"Creativity is a renewable resource." - Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter- The Board of Education approved the following vision statement in 2015: "Our commitment to excellence and continued, purposeful innovation will make Weston Public Schools the standard in designing educational pathways and environments that cultivate empowered citizens of the global community." Consider creating a mechanism for stimulating "continued, purposeful innovation," such as with a center for innovation.
- Establish a center for innovation and global citizenship to promote and implement new ideas, fuel teacher professional development opportunities, and empower teachers and students to initiate new ideas consistent with the mission of the district.
- The center for innovation is envisioned as an online platform and social network, bringing together educators around common areas of interest, such as creativity, entrepreneurship, healthy learning environments, 21st century learning, etc. It may also have an on campus footprint as the concept evolves with input from stakeholders.
- The center for innovation and global citizenship is envisioned as a hub, bringing together students who would like to engage in local and global issues to have an impact on the world.
- Another goal of the center is to grow teacher leadership and build capacity to transfer skills to peers. By growing teacher leaders, we begin to move toward a flat organization, one in which more ideas emerge organically from the teacher ranks.
- Develop a district-wide focus on incorporating creativity into the learning process. Creativity is not limited to the arts; it's a life skill that can be incorporated in all disciplines to deepen learning. With a district focus on creativity, we would begin by deepening our teachers' understanding of the creative process and provide more opportunities for students to innovate, invent, and think differently about problems.
- Bring together creative minds from the local community to draw on their expertise and learn from their life stories in order to inform our curriculum.
Continuous Improvement: Purposeful Innovation & Leadership |
Creativity | College/University Example of Innovation Center | K-12 Example of Innovation Center | | |
| Sir Ken Robinson Video | Institute of Design at Stanford: Video: d.school bootcamp: The student experience
| Scarsdale Innovation Center: Web page | |
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| Biz Stone, Things a Little Bird Told me
| Milton Chen, Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools
| Video: Example Model of Growing Teacher Leadership |
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