Innovation in Education

Innovate - to take something that exists and create a new outcome/product from it that has value.

Innovative education - To take the idea of education and reinvigorate the delivery method to create value for both teachers and learners.

A passion of mine as an educator is innovative thinking and I am inspired this week to write on this topic for two reasons.
The first reason was an article I read on the top innovative schools in the world.

http://www.techinsider.io/the-13-most-innovative-schools-in-the-world-2015-9?utm_content=buffer3c6fc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer

My second reason for this particular focus has been that I find that everything I seem to be working on at Westmount lends itself to Innovation. Professional learning and development to staff is by no means a new thing. Schools have been organising and self-delivering professional learning to teaching staff for many years. What I have found though is that it in the main is delivered at them, with no initial input from the teachers themselves as to relevance or need, then once delivered the expectation is that the new learning is adapted, irrelevant of how useful the content was. I have also found that there is limited if any measure of the impact that the PLD has had on teaching and learning.

So my personal philosophy in this space is not to say that the Teacher academy is ‘New’ as I believe that Westmount has always given staff the opportunity to engage in PLD opportunities. I suppose the new is the innovation that sits behind it. That we are taking traditional PLD and facilitating the delivery so that it has relevance and meaning to all teachers and related to areas that they see as important to focus on while also shifting the balance of delivery from trainers delivering content to teacher led further development through the professional learning groups.

Tailoring the content of the Teacher Academy workshops to meet the needs of each group as they come through has been a challenge, but I have to say my experience in the last three days with PLG 6 (TUMM – teachers using modern methods) has shown me clearly the benefits that can be gained from this process. The outcome of the 3 days which incorporated a hands on session with MindLab culminated in some very engaged and invigorated teachers itching to get back to school and try out some innovative approaches to teaching.

Team PLG 6 having the tour

The Team focused on Coding and Electronics

Rich Rowley Director of education at Mindlab Auckland delivering a session to the team

In fact the workshop has already had an impact with one of the attendees, Elizabeth Whiterod
 from Manawatu sharing a creation she put together in Padlet (One of the apps we played with) to encapsulate all the learning that the group explored.

Elizabeth's Padlet page created and shared with her PLG

I look forward to what they produce collectively to share with the wider Westmount community in the coming months.