Creativity
Have you heard of Kelly Gallagher? Have you ever visited his page? Looked at his resources? Browsed his collection of current event articles? In case you haven't, here is the link to his page: Kelly Gallagher. I am a regular lurker on his website. I am always looking to find the next article to read with my students.A few days ago, my high school students read a current event article together. The title was "Why being a thinker means pocketing your smartphone." Very intriguing. The article provided tons of discussion material. We started talking about what we do when we have a few minutes with nothing to do. Do we reach for our electronic devises? If we do, what do we do with them?
The second thing we discussed was the statement made in the article: "smartphones kill creativity." As my students wrote their responses to the article, many of them mentioned that you don't have to think as much because you can "just Google" it. Others said that when you need to do a creative project for school, you just go to YouTube and watch how to duplicate something that someone else has already done.
When I started thinking about my creativity I came back to my cooking. Maybe it is because I feel too limited by following a recipe (unless it's a cake or another fancy dessert). I love the freedom I have when making soup! Little bit or this, some more of that, and oh, there are some frozen peppers left in the freezer as well. Add a little variety of spices, and voila, soup is ready to serve! If it is looking a little strange with its multitude of ingredients, blend it and make smooth pureed soup!
What are you doing in your classroom and in your life to foster creativity and curiosity? What is something new that you have done in the last few weeks? Did you join the #nerdlution? Or, have you been just browsing and lurking?
Curiosity
Kids come to school curious and wondering, then somehow all of that seems to evaporate. I have a friend who read Georgia Heard's book A Place to Wonder. She implemented almost everything in that book in her first grade class. Those kids were thinkers and wonderers when they left.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to check out that book. You have now sparked my curiosity!
DeleteI think that the very idea that everything (well, almost everything) that you need to know is just a click away kills thoughtfulness and curiosity - the kind of wondering I remember from my own childhood. No, I've stayed away from #nerdlution - who needs another challenge in a holiday season filled with more pressing challenges (like writing cards, sending gifts, baking treats!)? I need to get away from my laptop and iphone, not find another reason to be even more tied to it!
ReplyDeleteI think I started my #nerdlution a couple of months ago with my exercise program. No room for new things at the moment. I will stick with making soup and creatively cleaning the house for the holidays!
Delete#nerdlution is amazing! I am loving it and chalking everyday. I hope I can keep it going for 50 days, time will tell. Creativity is sometimes hard to come by these days. However, I find that writing with my students fuels their creativity in ways I can't always understand. I know it matters.
ReplyDeleteBetsy, my students push me to be creative. What would I do without them?
DeleteI loved this glimpse into your classroom, and the two BIG ideas you pulled out. So much creativity and curiosity is lost in high school... I wish more of our HS colleagues would try to foster these essentials to learning!
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, it sounds like I wish I could come to your house for dinner! I can't imagine cooking without a recipe... in fact, I usually don't cook much that's not from a package! :-)
I have been thinking about more creative ways to engage my high school students. This week we staged a crime scene in the classroom! Cooking from the package for me means Chinese dumplings!
DeleteI think about creativity when every moment is filled, often with an electronic device. Sometimes I banish them. I think it is good for us to have time to fill, to think, to ponder and to wonder. Isn't that when new discoveries are made?
ReplyDeletePonder and wonder! Absolutely, but when do we actually give students time to just ponder and wonder?
DeleteI do agree that smart phones are killing creativity but there is something even more damaging. I think politicians and policies are killing creativity in the classroom. I feel like everything I do has to have an instructional focus and objective or a standard tied to it. I wanted to make Christmas ornaments for our tree in our classroom, but I was afraid someone would walk in and see us. Now, how sad is that!
ReplyDeleteJust heard on the radio on the home from work that mi is trying to pass a law that 3rd graders cannot move to 4th grade unless they pass a standardized reading test! Can you believe that???? What would happen to my ESL students? Forever in 3rd grade???
DeleteWe have that in Indiana. They have two chances to pass it and special ed kids can be exempt, but if you don't pass, you don't move on.
DeleteI am wondering how many students repeat 3rd grade then?? How about in inner cities?
DeleteI miss teaching in the media center when I see posts like this. It makes me long to get out of the "retirement rocker" my district gave me and get back to work. I so miss teaching and the creative sparks that I witnessed as my students learned. Great post.
ReplyDeleteMary-andering Creatively
Mary-andering Among the Pages
I hope that you are finding other creative outlets like your blog! Your blog design is beautiful!
DeleteI love the things you mention Jaana, and my school bases its philosophy on creativity and wondering. We are finding that the fight to problem-solve is helpful if students have to craft something, a model or an artistic rendition of an explanation, etc. Reports are kept to the need for learning how, but learning how from writers instead of a formula is also the way to figure it out. I think we fight the tech culture, and really, we do love the possibilities of sharing there, but fight the 'easy answer' too. You've posed some interesting questions.
ReplyDeleteLearning from writers instead of formulas--very interesting! I am trying to foster more creativity in my classroom; not always easy.
DeleteI am lucky to teach at a school where curiosity and creativity are valued. We look at digital work in the same manner as written texts. For example, when learning to create digital stories, we viewed different digital stories on the web and discussed what made one digital story more effective than another.
ReplyDeleteTerje, you are lucky! Any ideas or suggestions???
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