As part of Lamar’s Digital Leading and Learning program, I was given the opportunity to develop an Innovation Plan that will have a positive impact on learning in my school. While this plan is still under development, please feel free to click and review the main components of my plan.
“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity- not as a threat.”
-Steve Jobs
Inspiration
After reading Blended: Using Disruptive Innovation to Improve Schools by Horn & Staker, I was inspired to find a way to allow my students to experience choice, voice, ownership, and authentic learning within the traditional school setting. This led to my desire to create an “Innovation Station”.
Research & Planning
After laying out my proposal for innovation, I needed to review the best practices to ensure that this approach would have a significant impact on learning in my school. This led to the following literature review.
You may read the review in full here.
Gathering Support- A “Call to Action”
Armed with the knowledge I gained from my review, I was ready to inspire others within my organization. In order for our Innovation Station to succeed, I would need the support of my principal and superintendent, as well as my coworkers. To highlight the need for change, I created the motivational video below. You may view my resources here.
Learning from Others
As I continued to work towards the implementation of my Innovation Project, I began to take a closer look at some of the holes/gaps in my original research. I completed additional research on global implementation initiatives, focusing on challenges, recommendations, and implications to consider. This research was on a much more global scale, and it provided me with further insight into the process of implementing both blended learning and maker spaces in my classroom. The summation of my findings resulted in a more detailed literature review, found here.
At the conclusion of the review of the literature, I discovered a need for increased professional development opportunities to truly make my Innovation Plan a success. However, in a time when school budgets are tight, I needed to make a case for increased professional development. This led to the creation of my Action Reseach Plan.
Action Research
The purpose of my Action Research Plan was to prove that providing professional development opportunities on blended learning to teachers would increase the use of blended learning in the Math classroom. As my school already has access to a program, I was curious to see if increased professional development would increase the use of the program and therefore increase blended learning.
My research sought to answer the question, “To what extent does Professional Development on Blended Learning increase the use of Blended Learning in the Elementary Math classroom?” With this question in mind, I outlined a plan for my research.
Click to read my Action Research Outline
The next step was to compile sources that supported the need for this research. This resulted in the following Literature Review.
Armed with what I’d learned through the Literature Review, I was ready to begin the four steps of Action Research: planning, acting, developing, and reflecting. The result was the formation of my Action Research Plan. You can access the full plan by clicking the link below.
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Implementation
The next step in the journey to make this space come to life was to create an outline that would showcase the process of implementation.
Click here to view my implementation plan!
To read more about my experience in creating this Innovation Plan, please check out my blog. Be sure to stop back regularly for updates on my progress!
Caleigh Heenan 