Teaching Creativity

by | Apr 17, 2011 | Reflect

Can you teach someone to be creative?  Creativity isn’t something you can buy, something you can force, or even something you can order on ebay.  It’s not about planning lesson objectives, it’s about providing opportunities.   Creativity happens when you have the right set of circumstances in a learning environment.  I’ve started with five things I think are necessary to support creativity in learning.

1.) Provide choices. It’s easy to ask kids to write a paragraph, or create a Prezi on this topic, but why not let them go crazy?  As long as they are discovering the hidden secrets of a plan for hydroponics on a new planet or exploring the features of a ship that increase buoyancy while they build their own boat, they are learning.  Let them choose how to report it, how to organize it, and how to explain it.  Choice says, create a plan, and go for it.

2.) Keep Junk. Sure, your co-workers might nominate you to appear on an episode of Hoarders, but the more cardboard, plastic, string, and paper scraps you acquire the better.  Ever watch a kid try to solve a problem with a piece of yarn?  Junk inspires.  Throw in a roll of masking tape and they might even discover the secrets to stop global warming.  Masking tape? I don’t know why, but kids consume it…lots of it… when they create.

3.) Let them move.  Can you be creative sitting in rows?  Maybe?  Think of those wiggly kids who lay on the floor while they take notes or like to sit under a table while they build a pyramid out of sugar cubes.  Does it matter where they sit?  Not one bit, really.   Where do you like to sit when you write, draw, lesson plan?   I love to do all of those things, but rarely in my desk chair at my desk.

4.) Support questions.  You work hard on your plans, we all do.  Are you prepared to have a kid take the lesson in a direction you had never planned?  Once they really get creative, they’ll want to drive their car off the road and pave new ways.  Do you let them? As long at they are learning and reaching the goal, it shouldn’t matter so much how they get there.  Let them go.

5.) Embrace the Chaos.  Tables covered?  Stuff on the floor? Kids chatting?  Listen to what they are chatting about.  If they are learning and growing, in whatever topic being explored, embrace it.  Every mess, no matter how big, can be cleaned up.   Trust me, I’ve seen some ginormous messes in my classroom.  But, I always love to point out Exhibit A: Einstein’s Desk.

I know one thing for sure, take ALL creativity out of an assignment, and watch what happens.  Engagement levels fall.  Kids go through the motions.  Kids do what they need to do so they can finish.  Creativity is not just for the art room.  Creativity is for every classroom. Every kid.  Every day.

How Did You End Up Here?

by | Apr 9, 2011 | Reflect

Do you ever feel like you are right in the middle of teaching “the year that changed everything?”  It might be that ONE group of students.  It might be those amazing co-workers, kids, parents,  or administrators that you work with.   But what about when that year is centered around change and turning points?  It might be the year where you re-evaluate everything.  It might be the moment you ask yourself, holy cow, how did I end up here?

People tell stories about how they played school as a child and teaching was ” in their blood.”  I can’t say that.  I wanted to be a doctor all of my life.  I went to college and volunteered at a local school while I studied Chemistry, Biology, and all things pre-med.  That school I volunteered at?  Those kids were awesome.  They were so awesome that I changed my major and never looked back.  I think it was the creativity that drew me in.  I never could say no to crayons, construction paper, and kids.   More than ten years later, kids are still awesome.   I ended up back in my hometown, teaching the very program I had once attended as a kid.  Talk about full circle.  The strange thing is that even though many years have passed, that circle has allowed me to really “get” my job in a way  I cannot explain.  So now, I don’t stop.  I’m right back where I started, but always searching for more.  Go to space camp. Study photography. Study technology. Get your doctorate.  I can’t tell my students to reach for their goals if I am not reaching for mine.  Telling kids to do something isn’t really powerful.  Showing them by how you live your own life?  Well, that’s what this is all about.

So, earlier this week, I sat in class and had to answer the question: “How did you end up here?”  I couldn’t answer it.  I honestly didn’t know.  Why? How?  I just said, in all honesty, I have no idea how I’ve ended up here.  I just know that there is no place I’d rather be.

 

 

 

Embrace Failure

by | Apr 1, 2011 | Reflect

Failure.  The little word that says so much. In the classroom it can be an end to a lesson  or it can be a beginning.  Failure breeds problem solving.  It sparks creativity. It creates a need for innovation.  It’s a chance for a student to say, “What happened here?” and more importantly “How can I change this to improve it?”  When I went through my undergrad classes, I was trained to create lessons that were “anti-struggle”.  You know the kind.  Introduce the topic, discuss, pass out a small assessment, check. Repeat. It becomes ingrained in your mind that if kids are failing at a task, then YOU are failing as a teacher.  But, it couldn’t be more wrong.  As it turns out, failure is quite valuable. Failure, the chance to struggle, the chance to really work at a problem and get through it, is a step toward success.  We shouldn’t teach kids in a way where they completely avoid failure, we should instead teach them how to handle it and learn from it.