Innovation and Excellence

Maintaining Excellence While Innovating

One valuable piece of advice when trying new things is not to give up too fast.  On the page at  http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/discussions.html  the pros of using discussion during teaching is talked about.  One of the things they say is to not jump in to early when students give a blank stare.

“The temptation under these circumstances is to jump in and answer your own question, if only to relieve the uncomfortable silence. Don’t assume, though, that students’ silence necessarily indicates that they are stumped (or unprepared); sometimes they are simply thinking the question through and formulating an answer. Be careful not to preempt this process by jumping in too early.”

I think this advice could be used for any new strategy you are trying.   You must give it a chance before throwing in the towel.  Students may just need more processing time, time to adjust to something new, or any number of reasons for the lesson to appear on the surface to not be working.  In order to innovate, you must be able to take the risk and the extra time to see if something is working.  You must also be able to adjust when you see a change is needed.  Teachers may want to just scrap what they are trying when all that may be needed is some tweaking. 

Knowing your students and what they like and are capable is also important when innovating.  Of course, when innovating you may want to push the envelope at times and they may surprise you.  However,  you don’t want to go too far above their capabilities or you will lose them. 

On the Carnagie Mellon page “Design & Teach a Course” it states,  “In other words, it is important to push students out of their comfort zone, but to do so gradually enough so that they do not panic or become discouraged.”  http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/yourstudents.html

One of the most important things to remember when trying out new things is to keep your eye on the goal.  There are lots of neat things that are innovative, engaging, and fun, but to maintain excellence there must be a goal.  You shouldn’t do something just because it is innovative and engaging.  You should be doing innovative things to help your students achieve the standards.  Along the same lines, I think that often someone will find or think of an activity and then see how they can arrange it to fit the standards.  Often things may be justified simply because it touches on the standards.  Instead, you should start with the standard and build the activity to around it.  (Of course, not everything done in class has to be strictly for academic standards.  There is something to be said for building classroom communities and helping students become better students.  This, in turn, helps students throughout the whole class achieve standards.)

There is a wealth of information not only online, but from fellow teachers, on things that have worked and not worked.  Using others’ experiences is a great way to maintain excellence.  If it’s something that has been done before, there may be information to help make it better.  When being innovative, you don’t have to make up something totally new.  There are many, many websites that have lesson plans and ideas.  Teachers Pay Teachers.com is a wonderful resource.  Most lessons even have reviews given.  I have also used Smart Exchange, which is a site for lessons for the Smart Board.  Most of these lessons are free and have a number given on how many times it has been recommended.  Discovery.com is another site that has great lessons that have been rated.  This site costs quite a bit of money, but is a wonderful resource.  My point is, when trying something new to your teaching, chances are someone else has tried it as well.  They may have some valuable advice to help you maintain excellence in your teaching.