Thinking Creatively: Inventing the Possible

Educon Session 1: Facilitator: Linda Nitsche

http://inventingthepossible.wikispaces.com

Conversation Description: If schools kill creativity, then what hope do we have of helping our students be prepared to devise creative and imaginative solutions to problems in their futures? Come examine frameworks for thinking and working creatively. Explore and experience creativity, innovation, and imagination in action. Reframe your problems into opportunities.

We each contributed to a wall of the "bricks" that inhibit creative thinking-

Frameworks for Creativity:

Paul Torrance-

-incubation formula for stages of creativity-

1.heightening anticipation: warm-ups, arouse curiosity

2. deepening expectations - apply to content curriculum but look at differently. no rigid path.

3. keeping it going- stretch. go beyond. apply outside of specific area.

research: children who scored high in creativity were more successful than those with high IQ (over 40 years of watching, testing).

elements: innovative, adaptive, creative strengths

Fluency:brainstorming. rules. as much as possible. open up to all ideas. avoid criticism!!!! no comments (+ or -). piggybacking on someone else's idea. practice hearing others' ideas and use them. oddball stuff-want kids to feel comfortable going beyond. taking risks.

Flexibility: flexible thinking, ability to get past your set perceptions of the first picture that popped in your head. takes practice. notice that you're stuck there.

Originality: the result of good fluency and flexibility. that one good idea that comes out.

Elaboration: a creative process isn't just the idea, it's how you elaborate on the idea. example: think up a cool car, be able to give all the details of it.

Scamper: ideation strategy

S=Substitute (other ingredients, materials, etc. )

C=combine (blend)

A=adapt

M=modify (magnify,minify?)

P=Put to other uses

E=eliminate

R=Reverse (roles or rearrange patterns)

start with a question and move through the "SCAMPER" to look at possible answers from different perspectives. OR start with a statement of fact and use scamper to generate questions. look at knowledge, ideas from a variety of perspectives.

"What if?" -"classic phrase. use it!"

Lateral Thinking: from the mind of Edward De Bono

(youtube video edward de bono on creative thinking). will embed here whenever I am able to get onto youtube :)

challenge the process.

provocative statement- look at the problem in an "impossible, contradictory way"

random words- strategy where you choose a totally random word. (from anywhere). attach it

and use it to brainstorm. does it help solve the problem in any way. (takes your mind away from its' preconceived notions of something and helps you see it in a new way).

parallel thinking- 6 hats, take on different viewpoints

So what?

imagine it project- fascinating collection of videos. watch video and record thoughts

creativity

imagination

innovation

curiosity

Behaviors we want to encourage:

•imagination

•awareness

•curiosity

•risk taking

•complexity

•playfulness

Now what? Remember the barrier wall we created at the start of the session -

Name a bridge. How can we knock down the barriers?

Educon Keynote: Marilyn Perez

notes from the keynote speaker at Educon- Marilyn Perez (district admin in Philly)-

•Think of schooling as opportunity to provide access and equity for all, regardless of background, etc.

•It begins with the principal of a school.

•high expectations for all students

•believing that every student has innate talents and can reach their potential

•Teachers-believe the power of your words. It is possible to achieve and learn regardless of circumstance.

•Education can transform quality of life for poor children

• a sense of order. if students don't come with it, we must provide it for them.

rigor! high expectations for all children! homework...

relevant. fun.

desire to make things different, courage to challenge the status quo. have a relationship with students. "attitude of servitude" serve others (your students) with love. don't judge your students b/c of their backgrounds.

reflect on your expectations for students.

What is the purpose of schooling?

teach students to communicate, contribute, find solutions, have a successful life, be productive.

4th Grade Book Trailers

Each 4th grade student read a biography on a person of interest. After watching and discussing several examples of video book trailers, each student created a storyboard for a book trailer about their biography. We used Frames to create the trailers. After they were complete, parents were invited to come to the classroom and watch them. Here are a few examples of our students' work:

"I'm Done!"

I enjoy a good quote, a succinct reminder to keep my mind in the right place. One I find relevant for my work as a teacher is "No great thing is created suddenly. "

I read a book last year that impacted my thinking a great deal. The book was An Ethic of Excellence by Ron Berger. Berger writes of three "toolboxes" for bringing out the best in students: a school culture of excellence, work of excellence and teaching of excellence.

One story he told that really stuck in my mind was the story of when he took some of his students to speak about their work to some teachers at another school. It was a school for the deaf, and Berger's students addressed the teachers using sign language; they had learned it as part of a unit of study on deaf culture (this, in itself, impressed me). One of the teachers asked the students about doing so many drafts and putting in so much effort on each project. "Don't you complain about having to work so hard and do so many drafts to complete your work?"

The students, having always been at a school where excellence is the norm, where work is important and meaningful, did not really understand the question. Why complain about the way things are?

It would be like asking students at another type of school, "Why don't you complain about doing so many worksheets? Don't you want to have an authentic audience, to do meaningful, high quality work?" These students probably would be as baffled by this type of question as those girls were baffled by the question of why they put in so much work and effort on their projects.

I've grappled, as a teacher, with what I call the "'I'm done' culture." Ignoring the grammatical problems with the phrase "I'm done," I find that my students generally view projects and assignments as something to finish. Why? What is the reward for being "done?"

Is it a question of authentic audience? Non-engagement in a task? A school culture that more or less trains students to view school as a place to finish one thing (no matter how crummy the job) and move on to the next? Where is the internal motivation to care, to work through drafts and make changes? I believe that this is one of the most important roles I can embrace as a teacher- to try to bring students to a place where the work they do matters to them, where they strive for quality over quantity.

