As part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that all employees understand the core values that we believe are an important part of Anglophone North School District’s culture, we are dedicating a month to each of our six core values.  February is INNOVATION month.

Our core value for innovation says that: “we commit to working creatively, seeking a diversity of ideas and valuing innovative ideas.”

Innovation is all about tackling problems in the future that we don’t even know exist today.  It creates shifts that affect many aspects of our lives.  As a learning organization, we need to get to the heart of the pedagogy that will make innovation soar by pushing boundaries and redefining our important work. We need to constantly reflect on the importance of innovation and how it can move our system forward.  We also need to find ways to share the innovative ideas that are happening across the district.

Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to work with a Teacher Think Tank, made up of teachers from across the district, who brainstormed the key areas we need to focus on as we move our culture forward.  Through brainstorming and visioning activities, they selected “mobilizing educators as innovators” as the priority for creating change in our system.  Collaboration, real-world problem-based learning, and risk taking were identified as key drivers to helping us become more innovative in our work.  We look forward to working together to move our district forward in this area.

Each of you will be receiving a sticker in the next week or so that explains the innovation core value.  This can be placed in a prominent place so that you remember the importance of innovation and risk taking in your own day to day work. We look forward to hearing from you any ideas you have that might improve our efforts to encourage and support innovation in Anglophone North School District.