Day 23

 Spring brings images of rebirth as fall embedded daffodil and tulip bulbs emerge from the once  frozen ground and decorate gardens with yellow, red and orange.  The green thumbed  gardeners get giddy with excitement as they prepare the soil and plot the plunking of plants  into purposefully chosen places.  Their vision of how the colours, shapes and sizes of each  intentionally selected plant will bloom throughout the coming seasons is perfectly timed, as if  orchestrated by a symphony conductor.  Visions of Fantasia just popped in my mind.  Like  many others, I have my favourite spring blooms, all of which come and go much too quickly, but none so quickly as the magnolia tree.  It was just a few days ago when I captured this tree, on my way into the education center, with my phone. Today as I left, the tree looked very different as the blooms have made way for the thick, lush leaves which will shortly provide shade.  It must be “spring fever” which led me to stop and capture this quote as I scrolled through Facebook today.

Innovation and best practices can be sown throughout an organization ~ but only when they fall on fertile ground.

As an organization we have been exploring innovation as a means to promote engagement among all of our learners.  What intrigues me about this quote is that the importance of best practice is also noted. At times I wonder if in our quest to embrace the latest, most innovative strategy, we forget, like those plants that need to be firmly secured in healthy soil, that any strategy needs to be grounded in good solid, evidence based pedagogy.

The second part of the quote reflects the concept that the culture that is created is paramount to any successful implementation. What makes the ground fertile in an organization?  I wonder, if like those dedicated gardeners who spend time preparing their soil, how much time we spend preparing and feeding our “soil”?  Do we encourage discourse?  Do we embrace idea germination at all levels of the organization? Do we celebrate failures as first attempts at learning?

When scrolling through quotes, what draws you to stop and reflect?

Come write with me…..