I highly recommend reading Berger's book as a helpful guide. It can be boiled down to four key points:

•Give students work that matters

•Share examples of excellence

•Public presentation

•Critique

I feel that I do a halfway decent job of 3 out of 4 of these. Although I have tried, I have not gotten the hang of having student critiques of any real value. I do believe strongly in public presentation of work, be that a presentation to classmates, parents, other classes in the school, contests, partnership or a worldwide audience through web 2.0. I have seen this impact students' desire to do a better job on the next project more than any grade or feedback from the teacher.

My questions are-

*Can this type of student work ethic be achieved in a single classroom when the general school culture is of a different ethic?

*How can a school move, as a whole, toward an ethic or culture of high standards, meaningful work and true integration as opposed to more isolated, non-authentic assignments?

Pushing students only works so much. There has to be some internal desire to put in the work necessary to create something of which a student can be genuinely proud.

I have an anecdote to share, a tale of a struggle I am currently having over this very topic. I am going to save it for my next blog post.

LAN Party

Please read the flyer below and, if you're local to Jacksonville, Florida, come out to join us for a high-quality, FREE, professional development event. Anyone can watch the K-12 presentations online, but it is just more fun to watch and discuss with colleagues. It's all about the network (in this case, the Local Area Network.)

Creative Winter Fun

                                               

We had fun creating snow people, snowflakes and Hanukkah houses. Here are the links to the sites we used. Have fun.

The Hanukkah House

Make a Snow Person

Another Make a Snow Person

Make a Snowflake (with scissors)

Make a Snowflake
(and send it into the snowstorm with a positive message).

KinderKids Draw

We are happy to be participating again in the KinderKidsDraw project. Participating schools this year are from Thailand, Spain, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, California, South Carolina, and there is even another school from Jacksonville!

Our K classes just finished their first Voicethread where they introduced themselves to their KinderKids partners. We used Pixie to draw self portraits and Voicethread to record our introductions.

Mrs. Yegelwel's class flew to Madrid, Spain using our imagination wings and google earth. Mrs. McAraw's class flew to Winnetka, California. Once there we "met" our KinderKids friends by listening to their Voicethreads and leaving comments.

Here is our Voicethread-

"One-Click Mitzvah"- A Simple Thing

We've coined a new term- "one-click mitzvah." This refers to an easy way to use technology to give to others. There are many sites now set up to donate money based on a number of visits (or clicks) to the site.
All of our computers in the computer lab are set to "The Hunger Site" as the homepage. Students all know to "click to give" whenever they open the browser. Many of the students will take the extra time to click across the top navigation bar to go to all of the listed sites.

Sometimes I open the browser when showing something to students and forget to click to give. You can be sure the students ALWAYS remind me.

Seeds, Serendipity, Sustainability

Change.

It's the one constant in life, yes? And yet human nature seems to be such that many of us will cling to the old ways like a life raft in stormy waters. Why? I don't know. What I do know is that, my own issues with change aside, I have worked hard for change in schools. My twitter profile, until recently, read "wannabe change-agent." I changed that the other day, as I realize that I am no longer a wannabe. I am an agent of change.

Looking back, I realize that my school has changed. This is year 4 for me, and I am amazed at what is taking place. Are we firmly, solidly planted in 21st century, learner-centered, relevant education? No, not yet. Have we glimpsed the future and it is now? Yes.

I thought I would share my story in hopes of encouraging other wannabes out there. Keep

plugging away. Change does happen.

Seeds-

First, you plant the seeds. Do what you do. Talk to everyone about your ideas. Keep it upbeat. Don't expect people to get it. They won't. Keep learning. We are so lucky to have our online colleagues who do get it. Talk to them. Network, network, network. You need your network! You are planting seeds, and it will take time before you see growth. Keep planting and nurture whatever growth you see.

Serendipity-

This is when things begin happening of their own volition. You can't control the winds of change, and you can't do it all on your own. As one person you can only do so much. Hopefully, at some point, change itself takes over and helps you find the support you need. The way this happened for me seems amazing, but maybe it's really not. Maybe it's what happens when you plant the seeds and let nature run its course.

My personal story of serendipity started with a chance (and extremely short) meeting two years ago at FETC. Because of that meeting, the PLN, and a person with vision and leadership, a new position was created at my school this year for a 21st Century Learning Specialist. The position was created specifically for Silvia Tolisano, not as an abstract concept, as in "let's hire a 21st century learning specialist."

This, in itself, seems unusual to me, but correct. People make all the difference. The position was much less important than the fact that we recognized Silvia's skills, experience, passion and visionary leadership as something good, something worth having, something worth trusting.

Sustainability-

This is the chapter still to be written. Silvia's blog tagline "Langwitches -The Magic of Learning" says it all. She has worked magic, and she has done it by embedding PD into classroom teaching. Our students are engaged in global communications and other relevant, exciting learning, our school has a new website, teachers are blogging, we've implemented google apps for education. We have tasted the future, and there is no turning back.

My concern is that, while Silvia is truly an incredible teacher and we are extraordinarily lucky to have this time with her, I worry that we are putting all our eggs in her basket. Silvia is an agent of change, a support, someone to lead the way -- but the teachers MUST begin to develop their own PLNs, we must learn to be better at collaborating, sharing, supporting and teaching each other. That is the only way for these changes to be sustainable.

Image thanks: first seeds planted http://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoscribe/430716741/

Amazing Animal Alliterations

by 2nd grade

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