This post first appeared on Edutopia.

Agile development refers to an iterative and highly collaborative approach to creating a product. In comparison, an agile classroom is an environment in which your students are motivated to do their best work and feel invested in the class as a whole. Before I started teaching at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, I was a developer at a startup. We see our own teaching though the lens of our unique experiences, so here are some of the things I learned as an entrepreneur back then that make me a better teacher now.

• Have a Vision
• Be Agile and Nimble
• Use Professional Tools
• Create an Idea Factory
• Know Your People

Agile development refers to an iterative and highly collaborative approach to creating a product. In comparison, an agile classroom is an environment in which your students are motivated to do their best work and feel invested in the class as a whole. Before I started teaching at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, I was a developer at a startup. We see our own teaching though the lens of our unique experiences, so here are some of the things I learned as an entrepreneur back then that make me a better teacher now.

Have a Vision

There is a tremendous amount of power that comes from a group whose members are all striving toward the same goal and vision, communicated from the top, a goal and vision guiding the team members’ daily decisions. Does your classroom have a vision? What is your mission statement? In my classroom, our goal is:

Create a self-sustaining community that reinforces trust between individuals and rewards pro-social behavior.

I make sure that I communicate this from the first day of class, and I ask my students to measure whatever they do in class against our shared mission. Will what they’re about to do reinforce trust between class members? Is it pro-social? Students should strive to achieve our shared goal in whatever they do.

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