It started when George Couros realized an opportunity that he knew would further innovate education, it resulted in a book that combines the messages of both George Couros and Katie Novak. While both Katie and George have been learners and educators, their main thoughts have yet to be combined in one cohesive book.
George had been wanting to put out a book that was more focused on what teachers could do to innovate inside the box while in the classroom. He had been milling this idea over more and more and was pushed when a teacher at a conference where he was speaking shared that she wanted a book more focused on what she could do in her classroom to improve her routines. He recalled his first Amazon negative review, which he reflects upon in the first chapter of Innovate Inside the Box:
When I wrote The Innovator’s Mindset, it received enormous praise and a lot of positive reviews. It felt good to be validated and to know my message—my life’s work—resonated with educators around the world. Then I got my first negative review on Amazon:
‘I love the theory behind this and the examples of people doing it. However, I would have liked to read more practical ideas of implementing it with students.’
At first, I was upset. As is typical with educators (or humans, for that matter) we can hear ninety-nine compliments on our work, and then let two short sentences of criticism derail us. We (I’m pretty sure this isn’t just me) become fixated on the negative remark and try to justify our position and prove that the critic is wrong. I read that two-sentence review more than I would like to admit. Eventually, the more I read it, the more I started to agree with it and understand the person’s perspective. The book wasn’t meant solely for administrators and could definitely be applied to the classroom, but did I give enough examples for teachers to embody the “Innovator’s Mindset” in the classroom and give students the opportunity to embody this mindset in their own learning?
From there, with the comment from this teacher and the memory of his first negative Amazon review, George was off, similar to how he wrote The Innovator’s Mindset at his favorite Starbucks in just a few weeks, Innovate Inside the Box was created. This is a book that is not only written for educators and students, in reality, but it has also been created for all learners to help them take action on what they know and begin to solve challenges to make an impact.
The idea for the two to combine their messages started with a phone call after one chance meeting during a conference. Katie Novak promised to match George’s writing chapter for chapter. From conversations about empowering content to jokes about how to logistically show how the two authors would demonstrate who was writing which parts throughout the book, the two have created an academic-focused book that will help teachers “innovate inside the box.”