Marion County Educators Come Together November 7-9 to Develop Ideas for Innovative School Designs; Top Design to Receive $5,000
INDIANAPOLIS, IN, November 5, 2014 – Teachers, administrators, and school-based staff from across Marion County will gather on Friday, November 7, for the start of InnovatED, a weekend-long workshop focused on helping teachers connect and create innovative, effective school designs. Participants will be able to work as individuals or collaborate with others on their plans. Top designs will receive prizes of $3,000 and $5,000. The workshop, organized by Teach Plus in partnership with The Mind Trust, will be held November 7-9 at Vision Academy, 1751 E. Riverside Drive.
“I attended last year’s InnovatED looking to partner with other educators in developing sustainable solutions for our schools. I was able to do just that,” said Ronak Shah, a teacher at Tindley Preparatory Academy. The first InnovatED workshop brought together sixty-five educators to collaborate and create innovative strategies and models to help address specific classroom challenges.
Last year, the workshop focused on individual designs and models. This year, the emphasis is on overall school design. “Our hope is that the teachers will leave the workshop with an idea of a school design they can begin turning into a reality over the next several months,” said Caitlin Hannon, Executive Director of Teach Plus Indianapolis.
During the workshop, participants will be able share ideas on what makes a school successful. Coaches and local education experts will be available to help attendees think critically throughout the design process, and judges will give feedback and rate each design against a rigorous rubric focused on innovation, problem identification, and feasibility. The top school design chosen by a panel of judges will receive $5,000. The audience of participants will also be to vote on a school model design they like best. The team chosen by the audience will receive $3,000.
About Teach Plus
Teach Plus aims to improve outcomes for urban children by ensuring that a greater proportion of students have access to effective, experienced teachers. Teach Plus runs three programs designed to place teacher leaders at the center of reform: Teaching Policy Fellows, the Core Collaborative (C2), and T3: Turnaround Teacher Teams. The programs focus on demonstrably effective teachers who want to continue classroom teaching while also expanding their impact as leaders in their schools and in district, state and national policy. Since its inception in August 2009, Teach Plus has grown to a network of more than 19,000 solutions-oriented teachers in six major cities across the country. www.teachplus.org
