if you’re wondering did that really
happen the answer is yes
I love Doritos I could eat Doritos
anywhere and anytime in fact do you
recall your first experience with your
favorite food well I do I can distinctly
that remember the moment that I fell in
love with a magical taste of Doritos I
was 10 years old and my grandfather had
just given my sister and I a whole $1
bill each now one dollar might not
stretch that far these days but 25 years
ago at my corner store one dollar
literally meant ten gobstoppers eight
Laffy Taffy’s six bubble gum wraps at
least three lollipops and one ice
popsicle that’s right all of that candy
for only $1 and on one particular
occasion I was able to convince my
sister so let’s try this new Dorito
experience
needless to say hours later as we sat
laughing and giggling and slurping the
orange cheesy goodness of each finger we
knew that no other experience would
compare to that moment when I eat Dorito
I engage in a spectacular dynamic
sensational culinary experience the kind
of experience that was meticulously and
thoughtfully created by the innovators
of frito-lay
so of course gratify its consumers and
then hook us into coming back again and
again for this live boldly experience in
fact in the US the experience of eating
a Dorito is branded as a shock wave
because as you eat one you feel that
instant jolt of bold seasoning rush
through your whole body in Mexico the
experience of enjoying a Dorito is
likened to the question donde esta la
fiesta or where’s the party app because
there’s a rich celebration between the
crack
the currency of the chip the fusion of
spice and zesty goodness again under
each finger now and of course that
oh so enduring both breath smell that
you and I recall for long periods of
time after we’ve eaten the Dorito it’s
no surprise then that the Dorito was too
topped the top-selling tostada or
Tattaglia chip of 2016 in contrast to
this satisfying and exhilarating
experience that I connect with the
Dorito many of our students with
disabilities or if we use terminology
that that focuses on ability we may say
our students with exceptionalities our
students with varied abilities or our
students that receive special education
services these students don’t always
enjoy the experience of school that we
designed you see the experience of
school that we design can sometimes be
less than inclusive and engaging for
many of our learners and so even though
the rates of graduation as of late have
increased tremendously for our students
with exceptionalities when we look at
our suspension rates our attendance
rates and even a high school dropout
rates they’re still unacceptably high
and whether we agree on the full merit
of a high school diploma or not we can
agree that having one is a lot better
than not despite the favorable research
on inclusion and best practices from
successful inclusive school communities
many of our students with
exceptionalities are often excluded from
rigorous general education curriculum
with their peers are segregated or
confined in separate wings of a school
community or receive filter down
expectations which of course pushes our
students further and farther behind on
being ready for 21st century success
inclusive practices are based on this
mindset that all of our learners have
something meaningful to contribute to
our school community and thus we provide
the same rich learning opportunities so
that our students all learn and grow
the reality is many of our students with
exceptionalities are sitting outside of
the game in the stands waiting for their
opportunity to bring grand value to our
game but suppose we used courage to
disrupt that status quo of standards
drilling and multiple-choice killing and
reinvents it and and had an evolution of
thinking on what the school experience
should look sound and feel like for our
learners having an teaching high
standards is beneficial but thinking
that we have to reach the standards with
a prepackaged methodology or that our
students have to reach those standards
with uniformity can sometimes be
perilous and is what in many cases
creates that torturous experience that
many of our learners run from we have
lessons to learn about being courageous
and trying something radically new and
different from innovative fast-food
companies like Taco Bell in 2012
Taco Bell took that noteworthy
experience of my Dorito and rebranded or
redesigned that boring taco to create
this masterpiece of an experience known
as the Doritos locos taco aka the DLT
during the first year of production the
DLT sold more than 1 billion units
making it the most successful fast-food
innovation of all time in fact one Taco
Bell addict even drove 900 miles from
Toledo Ohio no no wait to neut from New
York to Toledo Ohio just for an early
taste of the DLT it is estimated that
the average customer comes back every 11
days for their next tex-mex experience
know our students are not a chip or
product they are so much more important
but we have lessons to learn about
designing and
it’s a meaningful experience an
experience that is rich and includes and
engages all of our learners you know the
kind of experience that you’re excited
to go to you crave it almost like school
attics
could you imagine creating a school at
it a student’s so excited for an early
taste of that Pythagorean theorem that
now Taco Bell’s success was not an
overnight victory by any means in fact
many of the first tasters absolutely
hated the product they complained about
the taste and the texture saying that it
wasn’t zesty enough like the Dorito or
crispy and crunchy enough like that Taco
Bell Taco they also wanted to get tons
of cheese dust on each and every finger
because of course that’s part of our
Dorito experience right we crave back
but that cheese was an engineering
challenge many times it was so
cumbersome to contain that they had to
shut down the factory because it posed
possible breathing hazards in addition
to the cheese dust Fiasco Taco Bell also
had the challenge of ensuring that
though it was crunchy like a chip it was
