The piece originally appeared on the CityBridge Foundation’s blog as a welcome to the 2016 Education Innovation Fellows.Â
To the 2016 class of Education Innovation Fellows,
I’m going to assume that you applied for this fellowship because you’re not 100% happy with the way education is currently run and delivered in our country’s public school system. You’re in good company—I’ve met few educators who are wholly satisfied with it.
I’m also going to assume that you see some amount of promise and potential in technology and individualization as a lever to drive student achievement and teacher effectiveness/satisfaction. You’re in growing company there!
This fellowship was a life-changing experience for me.
Honestly. I have a feeling of restlessness around the learning I see happening at my school that keeps me up at night. I can’t stop looking at other schools, reading about innovation, and asking neat people for informational interviews. I have a sense of drive, an optimism, and an absolute obligation that was little more than a vague thought when I first applied for the fellowship.
So, with that, I have a few tips for you to get the most out of the fellowship: