I love this graphic by John Spencer and I have been using it heavily when explaining innovation to teachers and administrators. It’s simple, but not easy. In fact, no one ever said that innovating would be easy. When you look at the long list of innovators: Steve Jobs, Leonardo Da Vinci, Ada Lovelace, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, etc… not a single one of them innovated easily. They all struggled...
Improving student achievement begins with evidence-based leadership strategies for improving the quality of instruction. Successful leadership (a) reinvents leadership practices to use a distributed leadership style, (b) organizes school supports for school improvement, and (c) turns schools into equitable centers of high-quality education. In the following sections, I will describe leadership strategies that reflect current research on best practices for teachers and administrators. I will end with explaining how these interventions will produce significant gains...
When was the last time you believed that you could change the world? I was ten years old. Fifth grade. I remember going out on the field for recess. It was an incredibly windy day that afternoon; the kind of wind where you could almost lean forward into the gusts and you didn’t fall down. Buster Keaton style. I got this crazy idea that I would attempt to stop the wind. I grabbed two sticks...
Research indicates that very few students of color view themselves as STEM learners when investigating a question or problem in their community (Darling-Hammond, 2010). Because previous research indicates a lack of diversity in STEM education and careers and specific schools structures that support successful STEM integration, there is a greater need to research what elementary school structures support students of color in STEM curricular areas (Martin, 2008; McGee & Martin, 2011; Moore, 2008; Tate, 1994;...
In order to guide the development of equitable STEM education as well as foster STEM foundational thinking for all students, educators must create experiences for students that allow learners the time and opportunity to see themselves as STEM students of color who collaborate, apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address challenging issues. These learning experiences need to be high quality, tailored to meet individual learner needs, focused on student learning, research-based, job-embedded, and aligned...
STEM learning aims to “foster connections among people, settings, and practices” (Penuel, Lee, & Bevan, 2014, p. 2). In fact, fostering diversity in STEM education promotes equity by (a) expanding access to STEM learning opportunities; (b) brokering continuing opportunities for participation in STEM learning opportunities; and (c) helping young people appropriate STEM practices to address issues they feel matter to their personal lives or communities (Penuel, Lee, & Bevan, 2014, p. 1). This includes leveraging...
As long as there has been education, from the ancient Egyptians’ library built by Ashurbanipal, the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (685-627 BCE), to Confucius during the Zhou Dynasty (551-479 BCE), to Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BCE), Socrates (c. 470-399 BCE), and Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE), there has been debate about how it should be organized, managed, who it should be for, and how knowledge should be disseminated to people (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2011). Educators and critics have...
Research indicates that very few students view themselves as STEM learners when investigating a question or problem in their community. Whereas previous research indicates a lack of diversity in STEM education and careers and specific schools structures that support successful STEM integration, there is a greater need to research what elementary school structures support students of color in STEM curricular areas. When researching mathematics education in working class Latina/o communities, Marta Civil (2014) feels that...
As a district STEM and Innovation coach, I have the fortunate opportunity to visit and see all things STEM. So often, as teachers, we are only aware of our own classroom and what is happening within our own school building. I would like to change that. Periodically, I will be showcasing innovative things that are happening in our school district in what I am calling STEM Showcase. For this first installment, I have a guest post...
There have been a few things on my mind recently. The first one deals with the above quote. I have always admired Steve Jobs, but when I finished reading his biography, his drive to be innovative and create something the world has never seen, infected me. I completely agree with the fact that we exist to do something. Jobs felt that it was to do something great. I am feeling a loss of purpose,...
