A couple years ago my former team teacher, David Baxter and I, were charged with the task of teaching our students to be innovative thinkers. At first we entered this task all bright eyed and bushy tailed but soon realized that while everyone was talking about innovation... there were few (or no) examples we could find of students actually working towards becoming innovative thinkers. So after spending some time analyzing the true meaning of INNOVATION with our mentors, Dr. Julia Roberts and Dr. Tracy Inman at The Center for Gifted Studies at Western Kentucky University, we created this... THE INNOVATION MODEL. We found the business world was inundated with innovation models. Which got our gears turning... If the REAL WORLD had innovation models, shouldn't education?
The innovation model is not linear. Because students may need to enter at various points when they are solving problems. We also, intentionally included soft words.... Wonder, Connect, Notice. Many of these words were added because we noticed they were words our students used frequently when they were thinking through problems. Check back soon, I plan on posting more information on thinking strategies you can use to help your children/students become innovative thinkers soon!
*Note- The innovation model is currently in use at GEMS Academy (www.projectgems.org) in Warren County Public Schools, Kentucky by David Baxter and Jennifer Smith.
No comments:
Post a Comment