Alive+and+Kicking

Jeff R John S Lauren S Dave T Graham C

Innovative challenges and opportunities

Jeff - Instructional Tech Coach at 2 Middle Schools "Day of Design Thinking" - Utilizing the support structured time for those that needed support, but many that didn't have support started using the time as 'genius hour' - Teachers were giving permission to 'figure out' what it looks like and to try building what worked. Lead be a science teacher with 'Renaissance' type skills.

John - Frustration with innovation being the 'Add-on' without really having big picture vision of what needs to be accomplished. How do we foster the kind of community that doesn't hop on buzz words as add-ons, but actually focuses on meaningful changes.

Graham - STEM education focus, many hours of stem related Pro-D. STEAM teacher working to integrate things, but no blocks of 'genius hour'. Minutes of required time actually exceed the day. Amazing problems - The Flame challenge Teachers are ready to act, but many time-constraint and expectations roadblocks in the way.

Dave - Innovative with blended learning opportunities where teachers have opportunities to work on big projects and online supported work creates time for teachers to assess 'for' learning, during student independent work time.