Keep Creativity Alive

I found the following quote to be very eye opening:

“With important groups such as ISTE, AASL and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills all calling upon schools to stress originality, imagination and creative production, the meaning of those terms along with related concepts such as synthesis, innovation and invention becomes central to defining the purpose of education.”¹

I feel fortunate to be employed by an administrator that realizes that every lesson will not go well. Ken Robinson in his video entitled “School Kills Creativity” put it another way. He defines creativity as “the process of having original ideas that have value.” He continues by saying, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.” Is not that the issue with us technology immigrants versus the technology natives that we teach on a daily basis?

While teaching high school students, I try to make them think and explain to them what I, as an employer, use to expect from my employees. I would have a basic idea for a flyer and I would share my idea with a high school student, give them the pricing, and give them a few days to come up with a one page front and back flyer. They would show it to me, we would make suggestions, edit it for errors and eventually they would print it and watch it being stuffed into monthly statements. Today of course, the same flyer may be attached to a website or emailed to customers, but the idea of allowing a 16 or 17 year old to have that much influence was, I am sure, scary at first. As a teacher, I teach the same way I use to manage. I do not give them all the answers. YES they get frustrated at me at times, and yes I do have to help some students more than others depending on their SIP (Student Intervention Plan), but all in all, I am hoping they will leave my class knowing how to think on their own and have the confidence to still make mistakes. As Ken Robinson also stated, we may not see the future; however, the students we are teaching need to have the skills to make something out of it.

One resource I use in the classroom is Microsoft Publisher. This is a simple program in which the students are able to make brochures, flyers, door signs, websites or whatever they wish to make. One student just brought me her health brochure she made depicting the heart and its importance to the human body. She was really proud of her progress. I might say, it was pretty impressive looking. Until next time . . . .

Work Cited

¹"A True Original." Educational Technology Students Schools Libraries Teachers Parents Staff Development. Web. 09 Feb. 2011. <http://www.fno.org/jan09/original.html>.