What Inspired Us this Week
Here are some of the articles, images and videos that made us pause, think, wonder, laugh and hope. Enjoy!
Can Design Thinking Help Schools Find New Solutions to Old Problems?
An excellent article from Mind Shift highlighting the design thinking work Principal Kamar Samuels has undertaken to reach the most disaffected students at Bronx Writing Academy. Read about this administrator designer’s story and get some tips on how to start using design thinking in your own school and classroom.
“In education we do not typically engage our users — our students — to find what is causing them to be disengaged.”
Many of the hardest-to-solve problems in schools involve a confluence of actors, including teachers, students, parents and society. Solutions handed down from others rarely work. A few educators are hoping the design-thinking tools used in other industries can be applied in schools to help them better understand and include all stakeholders in the solution.
via Mind Shift
“I Teach For 7 Straight Hours In Stilletos And Never Stop Smiling!” What Stock Photos Tell Us About Teaching
Self-explanatory and awesome. Click and laugh.
“After school, I like to stand in my immaculate classroom and reflect on a job well done.”
via BuzzFeed
Innovative Teaching: It’s not the technology, it’s the thinking
A great article by Christopher Bronke, English Department Chair at Downers Grove. Christopher argues that educators are innovators and that innovation in education is about the collective and collaborative power of the whole (we couldn’t agree more on both points) and shares four tips for successful innovation in schools.
When we hear innovation, we think of that tech startup, founded in the basement of someone’s mom’s house, now a billion-dollar society-changer. We think of the “brilliant mind” coding tomorrow’s future today. And I will be honest, until recently, I thought along those same lines, viewing innovation as something for others, for those with a mind for technology, not for me as a mere English teacher. […] What became clear is that innovation isn’t a thing and that being innovative isn’t something one is or isn’t; innovation is a state of mind. It is a deliberate approach to creativity in which one allows the mind to think and produce without constraints, without judgment, and without hesitation because no ideas are bad ideas when innovating.
“teachers are innovators…YOU are an innovator”
A Pep Talk from Kid President to You
Kick off the start of the school year with this wise and charming pep talk from Kid President.
“This is life, people. You’ve got air coming through your nose, you’ve got a heartbeat, that means it’s time to do something!”
“Create something that will make the world awesome.”
Marshall McLuhan on writing
As is so often the case with reflections on writing, this quote from Marshall McLuhan is full of wisdom applicable to other arts — living, designing, teaching. Head over to Austin Kleon’s ever inspiring Tumblr to read the full quote.
“I’m making explorations. I don’t know where they’re going to take me […] I grope, I listen, I test, I accept and discard; I try out different sequences — until the tumblers fall and the doors spring open.”
