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I have some great news! My newest book Vintage Innovation is officially open to pre-order! I’m offering a free course for anyone who pre-orders it. Scroll to the bottom for more details.

This has been a labor of love over the last two years. I have interviewed hundreds of teachers, read all kinds of research, and spent time thinking deeply about this topic. Vintage Innovation is a big idea book. It doesn’t read like an instruction manual or a research tome. I don’t believe there is a recipe for innovation. My goal is to provide tools and share stories. This is why the book will also include access to a toolkit packed with lesson plans, templates, blueprints, and protocols that you can modify for your own environment. The following video is a short explanation of the big idea:




Vintage Innovation redefines innovation not as “new and flashy” but as “better and different.” It isn’t a rejection of new approaches or cutting-edge technology so much as an embrace of the old and the new. It’s the overlap of the “tried and true” and the “never tried.” It’s a mash-up of lo-fi tech and new tech. It’s the idea of finding relevance by looking back and looking forward. It’s a focus on timeless skills in new contexts. It’s the idea that innovation happens when teachers take a both/and approach as they empower their students in the present to prepare them for an uncertain future.

Teachers Are the Heart of Innovation

If you are a teacher, you are an innovator. You are the experimenter trying new strategies. You are the architect designing new learning opportunities. Apps change. Gadgets break. Technology grows obsolete. But one thing remains: teachers change the world. And one way to do this is through a vintage innovation approach. With vintage innovation, teachers ask:

  • How do I innovate when I don’t have the best technology?How can I use vintage tools, ideas, and approaches in new ways?
  • How can I use constraints to spark creativity?
  • How do I blend together the “tried and true” with the “never tried?”

I believe that teachers are at the heart of innovation and I simply want to share a few ideas to help along the way.

This book is highly visual as well. The following is a video preview I created for Instagram this morning. I’ve been doing a daily video on Instagram. If you’d like to follow me, I’m at spencereducation.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B63k9PWBQ6s/

Pre-Order the Book and Get the Course for FREE

Anyone who pre-orders will also have access to a self-paced professional development course (25 hours) consisting of 15 lessons complete with videos, resources you can customize, and exemplars. Simply fill out this form after purchasing the book and I’ll send you information next Monday when the course goes live. Again, it’s self-paced, which means there is no deadline on starting or finishing the course. If you run into any challenges with it, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

I’ll also be sharing the Vintage Innovation Toolbox next week. It’s packed with free resources and it’s accessible to anyone, regardless of whether or not you buy the book.

My hope is that you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it!

John Spencer

My goal is simple. I want to make something each day. Sometimes I make things. Sometimes I make a difference. On a good day, I get to do both.More about me

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