True But Useless

I've been wrestling with the Steven Johnson video about "where good ideas come from" all week. I watched his TED talk, found here, and rewatched his "innovation" video. I've also had some conversations with colleagues about innovation, as well as some of the technology content (and lack of time to teach it). The thing that has started to come into focus is that the notion of "not enough time" or "lack of time" is true but useless. It is true that we have a finite amount of time. It is also true that the abundance of standards makes teaching each one thoroughly a virtual impossible.

All of that is useless to me though. I am not going to invent an extra hour. The likelihood that I am going to become vastly more efficient is slightly unlikely, although some gains are to be expected (with practice comes some success). Instead I need to change my mindset. I know kids need to have conversations, as well as share their work with peers. Those things take time, and I wouldn't say that I found that time to be worthwhile previously. I thought that sharing a powerpoint or photostory was cute, but non-essential. There just isn't enough time to make that happen! Or is there?

Instead of worrying about time (that is useless! and even more time-consuming), I opted to place a focus on presenting our work and providing feedback. We had a hard and fast deadline for presenting our explorer presentations. They were due on Tuesday, and I had kids that needed additional time due to their own pacing, etc, stay in to work on them during their recess times. Once we started presenting, kids wanted to stay in to finish (there were only a handful of them). I placed an emphasis on all that wanted to present could, and those that opted out had the option of opting in later on if they wanted to. We were going to provide feedback that was positive and constructive, with an email going to each presenter with that feedback.

What happened? Kids became hypermotivated. There were some who wanted to be involved right off the bat. Others less so, but many jumped at the chance after seeing a few of their peers. Others wanted to go back and edit to improve their work after seeing the work of their peers. I would say that 90% of kids wanted to present their work. The feedback provided was largely helpful, usually specific, and aimed at the student work. My fear was that they would present and it wouldn't be useful for anyone. Instead it turned into an opportunity. This was the first step in a much larger process of slowing down and placing an added value on the peer conversations that will help lead us forward.