Running Head: Reflection Paper on The Innovators Mindset

Reflection Paper on The Innovators Mindset

Josh Fuhrman
Educational Leadership 325: Instructional Technology
Professor Froehlich
April 27, 2016

Reflection Paper on The Innovators Mindset

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Reflection on The Innovators Mindset

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By Josh Fuhrman
One of the primary messages that I got from reading and reflecting on The Innovators
Mindset is that innovation is something that every educator should be concerned with and doing
all of the time. I believe this is because always thinking about how to present content to make
ourselves the best educators possible and to provide the optimum learning environment and
experience for our students is of utmost importance. I think doing this will keep our teaching
fresh for not only our students, but also ourselves. I will admit when I read the title of the book, I
thought it would be about the many forms of technology that could be used to enhance learning.
Boy, was I wrong about that! I believe Couros really wants us to think about and practice always
looking at things with a questioning mind. We should always be asking, is there a better way to
do this or how can we cover this content to make it meaningful to the students to keep them
engaged. I believe this would improve students learning, ability to think creatively and
critically and help us develop problem solvers. Being innovative does not mean that every
lesson needs to use technology, rather we should use the appropriate methods, which could
include technology.
One of the big takeaways that I am glad I gained from reading The Innovators Mindset is
to be asking myself, Do I want to be a student in my classroom? If as I am preparing a lesson,
I think that this will not engage or motivate the students, why would I continue to prepare to
present it this way? We can use a variety of strategies to help students learn. I believe that this
ties in well with looking at the intelligence styles of students as well as using differentiated
instruction. So I feel one of the important areas to look at and consider is not so much what I am
teaching, but how I am teaching it. I believe that teaching is as much an art form as a science.
We can use the intelligence or learning styles, know about developmental levels, but the how
one applies them in the classroom is just as important as knowing them. Therefore, to me this

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means, I will still have high standards and expect my students to do well on tests, assessments
and learning soft skills/social skills, but this is because they have been empowered to learn in
methods that work for them and were truly engaged and excited to learn. So my goal is that my
students learn, apply and analyze, not memorize for an exam.
I feel that another takeaway that I gained from reading this book is that although in my
teaching one of my goals is to have students be successful in my classes, another even bigger
goal it to prepare them to have all the skills necessary to be a functioning members of society.
This means that although doing well on a test or the letter grade earned may be what some see as
the ultimate goal, but it really isnt- the goal is teaching my students to be critical thinkers with
an open questioning mind who are always looking for ways to improve processes and products
around them. In essence, I believe that if I have done my part correctly, I will have created
innovative students who will succeed in the world.
An aha moment I had was when reading the introductory part of the first chapter in which
Couros described the Blockbuster video. This really made me stop and think. I actually wanted
to see the video and it made me think, many of the students I will teach will not even have heard
of Blockbuster. (Link to the YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TrPwOrf4sM )
What my takeaway from this was that change is part of life, and in our society now, not only is it
a fact of life, but seems to be happening quickly, things change overnight. So that means that I
need to continually look for ways to make my teaching and the educational experience I provide
my students the best it can be. Innovating is not something I do once, write it down and continue
to do the same thing for the next twenty years. That will not work, as my students, their needs,
knowledge, skills level

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and interests will be changing. I need to be asking myself is this the best way to teach this to
my students every time I will teach a topic. Changing how I do things is going to be a constant
part of my professional educator career.
Innovation is something that starts with me and my teaching. I feel that by role modeling
this for other instructors, they will see the benefits of using flexible and innovative ways to teach.
By seeing the students learning, engagement and enthusiasm for learning it will increase the
motivation and desires of other educators to look for new ways of doing things. I think it would
be wonderful if as a department, say the math department as that is my interest, all the teachers
would embrace the value of being innovative. As a team, we could look at the content and then
each work on coming up with innovative ways to teach a unit and then share this with others. It
would help us all be better educators.
Another takeaway that I had from Couross The Innovators Mindset is that when
teaching, I do not need to keep subjects or curriculum topics in their own little boxes. A project a
student is working on could involve not only their math skills and knowledge, but also their
interpersonal and relationship skills to work in a group project. They will use English and
grammar to develop a project to present their learning. I have learned that this means that a
project students are working on could work for my math class, their English class and maybe
other subjects. This opens the door to me to collaborate with really any teacher in the school to
design optimum learning experiences or ideas for the students to learn about. I believe this is of
benefit to the students because in life, we dont think Im doing math now or English now, we
use whatever skills we need to accomplish what we are working on. So this will be a valuable
life lesson for students.

