This summer we will be discussing: Pure Genius: Building a Culture of Innovation and Taking 20% Time to the Next Level by
Before we get started, please join this blog and introduce yourself to the group. Let us know what you teach and what you expect from this group. Since our book is about "innovation teaching", share 2 your favorite "innovative teaching stories" with us. Also..include anything of interest you want to share with the group. (anything that will help us know you a little better).
Please order your book now so that we are ready to start on June 8th. If you already have the book, you might read the introduction before you post your introduction.
If you know anyone who would like to join our group, please feel free to invite them to join. (They don't have to be Southwestern folks...everyone is welcome...as long as they join us before the week of June 8th).
Please note...we won't have any weeks off this summer. Past summers have shown that folks want to work through the entire book before school starts. I will be sending out a specific schedule via email, but we will start discussing Chapter one on June 8th.
If you have any trouble joining the group...let me know. We always have to work out glitches at the beginning of each summer.
My contact information:
Angy Northern
812.866.6237 (W)
812.866.2149 (H)
anorthern@swjcs.us
angynorthern@gmail.com
Hello, I just finished my 8th year at Southwestern teaching high school math. I have taught Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry during my years at SW. However, next year I will be teaching Geometry. My youngest daughter, Emily, and I started in the middle/high school the same year. She graduated last year and is attending ISU. This past year was different without her stopping by throughout the day. I enjoy reading and spending time with my family.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to think of 2 innovations. Although I'm not sure what might classify as innovations but I have been willing to try new ideas in my classrooms. Sometimes I learn more from what hasn't worked.
My first innovation was several years ago, I had an Algebra I classroom with 4 students who were quite a bit more advanced than the rest...I spent time filming and downloading lessons for these students to watch and then complete assignments. The group was responsible to help each other, check their work and meet deadlines for testing. A couple years after this, the flipped classroom was becoming more popular.
My second innovation was in the past 2 years. I used the textbook sparingly and tried to get the students more involved in the classroom discussion then trying to look up answers. I wanted the students to take more risks in the classroom with discussions and challenge themselves. The majority of students adjusted to life without a daily textbook and I increased the number of students focused on the lesson/discussion.
I'm looking forward to the discussion this summer as we move to the 1:1 for the upcoming school year. I'm excited to find new ideas to add into my classrooms. I'm hoping this group will get me started thinking about ways to energize my students so they will have success.
Hi everyone. I've been busy enjoying the 1st week off from school. It is so great getting time to do the things I love. I have gotten to read 2 of the Rosie books, spend time in my flower garden, finished crocheting a blanket, lots of bike riding, and spending time with family. Tomorrow I start teaching my online summer courses. I've been teaching online courses year around for about 9 years. I've taught all the courses from pre-algebra through Pre- Calculus. The last 3 years they have focused me on Algebra 2, Trig, and Pre-Calculus. One perk of online teaching ...I can still enjoy sitting out in the sun on my deck as I work😊 At SW I will be starting my 17th school year. I will be teaching math lab, geometry, trig, probability and statistics, pre-calculus, and AP Calculus. My goal from the reading this summer is to get some ideas on how to successfully use the Chromebooks in all my courses. For my innovative teaching, I would say flipping the entire Calculus course four years ago would qualify. I have modified and adjusted the course each year, but overall the flipping was successful and I plan on continuing to do so. Besides flipping, another innovative idea has been to incorporate other disciplines into my courses. I have done art projects, story writing, and next year the probability class will work with some of the agriculture classes to analyze data. I admit I am a pretty "traditional" teacher. i find it hard sometimes to be innovative. I hope this summer reading will inspire me this summer.
ReplyDeleteHi, I'm Michele Stuart, and I teacher middle and high school Spanish (levels I, III, and IV). This is my 16th year in the classroom, and I'm excited to try some new approaches this year. In my free time I enjoy practicing TaeKwonDo, reading, and traveling. I'm also Mom to a busy 13 year old who keeps me busy with basketball and band activities.
ReplyDeleteI tend to be pretty open to innovation within the classroom. In years past I've utilized a method known as TPRS which uses a multi-sensory approach to language learning. Years that I've focused on this method, I've seen better buy-in and language production from students. Secondly, I have moved away from the textbook, and have been trying to focus on using a variety of materials based on student learning style and needs.
I'm looking forward to collaborating with each of you this summer, as well as adding some new "tools" to my teaching toolbox.
Michele
Hello everyone. My name is Robert Green. I just finished my first year as a teacher. I loved it. The students and staff at Southwestern were amazing. I teach 7th grade World Geography which is Africa and Asia. Innovation to me is finding news ways to keep the content fresh, fun, and exciting. This year I used innovation by having my friend teach the students about Japan. He is currently living in Japan. We used Google Hangout and the students loved it! They learned so much about Japan and asked for more learning activities like Google Hangout. I am hoping the book will help me keep my content and teaching fun and exciting for the students.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Keri Hammons. I just finished my second year as an assistant principal at Scottsburg High School. Prior to that I was the assistant director for SSU in Scott County for 4 years and a special ed teacher (ED self-contained) at Scottsburg Middle School for 7 years. I also worked in community mental health for 7 years. My husband just finished his 6th year as a special ed teacher in Scottsburg. I have a son who is 20 and attends college at UNOH. He attended Southwestern Elementary through the end of 4th grade.
