by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 11, 2015 | Create, Make
I used to have a wall in my classroom where I had the game “Castleopoly” hanging on the wall. I won’t go into what I used the game for, so how wrong I now feel I was for focusing so very much on bribing my students to “do the right thing,” that’s another post for another day. I woke up yesterday morning thinking about that game and I wondered, what if there were a maker version of Monopoly. So I made one… Makeropoly.
And now I’m trying to figure out how it could be used for some creative fun. A regular ol’ game of Monopoly is fun, but should this one be a traditional style Monopoly where players collect cards? McDonald’s style Monopoly game where you try to complete your gameboard by trying out the items on the cards? Instead of collecting properties, players try out the things they land on? Should the items on the cards be actual things that are available for players to use in the space?
Maybe to get of “Jail” aka “Makerspace” you have to draw a “Makerspace” card and create something.
I’m creating “Creative Challenge Cards” and 8 “Tool Box” Cards. Those will be fun, quick challenges to build, create, and use Design Thinking in a fun way.
So why am I sharing this when it’s not even a fully developed idea? Because I was hoping you would help. I’ve created a Google Doc where we can crowdsource our ideas for this game. In return? I’ll finish it up and package it as a printer friendly PDF and post it here for free use in your own school, home, or space…
by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 10, 2015 | Reflect
Compliance.
A quiet line or you’ll move your card.
I’ll give you a sticker if you are quiet and finish this worksheet.
A test to bubble in.
A stringent rubric to follow to ensure a final product that looks like this one.
A standard on the wall so you know what you’ll be learning today.
No matter how we look at it, creativity is just not welcome in most schools, or in the world. It’s not. The world says, “Here’s what I expect,” and creativity strolls in the door like that kid tipping back in their chair, writing their spelling words out of order.
It’s messy. It’s hard to harness. It’s like a flame that flickers. You can never grab a hold of it, nor shape it. But you can cultivate it, provide it oxygen, and breathe life into it by allowing it the space to grow.
Flames need space.
We’re not afraid when we’re born or even when we’re four. We become afraid as school and society trains it out of us. Our desire to create is always there, but we bury it for performance based rewards, points, and compliance. Just as we learned to walk, talk, and ride a bike, we learn how the world works. And we feed the fear.
So how do we change that? We some how have to get our ideas out of the way, provide time for kids to explore, and fan the flames from the side. While the train is rolling, we have to try to change the wheels and jump the track. And it’s not going to be easy, because it’s going to require us to look at the whole idea of what school is, and challenge it. Worse? It’s going to require us to challenge ourselves, and invite fear in.
The only thing scarier? Not challenging ourselves at all. Just status-quoting it all the way through. That’s Freddy Krueger kind of scary when you think about it.
Just as we want every single kid to be a reader, we need every kid to know they are creative and have the confidence to set it free. Music. Painting. Legos. Cardboard. Coding. Poetry. Creative Writing. And so many other possibilities.
Quotes below from Elizabeth Gilbert‘s Facebook Page, author of Big Magic, a book about creativity beyond fear, and a reminder of what learning can become again, not just for a classroom, but for us all.
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by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 9, 2015 | Reflect
I do not share my work for others to sell. I’ve said this a million times. Yet, just about every day now, I get an email from someone who has found something that others are profitting from. As in, I take from your site, and I sell it to another teacher.
If you take the words from a poster on my blog, you sell it, and you profit from another teacher, I have to say, please stop.
Don’t tell me it’s my fault that my watermark is too small.
Don’t tell me I need to move my name or change my watermark to make it clearer.
Don’t try to say, “Well, you don’t make it clear that your stuff is copyrighted.”
Don’t try to justify the money you make off other teachers when the stuff is being shared freely for teachers to begin with, because we are all in this together.
Don’t tell me that you own the quote because you changed a punctuation mark or “found it on Pinterest.”
If you are selling stuff that you stole, you are wrong.
Worse, you are modeling that for kids.
Would you take a students work and sell it?
Would you grab a painting from a museum and sign your name to it?
Would you do unethical things JUST to make a dollar off another teacher?
Sure, I could send a cease and desist letter every single time. I could jump through the 80 hoops these websites require to report infringement, because in fact, they are making money off it, so it’s easy for them to turn a blind eye.
But I can’t. I’m too busy trying to make a difference. And then I hear, “If you put your stuff online, you risk it being sold.” And I ask, why is this becoming acceptable in our educational culture?
No excuses. No confusion. No permission? No sales.
Please, think twice before you steal. Because we’d expect our students to.
