My Innovator’s Mindset Journey

This is part one of two blog posts.

During the spring of 2017, my colleague and office mate, Chris, walked into our office holding The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros. Chris shared that the school and district leaders would be reading and discussing it before the beginning of the following school year.

I remember reading the back of the book and thought it sounded interesting and reasoned that if ideas came out of this book for our leaders, I would be better equipped to understand possible changes if I read it too.

I was also looking for something different. It had been a tough year, professionally and personally for me, and I wasn’t sure what the future, let alone my career, held for me. I was in my 12th year of teaching and felt stuck. So I got myself a copy. It couldn’t hurt, right?

What I never expected was the way it would shift my thinking and change the routine I had fallen into.

My huge takeaway from it was to get into classrooms EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Why? Because it would help make me a better teacher. In the book, Couros shared a conversation he had with one of his former administrators after he himself first became an administrator saying:

“She told me that her role in administration had helped her become a better educator because she now had the opportunity to see great teachers teach all of the time…I quickly learned that the best way to become a better educator is to have access to other teachers.”

page 172

In another part of the book, he describes taking his laptop into classrooms just to be a part of the system and see what was going on. He could answer emails when he needed to, but he would be present and see the teaching and the connections.

And it made so much sense to me. I finished the book just in time for the start of the following school year and vowed to make it into at least one classroom every day and I did until about March. And then it wasn’t everyday, but most days.

But everyone noticed a change. My principal shared comments teachers were making about activities we had developed together and new strategies I was trying, like the collaboration cycles I was offering as a way to work on technology goals.

Quick conversations with teachers when I saw something in class or an idea struck me, moved to longer conversations in my office after school asking how to implement.

Students, even, started to know my name and call me by it, rather than just “Hey Tech Lady”.

Before reading the book, it was easy for me to create activities and projects, talk with teachers about upcoming units, and develop professional development sessions. But when I made getting into classrooms a priority, I became more present in my work.

Now, almost three years later, the relationships I built then have become some of the strongest of my entire teaching career.

But the biggest improvement for me was, not only that I was welcomed into these classrooms, but I felt like I belonged there. The imposter syndrome that I had carried from day one as a teacher had finally evaporated.

Everything I read in this book, the strategies and beliefs about innovation, I had already believed, otherwise I wouldn’t have found myself in the role of Instructional Technology coach; it reaffirmed what I knew and perhaps had not been brave enough to let myself trust. It forced me to go back to the basics and start again.

So when our Innovation Grant Committee (a grant we had received from the state) decided the entire school would read the book this current school year as a book study, I was ecstatic and immediately raised my hand to facilitate.

What we came up with was three online cohorts, allowing teachers to choose what time of the year to participate and give them many choices to show their learning and connect with others in the building.

In my next blog post, I’ll share my thoughts from reading the book a second time and what it was like to meet the author. Stay tuned!