Crossing the Threshold and changing everything by Cathy O'Flaherty

Crossing the Threshold and changing everything

  Although I'm a veteran teacher, this school year I'll teach 9th grade English for the first time during a traditional school year.  I've taught brief stints in summer school, and I've taught 7th grade for the past 13 years. So, I'm going to change everything I do this year. Well--not everything.  Along with a change in content,  I am redesigning and re-thinking my instructional approaches and the way I ask students to embrace literature and language. I want them to think, read, and write about the world around them--the world it's my job to help prepare them for.  I want them to question their own world-view and be open to the views of others.  I hope students will be more imaginative, creative, problem-solvers who apply their learning in meaningful ways in the classroom, in our school, and in our city.   It is a necessary challenge--a risk and yet, risk-worthy. I believe the integration of Design Thinking will help me accomplish these goals.

As they leave our high school and enter the new global economy, it is likely that our students will be drawn into work environments that will  require them to be part of collaborative, interdisciplinary teams seeking creative outcomes and making new things that were not there before. Imagination and creativity will be valued in their future endeavors, particularly when paired with critical thinking.  It's amazing how quickly our city and the world is changing around us, which means the students we currently see in high school are going to enter a very different economy and world--one of innovation.  Training them to think critically within the parameters of this world view must be  part of their educational experience.

This past summer I participated in an AutoDesk fellowship in which myself and others spent three weeks learning about design thinking and how to start growing our own mindsets to include this type of thinking.  At first I was very nervous to participate.  I'm an English teacher after all.  But as I researched design thinking in the classroom, I realized that integrating it into my instructional practice would broaden the scope of teaching and learning that happens in my classroom.

So, here I go.  I'm going to cross the innovation threshold and incorporate design thinking as a foundational curriculum tool in my classroom.  In case you think I've forgotten that I'm an ELA teacher, I'm starting the year off with having kids solve a problem they see existing in our school. This sustained, interdisciplinary research project (Including a self-generated question), is an integral part of the 9th grade, Massachusetts English Standards.  Additionally, students will have to provide a presentation and a piece of persuasive writing to support their research and share their results. Again, all part of the 9th grade State Standards.  So, all of this work will be rigorously grounded in ELA Standards.

I'm going to try and write about this journey as I take it.  And,  I'll welcome feedback.  If you are already doing this type of instruction in your own classroom--especially if you are teaching a Humanities-based subject,  I hope you'll consider getting in touch with me because I'd love to hear from you.