What Do You Do With An Idea?

Kobi Yamada wrote, “It’s good to be able to see things differently” in his children’s book, “What do you do with an idea?” and that is just what the staff at Kadena Elementary School endeavors to do. Our teams of teachers work in tandem bringing divergent ideas together to benefit our students.  

At the beginning of the school year the administrative team read Yamada’s book to the staff and challenged them to continue to innovate. As a launching event, our staff enjoyed refreshments while selecting a lightbulb from our idea wall which was filled with one simple idea to incorporate into a lesson. These open-ended ideas included things like: go outside for a lesson, incorporate whole body movement in an activity, co-teach with a small group specialist, use a different form of praise, plan a vertical lesson with a grade level above or below yours and many more

.The character in Yamada’s story doesn’t immediately launch his new idea. At first, he is fearful of what others will think about the idea and whether or not it will be a success, so he tries to hide it. There is a psychological phenomenon known as the spotlight effect which many of us suffer from. It is the belief that one is being noticed more than they really are. This overestimation of observance can cause such anxiety that one ceases trying new things. Seneca, an ancient Roman stoic philosopher, put it this way, “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

Believing that nothing stops this fear more quickly than having a partner in your new idea, the second semester brought a refill to the lightbulb station. This time, the ideas all incorporated a resource from beyond the grade level neighborhood teams. School administrators, District ISSs, and even superintendents were randomly placed into the bulbs with differing areas of expertise to coach, co-teach, or collaborate in different ways to bring even more new ideas to our classrooms. Armed with a partnership to support implementation, new relationships were formed, and new ideas were discovered together.

DoDEA’s mission to Educate, Engage, and Empower each student to succeed in a dynamic world targets the fact that the human experience is constantly evolving. If we are to accomplish our mission, we must be vigilant in changing with our world to meet our student’s needs. At the end of Yamada’s story, we find out the answer to the title’s question, “I realized what you do with an idea…You change the world.”