I watched in fascination this Saturday as my 17 month old son climbed the stairs from the basement to the main floor. He’s blissfully unaware that our insanely steep stairs have been the undoing of more than one adult more sure footed than him, and possibly a mountain goat or two. Even if he knew, I suspect, he would have climbed those stairs because he wanted what was at the top: his mom. (Hey, he prefers mom to dad, but ego can handle it.) =)

My son, Matt, made me think of two of my colleagues at school. Our youth pastor, not really knowing what he was doing, filmed several students, cobbled the interviews together and showed them at one of our chapels. While it wasn’t an expert presentation, the kids loved seeing themselves on the screen and our youth pastor enjoyed the learning experience undetered by any errors he made.

One of our Grade 5 teachers is trying to get her students blogging. She’s navigating administration requirements, technical hurdles, and blogging companies that don’t respond to help requests, but she seems undiscouraged. She wants her students to have access to something new, cool, and educational. She is undeterred.

Innovative teaching requires a vision of what you want to accomplish and a dogged determination to reach the end goal. With that in place, you can learn to climb the stairs.