Students enter the Innovation Studio and put on an apron. Every one of them can tell you that the apron is their pledge to have a growth mindset. They are ready to be challenged and learn in a new and different way. I also wear an apron as do my collaborative teachers. It is our pledge to our students that we are striving to teach them using new and better strategies, resources, and technologies. This innovative culture promotes an understanding that we are there to think critically, problem solve, and communicate. Students know that we are a team and it is our responsibility to remain active participants in learning. We fail together, are resilient together, and learn from our mistakes and our successes. Students are driven to question it, prove it, create it, fix it, show me, and share. One particular strategy has transformed my instruction, SCRUM. This framework for productivity and teamwork has empowered my fifth graders to be goal driven, independent problem solvers. They are collaborators, communicators, and critical thinkers. Through the use of story points, a backlog, and a SCRUM board students remain on task and support each other as they work toward a team goal. They began the most recent project by creating the criteria for a Minimum Viable Product which translated into a student created rubric. SCRUM allows students the freedom and voice that they need to be innovators. Through the use of effort rubrics, students gauge their own and their peer strengths and weaknesses in flexibility, perseverance in problem solving, communication, and collaboration. We focus on fostering creative, communicators, collaborators, and critical thinkers. Allowing them the freedom, voice, and choice to use those skills promotes innovation.
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Author“Challenge me! Inspire me! Listen to me!” This is the message in their eyes. I see myself in so many of the students I serve, because I was not easily inspired as a young learner. Now, as an inspired educator, I hope to motivate students to find joy in learning and to take pride in being part of a community of learners. Archives
March 2018
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