Really, creativity is a disciplined process that requires skill, knowledge, and control.
25More
Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century:Why Creativity Now? A Conversation... - 0 views
-
-
And we need to include kids in the process of creativity - what structure do they naturally follow? Have them use Bloom's taxonomy to mull over the process of creativity. What is the difference between a wild idea that is outside of the box and a wild idea that is totally out of the realm of possibility? Once the kids establish a process and structure for creative thinking, they can also begin to fill their tool kit with creative thinking tools, like SCAMPER and reverse brainstorming.
-
-
-
we're going to need every ounce of ingenuity, imagination, and creativity to confront these problems.
- ...11 more annotations...
-
At the moment, instead of promoting creativity, I think we're systematically educating it out of our kids.
-
America is now facing the biggest challenge it's ever faced—to maintain it's position in the world economies. All these things demand high levels of innovation, creativity, and ingenuity. At the moment, instead of promoting creativity, I think we're systematically educating it out of our kids.
-
See Ken Robinson's talk on how schools kill creativity for more on this; I think this is an opportunity to look at all of the amazing things we do in our schools already to encourage creativity and innovation and then to figure out how to expand those things rather than to feel singled out as a cause of creativity's demise.
-
-
And when you find things you're good at, you tend to get better at everything because your confidence is up and your attitude is different.
-
A policy for creativity in education needs to be about everybody, not just a few.
-
We know this because human culture is so diverse and rich—and our education system is becoming increasingly dreary and monotonous
-
It's no surprise to me that so many kids are pulling out of it.
-
This is one of the great skills we have to promote and teach—collaborating and benefiting from diversity rather than promoting homogeneity. We have a big problem at the moment—education is becoming so dominated by this culture of standardized testing, by a particular view of intelligence and a narrow curriculum and education system, that we're flattening and stifling some of the basic skills and processes that creative achievement depends on.
-
So there's no doubt in my mind that collaboration, diversity, the exchange of ideas, and building on other people's achievements are at the heart of the creative process. An education that focuses only on the individual in isolation is bound to frustrate some of those possibilities.
-
The regime of standardized testing has led us all to believe that if you can't count it, it doesn't count. Actually, in every creative approach some of the things we're looking for are hard, if not impossible, to quantify. But that doesn't mean they don't matter. When I hear people say, "Well, of course, you can't assess creativity," I think, "You can—just stop and think about it a bit."
-
This is where the value of standards based education becomes clear. I want to use meaty criteria based on student actions and products to assess learning and growth, not numbers and letters. Both my students and I can most effectively assess creativity and innovation by using criteria embedded in content standards. For example, a student can look at their brainstorming notes, organized ideas, idea development work and product creation materials to determine whether they have taken their knowledge all the way up to the top of Bloom's Taxonomy. Have they generated multiple ideas to respond to the guiding question or problem? Have they made connections between ideas to generate new thoughts? Have they piggybacked off others' ideas to create new ones? Have they organized their ideas, explored the logistics behind them and selected the best one for the situation? Have them woven their best idea into new content mastery to apply their knowledge in an innovative way? To me a student reflection around these types of questions is a much more authentic and valuable means of assessment that any attempt to put a numerical value on creativity.
-
-
1More
Toy Chest (Online or Downloadable Tools for Building Projects) - UCSB English Departmen... - 0 views
wiki.english.ucsb.edu/...e_Tools_for_Building_Projects)
web2.0tools Curriculum:LanguageArts projectbasedlearning
shared by Alice Barr on 04 Oct 11
- Cached
-
The EDKB Wiki is a database that makes available the various interests, talents, and resources of the English Department community. See the Main Page to learn more about the EDKB. The wiki does not offer information on current course offerings, nor is it a comprehensive archive of materials related to all past courses. Visit the English Department home page for this type of information. "Toy Chest" collects online or downloadable software tools/thinking toys that humanities students and others without programming skills (but with basic computer and Internet literacy) can use to create interesting projects. Most of the tools gathered here are free or relatively inexpensive (exceptions: items that are expensive but can be used on a free trial basis). Also on this page are "paradigms"--books, essays, digital projects, etc.--that illustrate the kinds of humanities projects that software thinking tools/toys might help create.
17More
What's All This Talk about Rigor? - 0 views
-
-
This all adds up to good teaching! I don't think each description defines rigor since there is more to an effective learning experience than just the rigor, but I certainly agree with all of descriptors in the left column! I think they're really describing best practices in teaching and learning, so rigor is connected to things like engagement, relevance, student-centered work, open-ended problems, critical thinking skills, accessibility, and high expectations for everyone.
-
-
Rigor involves all partners in teaching and learning.
- ...10 more annotations...
-
A rigorous lesson embraces the messiness of a good mathematics task and the deep learning that it has the potential to achieve.
