different skill set than that necessary for the jobs that have vanished. This has caught many educators off guard. Nevertheless, we can no longer turn a blind eye to economic realities and our responsibilities as educators to do something about it.
Communities across America depend on a range of talent, roles, and occupations to remain vibrant. Sir Ken Robinson (2015) points out, “The work of electricians, builders, plumbers, chefs, paramedics, carpenters, mechanics, engineers, security staff, and all the rest (who may or may not have college degrees) is absolutely vital to the quality of each of our lives” (p. 17). Many people in these occupations find their careers fulfilling and financially rewarding. To secure rewarding careers, students need exposure to the variegated paths available in the “any collar” marketplace. There is no fixed utopia for education (Robinson, 2015). At the same time, there is no limit for getting better. Although teaching is a highly individualized endeavor, the issues surrounding teaching are increasingly global. Healthy schools are interdependent learning organizations that aren’t afraid to disrupt the status quo to improve.
The following chapter lays the groundwork to embrace a culture of innovation as a gateway for getting better. The emphasis in chapter 2 is to examine the drivers of innovative thinking and how to put this thinking into practice. Readers will learn how the best companies and the best schools use innovation as a centerpiece for new ideas that everyone can get behind.
Touchstone Takeaways
Consider the following Points to Ponder and Rapid-Fire Ideas on your own or within a teacher or leadership team to cultivate a broader vision of future-focused teaching and learning.
Points to Ponder
1. Would you want to be a student in your own classroom today? Why or why not?
2. How might you align staff or team meetings to rethink education? What paradigms of schooling need to change in your building or district?
3. College professor Kevin Fleming (2016) argues that we should broaden the “college for all” rhetoric dominating the K–12 system to a mantra of a “post-high school credential for all” (p. 9). Which philosophy permeates your organization? What interplay between academics and application is in place now in your school or district?
4. Using the Four-Dimensional Model of Education in figure 1.1 (page 14), what immediate shifts in teaching and learning might lead to longerterm change?
5. How might you embrace constructive rebellion to move conversations forward? What nonjudgmental language will you use to address practices that inadvertently hinder future-ready learning?
Rapid-Fire Ideas
Consider the following rapid-fire ideas as you begin implementing the ideas from this chapter in your classroom.
Consider Success in the New Economy
Watch Kevin Fleming’s “Success in the New Economy” video at your next team meeting (www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs6nQpVI164). Share takeaways. Discuss how the team can create upstream changes to shore up students’ paths to the future.
Empower the Collar
Future occupations will consist of many shapes, sizes, and colors. But, a common thread in this “any collar” environment is a worker’s ability to look at a task and see the desired outcome. At the same time, employers expect workers to imagine different ways to achieve the outcome. Create a graphic organizer that depicts how you empower students to recognize desired outcomes and imagine different ways to accomplish tasks.
Evaluate Your School’s Readiness
Individually or in a team, complete the worksheet in figure 1.2. Discuss your responses to track current progress as it relates to preparing students for a fast-changing world. Determine a good starting point to develop a shared vision for undertaking this work.
Figure 1.2: Ground floor quiz–Ready or not?
CHAPTER 2
Implementing Innovative Practices
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
—Henry David Thoreau
When I began teaching in the early 1980s, I sifted through the curriculum on my own and taught what seemed important. There were no grade-level standards, no scope and sequence charts, no state tests that counted for anything, and no common planning time. Curriculum was bundled around frameworks that identified a discrete set of skills for each subject area. Teaching was generally an individual endeavor. For the most part, education remained outside the public eye.
To make things more interesting, I made up my own worksheets and crafted special projects to keep students engaged. Students wrote study guides, solved problems of the day, and gave oral reports. I taught subjects in fifty-minute increments sandwiched between morning recess, lunch, and afternoon break. My reading, mathematics, and gifted groups were organized by ability. Textbooks served as the core resource for instruction and classroom activities.
When technology began to make its way into schools, our principal asked teachers to add computer science to the curriculum. At the time, we had a lab of Apple IIe computers and one Commodore 64 per classroom. With the looming opportunity for students to interact with a multimedia universe, I was determined to ensure my students were ready.
The third-grade team pooled our best thinking to design a three-week computer science unit. After a few hours of planning, we felt we had strong lessons that would make our principal proud. Students would learn what a computer did (even though we didn’t really know ourselves), label all the hardware, and understand the differences among a central processing unit (CPU), monitor, keyboard, and floppy disk. An end-of-unit exam would help us assess what our students had learned. To tie everything together, we invited students to make a computer diorama as an at-home project.
At open house, the students prominently displayed the dioramas around our classroom. I have vivid memories of one dad asking if students ever got to use the computer. I proudly responded, “Why, yes. Every week students get thirty minutes in the computer lab. And for students who finish their work early, they’re able to use the classroom computer.” His next question stopped me in my tracks: “What’s the purpose of my son learning about the parts of the computer without really using the computer?” Of course, there was no good answer. Sadly, I had mistaken the technology surge as a learning outcome rather than a learning tool. Little thought had gone into what students should be able to do with the technology. In fact, the hype of having a shiny new object in my classroom led me to assume students would be motivated by this new object too. By neglecting my own professional development about how this tool might accelerate learning, valuable instructional time became a wasted opportunity. I wonder how many of my former students are roaming the halls of the Silicon Valley telling coworkers what they didn’t learn in third grade.
If
