Simply stated, Design Thinking is a process to introduce students to “How might we…,” thinking with the goal of answering designing challenges with a focus on real-world challenges and opportunities. Teachers, as the center of the teaching and learning cycle, are working hard every day in Colorado’s classrooms to implement the Colorado Department of Education’s 21st Century Skills, including critical thinking, information and communication literacy, collaboration, self-direction, and innovation. To that end, in Estes Park Schools and Estes Thrives, we believe Design Thinking is the key leverage point to support teachers and students in implementing 21st Century Skills in all our classrooms. In the beginning, implementing Design Thinking requires …show more content…
I have just found 10,000 ways that don‘t work.” Through the 21st Century Skill of self-direction, the Estes teachers experienced making design choices, adapting models, and taking pride in their work in the prototyping process. Simply stated, the room filled with laughter and joy. Estes Park Elementary teacher Barb Ayres told the group, “Adults can benefit from design thinking through professional collaboration.” With little-to-no direction, the teachers co-labored, the 21st Century Skill of collaboration, to build multiple prototypes and worked as a team on the self-discovery journey where there were no right or no wrong answers. Estes Park Elementary teacher Karen Lasota summed it up, “I learned it’s OK to be wrong in front of your students.” While teachers often report in today’s accountability systems, they are afraid to fail or be wrong, especially, in an environment of high-stakes testing. Design Thinking can help educators develop what is called, “a bias toward action,” allowing good ideas to grow from every corner of the classroom, with an emphasis on tangible outcomes. In the professional learning in Estes Park, as the other design challenge, teachers utilized the 21st Century Skill of critical thinking to redesign the commonplace wallet. Furthermore, throughout the design process, teams used both the 21st Century Skills of collaboration to brainstorm ideas and information and communication to synthesize data and create prototype