Innovation Fair: funding new learning ideas
In October of this school year, 20 groups of educators from across the District came together to make their pitches to the Innovation Grant “judges.” Each group made their case for the project they wanted to pursue, the strategic priorities it could deliver on, and for how much money they would need to cover the anticipated costs.
Each made the case for why that funding would help students learn in exciting new ways.
Every one of the groups got a portion of the $50,000 pot, allocated based on the pitch, the priority alignment and the need. The results have supported a wide range of innovative new learning opportunities: from comicstrip design software that helps social studies students turn lessons into political cartoons, to physical literacy funding that gets kids moving in their classes. The ideas put together by teachers and other educators has been inspiring.
We’re so excited about the projects educators took on this year, we’re inviting everyone to come and learn more about them.
We welcome everyone in the community to come join us for the 2022 Innovation Fair!
Where: New Westminster Secondary School, in the Grand Commons (just inside the main doors to the school)
When: Thursday June 2, from 4 to 5:30 pm
Drop in to learn more about the projects and how they’ve supported innovative learning opportunities in our schools!
And make sure not to miss what might be one of the most and least obvious projects on display: the new mobile, modular display units created by teachers Keith Randall and Amie Le Blanc (teachers in the first picture, above). These beautiful new displays will turn the glass classroom walls at NWSS into art gallery style experiences, they’ll host interactive exhibits in the Grand Commons, and they are already being booked by other departments to support visual engagement in their learning events (like for the recent literary festival, which you can read more about below). The new display units are beautifully designed and a great example of how the new school strives to make learning more visible!
Read about the “Between the Lines” NWSS Literary Festival, as was featured in The New West Record: a multidisciplinary celebration of literature’s many forms and faces, particularly focussed on amplifying voices which have not historically been centred in the literary community … supported in part from the Innovation Grants, of course.