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Eight Ways to Make Your Classroom Innovative
posted by: Alix | August 29, 2012, 05:13 PM   

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." ― William Arthur Ward

We all want to do more than just spoon information into our students' heads and have them spit it back out at us again. We want to be one of those teachers that does more, a teacher that not only teaches information, but teaches students how to think critically and inspires them to turn their knowledge to solving the world's problems.

In a recent book, Bringing Innovation to School, author Suzie Boss looks at what we, as teachers, can do to make our classroom more innovative. The book focuses on big ideas instead of nitpicking, minute details and is a helpful ethos for teachers who follow many different styles.

A recent write up by the blog Mind/Shift takes a deeper look at these eight key tips that teachers can use to encourage innovation and thinking skills in their classrooms. They are:
  1. Welcome authentic questions and student feedback on projects. This means allowing projects that are on real-world issues.
  2. Encourage effective teamwork by making sure that teamwork is not contrived and that students learn how to break down projects by themselves and work together.
  3. Be ready to go big by both encouraging students to think big, but also by giving them the tools and ability to see their ideas through.
  4. Build empathy and teach students to see things from multiple viewpoints.
  5. Uncover your students passions since this is what they'll be the most innovative about.
  6. Teach students how to evaluate other people's ideas and how to be able to tell which ones are good ones.
  7. Teach students how to find weaknesses in their ideas and know when they have to say no or to change their plan.
  8. Encourage breakthroughs by sharing stories of famous innovators.

You can read the entire Mind/Shift write-up on Bringing Innovation to School here.

Do you have any items to add to the list?
Comment below.

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