"I want to be more innovative, but I don't have time!" Each year, it seems as though the position of school leader becomes more complex. Whether it is being a leader in the classroom, school, or district, the challenge of creating dynamic and relevant learning environments that engage our students, teachers, administrators, and school communities grows continuously with the unending changes that are taking place in the world outside of our schools each day. However, as an influx of new funding to education is unlikely, and there are only 24 hours in the day, how is it possible for us to find the time and money to be innovative? The concept of ‘frugal innovation’ encourages leaders to ‘think inside of the box’: to acknowledge and embrace the obstacles that cause us to lose sight of the vision that we have for our students, schools and districts. By utilizing a frugally innovative approach to the expertise and resources that currently exist within our organizations and communities, we can exponentially grow our innovative capacity through the process of co-developing the learning experiences that we want for our student (and adult!) learners at every level. In this interactive presentation, participants will leave with tools to generate urgency, develop think tanks, design compelling questions, co-create interactive tasks, and catalyze an innovative culture that they can use to generate solutions to the issues that arise in their own learning situations. All while ‘thinking inside of the box’!
