What does innovation really mean?

In October, NHCSD had the opportunity to spend the day with George Couros, the author of Innovator's Mindset. Since that time, you have probably seen an increase in social media posts throughout the district as we try to tell our story and share what we are doing in classrooms, building, and learning sites. Even after that day, there is an on-going discussion about what innovation actually is. Right now we point to two programs that are pushing our boundaries for how we engage and educate students and you have seen much about them.  Iowa BIG North and J-term with project based learning have been on the forefront of innovation at NHHS.  Those programs have proven to successful engage students and we have had positive feedback from students, parents, and the community about those offerings to kids.

On Monday, I had the opportunity to attend the MISIC Personalized by Design Conference in Ankeny with a group of students and staff from Iowa BIG North.

 

During that day, we had the opportunity to present twice on innovation happening among our campuses and the evolution of the Iowa BIG North program. We always enjoy a chance to talk about what students do and the passion driven education of the program throughout the schools.

Before our presentations, we were given the opportunity to listen to and interact with Dr. Trace Pickering, one of the co-founder of Iowa BIG in Cedar Rapids.  He spoke to us about personalization in our educational environment and changing our paradigm from reforming education by polishing up what we have been doing since the Industrialization Age to transforming education by responding to our current needs.  The questions we need to ask ourselves surround the ideas of vigorous education as opposed to rigorous, learner-centric as opposed to school-centric.  What do our kids need?  How can we create an experience pre-K through 12th grade that transforms education to truly personalize education for each student? We are striving to keep these questions on the forefront.... these are questions that keep me awake at night. How can we in New Hampton lead innovation not just by talking about it, but by also taking risks and be willing to fail forward to better serve our kids and communities?