Sir Ken Robinson’s speech is one that I have viewed many
times. I have seen it in previous Wilkes
classes, as well at professional development sessions through my school and
school district. I think the message
that Sir Ken Robinson gives is very powerful, and something that should be
thought about very carefully.
In many ways, our schools do kill creativity. There is so much focus on meeting standards,
and paperwork, and standardized testing, and so many other things, that
teachers don’t get to do what they really need to do –which is to teach. No two kids are the same, so give each kid
the same education just doesn’t make sense.
Each student has different interests, skills, and capabilities. We need to help them discover these, and
foster them. As Sir Ken Robinson said, “all
kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them” (Robinson, 2006). For example, in my school district, middle
school students only have their “encore “ classes on a three day rotation. So a student might have a week where they
only have art class one time. My best
friend is our school’s art teacher, so I spend a lot of time in her classroom,
and I see students that struggle in my French class (which is more “academic”)
absolutely flourishing in her art class.
Yet these students only get to be in a class that they enjoy and in
which they find success every three days.
Sir Ken Robinson talked about how “we have no idea what’s
going to happen in terms of the future”, and how “education is meant to take us
into this future that we can’t grasp” (Robinson, 2006). We really don’t know what kind of future we
are preparing our students for, so the best we can do is help them develop a
variety of skills. Creativity is one of
these skills, and I feel it is one of the most important. Gardner talks about how companies such as
Google value creative thinking, and how many other companies are starting to do
the same. We are doing our students a
huge disservice if we don’t encourage creativity. “Parallels about between the synthesizing and
the creating minds”, so we need to do whatever we can to develop both (Gardner,
pg 88).
So, how do we go about fostering creativity in our
classrooms? There is no easy answer, but
I think that technology can certainly help.
One of my favorite projects I have ever done was last year’s final
project with my 8th grade French II students. We finished the curriculum early, so I needed
a project for the last week and a half of the school year. I split the class into groups, gave each
group a topic we had studied during the year and a flip camera, and said “go”. I put no parameters on the assignment, and I
was blown away with the result. I had
one group make a rap music video explaining the difference between “who” and “whom”
in French. Another group filmed an
episode of a dramatic soap opera that taught direct and indirect object
pronouns. I was blown away by what they
created, and they loved the project. There are many technologies and Web 2.0
tools out there that allow students to create unique and original
material. The more we can find ways to
use these in our classes, the better off our students will be.
References:
Gardner, H. (2007). Five Minds for the Future.
Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA.
Robinson, K. (2006). Do
schools kill creativity? [Web]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
Great post :)
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