In the fall of 2012, our school district joined with a consortium of other schools throughout Ohio to bring about innovative classroom designs. This effort was facilitated by a team at the Tri-Rivers Educational Computer Association (TRECA), but the classroom design was solely our own. All teachers within our district were given the opportunity to submit proposals for their ideal classroom of the 21st Century. If chosen, the teacher/team would have their classroom funded, and they would be free to implement their designs. The classrooms were meant to inspire, engage, and transform the educational experience of students.

Our initial proposal was submitted to TRECA in September of 2012 and we were notified that we were finalists for the opportunity. One person from each team was chosen to visit a school in the nation that already employed successful “disruptive innovation” and Tammy joined six other educators from throughout the state on a trip to visit Carpe Diem school in Yuma, Arizona. Carpe Diem delivers a highly personalized instructional program to students in grades 6-12. Tammy could feel the student energy walking throughout the building and their assessment results proved that what they were doing worked. Tammy came back to Ohio to share the experience with Amy and together we started to plan.  We were asked to dream big and we did just that.

When you have two dreamers working side by side and not a realist between them, things can get out of hand quickly. The proposal needed to focus on three key components:  Personalization, Student Growth, and Engagement. We knew from our previously combined 25+ years in the classroom that we also wanted to incorporate sound pedagogical practices including station-rotation models, rich technology integration, flexible grouping, project-based learning, and multiple ways for students to demonstrate their understanding.  We thought we could do it all, and we thought we could do it all at the same time. After 13 drafts and over 100 hours of work, this dream became a reality and our submitted proposal was chosen for implementation.

This brings us back to our lesson learned.  We had our big dream. We knew where we wanted to go. We did not start small.  We welcomed our first group of students into the BLC in the fall of 2013.  Rather than allow ourselves time to gradually introduce components and develop the skill set needed to manage this new environment, we jumped right into every component of our design. We did many things well, and we did not do many things well.  We ended up often feeling frustrated, our students were frustrated, and our greatest allies, the parents, felt frustrated.

Time heals all wounds. We can now look back on the experience and recognize the tremendous growth opportunities that these initial struggles provided to us. Even though we did make it through, we encourage other educators who are making changes to their instructional design to start small. Focus on one thing at a time. At the end of the day, you will still get there, and you may end up with a few less gray hairs than we have (: