Journey to Innovation
Gord Donaldson is the current principal at Maple Grove PS who is also currently trying to innovate his golf game to lower his handicap in between trips to hockey arenas and baseball diamonds with his kids. I had a moment recently to reflect on our school’s journey in innovation. As I pondered how we got to where we are, I never realized how far we have come in such a short period of time. When you think innovation, you sometimes think big, or quick. Our journey was neither. What it is, is impactful. It all started with a cool spring day in May of 2017 at the Country Heritage Barn. Knowing we needed something to “Shift”, but not sure what it was, we sent about 20 staff members. Did that make it more difficult to have 20 occasional teachers in the building in one day? Sure. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Of course, we learned that we need to move from “ya, but” to “yes, and”, but more importantly we learned that a journey to innovation requires risks. ...