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By using innovative methods, I feel I will foster creativity in my students. This is a

characteristic that will help them throughout their life. They will be able to look at whatever
they are working with from more than one viewpoint. I believe using innovation helps to
stimulate that out of the box thinking that is needed to improve processes or products.
I believe I need to embrace and utilize the characteristics of an innovator that Couros
presented in The Innovators Mindset. This will allow me to not only be an innovator, but to
encourage this kind of thinking in my students. These characteristics will be beneficial for both
my students and me. I believe I want to try to instill these characteristics into my students and
will explore how that could be implemented in my classrooms.
The first is being empathetic. I feel that to embody this characteristic, I will need to
really get to know each of my students. This includes what is important to them, how they learn,
or what obstacles could prevent them from learning. I believe that the time and effort to get to
know students is really a benefit in two ways. One benefit is that it helps to create learning
opportunities that are best for each student. The other is that it shows my students that I do care
about them and want the best for them. One way that I could help instill the quality of empathy
is to have students write a paper from the perspective of another person. One idea could be
something like you made a comment you thought was OK, but realize it was hurtful. Doing this
will help students learn they need to think about how others feel and how we need to be careful
about what we say. I could tie in people first language that was learned about in my students
with disabilities class.
The next characteristic is problem solving, which should be problem finding. The video
by Ewan McIntosh really made me think. I believe it is important to create students who not
only can solve problems, but also know what the question is that needs to be asked and solved.

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Using this will allow students the opportunity to find projects to work on that they are passionate
about. I feel this is important, because I know that when I think back to my high school classes,
the ones where I learned the most were ones that allowed us choices in what to do. I believe this
freedom to choose how to learn and demonstrate learning is important. I know that I am not the
best test taker, but I enjoy being able to develop a paper or a project to show what I have learned.
I find that I also have learned and retained more, as I was engaged and excited about what I was
doing as I felt that I could do it. I had ownership of my learning. I want to foster that I can do it
attitude in my students. One way to have students begin to see themselves as problem solvers or
finders is to have each one bring forth something that they think could be done better or a
problem in their life or from the community. This will get them thinking, is there a better way
to do this.
Risk-taking is the next characteristic. To me this means I need to be willing to try new
things. They may work, they may not, but either way we have learned something that can be
used to improve learning or how we work with the content the next time. A quote in the book
that stuck with me was, having the freedom to fail is important to innovation. But even more
important to the process are the traits of resiliency and grit (Couros, 2015 p.37). Letting
students learn that it is OK if things dont go as planned helps them to learn to look at things
from a new way to figure them out. We all are going to have some time in our lives when
something doesnt work, and I want my students to know that everything they do is a learning
opportunity. If it didnt work, it just gives us another chance to try to come up with a way to do
it that will be even better. I hope by modeling that taking a risk is OK will help students learn
this. The class could also do discussion or project on, you tried this- the results were not what

