Thursday
Oct272011

Discouraged, but persistent

I'm probably breaking a confidence, but I received this in an e-mail from my daughter yesterday:

I am looking forward to hearing from Paul's teacher at conferences. 5th grade seems to skew heavily toward doing things the teacher's way procedurally rather than actually learning anything or God forbid, making it interesting. Paul was all ready to bring his Vasco da Gama oral report alive with visuals and lots of fascinating tidbits about the "long and uncertain voyage" around the Horn of Africa when he came home and glumly reported, "No props. And we have to stick to the outline." This is the same teacher that feels diagramming sentences is possibly the most important skill children can learn. As baby Miles would say, "It hurts me." I am thankful for EL (extended learning, the G&T program). He's skyping with NASA scientists and building his own website to present his research comparing Australopithecus brains to modern humans'.  I realize, in telling you this, that I am preaching to the choir.

Ironic that this came just a day or so after my little rant about the need to give creativity more importance in all school work. Obviously Paul's teacher didn't read my compelling suggestions. Nor did, I expect, 99.999% of the rest of practicing teachers. In my little pond, I am big frog, but it is a very, very small pond.

Yesterday I gave a workshop at AASL on assessing, planning and reporting for school library programs, attended by about 35 very involved, responsive and thoughtful librarians, library directors and state library consultants. Good people to be sure, but I would say they are librarians who came in already understanding the importance of these things if the profession is to thrive and survive.

I often wonder what percentage of educators read blogs and journals, attend conferences, and engage in other opportunities for growth and improving professional practice? And I wonder how that percentage compares to professionals in other fields like dentistry or accounting or engineering?

I took a lot of heat a few days ago when I suggested that parents should be able to select their children's own teachers with in a school, and those teachers whose classes don't fill be terminated. Would such a plan have prevented the obvious bad match between the type of teacher Paul has and the type of teacher my daughter wants Paul to have?

And while the likelihood of creating teacher choice in schools or reaching 100% of educators through writing or workshops, messages like the one from my daughter renew my dedication as well as frustrate me. I may lose the battle, but it won't be without a fight.

Tuesday
Oct252011

Myths of creativity

Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging.
Samuel Johnson

... as does giving a public presentation.

Having had a long time interest in creativity as a motivating factor in good school projects, I decided in a weak moment that creativity might deserve a short presentation all of its own. So I wrote up a description and the librarians of the British Columbia Teacher-Librarian Association actually asked me to give the talk at their conference last week. So I needed to focus the mind..

Here was the outline:

  • Why is it imperative we take developing creativity seriously? (Daniel Pink, Richard Florida, Ken Robinson, job trends, Bloom, "21st entry skills, Net Gen attributes, etc.)
  • Concerns and myths about creativity. (Totally supported by research my own opinion.)
  • 10 ways to encourage creativity in every assignment.
  • Four practice lessons to modify for creativity. (We ran out of time to do these.) 

Concerns

Concern 1: Creativity isn't always about art. Kids can be creative in lots of areas, ala Gardner's multiple intelligences.

Johnson’s Multiple Creative Abilities 

  • Writing/Presenting/Storytelling
  • Numeric problem-solving
  • Graphic artistic (drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, designing)
  • Athletic/movement (Sports, dance)
  • Musically artistic
  • Humor
  • Team-building
  • Problem-solving
  • Inventing
  • Leading
  • Organizing
  • Motivating/inspiring

Concern 2: Creativity must be accompanied 
by craft and 
discipline. Being creative doesn't mean rules or guidelines aren't present - even necessary.

Concern 3: The world is not really interested in your creativity, but that's OK. Even we don't "see" a child's vision, we need to encourage it and remember creativity can be its own reward.

Concern 4: If we ask students to demonstrate creativity or innovation, we need some tools to determine whether they have done so. Some great ideas from participants in the workshop on this, especially regarding asking kids to articulate the creative process.

Concern 5: Creativity is the antithesis of good test scores. While most tests look for "one right answer," creativity can and should be an important part of school. Is test taking or formulating new ideas the better whole life skill?

Myths of creativity (from Harvard Business School research - Breen, Bill. “The 6 Myths of Creativity,” Fastcompany.com, Dec. 1, 2004)

  1. Creativity Comes From Creative Types
  2. Money Is a Creativity Motivator
  3. Time Pressure Fuels Creativity
  4. Fear Forces Breakthroughs
  5. Competition Beats Collaboration
  6. A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization

Myths of creativity (Johnson)

  1. Only academically “gifted” children are creative.
  2. Creativity does not belong in core courses like math, science, social studies, English.
  3. Creativity is fluff.
  4. Creativity does not require learning or discipline.
  5. Technology automatically develops creativity.
  6. Teachers themselves do not need to display creativity.

10 ways to encourage creativity in every assignment

  1. Ban clip art.
  2. Ask for information to be shown in multiple formats/media.
  3. Encourage the narrative voice when writing and when giving oral presentations.
  4. Ask for multiple possible answers to questions or multiple possible solutions to problems.
  5. Give points for "design” on all
 assignments - more than just
 "neatness counts." (The Non-Designers 
Design Book , Robin Williams)
  6. Instead of simply marking a response "wrong," ask for a reason why the answer was given
  7. Take advantage of free online
 tools. See the change your image workshop.
  8. Ask students to design classroom rules, modify procedures and solve issues.
  9. Honor students’ personal
 interests and unique talents.
  10. Seek out the creative ideas of other educators.

The presentation has some rough edges, needs some trimming, and will benefit from comments from participants. But hey, I had fun with it!

 

Monday
Oct242011

Are we asking the wrong question about e-books?

I am stealing this observation (only because he has it first) from Tim Stahmer at Assorted Stuff.

In his post this morning, Seth Godin discusses about how businesses almost always interpret – incorrectly – the impact of new technologies.

The question that gets asked about technology, the one that is almost always precisely the wrong question is, “How does this advance help our business?”

The correct question is, “How does this advance undermine our business model and require us/enable us to build a new one?”

So, what happens if we substitute “school” "library" for “business”?

Both Tim's and Seth's especially resonated with me since I spent part of the weekend working on a set of "rants" about e-books and libraries for short presention at a Mackin book gathering on Wednesday evening that is a part of the AASL conference.

I definitely think a new model for library business is essential if we are going to survive. The number one challenge is listed below ...