Have an idea? You can do it!

Quite often, I have conversations with other teachers that start off with, "Sarah, I wish ..." or "I'd really like to try ..." or even "Do you think I could ..." I always feel a little spark in my heart and it brings a smile to my lips when I hear this. 

These conversations are really what gave me inspiration for my Google Innovator project. I spent 14 years in the classroom and often had these same thoughts. I was always lucky enough to have colleagues who would listen and bounce ideas around with me. I always had supportive administrators who allowed me to try out ideas. Now that I am in a tech integration role, my job is focused on supporting teachers and integrating technology in meaningful ways.

I want to focus on what I consider the most powerful part of my Innovator project today - the "Idea Investigation". I created "Innovation You Can Do" to be a comprehensive and flexible workflow to take an idea from spark to launch. Over the past month, I have used the Idea Investigation to give structure to several ideas. Three are ideas of mine and two are ideas others have shared with me that they want to work on.

Upon completion of the idea investigation, I see the foundation of my next steps. I see where I need, not just want, the project to go. And, I have a reference guide to this idea in the event that I cannot focus on this idea right now. I see how having it down on paper forces me to think through and solidify the idea. And yes, I have printed out the Idea Investigation and physically written it out - it makes it more real.

For one of the collaborative projects, I gave the Idea Investigation to the two people who suggested it. It was insightful to have all 3 of us fill this out and when we brought them together - the bones of it was the same, but we each had a slightly different perspective and a few different - but necessary requirements - came to light.

This isn't just something that works for me, this can work for you. I hope you take a look at it and try it out with an idea you have. I'm sharing this because I believe in sharing what works. I believe that too many great ideas won't make it beyond the spark phase because the creator don't know where to start. You can start here. You can start with this "Idea Investigation". You CAN do this.

Here is a link to the whole "Innovation You Can Do" workbook. You are welcome to use the entire workbook to guide a timeline, meetings with others as you work through your project, and reflections. If you only want the Idea Investigation, it's Slide 3. Feel free to print it out or keep it digitally.

And if you are looking to bounce ideas around, feel free to reach out! You can contact me through any number of my social channels.