still bendable in a way that it wouldn’t
break during mass production and then
bulk shipment around the world despite
all of these obstacles Taco Bell was
able to design an experience that
gratified its consumers as educators we
know all too much about obstacles and
challenges but it’s that design
experience the experience of creating
that opportunity that all students want
to be a part of so the first thing Taco
Bell did in designing this new
experience of the DLT was they
identified their target and focus
audience every generation of consumers
has different expectations and different
preferences and as such you usually
undergo informed market research and you
do diligent product innovation
you make sure that you’re keeping afloat
of your customers preferences so that
you can of course customize and adapt
your product offerings to then ensure
that the brand stays relevant currently
we have some work to do in education
ensuring that our brand of education is
relevant and inclusive for our target
audience of generation Z aka the I
generation today relevant is constantly
being updated upgraded and refined as
such our generations years as we call
them are much better multitaskers
they’re able to process information much
faster than generations prior thanks to
our high tech communication and of
course our prolific use of social media
resources like snapchat and Facebook and
Twitter and it’s no surprise but many
members of our generation Z want to
become entrepreneurs so that’s right you
get to own a business you get to own a
business and you get to own a business
our future clientele of entrepreneurs no
longer use excuses like my dog ate my
homework or I’ve lost my homework
somewhere in my room instead we hear
excuses like I’ve lost my homework
somewhere on the cloud and I follow the
author on Twitter so let me get back to
you when I get some textual evidence and
I can cite for this essay right these
are those type of generations years that
we are privileged to work with with so
many advances in technology it’s
absolutely essential that we have a
growth mindset so that we use technology
in our teaching and learning process to
engage and create this enriching
experience so perhaps instead of
requiring every student to write that
five paragraph essay for every ela
standard or solve 15 math problems for
every math competency let’s provide our
target audience with authentic relevant
product opportunities that’s right
authentic relevant product opportunities
our world that we face is changing
we have diverse issues and complex
problems that we’ve never experienced
before so we can’t use 20th century
teaching methods to inspire 21st century
learners our goal in education is to
create changemakers and critical
thinkers that add value to our world
and so let’s courageously throw out that
traditional role like classroom
environments with the 30 minutes of
direct instruction and the
one-size-fits-all products and flip the
classroom so that our learners become
the dispensers of knowledge and they get
to create their own learning experiences
as 21st century digital leaders we do
well to ask not just is there an app for
that but is there an ARP for that
standard an authentic relevant product
opportunity in addition as we start to
create this learning experience that
invites and engages our learners we
should also think about how we infuse
our students interests and offer options
for choice for example my student MP who
I absolutely loved he hated school he
felt it was boring but he could tell you
everything you wanted to know about
every automobile he could tell you to
make the miles per gallon everything
under the hood but again he felt that
there was no relevance
he felt that how does this connect to
the real world how do I make meaning of
this information and so what we decided
to do as a 12th grade team is we use
this ARP approach to help him meet the
standards so in government there was an
assignment where students needed to
create a political party that would add
value and contribute meaningfully to
society MP chose to create the political
party known as the energy efficient fuel
party and this was 10 years ago by the
way so very amazing work and he
excitedly researched all of the hybrid
and fuel saving cars and then presented
it using a visual medium like an
infographic as a result of using this
ARP approach with MP not only did his
grades increase did he start to actually
enjoy school and see
relevance but he later enrolled in an
automotive tech school he later said
miss flakes at first I wasn’t interested
in school me and school we didn’t get
along but now I see it as a catalyst for
self empowerment and community change
and this is just one of many stories
that collectively as educators we share
the next thing
Taco Bell did in designing this
experience is they capitalized on the
expertise of their entire team so that
included food scientists their Taco Bell
workers are talking about customers even
their business marketers successful
inclusive school communities are
characterized by a strong commitment to
collaboration the willingness to take
chances be vulnerable trust one another
the good news is in education we are a
collective power of unity we have each
other as we design this experience that
engages all of our learners we have
power and are massive the creation of
designing this remarkable experience of
the DLT took over 40 design recipes
shouldn’t we go through an even more
robust process when we design our
learning experiences to include and
engage all of our learners we know that
the most dangerous phrase in our
profession is that’s how it’s always
been done and so whether you enjoy the
remarkable experience of my Dorito or
another food product I ask you to hold
on to that remarkable experience and use
it as we continue our conversations of
change in creating schools that work for
each and every one of our learners
together we can create a mouth-watering
deliciously relevant learning experience
that includes and engages and inspires
each and every one of our students thank
you you