What Does Innovation Look Like in a Classroom?

ask:What is best for the student?

• It's learner-centered
• It's incorporating technology as a tool
• It's creating a flexible learning environment
• It's developing a growth mindset
• It's providing teacher support

10 Traits of a Learning-Centered Class

• Personal: connects to learner’s beliefs, strengths, experiences, and passions to start from where the learner is
• Agency: the power to act and requires learners to have the ability to make decisions and take ownership of their own behaviors in the process.

10 Traits of a Learning-Centered Class

• Goals + Accountability: Motivation to do your personal best using methods that may not be the typical standard and sets goals to develop important skills
• Inquiry-Based: Learners are posing the questions and discovering the answers

10 Traits of a Learning-Centered Class

• Collaboration: Opportunities to build on strengths of others and to work together
• Authentic: Providing learning that is relevant and meaningful helps empower learners

10 Traits of a Learning-Centered Class

• Critique + Revision: create the conditions where learners feel valued and can openly share challenges to grow and improve

10 Traits of a Learning-Centered Class

• Productive Struggle: Learners are encouraged to take risks in pursuit of learning and growth rather than perfection, difficulty should be in the right zone

10 Traits of a Learning-Centered Class

• Models: Using others to inspire new ideas, build off of and stimulate thinking and creativity
• Reflection: considering where changes can be made & strengths lie, and using feedback from others is essential for growth

Untitled Slide

Technology can help learners take ownership of their journey and drive their own learning.
~Katie Martin

Technology's Role includes:

• Connect
• Personalize
• Access content
• Learn and practice
• Create content
• Document and share

Flexible Learning Environment:

• Flexible Physical space: allows groups/breakout areas for collaboration
• Flexible time: allows blocks of time to be reorganized, utilized in different ways

Untitled Slide

FLEXIBLE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:

• Flexible student grouping: students are then grouped and regrouped in response to that data, allowed to work on specific areas, difficulty can be adjusted

Benefits of Flexible Learning

• greater connections across skills and content
• teachers develop common language for skills that transcend subject areas

Benefits of Flexible Learning

• students are pushed further in their areas of strength and get additional time and support in areas of challenge, difficulty in the right zone

The Outcome:
According to a study by the Rand Corporation, “compared to their peers, students in schools using personalized learning practices are making greater progress over the course of two school years, and that students who started out behind are now catching up to performance.''

Create a Growth Mindset

“People with a growth mindset are those who believe that smartness increases with hard work, whereas those with a fixed mindset believe that you can learn things but you can’t change your basic level of intelligence. Mindsets are critically important because research has shown that they lead to different learning behaviors, which in turn create different learning outcomes for students.” ~Jo Boaler

Growth mindset for the Teacher looks like

• Suggesting Learning Strategies
• Providing Support at the Right Time
• Providing Critical Feedback
• Allowing Time for Revision
• Providing Challenges
• Demonstrating It's OK to Fail
• Acknowledging and Learning from Mistakes
• Acting as a Facilitator or Guide

Innovative math strategies

• Roll Dice: Dice can be used in various ways to teach mathematics. We can use it to teach addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, and order of operations. Teachers can organize the game in multiple ways to make it challenging for all varieties of learning groups. These math games help students retain more information and they will try to explore different combinations as well

Innovative math strategies

• Math Bingo game: We can engage students with math bingo for solving problems relating to four basic operations, and fractions as well. Teachers can organize the game in such a way that difficulty level can be increased. To create excitement in students, teachers can declare winners for students who marked first/second, etc. Finally, a student who marks all the answers in his/her card in a row should say “Bingo!”…game ends

Innovative math strategies

• Equivalent fraction game: Initially, the first player rolls dice and makes a note of the number faced up on the dice (this is going to be denominator value). Later, the student has to color equivalent fractions on the game board. For example: if the student rolls a 1/3 then they have to color 1/3 rectangle, 2/6 rectangle, and 4/12 rectangle. Fraction line is another interesting game that can also be used to mark all the equivalent fractions.

Innovative math strategies

• These visual games are just a few to list to help students interpret the numbers easily and can help students quickly understand abstract mathematical ideas. These manipulatives are typically used to relate the important information, to organize information and to compute the answer to a problem.

Students will be developing

What innovative classrooms foster in students

Let's support our educators!

"Teachers create what they experience"

how can teachers evolve? They need Leaders!

• Shared Vision: Leadership needs to help create the goal and give teachers autonomy to design that for their classroom
• Learning as A Process, Not an Event: Teachers should be given time in the day to develop and create these experiences
• Go Open: using networks, collaboration, and access to information to further learning experiences in classrooms, Teachers cannot do this in isolation

References

• Fensterwald, J. (2015, November 23). There's more to a 'growth mindset' than assuming you have it. EdSource. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://edsource.org/2015/theres-more-to-a-growth-mindset-than-assuming-you...

References

• Harrington, T. (2017, January 11). Stanford professor urges teachers to rethink math instruction. EdSource. Retrieved June 17, 2022, from https://edsource.org/2016/stanford-professor-urges-teachers-to-rethink-math...

Referencese

• Kaza, C. (2019, October 24). Innovative math classrooms – strategies to teach mathematics. The Gaudium. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://www.thegaudium.com/innovative-math-classrooms-strategies-to-teach-m...

References

• Martin, K. (2016, May 10). Teachers create what they experience | Katie Martin | tedxelcajonsalon. YouTube. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcDpDPwRxvU

References

• Martin, K. (2021, August 8). 10 characteristics of learner centered experiences. Katie Martin | Informed by Research, Inspired by Practice. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://katielmartin.com/2017/10/07/10-characteristics-of-learner-centered-...

References

• Martin, K. (2021, May 30). Leveraging technology to create more learner-centered experiences. Katie Martin | Informed by Research, Inspired by Practice. Retrieved June 24, 2022, from https://katielmartin.com/2021/05/29/leveraging-technology-to-create-more-le...

References

• Mehrbach, L., & Beingessner, C., (2018, August 8). Why flexible learning environments? Getting Smart. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://www.gettingsmart.com/2018/08/08/why-flexible-learning-environments/

References

• Shulman, R. D. (2021, December 10). 10 ways educators can make classrooms more innovative. Forbes. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/robynshulman/2018/11/19/10-ways-educators-can-...

References

• Schwartz, K. (2013, February 1). 7 essential principles of innovative learning. KQED. Retrieved June 23, 2022, from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/26755/7-essential-principles-of-innovative-l...