We Have No Idea What We Are Doing

For some reason we thought it would be easier to move forward with this project now that we had some direction.  We were wrong.

Last week ended with us sitting down with Cindy Cosentino and Nicole Jarvis to talk about what innovation means and what it takes to create innovative people.  We used this conversation as an opportunity to write a draft script for what will eventually become our first video.  More than that, the conversation really anchored our own understanding of what we can accomplish with this project.  We feel like we are innovative, but why?  How is that reflected in our classrooms?  Cindy helped identify some traits that are common among innovative people and sparked some deeper thinking about the direction of this project.

So, armed with a script we approached this week with a lot of optimism.  “Of course we will have the first video done by the end of the week”, we thought.  We were wrong.

The mic was plugged into the box

Cindy joined us again on Tuesday to do some audio recording.  She was a great sport, especially when she saw our hacked together recording setup.  The equipment we’ve ordered hasn’t arrived yet, so we are doing our best.  We realized we needed to eliminate some outside noise from our environment (school band, ceiling fan, etc).  The best we could do on short notice was a cardboard box, some old t-shirts and lots of duct tape.  It worked pretty well, all things considered.  After an hour of tinkering we had a decent recording of Cindy reading the script we wrote last week.

After that, we took a trip down to New Street to sit in on a meeting of the Innovation and ICT Advisory Committee.  Jacquie Newton wanted us to share our thinking around the direction of this project and our goals.  We had spent some time over the long weekend putting together an outline of our thought process so far.  The presentation went well enough, but we really enjoyed the chance to connect with others in the board who are working on innovation too.

So, we’ve got the audio for our first video; we’ve pitched our ideas to the people who matter; we have the video for the case we want to make.  Now all we need to do is some quick editing and push play.  

We were wrong...again.  

Why can't I right click?

There is lots we don’t know and it’s safe to say we have no idea what we are doing.  The visions we have in our head keep bumping into the limitations we have with respect to our own knowledge.  Neither of us know how to do computer animations.  We have passing knowledge around video and audio editing.  At least one of us has never used a Mac before (Hint: it’s not Matt).

But, we keep pushing.  Growth mindset right?  Our to do list isn’t getting any smaller.  We have plans to start touring different schools to take pictures and videos of innovation in action.  We’ve already settled on the topic for our next video; so there is another script to write.  We are hoping to connect with the team behind HDSB TV to chat about how what we produce can be integrated with what the board has already established.  

Oh...and we both have classes to teach.  We better find some time for that too!