InnovateK12 Newsletter: June 11, 2019
Planning for a New Year
Kristin Daniels, InnovateK12 Executive Director

The spring ran away from us so we're making up for missed newsletters by stuffing this one full to the margins! Whether you are new to InnovateK12, or have a year or two of crowd-based innovation behind you, we hope you find something in this issue to get you excited about innovation in your school or district for next year. The possibilities are endless and the cohort resources and inspiration are rich!
Don't miss these highlights (and more) in this newsletter!
For our InnovateK12 Friends
Check out the second Sandbox Challenge. This simple demo challenge will give you hands on experience with Spigit and will run from June 14 - July 19.

Consider attending the K12 Innovation Summit in Minneapolis on July 15-16.

Want to test the innovation waters but not ready to jump in? Join the 19-20 Explorer Group! Exploring district/school leaders will receive specialized content throughout the 2019-2020 school year and will have access to our InnovateK12 Idea Hub.
For 2019-2020 Cohort Members
Member Highlight - Nicole Snedden, Minnetonka's Innovation Coordinator, led her team to redesign their 2018-2019 innovation event to better align with human-centered design.

Your event site is coming! Fill out the innovation event customization form so that we can have your district/school site ready by the summit!

Our innovation leader friends share great information in our InnovateK12 Webinar Series. Check out our new videos!
InnovateK12 Cohort Updates
As we look back on the 2018-2019 school year, it is so much fun to compile the stats for the 23 crowd-based innovation events that were run this past year. This is not perfect data but gives you a good idea of the power of the network! Enjoy!
Top Voted Ideas
As participants vote on ideas, the "up-vote" percentage is calculated by taking the number of times an idea was voted on divided by the number of time the idea was presented. Congratulations! to participants who submitted an idea that really resonated with their voting colleagues!

Upper Arlington Schools (OH), 83.37%, In School Suspension
Mason City Schools Students (OH), 83.03%, Get an A, Take Finals Away
Eden Prairie Schools (MN), 80.23%, PLAY! Get Outside
Alexandria Public Schools (MN), 79.46%, Electives Excite!
White Bear Lake Area Schools (MN), 79.20%, Recess Makes Kids Smarter
Note: Three of the eight top voted ideas had to do with getting kids outside to play!

Ideas with the Most Comments
A crowd-based platform works best when users are active and engaged with the ideas that have been submitted. One of the best ways to measure hot ideas is to look at the number of comments generated around an idea. Whether it's an inspiring idea or a pain point for employees, comments can reveal additional information about how users feel about the underlying problem. Congratulations! for getting participants engaged through commenting!

South Washington County (MN), 37 comments, Electronically Submit Printing
Pike County Schools (GA), 33 comments, Dollars and "Sense"
Pike County Schools (GA), 29 comments, Health, Heart and Hoops
Pike County Schools (GA), 29 comments, Vitamin D for PC
Pike County Schools (GA), 27 comments, Mentoring/Modeling/Molding

Top Voted Opportunities (Strategic Planning)
Minnetonka's redesigned event (r ead the Cohort Member Highlight below! ) allowed participants to vote on "How might we...?" questions, essentially giving them the chance to vote on the problems or opportunities that they feel should be top priority. In our end of year reporting, we discovered that these received higher up-vote percentages than any ideas, indicating the greatest consensus among our cohort came from voting on what problems or opportunities should be addressed. Congratulations! , Minnetonka Public Schools, for always rethinking and redesigning how we innovate in education!

How Might We...?

...explore alternative therapeutic options to help meet the
needs of students with anxiety or depression? 100.00%

...provide our low-income students with the resources needed
to participate in after school sports teams? 96.63%

...build more time in the school day to provide extra
support for the students who need it? 86.52%

...best support fellow staff members who are dealing
with a significant illness or hardship? 85.39%

...store and organize student data so that it is more
readily usable to teachers on a regular basis? 84.27%

Highest Voting Engagement
Ultimately, it is the voting between two ideas that helps districts/schools identify top ideas and opportunities within their district/school. With a huge number of possible voting combinations, participants often wonder, "When will I know I am done?" Congratulations! to the districts who have the highest number of average votes per active user.

Saint Peter Public Schools (MN), 192 votes / active user
Pine Island Public Schools (MN), 187 votes / active user
Cambridge-Isanti Schools (MN), 184 votes / active user
Pike County Schools (GA), 173 votes / active user
Waconia Public Schools (MN), 169 votes / active user

Highest Participant Engagement
Once a user is registered on the event platform, the goal is to get them engaged and participating throughout the event. Event engagement is calculated by taking the number of active users (users who are submitting ideas, commenting or voting) and dividing by the number of registered users. Congratulations! to the districts who got their staff engaged in the process, encouraging them to submit an idea, comment and vote!

