5320 The Beginning of a new Journey
August 11, 2019
Innovation is a Marathon
My innovation journey has been winding, filled with trenches and hills. The experience reminded me of the time my brother asked me to run a marathon with him. Running a marathon sounded like an absurd idea; I had just had a baby by c-section 5 weeks prior to him asking, and he had never ran more than 1 mile in his entire life. I had no doubt that we would start training, and within a few weeks, he would be over the irrational idea of running 26.2 miles. On a cold rainy day in Fort Worth Texas, on December 2005, I found myself at the finish line. I had to run almost double the distance because I kept going back for him so that he would finish. There is nothing worse than helping someone start with a vision and not be there when they struggle and help them reach their destination. The process of training for the marathon and the idea of developing an innovation plan come with parallel feelings and stages to achieve success.
When we were first given the opportunity to create a Disruptive Innovation Plan, it was like my brother coming to me with his Big IDEA! I wasn't clear on where to start, I had no idea the process, and anticipated that I might not finish.
For us to reach the starting block in December, I knew it was vital to keep him motivated in July. I needed to lay in front of him our goals and help him feel excited about what was to come. This idea of building enthusiasms and excitement was similar to what we need when creating a media pitch for our innovative idea. Then to assure we would make it to the finish line, I had to develop a training schedule similar to our Implementation outline.
When I review the outline I created, I stayed pretty faithful to the plan. During July and August, I met with my admin, and I met with my team regularly.
In my implementation outline, there were some beginning of the year ideas that we were not able to implement; however, I still believe those ideas would be great to implement in the future. I made sure my team took the time to regroup, discuss, and self reflect. This reflection in October and November led to some changes in my original plan of flipping the virtual classroom.
The flipped model, our school adopted, was designed to have students work in their online school first. Then a week later, the teachers would review the content from the week before in class. The first time the students were being introduced to the material was in the form of a virtual lesson and assessment, then review was occurring with a teacher. This would initially seem like a good plan, however, for the students that were struggling this plan proved to be a disaster. Students were becoming less motivated to come to class; they felt the material being taught was "old" material and were not understanding the design of the model.
It was time to flip the flipped!
I spoke to my team about my idea to flip the flipped. I then took my suggestion to our administration, who allowed me to rearrange the model to see if the rearrangement it would make a difference. I would spend our time in Blackboard Live (our virtual classroom) giving students tips, tricks, resources, and maintaining a class designed to be interactive 85% or more of the time. After my sessions, students would then go and learn the material in more details using the online school program. My hope was that by giving students a glimpse into the objectives that were to come, tips to overcome hurdles that seem complicated and breaking down steps that may cause frustration, students would become more engaged in the lessons.
Students were able to dive into the actual lesson with more confidence, and therefore, they were able to find success in a math concept that would have typically had them throwing in the towel.
Flipping the Flip made a huge difference.
My course was consistently at the top for attendance, and I had 90% of students actively participating and engaged in class. Passing rates went up over 20% from the 2nd quarter to the end of the 3rd quarter.
My team adopted COVA + CSLE, and the student were more engaged, and their math projects were amazing. They took ownership of the way they presented their understanding of the material, and they were involved in authentic learning.
As the months of training went on, it became harder to find ways to stay motivated and to keep my brother training. Considering we started our training at ground zero running 1 min, walking 1.5 min and repeat x15; it took us months to train for a marathon that I was sure was not going to occur. We battled the unknown, we wrestled with self-doubt, and then we would regroup, collaborate, reflect, adapt to circumstances that would pop up unexpectedly, then keep running.
Tackling another innovation project will take the same type of endurance. However, I do not have the same self-doubt that I had when beginning my first innovation plan. I have more confidence that I can make change happen and that I will learn from mistakes and adapt as I go.
August 4, 2019
I feel like I am just landing as I reach the end of the DLL program. I am about to begin the adventure but the journey has been filled with discovery, anticipation, confusion, and doubt. The COVA approach sent me in a tailspin. I would argue that it took me more courses than most to realize that the DLL program was designed so that the student could have authentic learning experiences.
