In your comment you really hit on the essential, organic nature of teaching in response to students’ changing needs in ever-changing times. Innovation should be our practice. We should innovate to reach each kid. Radical differentiation is 1:1 innovation. I work at a public charter school where it’s our mission to innovate teaching and learning to reach non-traditional learners (while passing state tests). Every day unfolds as a series of hypotheses that undergo ceaseless revision as kids react to us educators and our plans, and as we react to students, their lives, and their work – including their successes with it and resistance to it.

It strikes me that there’s a widening gap between charters that have “the answers” and charters that continue to ask questions about teaching and learning. I think any teacher should be wary of the former and unafraid to adopt the culture of the latter. It worries me that the data-driven culture of reigning ed policy promotes one flavor of charter over all the others.

I’m curious about what your small-scale dream project would be. I hope that if an opportunity to pursue it pops up, you’ll let us know. I’ve written before about the possibility of using summer school as an innovation incubator – as a charter or lab school for every division. While I know how important summer can be to revitalize teachers, I hope that some teachers will use the flexibility in summer school to try new approaches and share out what they learn.

Thank you so much for commenting!
C

It really reminds me of something that Christensen wrote about in Disrupting Class. He talked about how public schools should embrace charter schools as hotbeds for innovation and argued that if public schools created pockets of innovation—which would likely only attract a small handful of teachers and students at first—-they could test new practices and strategies which could eventually translate across entire districts.

Sadly, public schools often see charter schools as the enemy, though!

I’d love to be a part of small innovative projects, though. They might not resonate with all teachers or parents, but they are certainly right for people like me—and they could result in a real spirit of experimentation that schools are definitely lacking in today’s day and age.

Had fun thinking about this….Thanks!
Bill