My colleagues that were part of my focus group were the Art and Math teachers, both with over 15 years of teaching experience. After meeting with my colleagues I realized that the two most important components that I problematized in phase 4 was assessment and curriculum was solved by creating an innovation station in the group of stations that students rotated into. However due the instructional minutes and the increase of accountable assessments mandated was competing with my class time and implementation of my project. The result of meeting with my colleagues was to include guided learning groups with one of the station’s main focus on creating a “Make Something” station to provide less interference with curriculum. The art teacher suggested that asking students to create wearable technology was limiting their creative thinking and maybe I should consider just allowing them to create something that does something. As the math teacher suggested I would have to limit my interactions at the “Make Something Station”. This would take place while I conducted small guided instructional groups at my table. Refocusing on using every minute of instruction to be more student centered was one of the biggest solutions that I received from my colleague. I also had to rethink how I would use students in my class being collaborative partners. As long as my students are progressing through learning standards then I would have additional time to have open lab periods with all students working on innovative projects as a group. The end result of the colleague focus group was to abandon everyone making wearable technology to just simply making something that does something. Also instead of limiting the project to just a few days create a center that is only focused on students working on their Imagine It Projects. Meeting with my student focus group provided me with a more open approach to allowing them to be more creative when designing their own projects. Some students were not excited about wearable technology because they were thinking about drones, robots, etc. not gadgets. I shared my Imagine-It video with them and some of the students didn’t even know who “The Jetsons” were that was the feature of my video So I had to show them a short video clip. They were very excited to move forward with the challenge. They told me that they wanted more class time even after school if necessary to work on projects. They also expressed how much they enjoyed the robot cardboard challenge. The cardboard challenge was implemented as a preliminary component to build students capacity to be innovative. So after meeting with student focus group the overarching take away was to allow them more flexibility and time with their projects.