Pike County Schools (GA), 241/277, 87%
Mason City Schools Students (OH), 961/1126, 85%
Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools (MN), 393/474, 83%
Upper Arlington Schools (OH), 117/146, 80%
Fort Thomas Independent Schools (KY), 134/170, 79%
Note: Mason City Schools Students was a student event! Way to go!
We look forward to utilizing the rich data features of the Spigit software next year. If you have any ideas for the type of data you would like to see, send Kristin an email!
InnovateK12 Leadership Awards
 We will be announcing our very first InnovateK12 Leadership Awards at our summit in July. Award winners will be selected based on criteria that aligns with our ideals and best practices in Cohort Collaboration, Event Engagement, and Sharing the Journey.
Cohort Member Highlight, Nicole Snedden

MInnetonka Public Schools has been building a culture of innovation through crowd-based idea events and human centered design workshops for nine years. This year, we acknowledge and applaud the work of Nicole Snedden, Minnetonka Innovation Coordinator, as she guided the Minnetonka innovation team to redesign their innovation process to better align with human-centered design and begin with empathy . This work was developed over the 2017-2018 school year and incorporated feedback from staff. Be sure to catch Nicole at the K12 Innovation Summit and ask her more about it! Until then, read all about Minnetonka's innovation work in their 2018-2019 Innovation Yearbook .
Looking Ahead to Next Year
2019-2020 Cohort Reminders

  • Check out our member map! Our cohort is growing! We are watching carefully for cohort members who are geographically close to one another so that we can start to form regional InnovateK12 cohorts for meetings and training opportunities!

  • Let us know if you have a neighboring district/school who might be interested in joining our 19-20 Explorer Group. Exploring districts/schools will receive specialized content throughout the 2019-2020 school year and will have access to our InnovateK12 Idea Hub. Email Eric if you are interested or have questions.

  • We are ready to build your innovation event sites! Our goal is to have them built so that you can access them at the summit! Click here to begin.

  • We will be reaching out to set up a conference call with you before the summit in July. This is critical for Year 1 districts/schools and optional for Year 2 and 3 districts/schools.

  • Summit Registrations are coming in! It is great to see the teams from all over the country coming to the summit! Alexandria Public Schools (MN), Cambridge-Isanti Schools (MN), East Central School District (MN), Fort Thomas Independent Schools (KY), High Desert Education Service District (OR), Hill-Murray School (MN), Indian Prairie School District (IL), Maranatha Christian Academy (MN), Mason City School District (OH), Minnetonka Schools (MN), Pike County Schools (GA), Saint Peter Public Schools (MN), Saline Area Schools (MI), Sitka School District (AK), South View Middle School (MN), Stillwater (MN), Upper Arlington Schools (OH), Waseca Public Schools (MN), White Bear Lake Schools (MN)
Share your updates by tagging
us at @innovatek12
InnovateK12 Summer Sandbox Challenge
STARTING June 14th!
Our first InnovateK12 demo challenge was such a great success so we are going to run another challenge from June 14th through July 19th! This will be especially helpful to those of you unable to join us at the summit. Join us!
Phase 1 - Ideation and Collaboration
opens Friday, June 14th at 5:00am CDT

In this phase, participants may submit ideas, edit ideas, comment and vote (thumbs up). Participants are encouraged to explore the user profile features, including skills and interests.


Phase 2 - Pairwise Voting
opens Tuesday, July 16th at 5:00am CDT
(During the 2019 K12 Innovation Summit!)

The Sandbox Challenge will transition to Pairwise Voting on the second day of our K12 Innovation Summit! In this phase, participants may use Pairwise to vote on the top ideas.


Sandbox Challenge Ends
Friday, July 19th at 12:30pm CDT

The Sandbox Challenge will close and voting will no longer be available. Top ideas will be announced via email and all participants will get an event report sent to them via email.
InnovateK12 Webinar Series
Check it out! We have recorded two webinars with partners in the field of education innovation. Our goal is to keep our webinars short (20-30 minutes) and information rich!
with Stephanie Rogen

As member districts engage in InnovateK12 strategies for building a culture of innovation and move through our structured approach to capture ideas from frontline staff, they naturally begin to see how the InnovateK12 platform can elevate strategic planning efforts and implementation of strategic initiatives. Innovation emerges as a strategy to support future planning. To this end, InnovateK12 will be hosting a conversation at the 2019 K12 Innovation Summit inspired by Stephanie Rogen’s book Creating Schools that Thrive: A Blueprint for Strategy. (25:36)
with Amanda Kopischke and Angela Anderson

In this webinar, Amanda Kopischke and Angela Anderson talk about Incubate to Innovate and the opportunities they have created for educators to understand how innovation design thinking can impact students in the classroom. One of the programs they have created is the ChangeMakers for Impact program, a collaborative and integrated approach to solving problems and creating opportunities together. (27:37)
Thank you to our K12 Innovation Summit Sponsors!
Meet Rebecca Reynolds!
Rebecca is our Summit Event Coordinator. She will be handling team registrations, hotel accommodations, presenter needs and conference details! ď»żDon’t forget to book your room at the Minneapolis Airport Marriott!

Questions about registration or event logistics? Contact Rebecca !
19-20 Explorer Group at the Summit!
Do you want to test out the innovation waters but are not ready to jump in? Join our 19-20 Explorers Group at the K12 Innovation Summit. As an explorer, you will receive specialized content throughout the 2019-2020 school year and will have access to our InnovateK12 Idea Hub. Email Eric if you are interested or have questions.
A shout out to all of our K12 Innovation Summit sponsors, especially our newest sponsors Incubate to Innovate and ThinkCERCA .