The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros has definitely challenged me to push beyond my comfort zone. How can I expect my students to think creatively if I don't show them that I believe in taking risks myself? I'm not sure if that's really the big idea of the book, but right now, that's the idea that is moving me forward.
This summer I will be mentoring students from the high school where I teach as they learn how to do university-level research. I did some of this last summer as well, talking with 8 students weekly for about a half hour, listening to their progress, their struggles, their excitement. Each worked with a different lab on the University of Illinois campus, with the research ranging from nuclear decay to engine cooling to optics. Every student was challenged to understand topics beyond his or her learning, each developed a research question and tried to answer it. They all learned a bit about coding as well. This year I will be involved in the research, working 9-to-5 in a lab, investigating the power of small motors. I'm part of a three-person team consisting of two rising juniors and myself, with help from a graduate student mentor. I'm psyched!
Today we were asked think about goals for ourselves during the six weeks of work, in anticipation of helping our mentees write goals on Monday when we really start up. Here's what I wrote.
✭ Although my mentees will need a fair amount of guidance in terms of the research to be done in the beginning, I hope to foster an environment where they are suggesting steps to be taken within the research. I would like them to feel comfortable communicating their ideas and their concerns — if either is uncomfortable with what they are being asked to do or how the work is proceeding, I want them to be willing to reflect on this and act.
I will reflect daily (hopefully) on each mentee's progress and on my own progress.
I plan to keep a journal/blog.
✭ Since I haven't done actual research in decades, I hope to develop a system of keeping track of my research and a record of the techniques that I learn. I am looking to learn applications of the concepts I teach in my physics classes. I'm also going to play around with blogging since I've never tried it, even though I've had students use it to document projects. That's kind of a theme with me — I have no problem having students do something in my class that I am fairly clueless about. I've learned a lot from them.
I will record my research and report on the skills and techniques I learn within a journal/blog.
✭ Because I know no more about the research than my mentees, I am looking forward to learning with these students, rather than being the expert. I hope to develop or learn techniques for encouraging students to pursue their own research questions, rather than always feeling that I need to be in control. I would like to build the lab experiences in my physics classes the same way throughout the school year, where I might take more of a lead role in the beginning but then I need to become comfortable with relinquishing that role to become more of a guide.
I will reflect daily on my own progress within my journal/blog. If halfway through, I am still
trying to run the show, then I need to take a hard look at what I need to change.
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P.S. — Found it funny that when I was choosing an address for this blog, I kept typing in ideas that someone else had already taken like TakeARisk.blogspot.com, ChangeCanBeAmazing.blogspot.com and about ten others. I haven't decided yet if it's good that so many others think the way I do, or if I'm really slow in getting here and all the good names have been taken.
