Fostering Innovation

It's not easy being a kid today. They face shifting curricula requirements, a strong focus on standardized test results, piles of homework, and a seemingly never-ending quest for achievement in everything from academics to sports. A recent documentary, Race to Nowhere delves into the rigors and risks of growing up in the 2010s.

I am a documenter, I have always been... maybe it is in my blood... ...from keeping diaries from an early age on, being the family letter writer, to taking pictures to document our lives, vacations, family and friends... even when it was tedious...

This past school year, Shelley Wright, a high school educator in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, made a number of big changes in her teaching practice. The class went paperless and used a Wiki, she incorporated project-based learning and collaboration into her lessons, she experimented with "vessays."

Tessa Harrington, a Kindergarten teacher at Lynnmour Elementary, recently explored a question she had about the design of her classroom... Her inquiry question was: Will adaptations to my classroom's physical space (desks/paint colour/chairs/book choices/tables/floor mats, etc.) help support a calm, safe, and reflective thinking culture? Here is her story...