“You have to have a big vision and take very small steps to get there. You have to be humble as you execute but visionary and gigantic in terms of your aspiration. In the Internet industry, it's not about grand innovation, it's about a lot of little innovations: every day, every week, every month, making something a little bit better.”
- - Jason Calacanis
Effective teachers are innovative teachers, reaching students on a more individualized basis. Mindful problem solving, brainstorming creative solutions, and purposefully applying techniques and strategies to help students is what I envision when I think of innovative teaching. When working with a diverse group of learners, creative methods of teaching must be used. Not every student learns the same, and it is our job to meet their varying needs. In order to be an innovative teacher, knowledge of students is the top priority. When we know our students on an individual basis, we can assess their needs and implement resourceful solutions.
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In my 3rd grade student teaching placement, I had the opportunity to work with 21 very unique students. One of them stood out to me from the very beginning. For our case study assignment, I immediately knew I wanted to work more one-on-one with him. He struggled academically, and I strongly believed that his struggles stemmed from behavioral issues that could be avoided with some individualized attention. All behavior serves some type of purpose: it is a form of communication. By keeping that notion at the forefront of my thoughts, I brainstormed ideas that I believed would work with this student. I combined my knowledge of evidence-based strategies, along with ideas from my mentor teacher and the dean of culture at my placement school to devise a plan to help my student reach his full potential. While not all ideas were completely successful, many strategies worked very well and improvement was seen. This students quarterly test scores improved significantly as a result of more personalized, innovative solutions to the problems he faced in the classroom.
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In my special education student teaching placement, one of my students has IEP goals in reading and comprehending nonfiction texts. Early in the school year when I began working with him, I noticed that he did not understand the various text features used in nonfiction text. I tried multiple different mini-lessons, activities, and interactive websites to introduce these features to this student. There was still a disconnect; there were about four or five text features that he was consistently confused with. I knew that I had to do something different. After thought-partnering and researching with my teaching partner, we came up with the idea that maybe we could try to make them about him. I decided to focus on the features that would be the highest leverage in helping him to understand nonfiction texts. After completing this, my student was able to name the text features, how they were used in a text, and why they are important to help comprehend the text. Not only was this activity fun for my student, it also allowed me to get to know him even better. Research shows that making learning personal for students allows them to better conceptualize what they are learning and remember it. I saw those results first hand with this assignment.
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