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you expected, now what? This will not only show them that trying new things is OK, but also to
reflect and become resilient, which are two more important characteristics.
If I want to be an innovator, I need to be connected with other educators to learn about
what they are doing. This would be using the characteristic of being networked. This means I
should not only be sharing with the teachers I work with, but share with others either through a
blog or Twitter. I also need to look at what others are doing. It goes back to the old saying two
heads are better than one. Having others to share ideas or thoughts with will help us all be more
innovative and better educators. I believe that this means that if I am looking for ways to be
innovative or learning opportunities for my students, I need to be willing to share what I have
successfully tried so that others can use it. After all, we all are working to develop the best
thinkers we can. Another way that I feel it is important to be networked is to develop a
connection to the parents. To let them know that how students are learning in my classroom may
be different than what they have seen before. In addition, parents could be a source of ideas or
inspiration for how to help students. For the student perspective, they could search out
information or groups related to topics of their interest to make connections. Even having
students working with various groups will help them learn to work together, share and network.
There could be a project where they go visit either in person or online with an expert in some
topic.
The next characteristic is that I need to be observant. I should be always looking for
ideas. I believe this means that at times, I may develop an idea, but at other times it may be the
student. I feel that if one truly is using innovation that at times, the teacher is a student and the
student is a teacher as we can all learn from each other. So I will be paying attention to my
students and what they are doing. For students who live in our fast paced world, I believe helping

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them to learn to slow down and really pay attention is important. It is often the attention to
details or what seems like small things that end up being a critical part of a process or project.
One idea I have is to have them try to solve a problem with the supplies we have in the room.
Another thought was to tell them that they need to pay attention to the environment, and whoever
spots the changes in the room decorations first gets a small prize, token, extra credit pointdepending on the class or situation.
The next characteristic is that I will need to allow students to be creators. I believe this
means that using differentiated instruction to allow a variety of ways to work with the material is
the best way to help students. Just memorizing facts is not effective and really isnt learning.
Students will remember about 10% of what they read, 20 % of what they hear, but 90% of what
they do. These statistics alone tell me that I need to have students active and involved in
learning. If I just talk to them and then have them read, it is neither learning nor a good use of
learning time. I believe that this may be a change in how classrooms the students have
experienced have been run, but I hope not. I hope that the students I have the opportunity to
teach have experienced active and innovative ways of learning before I have them. I really see
using differentiated instruction coming into play here. Letting students design and implement
their own learning experiences- and these will be active learning, not just reading a book or
watching a video is important.
The next characteristic is being resilient. I feel that helping students learn how to deal
with set-backs is important. How I believe I can role model this is being very open and
forthright with students. When we are trying something new, I will remind them that Im not
sure that we will have the result we expect, but we will all be learning along the way and it will
give us the opportunity to look at new ways of doing things. Im not sure where the quote came

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from, but I remember hearing my mother tell me that success is getting up one more time than
you fall down- and this is the attitude and mindset I want to role model and instill into my
students. It is OK to fail, it is just not OK to accept failure as the end result. A way I believe to
change students thinking on this is to create a place to display our we now have a new
opportunity to try this again ideas and projects and ban the word and idea of failure from my
classroom. I think that between using the display and activity under risk-taking I will be
instilling resiliency in my students.
The last characteristic is to be reflective. I feel this means that after teaching something, I
evaluate what went well, what didnt and what can be improved. I believe a good way to have
students learn the characteristic of reflection is to have them journal on their learning
experiences. Not only will this use distributive practice and have them revisit and review the
material, it may provide insights and takeaways that I may not have otherwise found, as I dont
have time to be with each student all the time.
Another takeaway that I got from the book is that children are normally curious, and as
they progress through schools as they are traditionally set up, this characteristic is lost. This is
not good. I believe we need to change this. We need to tap into and utilize that curiosity to
improve learning and our world. I believe keeping that sense of what if or how about is important
for optimum learning.
I would say that what I have learned from this book relates to everything that I plan to
teach and how I plan to learn. I need to continually be looking for ways to improve my teaching.
I still need to use all the information that gives me a solid educational foundation, like learning
styles, differentiated learning, types of intelligence, but look for ways to apply them that will
enhance the learning of the students I am currently teaching. I do not feel that I can select just

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one or two readings or activities, it relates to everything. I believe that my entire way of thinking,
looking and doing has been impacted by this book. I will always be thinking, is this the best for
this student and would I want to be a student in my class. I hope that with time, effort and
determination that the answer to both questions can and will be Yes!

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References

Couros, G. (2015). The Innovators Mindset. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
The Onion. (2008, May 12). Blockbuster Offers Glimpse Of Movie Renting Past (YouTube
video file). Retrieved 22 April 2016 from
v=3TrPwOrf4sM .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?