Bringing Innovation to School

Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World

by Suzie Boss

Number of pages: 184

Publisher: Solution Tree

BBB Library: Education

ISBN: 9781936765263



About the Author

She’s a writer and educational consultant who focuses on the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities.

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Editorial Review

The first step in teaching students to innovate is making sure that educators have opportunities to be innovators themselves. Although some teachers attempt this hard work alone, the culture of a school or district can set the stage for innovation to flourish or flounder. The right conditions include a shared vision and common language for talking about innovation. With those pieces in place, educators have more room to design, improve on, and share learning experiences that will stretch their students’ thinking skills.   Whether innovators are drumming up new business ideas or hard at work solving community problems, they share certain characteristics. They tend to be action-oriented. They know how to network. They’re willing to take calculated risks. They look ahead, anticipating benefits that others might not have imagined yet. They work to overcome obstacles. Especially in the social sector, they’re generous about sharing what they know and eager to help good ideas grow. When educators exhibit these qualities, they show students how innovators think and act. They become innovation role models. Let’s take a closer look at these qualities. If you’re a teacher looking for opportunities to bring innovation into the classroom, start by considering your own strengths and weaknesses as an innovator. If you’re a school leader, consider how you encourageor discourageinnovation among your staff. As you learn more about innovators from diverse fields, be on the lookout for strategies that will increase your ability to think creatively and inspire more innovation among your colleagues. That’s going to set the stage for your students to become more confident, capable innovators. 

Book Reviews

"Suzie Boss goes directly to the heart of why we need innovation in our schools, and she describes practical, realistic solutions to get there. This book will be extremely useful to all people who seek to improve education including teacher leaders, administrators, parents, and policy makers." Steve Hargadon

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Wisdom to Share

Innovative educators find a way to move ideas ahead. They not only recognize opportunities, but also know how to create them. And once they hit on a good idea, they make sure to spread the word. Being able to take a worthy idea to scale is one more quality that innovators share.

Educators with this mindset know how to build buzz for good ideas. They find allies and brainstorming partners. They build collaborative platforms, such as project wikis that others can join and expand.

Embracing the role of innovator may mean taking on more work and more risk as a teacher. But it’s a label that innovators find refreshing.

Innovation is not a word you hear much in teaching circles or as a way to describe what teachers do. No one describes teachers as innovators.

Inspiration may start with an individual spark, but moving forward with an idea often requires a team effort.

Being a critical thinker also means being able to spot ideas that aren’t ready for prime time. Bold new ideas may have bugs that need to be worked out. An approach that appears to be a game-changer may be too expensive for the benefits it affords or may have unanticipated consequences. Give students opportunities to look for potential pitfalls and to know when to say no.

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