What to do with Design Thinking & Teacher Learning #rebelu16

Rebel U is so much more than just a gathering of teachers sharing cool tools they are using in their classrooms.  Although that is a part of it, the collaboration, conversations, experimenting, community, and much more are also critical components of the day.  Each year we are grateful that we are given a full day to work with teachers and administrators, so we work hard to make sure that are day is design with not only our end users in mind, but also making sure that it is aligned with district goals.  We try to make sure this is a seamless integration, where sometimes you aren't sure where the learning ends and the implementation begins!

This year, our Tech Team partnered with the Teaching, Learning, and Accountability Department in our district to align Rebel U to our district focus of Human Centered Design.  Our Team is by no means an expert in this area, so we were ready to learn all we could about the concept and how this translates to the technology that is being utilized by our teachers and students.  In a nutshell, we are all designers and the approach we take can follow an uniform process, but the end results could be very different and personalized.

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This year at Rebel U, we opened with our very own Carol Lautenbach, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning, and Accountability, with an introduction to design thinking.  She shared a document with our teachers that to help them think beyond the content to the reason, the essence, and the purpose of what is being learned—the WHY and WHO.  This was demonstrated through a quick activity about cell phones that helped demonstrate the WHY and WHO of design thinking.

At the end of the day, teachers were asked to separate themselves into one of five groups that they would like to explore further.  In exploration of this group, we were asking them how they could connect the ideas, tools, and resources they learned about during the day and use them to enhance communications and relationships.  Below is a breakdown of the number of teachers and the relationships they chose to explore further.
In addition to the focus group, we asked them how they would incorporate an element of the 5Cs into the process (bringing the higher-level thinking!).  The purpose in asking this question was to really think deeper about the relationship that is being explored.
When you take those two tidbits of information collected and combine them together, you get a nice looking chart that allows you to see the relationships and 5C focus for the district as a whole.  It is easy to see that the majority of our staff would like to focus on the teacher to student relationship, with largely a creative focus.  This makes us excited because of the potential for risk-taking, student exploration, and learning opportunities that might grow out of this activity. What is interesting about this snapshot is that you can clearly see the focus areas defined by our teachers that are important and will help improve not only the teaching process, but also build relationships within our community.  Where we go from this point is in the hands our teachers, students, imaginations, and so much more!