I was well into the second half of the
program before I accepted that the professors genuinely wanted me to learn and experience instead of making sure I could regurgitate their ideas and check off boxes.
As an educator, this program could not have been a more perfect fit. I have been using COVA for almost 20 years as an educator; however, I never had a name for my teaching style. In my Geometry and Algebra classes, I have always been outcome-based and allowed for my students to learn through trial and error, experimentation, collaboration, and through whatever means necessary for personal growth but never had much support. This program allowed me to explore my natural tendencies and encouraged me to influence others.
However, in the same breath, I saw this program met me where I was as an educator; it was planets away from the traditional ways I had learned material. During my educational journey, I had always been formula focused. As a student in school, I was focused more on how I could get an A then the learning that was supposed to be occurring. Often, this led me to forget my memorized material as quickly as I tested on the content. My initial reaction to the freedom to choose set me into a frozen state on many occasions.
I would literally sit and look at my pages of notes over the videos, classroom lecture, and reading materials and wonder, “what do they expect me to do?” I would email the instructor before class scheduling a meeting for the next day because I was never confident in my understanding of the expectations or what it would take to get an A.
My initial thoughts were far from “what do I want to learn from this?” but I was more focused on
“what do they want me to say?”
I was not ready for this type of learning. I struggle with expressing my views in written form and creativity, when not in the classroom, does not come naturally. This program is packed full of writing and creating ideas that do not have to do with teaching Algebra concepts. I have a growth mindset, and I am always willing to try and experiment, but I
am also a realist, which makes me thankful my thought bubbles are not open for public viewing.
Being unprepared for this program and having such difficulty with each course makes me feel that I have had the opportunity to grow. I’m a competitor at heart, and I have never believed in participation ribbons, and I found it insulting and utterly embarrassing my 9th-grade year that I received the most improved award, however, I now would accept both awards with pride in this program. I have put my insecurities aside and did all I could to grow and to allow myself to have authentic learning experiences. I have forced myself on many occasions to put myself out there without asking, “Is this how you want it?” I wanted to experience authentic learning so that I could have a point of view that I had not experienced before.
Then it happened, somewhere between Mindset and Influencer my confidence in sharing my perspective unfolded and trusting that the facilitators wanted authentic learning developed, I started to blossom into an ambitious learner instead of an apprehensive performer. I can not express enough how thrilled I am that I was apart of the DLL program and learning about COVA and CSLE. This approach comes more natural to me than any approach I have ever learned about, studied, discussed, or experienced.
In the virtual setting, using COVA can be seen as difficult to integrate, but I have found that COVA is precisely what our students need. Giving them the freedom to show their learning in a personal and authentic way proved to be the key in helping our students be highly successful this year. We started with simple ways to demonstrate their learning, for example when working with perimeter, area, and volume they created their own homes, landscapes, parks, or any space of their choosing using measurements. Many students chose to draw, some chose to use Minecraft or other digital or 3D formats, others used Lego's, and some students chose to write out their answers in an organized format on paper using just the formulas. Whichever method our students chose to show their understanding was admissible and many went on to design spaces that their parents allowed them to create. We encouraged students to take their ideas beyond their walls and to envision other spaces and share their ideas with their community. Another way students were to prove understanding by the use of COVA was last Christmas. Our scholars were given an assignment where they had to find a gift they wanted for themselves or someone else. They researched the best bargain based on the discounts from each store then share with the other students on a discussion board. They posted what they found and shared more than we had suggested. They had great discussions going on, and we had 320 students engaged, they were not worried about getting an A or how many posts they were making students were engaged in the learning without working on 25 questions out of their books. These are just two examples of dozens, but COVA is now being implemented in our online setting.
This coming year my position has changed so I will not be teaching math, but my partner from last year has adopted the COVA + CSLE approach and will be passing on our projects and ideas to the new staff. What I learned in this program allowed me to create new changes in our online setting that may now become the norm in our math department.
