21st Century Innovation Blog

8/1/2012
Day 2 of the #140edu State of Now conference was inspirational! The first presenter, Steve Dembo @teach42, spoke about how transformations that can occur when a school system embraces change and become a trailblazer. Then Sandra Paul (@spaul6414) spoke about the challenges and triumphs of her school district in Sayreville, NJ as they implemented BYOD. Kate and Patty went to speak to her after her presentation to ask some specific questions about how her district is handling issues of equity. Then, the room fell silent as 13 year old LilJaxe haltingly tried to tell his story despite a severe stutter. He then stood up and rapped his story. Amazingly, he sang about how he learned to communicate through rapping because when he sings, he doesn’t stutter. He sang about his joy at finding a path to overcome his disability. (Watch him here: http://youtu.be/9d3B0A5bbys) He was a hard act to follow. Tom Krieglstein (@tomkrieglstein) next spoke about Dance Floor theory which is a theory about relationship dynamics. He related the connections that people make at a dance to relationships that must be made at school in order to defeat student apathy. There were many presentations that spoke of the power of social media in education reform. The inspirational Nathan Wong @Engaging_Edu spoke about how multidimensional learning can diversify our educational system. Josh Stumpenhorst @stumpteacher described Innovation Day at his school where students have one whole day to complete a project. Here are some samples of what his students accomplished:
• Writing and performing his own guitar solo
• Creating a model out of wood of the Sears Tower
• Writing her own historical fiction short story
• Creating a Rube Goldberg machine
• Designing and creating a replica suit of Roman Armor
• Creating a how-to tutorial on baking a cake
• Painting a still life on canvas of a nature scene
• Writing and performing a one-man comedy act
• Researching and presenting on the concentration camps of the Holocaust
• Creating a video highlight reel of basketball moves and plays

When we create the systems and structures for student empowerment, the only thing left to do is get out of the way.