Every Educator Has To Be An Innovator #IMMOOC

The week 1 session of the Innovator’s Mindset Massive Open Online Course (#IMMOOC) on Saturday led by George Couros, Katie Martin, and Dave Burgess provided me much to ponder.  There was, however, one point by Katie Martin that stood out.  Here was my tweet:

I have 2 takeaways within this Tweet:

1. “Most teachers are innovative, they just don’t know it.”  It’s interesting to listen to innovative teachers argue their teaching practices are not innovative.  With our upcoming “Innovations in Learning” professional development, teachers were approached to lead a breakout session, but many were reluctant because they said no one wants to listen to me or what I’m doing is not innovative. As Dave Burgess said, “Educators have a moral imperative to share.”  We cannot expect others to share if we are not willing to share ourselves.

2. If most teachers are innovative, how about the rest?  After all,  “Every educator has to be an innovator.”  Some educators may push back on being innovative with responses; “But I’m not techie” and “I just don’t have time.”  The Innovator’s Mindset makes things clear in this area by defining innovation as “...the creation of new and better ideas” and “innovation is not about stuff, it is a way of thinking.”  The reality of every educator becoming an innovator begins with the expectation that everyone must be an innovator.  The expectation comes from the leader, who must model being innovative along with a purposeful sense of “this is how we do things around here” embedded in the culture.  Later in the book, George poses the question that most struggle with; “How do we move from pockets of innovation to a culture of innovation?”

I am looking forward to more #IMMOOC community discussions on the vision of a “culture of innovation” and providing examples, ideas, and support in which every educator is an innovator.