Aprender Inglês
BY DIANE DEMEE-BENOIT
I'm a firm believer that new ideas and innovations result from networking with people outside of your normal social and professional circles. I've found they offer new ways of envisioning the possibilities. Educators too often overlook the power of networking. We tend to frequent the same conferences (technology advocates go to NECC, principals go to NAESP or NASSP, staff developers go to NSDC, and so on). We network and hang out with people who think like us, year in and year out.
Once you start networking, you will be exposed to new ideas that will push you outside the box. However, taking an idea and shaping it into something that will work in a classroom or a school, and will be sustainable over time -- with changes in funding, leadership, policies, and so on -- is the challenge for many of the innovative school programs that spring up, and later wither because of change in leadership, direction, or whatever.
To reinvent schools for the twenty-first century, we need to take an entrepreneurial approach. I recently read "To Build Up Innovation, Break Down Your Networks" in Fast Company magazine. It offers some food for thought about change, opportunity, leadership, and strategies for school change. The author, Chris Trimble, is on the faculty of the Business School at Dartmouth College, with expertise in strategic innovation.
Here are some snippets from the article, which I found intriguing. Read the article and let me know what you think:
"Creating new networks is the only way for an organization to push innovation past the idea stage."
"Entrepreneurs believe in the power of networking. Many are very good at it. They become good because they recognize that most people with interesting notions usually only have one piece of a puzzle. Often unexpected combinations of ideas, or chance meetings of people with complimentary perspectives, ignite genuine breakthroughs."
"Too many innovation initiatives run amok because we celebrate ideas too much and understand execution too little."
"While enriching existing networks accelerates idea generation, breaking existing networks is often required to convert vision to reality... Breaking networks is the only way to prepare an organization to take innovation efforts beyond mere ideas."
"Managers are trained to operate through formal organizational structures, policies, and processes. This is effective for making a proven business ever more efficient, but not for driving innovation."
Source: http://www.edutopia.org/
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Aprender Inglês
Think (and Meet People) Outside Your Box: Taking Education Beyond Your Comfort Zone
BY DIANE DEMEE-BENOIT
I'm a firm believer that new ideas and innovations result from networking with people outside of your normal social and professional circles. I've found they offer new ways of envisioning the possibilities. Educators too often overlook the power of networking. We tend to frequent the same conferences (technology advocates go to NECC, principals go to NAESP or NASSP, staff developers go to NSDC, and so on). We network and hang out with people who think like us, year in and year out.
Once you start networking, you will be exposed to new ideas that will push you outside the box. However, taking an idea and shaping it into something that will work in a classroom or a school, and will be sustainable over time -- with changes in funding, leadership, policies, and so on -- is the challenge for many of the innovative school programs that spring up, and later wither because of change in leadership, direction, or whatever.
To reinvent schools for the twenty-first century, we need to take an entrepreneurial approach. I recently read "To Build Up Innovation, Break Down Your Networks" in Fast Company magazine. It offers some food for thought about change, opportunity, leadership, and strategies for school change. The author, Chris Trimble, is on the faculty of the Business School at Dartmouth College, with expertise in strategic innovation.
Here are some snippets from the article, which I found intriguing. Read the article and let me know what you think:
"Creating new networks is the only way for an organization to push innovation past the idea stage."
"Entrepreneurs believe in the power of networking. Many are very good at it. They become good because they recognize that most people with interesting notions usually only have one piece of a puzzle. Often unexpected combinations of ideas, or chance meetings of people with complimentary perspectives, ignite genuine breakthroughs."
"Too many innovation initiatives run amok because we celebrate ideas too much and understand execution too little."
"While enriching existing networks accelerates idea generation, breaking existing networks is often required to convert vision to reality... Breaking networks is the only way to prepare an organization to take innovation efforts beyond mere ideas."
"Managers are trained to operate through formal organizational structures, policies, and processes. This is effective for making a proven business ever more efficient, but not for driving innovation."
Source: http://www.edutopia.org/
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- "old Dogs And New Tricks"
"You can't teach an old dog new tricks." How many times have you heard this old saying as an excuse for not trying something new or avoiding a fresh approach? The expert animal trainers say that a dog of almost any age can learn new tricks....
- How To Create Your Own Curriculum Options Abound For Going Off Script
BY ERIC HELLWEGEric Matez doesn't know what he'll do next. To put it euphemistically, he has been given the gift of time. To put it more bluntly, Matez, a 17-year elementary school teacher in Norfolk, Massachusetts, is out of a job, fired in January...
- Outlaw Educators: Taking Education Outside The Box
Creative teachers mix unconventional methods into their lesson plans. BY GRACE RUBENSTEIN On May 1, the ninth graders in Camsie Matis's South Bronx classroom were supposed to study how to graph and solve inequalities. The teens would need those...
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What is creativity? Historically, creativity has been seen as a tortured and mystical process, the province of geniuses, artists and eccentrics. Today, we are less in awe of the creative process. Now, creativity is recognised as a practical skill, one...
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ByTomasz P. Szynalski That's right. Do you think it would be fun to have access to information that other people can't get? Talk and write letters to interesting people that others can't communicate with? Impress people around you whenever...