt their own beliefs to those around them, like I've had to do, because those who succeed because they failed will be seen as competent, growth minded professionals.

Just Keep Swimming or Create Real Change?

Last night, I was participating in one of my very favorite Twitter chats: #PersonalizedPD (Tuesdays, 8pm CST). Question seven was regarding what we've done to try to bring personalized PD to our district, and this was my post:

After laying in bed and thinking about the chat, I started to get a little irritated with myself that I used #JustKeepSwimming, because to me that phrase implies that I'm fighting to stay afloat, and  just staying afloat in my job has never been one of my goals, although admittedly some days I absolutely feel like that is all I'm doing.

What I really want to do is cannonball into the water. Some teachers will think it's funny and enjoy the ruckus, while others will grimace and mumble about the splashing, but all will move forward on the waves. And when others see me cannonball, they just might get out of the water and try to cannonball themselves, and then we can all be moved from their waves as well. I don't want to float, or wade, or tread water or just keep swimming or any other type of water analogy that implies I'm not moving forward.

Part of the challenge in being an instructional coach is that we are expected to provide the professional development, but don't always have access or authority to make the changes that we want to see or we believe to be best practice. We can implement new learning and personalization into our own PD, but there are times that our PD is still managed top-down, and we have very little say in how that looks outside of our own sessions and planning. To continue to focus only on my own PD would be the equivalent of allowing myself to keep swimming, or maintaining the status quo. To create a lasting change, because I believe THAT strongly in personalized professional development, is what I really want to do.  It's either go big or go home for me, and I feel it's about time that I figure out how to encourage and create meaningful change, because while we all learn from failure, ending with failure is not an option.

How Do We Move Toward a More Personalized PD Experience?

I love my job. Seriously. One of my favorite components of being a Technology Integrator is the professional development that I am able to provide teachers to help them with technology skills, integration, and innovative thinking. When a teacher comes back to me and tells me that s/he used something I taught them with kids, it makes me all eyes-lit-up, jump-up-and-down, arms-flapping-happy. I have the ability to affect so many more students' learning by providing their teachers with what they need to enhance their already awesome skill set.

Back in December, I presented at the TIES Conference in Minnesota, which is one of my other favorite parts of being a technology integrator. I was incredibly nervous because I was presenting for the first time alone. In trying to calm myself in the moments prior to beginning, I chatted my boss, Dave Gundlach, for support. He said, "Mandy, just go up there and do what you're good at. Teach." My stomach dropped. I was about to get up and talk at people for 50 minutes. That was never something I would have done with my students when I had a classroom. Although the session went fine, I felt like it was a massive fail because I realized that even though I love presenting and providing PD, there was a seriously high probability that I stunk at it.

In a total twist of ironic fate, my session at TIES was on providing personalized, cohesive PD for teachers in technology. I went over creating an entire curriculum of Google Apps for Education including skills practice, integration techniques, discussions, and professional readings in order to increase capacity in our teachers and make them the "experts" in Google. The Track, as we call it, has some elements of personalization in the way that it has scaffolded & tiered practice sets, choices in discussion prompts and pacing options. It can also be taken completely online through our Canvas LMS, or it is the teachers' choice to come to monthly sessions where myself and Matt Callahan go through the online modules face to face. While I am proud of the Track and the opportunities it provides for teachers who might not have otherwise taken on learning about Google, the class option we provide is still a traditional sit and get, and every other professional development that I provide is that way as well. My problem is that I know it, and I don't know what to do about it.

Before I even left the conference I began to research how to make PD more personalized and have come across an entire community who believes as I do (with special thanks to Jason Bretzmann and #personalizedPD which has been an amazing resource). I want to create PD that models the type of personalization we want to see in the classroom. This has been my first challenge. After all, teachers are not students. Adult learners are not the same as child learners, although many of the same ideas for personalization apply. I wanted teachers to have voice and choice in their professional development along with additional pacing options. I strongly believe that, especially in the case of technology learning, there needs to be both skills practice AND integration techniques, along with a study of growth mindset and how it relates to innovation. In putting all of this together, PD needs to be ongoing with additional embedded support versus a one-and-done model if we truly want to make sustainable changes to teaching and learning.

