Then and Now

Reflecting on my Innovation Plan, I realize just how much it has grown and changed over the last 11 months.  Join the Club: Beyond the Campus Walls started out as a plan to integrate project-based learning into our existing 4-H club program.  The first challenge was just getting the clubs back up and running again after last year's hiatus.  While I was unable to recruit anyone to take over the Garden Club, we did add Game Design, ESports, and Rock Band to our existing clubs: STEM, Cooking, Chess, and Sewing.  The next challenge was professional development.  I have to admit that my PL plan to train the club leaders in project-based learning has not come to pass, as there is simply no time in the schedule.  As a result, I have had to sneak the information in through informal conversations and club leader Google chats.  Luckily, my club leaders are of the same mind as I, so not a lot of formal training is needed.  Moving forward, as I hope to encourage the use of PBL in classroom environments, I will have to rethink the professional learning portion, which I am currently working on in 5318.  
Something interesting that happened this year is that the administration put 'club time' in the master schedule every Friday!  I was ecstatic and terrified, with good reason.  Now as the coordinator of what amounts to a school-wide genius hour, I have a broader audience to preach the gospel of my Innovation Plan to, but I am also placing 570 kids into clubs that rotate and change every 5-6 weeks based on interest levels while attempting to avoid the angry mob of teachers being asked* to lead a club.  
For me, the Six Sources of Influence has been such a game-changer.  I made myself a graphic and printed it out to hang in my office as a reminder that to affect change, I need to remember the basics.   I use it every time I begin planning a PLC or PD day, every time I go into a coaching session, and even with myself when faced with an assignment that I'm not crazy about: "How do I make myself love this? What resources do I need to be able to accomplish it?" 
The end of the ADL program will not mean the end of my Innovation Plan.  I will see it through to the end of the year, and then hand it off to one of the many dedicated and qualified folks that have been so integral in implementing the clubs this year, then go on to apply what I have learned in a new career - hopefully in Instructional Design!  


*I do ask, albeit sometimes with a heavy dose of guilt trip