An Innovators Mind is like a Taffy Maker

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As I read the article The Mindset of an Innovator I wondered to myself what does the mind of an innovator look like?  Initially I envisioned the workings of Einstein and Newton.  I shifted and imagined St. Mother Theresa working in Kalkota, India?

Then I thought maybe the mind of an innovator looks like many of us learners’ minds.  We who are putting our brains through an education process that looks like a taffy making machine.  That to me is innovation, the stretching and pulling on ideas and concepts until something new is made, the mind of an innovator!

George Couros shares a few things in the article that will stick with me in the years to come, maybe you will benefit as well?

“I will utilize the tools that are available to me today and I will continue to search for new and better ways to continuously grow, develop and share my thinking, while creating and connecting my learning.

I focus not only on where I can improve, but where I am already strong, and I look to develop those strengths in myself and in others.”  His words sum up all I want to do with the rest of my life, that is to share information while growing in creative ways.”

I was digitally introduced via a blog post to

Will Richardson a man who embraces change.  Mr. Richardson says that maybe if we unlearn 10 things in   http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/the-steep-unlearning-curve/ we can embrace new practices and find comfort in the unknown. These are his words below;

“So, with that brief introduction, here are 10 things that I think we need to unlearn:

We need to unlearn the idea that we are the sole content experts in the classroom, because we can now connect our kids to people who know far more than we do about the material we’re teaching.

We need to unlearn the premise that we know more than our kids, because in many cases, they can now be our teachers as well.

We need to unlearn the idea that learning itself is an event. In this day and age, it is a continual process.

We need to unlearn the strategy that collaborative work inside the classroom is enough and understand that cooperating with students from around the globe can teach relevant and powerful negotiation and team-building skills.

We need to unlearn the idea that every student needs to learn the same content when really what they need to learn is how to self-direct their own learning.

We need to unlearn the notion that our students don’t need to see and understand how we ourselves learn.

We need to unlearn our fear of putting ourselves and our students “out there” for we’ve proven we can do it in safe, relevant and effective ways.

We need to unlearn the practice that teaches all students at the same pace. Is it any wonder why so many of our students love to play online games where they move forward at their own pace?

We need to unlearn the idea that we can teach our students to be literate in this world by continually blocking and filtering access to the sites and experiences they need our help to navigate.

We need to unlearn the premise that real change can happen just by rethinking what happens inside the school walls and understand that education is now a community undertaking on many different levels.”

As I reflect on the digital era we live in and know that the world is our modern-day classroom I know that this past semester my innovated learning as come from religions, teachers, history and nature and yes, I have learned from children.

Innovation in learning is building ideas, starting over, unplugging, plugging in reading, doing and most importantly questioning others.

This semester I have unlearned having to fit myself into the the box of teaching in a brick and motor classroom .  I have learned to express myself with dignity and passion in the  digital era.  I have learned to use online tools to strengthen my approaches and I have learned to bring my fear along with me on my education journey rather than allow fear to rule.

I don’t think I will ever learn all there is to learning, but I have learned to pace myself and live in the moment. When I live virtually with my students in the future I will use Canva, Twitter, WordPress, and Prezi to help them grow as lifelong learners.

I was asked a question form my instructor, “Where will you go from here?” My answer is, “I will grow forward as my ideas and concepts are stretched”.