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i2: Innovative Innovators! (UPDATES) Who should seek out becoming an Innovative Innovator? Career educators, researchers, and scholars who have no background or experience in innovation, entrepreneurship, or cagebusting. What is the secret to i2? The simple two-step process to innovating innovation: (1) Innovate! (2) Technology! Why is there a need for i2? Soon, once all the innovators, entre-/edu-preneurs, and cagebusters revolutionize education, there will be millions of educators out of work, and once all the innovation, entre-/edu-preneurship, and cagebusting become the status quo, there will be a market for reforming the reform, innovating the innovation! UPDATE 1 i2 is excited to announce its first book under contract: I Know Why the Cagebusting Bird Sings, by Mya Profitmargin This is the inspiring memoir of a 28-year veteran teacher who was fired and replaced by a TFA recruit. Mya has documented her recent venture as a cagebusting consultant for cagebusters caught inside the cagebusting cage. Mya explains the moment she realized her potential as an innovative innovator: I was out of work, after teaching in a high-poverty elementary school for almost three decades. And I found myself helping my nieces and nephews with their personal finances. I decided that I had been spending and managing my own money for decades, and what I was telling my nieces and nephews really seemed to help so I decided why not video these tips and make them available for free! That was when I recognized I am an innovative innovator! UPDATE 2 i2 is in production with FR:ED Talks! FR:ED (Fix Reform: Educators Digitized!) Talks! are a series of recorded talks by Innovative Innovators in front of live audiences. What can you expect from FR:ED Talks!? UPDATE 3 Here is an excerpt Q&A with i2 Innovative Innovator Andrew (Drew) Mess and his first client Hal Breyers: Q: Thank you both, Andrew and Hal, for agreeing to share your story with i2� A: That's (Drew), by the way� Q: Sorry, of course, (Drew) and Hal. Now let�s start with how each of you came to i2: Innovative Innovators. (Drew)? A: Well, most people think I became an Innovative Innovator when I decided to go by the diminutive of my name, but used the end of the name, and not the beginning. But the real moment for me was after 23 years in education, I was let go and my school was replaced by a charter school and my position was filled by three TFA recruits the first year. [(Drew) later clarified that the TFA recruits were in a row since the first two each quit before the year ended.] I had gotten an undergraduate degree in special education, taught 23 years, and during that time had both worked full time in the classroom and successfully completed a Masters and then doctorate, both in education. While I was sitting at home the beginning of the next year without a job in teaching, I had time to reflect on how all those years of experience and studying had actually kept me from being an effective educator. But I still felt the urge to help people, so when I saw the call for i2, I realized that all those innovators, entrepreneurs, and cagebusters were trapped as I had been. Who better to help them break free of the status quo than me? Q: Hal, when did you realize your innovative methods themselves needed innovation? A: I have an undergraduate degree in accounting and an MBA, but I decided years ago my role was to tell educators how to innovate education--usually by recommending the newest technologies. When I saw (Drew)'s FR:ED Talk! I was blown away. I had never thought about how I myself had been caught in the innovation rut. If the key to education reform is outside the box thinking coming from people who have no experience or expertise in education, then the logical next step is to seek out people with no experience in innovation, entrepreneurship, and cagebusting to tell innovators, entrepreneurs, and cagebusters how to themselves think outside their boxes, break through their cages. (Drew)'s message resonated with me as someone who has made his career telling other people how to do their career. UPDATE 4 In the coming weeks, i2 will be launching Innovate For the United States (iFUS)! Elite graduates from the top colleges of education will be competing for slots in this exciting program that will place iFUS recruits in high-poverty urban areas of the U.S. in order to engage with the influx of innovators, entrepreneurs, and cagebusters targeting education reform. iFUS recruits will carry the message of innovating innovators throughout cities across the U.S. already devastated by natural disasters, a failing economy, and the new critical mass of non-residents working to transform communities without being invited to do so. Some of the first initiatives will seeks ways in which iFUS can help TFA recruits who are mired in the status quo of teaching without experience or certification. CEO of iFUS will be Stormy Rokk, who can be contacted at stormy.rokk@megalomania.org. More details to follow! UPDATE 5 Meet our new recruit for i2, Ms. Cook: * For information on i2, email i2@megalomania.org (c) 2013 i2 is the trademark of Megalomania Ventures, LLC
— P. L. Thomas |
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