Making it fun

Reading the chapter by Gardner about creativity was a bit of a struggle for me because of the voice he chose to use.  He was obviously aiming for an academic audience. It wasn't that I couldn't understand what he was saying, I did.  My frustration came from the amount of effort it took to understand what he was saying.  Because it didn't read easily, I felt restless, annoyed, and distracted while I was reading it.  If I were a student in his class, I probably would be downloading a game on my iPad or writing a grocery list during his class.

Interesting because, as far as I could tell, Gardner was saying that students should be encouraged to focus on synthesis and discipline in preparation for using creativity after K-12.  I think that is a bad idea for a few reasons.  Younger children far more imaginative than adults, even young adults.  I heard this news story on NPR earlier this week about how senior citizens are able to "exercise creative muscle" in the workplace because they no longer have corporate ladder, small children, and many other stressors that younger adults to.  It seems to me that the people in the age group that Gardner things are most equipped for creativity, are really the least.   Another reason creativity needs to be employed in middle school is that many teachers are up in arms about the level of distraction that the iPads cause - games, apps, and social media.   When students get bored, they're going to do just about anything but pay attention.  So, allowing creativity seems like it would be a strategy that would help with that.

I will be the first to recognize the need to get ourselves through things we don't like to do.  We can't expect everything to be unicorns and rainbows and I doubt that there is a teacher on earth who can avoid ever being boring, just as it would be difficult to get through life without doing the dishes or paying the bills.  As a teacher, I'm forever worrying about being boring and sometimes there just doesn't seem to be interesting, or reasonably efficient,  ways to present some things.  But, I think we should be asking ourselves why we're doing what we're doing and whether choice or a creative solution could be introduced without taking away from the learning goal.

I remember a specific weekly assignment that my son had in third grade where he had to put each vocabulary word in a sentence.  He has always been an avid reader, so he didn't have much trouble learning the vocabulary but he loathed doing that assignment every week.  He would drag his feet through that assignment, sometimes losing his pencil several times without even leaving the seat.  I would try to convince him that if he just blew through it, he could move on.  He could say the sentences, but would procrastinate and balk at the writing.   It was truly painful for the entire family.  I asked him what would make it more doable.  He said he would rather write a paragraph and use all the words, but his teacher said that he couldn't do it that way.   If he could come up with a creative way to use all the words in a paragraph or speak them into a recording device, would it not meet the learning objective?    What he did learn was that he just plain has to do things that are not meaningful so that he gets a passing grade.

I noticed this in our 21st Century Skills ELAs:  "Tools of Communication: Effectively analyzes types of information to be shared and selects most appropriate tool to use "  However, in many cases, there is no choice.  The whole class is using the same tool.  I'm glad to see the ELA so that all students will have some opportunity for choice.

I have numerous videos that I made over the past couple of years that would have met the requirement of Assignment 2B, but I thought it would be fun to make a new video.  I was glad that I did because I've not made one for a while and I re-familairized myself with all of the options within iMovie.  By assisting another teacher with his assignment, I reinforced my comfort with iMovie.  Now I'm very motivated to re-learn how to use iMovie on my iPad as well as an App called TouchCast so that my Student Tech Team can start making some cool stuff.

I created a lesson for Assignment 2C that I can use with the Student Tech Team right away.  I'll probably make it a little less formal where I am not assessing for mastery of any particular ELAs.  I think it will be fun.