It is easy to talk about being an innovative school but it is harder to  take the  necessary  risks which allow you to truly be innovative.  I am lucky to be in a school that not only allows teachers to take those risks but encourages them to do so.  Last year, under the guidance of our principal Megan Brazil, the school implemented a new model for teacher development.  Using the idea of Google’s 20% time, teachers were encouraged to choose something we would like to inquire into for the year.  Similar to an action research project. We were expected to come up with a question that we could implement and study in our classroom and then spend the year collecting data in order to improve our classroom practice.

Once we chose our question, we were then grouped with teachers who had similar questions. These groups were called our personal inquiry communities or our PIC. We met with our PIC regularly throughout the year to  give feedback  and move each other forward.

Start of professional inquiry project. Excited abt our “I time” professional group. #unishanoiexcellentlearning pic.twitter.com/tapiWNsrzV

— Mindy Slaughter (@mjslaughter) November 25, 2015

My question was if I could increase differentiation by incorporating more constructionist learning opportunities into my classroom. In other words I wanted my classroom to be more personalized to my students needs by having my instruction be more “Maker” (learn through making). I implemented this through having a weekly Genius Hour/I-time in my class as well as incorporating “Maker” style learning activities into as many lessons as possible. The results I observed in my class were amazing. I will blog about those another time.

The reason this was not only successful in my class but sustainable for the school was that I got to work with a team of passionate teachers throughout the school. In this way we were able to build off of each others ideas. For example, I remember being stuck one week on how I could incorporate this into a UOI.  MY PIC group (Jenny, Michelle, Tianna and Claire)  sat with me and helped me problem solve until I had some useful ideas. Another example is when I had the opportunity to observe Claire Grady, my  PIC team member introduce Stanford’s Design Framework in her class. I then went back to my classroom and introduced it in a similar fashion.

Because our PIC group had teachers from grades 2,3,4 and 5. We also took the opportunity to map out how constructionism could be developed from grades 2-5.  We looked at how we would introduce different elements of design thinking at different ages and how we could develop that through using the PYP framework. In that way we were able to map out how Genius Hour, introduced in Grade 2 would lead up to the PYP Exhibition in Grade 5.

We grew even more excited and passionate as we shared our results with each other and saw the positive affects it had on our students.  We wanted to share this with the rest of the elementary staff so our group planned an Elementary Teacher Maker Play Date. We gave some background information about Making then we set up a variety of Making activities for teachers. It was awesome to watch the teachers reacting with the same type of excitement that kids have as they discover how to make a project. It was even more awesome to later hear stories about how they took ideas from this day back to their classroom.

An inspiring afternoon of teacher led PD. #unismakers pic.twitter.com/g7GSj1Jzhz

— Megan Brazil (@brazilmeg) April 14, 2016

At the end of the year I had the opportunity to learn from other PIC groups when we had our first Professional Learning Summit. During this, we got to hear presentations from our colleagues as they explained what they had been working on and what they discovered from their personal inquiries.  It was truly inspirational to hear presentations about subjects ranging from how to better track student data to how to create a more suitable learning environment through purposeful use of space. I walked away from the afternoon with new ideas and questions that changed my teaching practice.

Teachers teaching teachers – so exciting to be at the first Professional Learning Summit at UNIS Hanoi #unishanoiexcellentlearning

— Nitasha Chaudhuri (@Nitashac) June 8, 2016

Schools are full of passionate, talented teachers but too often we get stuck in our little classroom bubbles and we don’t have a chance to build on each other.  What a shame it is when we don’t have the opportunity to learn from each other.  Too often I have seen examples of schools that claim to be innovative but really the teachers are working on an island. For example, often schools brag about coding but when you scratch the surface you realize it is actually just one classroom teacher coding and no one else. The school has failed to give teachers the support they need to learn from each other. Coding in those situations never has a chance to catch on with the rest of the school and become embedded into the school’s culture because it only happens in pockets.

On the other hand.  When you do give teachers the time and support to pursue their passions and to learn from each other, amazing things happen.  That is true innovation.

I think we may have got that right yesterday #unismakers #unishanoiexcellentlearning
https://t.co/5NiXqosWgD

— Nitasha Chaudhuri (@Nitashac) April 15, 2016