Steve Jobs famously said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Empowering Your Students Through Classroom Innovation will provide teachers and administrators the strategies, knowledge and skills required to use Innovation to transform their classroom and their students. Innovation is an essential skill that 21st century learners must develop for future success. In Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World author Suzie Boss describes how educators can harness innovation to foster students’ thinking and doing. We may provide as educators many innovative and effective strategies to advance student reforms, but until we address and understand the impact of school sociology on academic achievement, school reform will not succeed. The creative feature of this course is bringing together the framework for understanding poverty in today’s education and the social context that traps so many intelligent and capable students in a self-fulfilling dead-end. By combining these two aspects of poverty, teachers and administrators will have the skill and knowledge base to effectively challenge the barriers of impoverishment.

At the completion of this course, the learner will be able to:

• Understand why innovation is an essential skill for the 21st century learner success InTASC 2,3,5,6
• Develop innovative lessons by understanding your students interests InTASC 4,6,7,8
• Understand the process needed to develop innovative lesson plans InTASC 1,3,5
• Integrate Design Thinking throughout the curriculum. InTASC 2,5, 9,10
• Explore the diverse ways innovation can be implemented within standards based instruction. InTASC 1,3,9,10
• Assess your innovation profile to empower yourself and your students.InTASC 7,8,9,10
• Establish an innovative classroom that allows students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to flourish in the 21st century class. InTASC 1,2,3,7,8