So, I need some innovative thinking help. I need some strategies for creating a more personalized professional development experience while still addressing different skill levels, different integration levels, different content areas, and providing specific follow up support. I would love to try and edCamp style session one day, but the sessions I need the most help with are targeted sessions where the teachers need to come out with information on a specific idea (like GAFE, for example). Any examples of professional development that went really well or conversation on personalized PD I would welcome with open arms. I am looking for my opportunity to do something different with my PD. My goal is for teachers to leave any session I provide with energy and enthusiasm to implement what they've learned with their students. After all, it IS all about student learning, but in this case, it starts with providing the PD that will make a difference.

Kids with To-Do Lists

I was walking down the hall the other day and a couple of fifth grade boys were walking the opposite way. I did my normal, "How's it goin', boys?" and from one of them in return I received, "Mrs. Froehlich, I have so much on my plate right now. I'm just so busy." At first, it made me giggle a little to think that this fifth grade boy thought he was so busy as my scrolling list of adult to-dos was ticking through my own head, but later, in telling the story to a fellow tech integrator, we started discussing how sad it actually was that the boy felt like he was so overwhelmed with everything he had going on in school, and that's not including anything he has going on at home.

Recently, my son suffered a concussion during a basketball game. He missed two weeks of school during the worst possible time...right at the end of the trimester. After those two weeks, he was back for half days for a week. In trying to stay on top of what he would need to do, I emailed his teachers from last trimester and this one to get his list of assignments that he would need to do. Fortunately, the school district has an actual concussion protocol that they follow, so each teacher was willing to be lenient on what he finished and what he didn't. Still, each teacher gave me about four to five assignments that needed to be done. That was out of seven teachers. In three weeks, two full-time and one half time, with more than half of his work forgiven, he had a minimum of 28 assignments and tests to make up along with keeping up with his current daily work. If he did one a day, it would take him almost a month to catch up.

I don't get overwhelmed often by what I have going on, but when I do, it is a terrible feeling of helplessness. As an adult, I feel barely equipped to handle these feelings at times, let alone being a fifth grader or a freshman in high school. Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in the politics of school and the standards that we need to teach that we forget to be empathetic towards out students. We discuss the importance in teaching our students empathy for others, but forget to practice it ourselves. In an article called Busy teens lack time for fun, or even lunch Chris Churchill describes how students are working through lunch or skipping it all together in order to maintain their studies and how insane that seems. One of his recommendations for a remedy? Giving less homework. I'd vote for no homework unless it is an authentic activity with true value, but that's just me (oh wait, and a bundle of researchers, but I digress...).

We are adults with adult responsibilities for far longer than we are kids. Students shouldn't be so overwhelmed with what is going on in school where it causes stress and, Heaven forbid, a true nervous breakdown. If our teaching is causing this type of stress in our kids, it's time to reevaluate what we are doing in the classroom to cause it.

SLedCamp (Student Led edCamps)

A couple of months ago, I was introduced to the idea of Student Led edCamps. Being a Public Relations Coordinator for edCamp Oshkosh and a total believer in the power of the learning that can happen through an edCamp, I was all for trying the idea out. All I needed were some test subjects teachers who would be willing to work through what it would look like when it was implemented. Lucky for me, three of my fifth grade teachers were up for the challenge.

Fortunately, most of us had been to an edCamp and knew how sessions were grown organically by the attendees of the conference. What we didn't know was what it looked like when students took the helm, so I decided to research what others have done. I researched and researched and researched. I found blogs and articles on the benefits of Student Led edCamps and teachers who had implemented it and found it to be a wonderful way to empower kids and engage them in their learning. What I didn't find were any resources on HOW to implement such a project. I wanted perimeters (if there were any), timelines, guidelines...but I couldn't find any of that. So, we started from scratch, and my hope in posting this information would be to share what we did, what was successful, what failed, and what will be done differently next time.

