In order for us to successfully design and implement transformational innovations in education, we have to be willing (and able) to think differently.  What we really need is some ultra-creative brainstorming!  We need ideas for how we can move the educational process forward, taking those ideas and integrating them into our overall process for utilizing an action research approach to collect a variety of data in order to make well-informed data-driven decisions...and move our profession forward.

What I’m referring to is not just “thinking outside the box.”  I think that term has become overused, and it just doesn’t have meaning anymore.  Just think -- if we’re all thinking outside the box, is anyonereally outside the box anymore??

I love the old APPLE marketing campaign from the ‘80s (okay, so I’m dating myself!).  In that video, the narrator talks about the “crazy ones,” “rebels,” and “misfits,” and how those individuals thought differently.  They weren’t afraid of what others thought of their ideas, because...they believed in themselves.  Where would we be today if those individuals hadn’t shared and acted on their different, but very forward-thinking, ideas??

Pull out some chart paper, grab your dry erase markers...nothing is “off the table.”  We can’t be afraid to throw out ideas, no matter how “different” they seem at the outset.  You never know what may develop from an idea that you might have been previously hesitant, or even afraid, to offer.  

Now more than ever, we need some “crazy ones,” some “rebels,” and a few “misfits” -- educators who are willing to not only think outside the box, but perhaps live outside the box (!) and give us their ideas for transforming the work of educating our nation’s children.  

As always, I welcome comments, thoughts, and feedback!!

To be continued...

Twitter:  @lynnedudean

Below are links to individual entries in my complete blog series on Transformational Innovation in Education:

OVERVIEW OF THE SERIES  (Watch the video podcast here)

PART 1:  The Need for Transformational Innovation in Education  (Watch the video podcasthere)

PART 2:  Data-Driven Educational Decision Making and Action Research  (Watch the video podcast here)

PART 3:  Using Varieties of Data  (Watch the video podcast here)

PART 4:  Thinking Different(ly) in Education  (Watch the video podcast here)

PART 5:  Professional Collaboration (Watch the video podcast here)

PART 6:  Professional Reflection (Watch the video podcast here)

PART 7:  Putting it all together…and being wrong? (Watch the video podcast here)

 

Here are additional blog entries:

A Tale of Two Classes:  Thinking Differently (Watch the video podcast here)