George Couros hopes to bring some innovations to classrooms

As a new school year begins, Seaford School District administrators said they want to engage students in more innovative ways.

On Aug. 30, faculty members packed into the high school auditorium for a special presentation by keynote speaker George Couros. Having spent more than two decades working in education as a teacher and administrator, Couros said his mission is to help schools find ways to aid their students’ growth and success.

“My goal is to help every child find a pathway to success that is meaningful to them.” Couros said.

Superintendent Dr. Adele Pecora and Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Dr. Sheena Jacob kicked off the event with a presentation on developing an innovator’s mindset. The presentation focused on what it means to be innovative, and how innovation in the classroom can lead to an engaging learning experience for children.

According to a study by the World Economic Forum, innovation is one of the top 10 work skills, while technology use and design take up two spots on the list. Dr. Pecora said an innovator’s mindset is a belief that abilities, intelligence and talents are developed so that they can lead to the creation of better ideas.

“Innovation is a way of thinking,” Dr. Pecora said. “It’s not a task.”

The goal was to explore how to get students to become learners and leaders to create a better present and future. For Dr. Pecora, this means providing teachers with tools to promote innovation in the classroom.

In addition to being a speaker, Couros is also an author. In 2015, Couros wrote the novel, “The Innovator’s Mindset: Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity,” which discusses how educators can provide better opportunities for learning. To have innovative students, their teachers need to be innovative as well, Couros said.

“The challenge that we have is how do we actually pack in the passions and the strengths of our kids,” Couros said, “but also expose them to things they might not know they’d be interested in?”

Throughout the presentation, Couros reflected on his experience as a student, parent and educator to present ideas that would challenge the way traditional classrooms teach. Despite being an author, Couros did not enjoy reading as a child. He was always assigned books in class that didn’t interest him, which turned him off from reading as enjoyment until years later. Looking back, Couros wondered if he would have been more likely to read if he was given the choice to read books that fit his passions, such as basketball.

“I walked out of school having the ability to read, I just didn’t want to ever do it again,” Couros said, “and is that what we actually do to a lot of our kids?”

Social media and, more recently, Artificial Intelligence has made it a challenge for teachers to keep children engaged in their learning. For Couros, embracing modern technology has created innovative opportunities to learn, but educators should look at how they use these technologies in their day-to-day lives before implementing them in the classroom.

“If you can see the value of it, make sure you transfer how you see the value to what your students do in class,” Couros said of technology.

Dr. Pecora expressed hope that the Seaford faculty would create an environment where students feel empowered to ask questions, seek answers, and build a better present and future for themselves.

“We want to instill in students the desire to learn,” Dr. Pecora said, “and that learning is not linear, that learning can take turns, and that you can grow your intelligence, and then be in a position where you feel empowered and you can take control of your life.”

For Dr. Pecora, the event was a wonderful kick-off to the start of the school year, and she is confident that the faculty will provide exemplary learning.

“I think this group of teachers will go forth and model behaviors that we want to see in our classrooms,” Dr. Pecora said of her staff, “and will provide wonderful opportunities for our children.”