Around this same time, I had just finished the book The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros. He spoke about Identity Days at his school where students and staff were able to present on a topic that they were passionate about. In one chapter he says, "Allowing students to share their interests created an environment where they felt that their voices mattered and that what they cared about mattered as well." I loved this idea, and at the first brainstorming meeting I suggested that we did a mashup of an Identity Day and a Student Led edCamp. These are the basics of what we ended up with on our planning doc:

• Students could volunteer to lead a 20 minute session on a topic that they are passionate about. If they wanted one partner that was also passionate about the same topic, that was ok.
• We wanted students to TRY to incorporate some sort of academic skill. For example, if a student decided to present on baking, they could also talk about fractions and how they relate to a recipe. More on this later...
• I would offer (as the technology integrator) my services at some designated lunch recesses to assist the leaders with anything they needed as they planned such as presentation help (although presentations did not need to be done on technology - it was the choice of the student), connecting with experts in the field that they were passionate about, or planning out what they were going to say.
• The majority of the planning and work for the SLedCamp would be done on the students' own time either at home or when they were done with work in class.

We really had no idea if the kids would go for this or not. Even though they could talk about something that really interested them, they had to do all the work on their own time, and weren't required to even participate and it wasn't graded. I think that my three teachers were skeptical that the students would take something like this on.

Our next step was to get all the fifth graders together to show them a presentation showing them an example of a teacher edCamp and explaining what we were thinking. They were instantly excited and students began signing up to lead sessions. We began with 63 total students and, after a couple of changed minds, 38 asking to lead a session either individually or with a partner. 

We gave the students two weeks to get ready for their sessions. I met with them during recess several times to try to help them in any way I could. One issue we had was that there were not enough computers available for students to work, and some didn't have computers at home to work. Our computer lab was reserved during many of the days that I had available to work with the students, so we did the best we could and the teachers tried to allow time in the computer lab.

Close to SLedCamp Day, we had all students choose the sessions that they wanted to attend. We were afraid that there would be some sessions that nobody would choose, and truthfully we weren't sure what to do if that happened. Fortunately, it did not. This was our final schedule.

The day of SLedCamp really went well. We had very few behavior issues because students were engaged in the learning. One teacher stayed in each room with the students to supervise, but students watched the clock and transitioned without much prompting. They felt in control of their SLedCamp. The Leaders were amazing. Even students who would typically not get up and present were enthusiastic. Many students were absolutely natural teachers and it was obvious that some teaching strategies were modeled for them. For example, in a drawing session, I heard the leader say, "Everyone give me a thumbs up if you're ready to move on!"

Segway Demonstration

Group Cheesecake Creating

Cupcake Selfie

He was so excited for the Drone session that he brought
his own iPad to record the presentation.

Overall, our first SLedCamp was a huge success. The students were excited about what they learned from their peers.

"It inspired me to want to learn more about technology."

Upon reflecting upon the day ourselves, we found that the next time, we wouldn't bother asking the students which session they wanted to go to and scheduling them out. I think that our worries were unfounded that some students wouldn't have attendees. Also, the next time that we have SLedCamp, our sessions are going to be more academic and possibly we will try to embrace more of the true edCamp style where the sessions are grown organically from the participants. Only about half of the students included any kind of skill into their sessions, so that was a fail on our part for not making that more clear. For the first time, this time, the way we did it was great. We created buy-in and the students said that they would not have been comfortable presenting immediately without time to prepare. Regardless, it was an awesome experience for both us as teachers to see that side of the students and the students to be given the chance to show a part of themselves that they might not have otherwise shown.

I hope this post was helpful to anyone thinking of taking something like this on. If you have any questions, please let me know!