Innovation, like it used to be

Today was a huge day in 3^rd grade: our colonial Living Wax Museum. My students set up their exhibits, dressed in costume, and shared the knowledge they had gathered over the past few weeks. Their parents, fellow students, and teachers traveled through the museum for an hour, listening to the 5 cent facts, 25 cent stories, and $1.00 speeches they had prepared. The gunsmiths, blacksmiths, silversmiths, and glassblowers worked at their forges. The apothecaries offered to cure visitors with leeches and nostrums. The printer published news, the wheelwright built a wheel, the candlemakers dipped candles, and the weaver wove with wool. George and Martha Washington and a runaway slave told tales about their lives. The wigmakers and milliners sold their wares. Today was huge in 3^rd grade.

I chose to wear these

striking spiral earrings today. They are not like any other pair that I own. They are simple—probably like those worn by ancient people. But from my modern perspective, they offer a novel approach to a familiar aim. Pierced earrings made from a single wire? What an innovation!

That’s what I suggested to my students today. Think in new ways. Use your imagination. Make old ways seem like innovation!