Like three astronauts, Nick, Mike, and I land on/in our school’s Innovation Center (IC), Cave 4, for nearly every period 1 (with a few exceptions). Returning from work away from the school for the past 4 years, I help lead the school’s curriculum and instruction. Mike, our Director of Educational Technology, gets situated in his new office in the IC. And Nick, English teacher (and next year’s department leader), has returned from a educational gamification workshop, where he facilitated a presentation about his students’ way of proceeding in an English class – framed by video gaming. All three of us gather, with one task this year: develop a working definition (and indicators) for Innovative Education at our school and plan strategies that animate the definition – among students and teachers. We have the space. But, how do we help students be innovative? It feels as though I am an amateur astronaut – being forced to reposition myself on another planet or the moon, as I experience something new – seemingly not from our world. Perhaps all three of us bounce around in unfamiliar territory, acknowledging this new perspective with wonder, ease, and joy. We begin our work together by historicizing about the origins of the Innovation Center – the actual space we occupy for our meetings – how did it come to be and why? We invite members from the principal’s team and the leadership team to reveal perceptions and feelings of both consolation and desolation. This exercise quickly becomes the foundation for constructing our IE definition. After we pour our foundation, we begin to construct our definition for IE – using our collective knowledge and experience, along with research and best practices – all informed by our Catholic, Jesuit traditions. We hold in tension the foci from General Congregation 36, while framing our conversations around components of The Profile of the Graduate at Graduation and the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm. What emerges after months of conversation and deliberation is a dynamic, complex, changing, but clear IE definition that guides how our students and teachers are reflective, action-based, and engaged with one another, and in the community. Is it perfect? By no means. But, it is a starting point in a slow, rhythmic process. We leave most meetings realizing, “the work is never finished.” Thoughts of Oscar Romero, SJ, continuously come to my mind: it may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Soon after we develop our IE definition, questions surface: how do we communicate this definition, test it, ask for input, and expose colleagues to it? How does our understanding of innovative education help us to animate what we do in our classes with students? Eventually we depend on two strategies to help us deliver our definition: small presentations to groups of faculty where we test our definition, as well as the creation of a paid, 4-day summer institute – open to faculty during this coming summer 2019. We are invitational to all faculty, while at the same time, targeting specific innovators and early adaptors –colleagues who will help us build the IE kingdom here. Happily, with a cohort of 15 teachers, we will launch the IE Summer Seminar, focusing on four spheres of IE – coming directly from our definition:
Our summer experience will provide faculty exposure to and practice with these spheres as they relate to their already-existing curriculum, while challenging us all to create community while building own class prototypes that we can use in our space – the IC. We expect that faculty will embed and use these IE spheres (and prototypes) in their classes, with students, during the 2019-2020 year. In addition, we will make a “home-grown” maker space within the confines of our IC, continuing to discover where creativity can help us animate IE and complement our college preparatory curriculum. As next year unfolds, our cohort will come together to be a continuing community of learners and a resource to one another and others. What an exciting time to be an innovative educator at De Smet Jesuit! Although I am excited about the work of our grand experiment with innovative education, I’m most hopeful about how Mike, Nick, and I are modelling a way of proceeding and collaboration for faculty – through our meetings this year. It is not coincidence that some of the qualities of this collaboration are practical animations of innovative education, which include but are not limited to:
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Pete MussoAssistant Principal, Curriculum & Instruction Archives
May 2022
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