ReplyDeleteThis evening I returned from one of the stops on the IDOE's summer of eLearning events in Mount Vernon. During the past two days I heard several presentations and lots of discussion about the need for innovation in education. One graph that particularly spoke to me (maybe because I saw it 3 times) tracked student engagement from Kindergarten through 12th grade. According to this data, Kindergarteners are 95% engaged. Students' levels of engagement decline until they bottom out at 37% in 9th grade. Just so we don't completely lose hope, engagement creeps back up to 45% by their senior year. When I see information like this graph, I am convinced that we need to change and be more innovative as often as possible. Like Wettrick said in the introduction, it can't just be one hour a week. I can't imagine going to work and only being fully engaged and excited about my tasks for one hour each week.
Two examples of innovation that I've seen during my time at SCSD2 are as follows:
First, our students advocated for a mass media class, then used that class to write, record, and produce a weekly "TV" show about our school. This year the class also created videos to highlight a variety of elective courses offered at Scottsburg High School so students will have a better understand of the opportunities that exist in our school.
Second, over the past year, two teachers have partnered with community members/organizations to bring additional extra-curricular opportunities to our students. The teachers helped students form relationships with these community members in order to learn new skills that will benefit them long after they finish high school.
I'm looking forward to this book discussion and the new ideas that we can share with each other.
Welcome Keri...this is first year that we have folks from schools other than Southwestern. I look forward to hearing about your Scottsburg experience/prospective. Feel free to invite others from your school who might be interested. Just have them email me at anorthern@swjcs.us to get signed up.
DeleteMy name is Kendra Bryant and I serve as the Director of Special Education at Southwestern Jefferson County School Corporation. I was born and raised in the Seattle area and moved to Indiana after graduating from college. I began my educational career as a teacher in a private, residential program called New Horizons Ministries. This program was designed to address the needs of at-risk, underachieving teens. They had a school in both Marion, Indiana and in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. I met my husband, Mark, while we were both working in the Dominican. We have three kids: Jordyn - 14 and going into 9th grade, Luke - 12 and going into 7th grade, and Cambryn - 10 and going into 5th grade.
ReplyDeleteMy public school career began in Scottsburg, where I taught in a self-contained middle school classroom for students with emotional disabilities (middle school is my absolute favorite age!). I then spent some time as a behavior consultant in both Scott County and Jennings County before becoming the Assistant Director of Special Ed in Scott County. I became the Director of Special Ed at Southwestern 6 years ago.
I am very excited about this book and am looking forward to discussing our ideas. My hope is that our discussion will ignite enough passion in all of us to move beyond just discussing and sharing our opinions. I have discovered that SWJCS is a place where we have the freedom to implement new ideas if we are willing to do what it takes to make our ideas happen. I enjoy change and am hopeful that our discussions this summer will result in some positive changes in our classrooms and in our school districts.
Hello All,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for the delay in getting this posted and my absence in general. My name is Greg Schneider and I have been the Agriculture Teacher at Southwestern High School for the past 24 years.
A perhaps little known fact is I did not grow up on a farm and actually touched my first cow when I was 18 years old. Rest assured, I am well versed in all-things-agriculture now, but I have never forgotten my suburban roots. I think this fact gives me an advantage in teaching about agriculture to the 98% of our population that is not involved in farming. I can still remember when I first realized that meat was actually the muscle tissue of animals and I am ashamed to say that, at one point of my youth, I thought everyone that lived in the country had dirt in their yards instead of grass. This was, of course, because that’s what the Ingalls’ yard looked like on Little House on the Prairie. Hence my prowess for understanding, and gently correcting, the misperceptions about agriculture :)
BTW, agriculture is a very broad topic/career field and extends well beyond production agriculture. I feel the breadth of my chosen subject area is what I find so appealing. On any given day, I can cover plants, animals, building trades, small engine maintenance, landscaping, business management - you name it.
My wife and I own a 60-acre diversified livestock farm in Jefferson County. We raise cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry along with hay and occasional row crops. I work the farm with a team of Belgian draft horses, as well as a little help from my tractor-farming neighbors as the need arises. The tagline for the farm (Cave Springs Farm) is “Home Grown & Horse Powered”, although after the birth of our second of two daughters, I had considered changing it to, “Cave Springs Farm. We raise everything, except for boys”.
My second daughter is actually the impetus for my journey towards innovation in education. I am currently two years from early retirement. Three years ago, with the advent of RISE and increased accountability, I paused to take stock in where I was in my teaching career. My youngest daughter was three years old. I knew I was going to need to get at least another 15 years out of this job and I did not want to repeat the previous 20 years. That was when I made a conscious decision to step outside the box. I started searching for new classes that would meet our students’ needs as well as align with my own personal passions. Little known fact #2: In college, I had a double major: Ag Education AND Animal Science. I piloted Veterinary Careers as a two-hour agriculture course for the State of Indiana in 2013. This course reached fruition at the same time as The Community Calf Project. Both of these aspects came together to challenge me and reinvigorate my teaching and things have never been the same since.
I have a $25,000 American Farmers Grow Rural Education grant pending currently. If awarded, we will take the Community Calf Project and its sister crop project, The Technology Plot, to the next level by incorporating more innovative, student-driven STEM-based research projects. My goal is to collaborate with other teachers and provide as many other subject areas as possible with real-world applications of materials being taught in the classroom. If we are not awarded the grant, I still plan on forging ahead. It will just require a bit more legwork.
The SW Ag Dept also piloted a new course last year called Service Learning Agriculture. Students were challenged to find a personal passion and then align it with a need in our community. Once they identified their project, they needed to formulate a plan of action, identify partners, secure resources and funding and then implement the project. I can identify with many of the challenges and rewards listed in this book.
I am enjoying this book and I look forward to catching up on the discussion and joining in. I am already investigating setting up a Twitter account :)
Welcome aboard Greg. Looking forward to reading your posts!
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