-
rigorous formative assessment
-
When selecting tasks, teachers must be sure that mathematical ideas are explicit and the connections are clear
-
Professional development experiences
50More
Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century:Taking the Digital Plunge - 2 views
-
I consider experimenting fearlessly with digital connections to be part of my job as a teacher.
-
Clay Burell is Korea's best kept secret, asking provocative questions about the changing nature of schooling. Jenny Luca is an Aussie dynamo, encouraging teachers to create meaningful service learning projects. Kevin Jarrett runs one of the most inventive elementary-level computer labs in New Jersey.
-
The Tempered Radical
- ...23 more annotations...
-
Wouldn't young adults truly prepared for the 21st century have experience using computers to learn with—rather than simply about—the world
-
Don't today's 12-year-olds need to recognize that future coworkers are just as likely to live on the other side of the world as on the other side of town?
-
Consider the potential: Students from different countries can explore global challenges together. Small cohorts of motivated kids can conduct studies of topics with deep personal meaning to them. Experts can "visit" classrooms thousands of miles away.
-
Connecting with colleagues online
-
no one has taught them about the power of these connections
-
each conversation includes opportunities for students to ask questions and feel a push against their preconceived notions.
-
experimenting fearlessly
-
I began using discussion tools like VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com) to create electronic forums for my students to interact with peers around classroom content—with extraordinary results
-
Begin by signing up for a Twitter account
-
our students have no trouble connecting, but no one has taught them about the power of these connections. Although tweens and teens may be comfortable using digital tools to build networks, few are using those networks to pursue meaningful personal growth. Our challenge as teachers is to identify ways that students can use these tools for learning.
-
Model learning transparently.
-
The key to becoming an effective 21st century instructor is to become an efficient 21st century learner.
-
Wouldn't young adults truly prepared for the 21st century have experience using computers to learn with—rather than simply about—the world?
-
Once you've taken your digital plunge, share with students how the digital connections you engage in enhance your skills and deepen your knowledge. Model learning transparently.
-
but no one has taught them about the power of these connections
-
Our challenge as teachers is to identify ways that students can use these tools for learning.
-
This is why I experiment with every new tool that bursts onto the teenage radar
-
I wish I had the time to keep up with all the sites out there! I remember when we first showed VoiceThread - kids loved it. Now, they are more familiar and not as excited because they use it elsewhere, which is wonderful, but requires me to keep up on the "newer" options.
-
This is why we need regular time scheduled into staff meetings or inservice days to just EXPLORE and collaborate with colleagues around new tools.
-
-
Through Twitter, you'll get short online messages from fellow practitioners that point you to resources or pose questions.
-
Then start by following some of the good education blogs written by teachers. Many of these are listed in the Support Blogging wiki (http://supportblogging.com) and on my list of resources (www.pageflakes.com/wferriter/16618841).
80More
Educational Leadership:Literacy 2.0:Plagiarism in the Internet Age - 8 views
-
Teachers who wish to prevent plagiarism should devote extensive instruction to the component tasks of writing from sources.
-
I tell my students to use their own words but perhaps I should model this directly with them.
-
I sort of model this when I give exemplars for projects in which writing in their own words is part of a rubric. I'm not sure that is enough, however. I think maybe my writing doesn't sound enough like their writing in all cases
-
-
This instruction should focus on the supposedly simple technique of summarizing sources, which is in truth not simple. Many students are far from competent at summarizing an argument— and students who cannot summarize are the students most likely to plagiarize.
-
The teacher in this tale uses the incident to teach students that using others' words without attribution is a serious crime. He then emphasizes to students the importance of citation and source integration techniques and enlists the school librarian to model how to cite outside works used in a piece of writing.
- ...45 more annotations...
-
alternative final projects like creating a brochure
-
K–16 teachers must spend more time teaching students how to read critically and how to write about their sources.
-
Such instruction might begin with techniques of paraphrase.
-
A writer who works only at the sentence level must always quote or paraphrase.
-
Educators should also communicate why writing is important. Through writing, people learn, communicate with one another, and discover and establish their own authority and identity.
-
it is easy for well-intentioned students to overlook the boundaries between what they themselves have produced and what they have slid from one screen (their Internet browser) to another (their word-processed document)
-
She begins by explaining that inserting synonyms is not paraphrasing. She then guides students in studying a passage and identifying its key words and main ideas that must be retained to paraphrase the passage. Shirley shows her students poor paraphrases of the passage for them to critique. Finally, she has them write their own paraphrase of a 50- to 100-word source passage that they themselves choose.
-
Many students are far from competent at summarizing an argument— and students who cannot summarize are the students most likely to plagiarize.
-
This instruction should focus on the supposedly simple technique of summarizing sources, which is in truth not simple.