Creating Time for Teachers to Meet and Tinker With Ideas #RSCON4
Finding out what we are curious about.
We often hear criticisms about the lack of innovation and creativity from administrators and staff in schools. I understand these concerns; however, my response is, “if innovation and creativity are important, why do we provide educators almost no time in the schedule to explore and play with questions and ideas?”
A couple years ago, I offered to cover 8 classes (spread out over a few weeks) prep-free so a teacher could tinker with an idea. I called it the “Fed-Ex Prep: Time for Innovation” (based on the idea shared by Daniel Pink in Drive – you can read my reflection here) as I was providing time for teachers to explore… with the idea they would have to deliver something back to the staff. Although this was successful, it only provided time for one teacher at a time and relied solely on me to cover. It was a good idea but not something that changed the structure or culture at our school.
In our school, like many others, we see pockets of innovation and brilliance but I think we need to