#GoInnovate16 Reflections - Day 2

Another challenging and inspiring day at the first annual GOCSD Innovation Summit.  Here are my takeaways:

1. Our current structure of school limits us in meeting kids needs. Schools have changed very little in the past 100 years.  However, students and their needs have changed significantly.  As educators, we must evaluate the purpose behind our practices to ensure they align with our beliefs about education.  We do many things that are for efficiency and convenience that have minimal impact on student learning.  We must find ways to unlock the passions our students have if we want to truly motivate them to learn.

2. Learning must go beyond what is needed for the test.  If we truly want to change our system, we must reduce the reliance on tests as the end goal and make MORE LEARNING the end goal.  When a student begins learning something, our goal should be for them to have a passion to learn more about it.  To do this, learning must have relevance, context, and meaning to the student doing the learning.  We tend to focus on the TEACHING process when we should be focused on the LEARNING process.

3. Are schools doing the right things, or the wrong things right?  We have focused on improving our current system for the past 100 years.  What if we have reached the maximum potential of the system as currently designed?  What if we were to put student learning at the forefront and design our schedules, buildings, technology, and other things around what works best for students?

4. We have students using tools that they will never use outside of the classroom.  What does that really prepare them for?  We need to become much more authentic in the tools that students use in our schools.

5. 'Routine' jobs are disappearing and 'Non-Routine' jobs are replacing them at a rapid pace.  Anything that can be automated using technology is heading that direction. To help students prepare, we must have them asking questions that are meaningful to them, solving real problems in their community, and trusting them to think on their own.

As educators, we must re-evaluate our current practices, structures, etc. to ensure that they are preparing students for THEIR future.  We must structure our time so that it serves students.  We must structure our buildings so that they serve students.  We must give some choice and freedom to students if we truly want them to own their education.  No longer is it good enough for students to sit in rows for 50 minutes and learn prescriptively from teachers.

Thank you to GOCSD (@GOCSDMO) and Will Richardson (@willrich45) for providing a space in which I could re-ignite some passions for innovation that serve students.