The SHIFT Blog

WI Dick Middle School in Milton is on an Innovation Journey .  Inside their school they had a large, open area called “The Mall” that was used for Quality Daily Fitness breaks.  Really, the space was being misused and ended up collecting large amounts of garbage throughout the day. As well, WI Dick Middle School had an aging Mac Lab that, while used, didn’t do much to promote creativity or collaboration among students.  The staff identified that they wanted to make improvements to how these learning spaces were utilized. Not to spoil anything, but they were more than successful! The Mall has since become an extended classroom that teachers can use for group work, combined classes or breakout space.  It has been furnished with flexible seating, whiteboards, a dedicated chromebook cart and other supplies to drive collaboration.  But really, the repurposing of The Mall was a side show compared to what we were about to witness in the old Mac Lab, now rebranded as the “Innovation La

Kate Power , Kelly Trdin, Charity Wilkinson and Daniel Lustrinelli are teachers at Dr Frank J. Hayden Secondary School.  They have been interested in creating cross-curricular moments with their students for some time. Recently, they were able to execute their plan.  This is their story. “Collaboration is not awesome.” Some variation of this comment is often heard by teachers of all grades and pathways, no matter the subject  matter. The fact is that collaboration often gets a bad rep. We’ve all seen the GIFs and memes about it, and the seemingly universal eye roll that teachers face when they announce that the next activity or project will be done in groups. Not necessarily because students do not like to work with each other, but because there is a concern about who they are working with and how the work will be divided. At the same time, it is not going away. Collaboration is an essential transferable skill which will be carried over in our proposed ‘revised learning

What would you do if you were asked to nurture a shared culture of innovation within the Halton District School Board?  Where would you start? Where would the journey take you? There are many challenges in this role.  How do you go about “being innovative” and create spaces and ways for teachers to “share more”?  It would be great to visit schools and classrooms more frequently as there are literally hundreds of amazing educators in our board doing hundreds of amazing things to innovate our classrooms.  We are trying our best to capture a shared culture through this blog, personal Twitter feeds, and The Innovation Gnome .  YET, there are hundreds of ‘on the ground’ stories left to be told by you. There have been many people who have helped along the way --  providing the framework to define “Innovation”, and inviting us into classrooms to chat or watch awesome learning unfold.  This support has been invaluable. How do you go about thanking so many people for such great thinking?