10 Stories of Innovative Educators
Educators Who Bring Purposeful Technology, Movement, Games, and Collaboration to Their Classrooms
In order to serve a classroom of students with diverse needs, backgrounds, and interests, educators have become strikingly innovative in their work — particularly as technology advancements make their way into the classroom. To celebrate their innovation, and to share the creativity and strategic thinking with more teachers, we’ve gathered ten stories of innovative educators. These teachers, all bloggers through the Art of Teaching Project, have creatively leveraged available resources, space, and time to meet student needs.
Dive into their stories and get inspired to innovate.
On movement, seating, and use of space:
“Sit Where You LEARN Best! This philosophy makes most educators very uncomfortable. It goes against the very fabric of the traditional classroom set-up. However, if embraced, this will revolutionize your classroom, raise the level of student engagement, and foster ownership of their education.” — Dean Deaver
- Sit Where You Learn Best by Dean Deaver
- Movement in the Classroom by Blaine Dunsmore
- Five Ways to Jumpstart Your Makerspace by Brittany Murro
On grouping and collaboration:
“I began to ponder how to change my outcome, but I didn’t arrive at my answer as quickly as I would’ve liked because I joined the rank and file of educators who see their current issues of instruction as the sum total of poor teaching from their colleagues who had taught their students previously. It’s so much easier to sleep at night when it’s not your problem.” — Kyleema Norman
- Visibly Random Groups in Math Class by Dylan Kane, Math Teacher
- Teaching the Way Students Learn: My Journey with Grouping by Kyleema Norman
- Buddy Up! The Benefits of Pairing Learners from Different Grades by Shannon Diven
On play and game-based learning:
“Teenagers have four basic needs for survival: food, water, shelter, and video games. Whether we like it or not, our students are fluent in Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo. How, then, do we leverage this this prior knowledge in academic spaces? Gamification could be our answer.” — Alex Corbitt
- Leveling Up Independent Reading by Alex Corbitt
- Making Math Fun with Collaboration, Games, and Formative Assessment by Christine Younghusband
On community outreach and real-world connections:
“Service learning is a large part of the culture of most colleges and even at the high school level, but isn’t often found at the middle school level. I thought I’d give it a try.” — Shelby Denhof
- Using Social Media to Connect Students with Authors by Beth Maloney
- The Impact of Service Learning by Shelby Denhof
For more stories of educator innovation, check out:
