It is currently Innovation Week at the SRSS. It started on Tuesday, October 18 and is running until Wednesday, October 26. 

During Innovation Week, every teacher gets their class for the whole day instead of just one hour. 

Vice-Principal of SRSS, Lawney Penner, says dedicating a whole day to one class allows teachers to get creative with their lessons.  

"The purpose for Innovation Week is to give our kids a learning experience that is greater than an hour long. This allows each teacher one time a semester to create a learning activity that lasts the whole day.” 

There are hundreds of different lessons that the teachers have created for this week. 

Some of these involve leaving the school campus, allowing the kids to learn outside of the classroom. 

This year, some of the students are going to places like FortWhyte Alive, Camp Manitou, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Keystone Cinema, and Cloud 9 Ranch.  

"I know of a math class that's going to an escape room in town. I know some of them are going up to the water tower,” he says. “So there are many different places where they'll go there and create lessons that fit their curriculum and subject matter.” 

Penner says that having all of the field trips during the same week helps prevent scheduling issues. 

“We don't have teachers wanting to go on field trips throughout the semester and interrupting other classes when they take their kids out for their one period,” he says. “So now it's designated for that one class, and they're not interrupting other classes.” 

Teachers can plan whatever they want. Some teachers are using some of the same lessons they did three years ago, while other teachers have come up with new learning experiences. 

Penner says the teachers have done a great job of getting back into Innovation Week. The last time the SRSS held Innovation Week was in the fall of 2019. 

Organizing plans and permission slips for 1900 students all at once can be difficult, but it’s a task they will happily continue to do. 

“We definitely have to dust off the cobwebs a little bit. But our teachers are super imaginative, super creative, and they've come up with a lot of great learning experiences.”