1. After reviewing the videos from Brown, Gardner, Robinson and Pink, I noticed a common theme. The theme that I noticed is self-reflection. Self-reflection can take learning to another level because we need to observe ourselves (minds and actions) and be honest as to what is working and what is not. Gardner stated that there are five types minds for the future including disciplinary, synthesizing, creating, respectful and ethical. As educators, being knowledgeable of our minds and the minds of others will help us be lifelong learners and help impact those who we teach.
2. I really enjoyed watching Pink's "The Surprising Science of Motivation". Learning about the candle trick, rewards and and out-of-the-box thinking made me strongly consider how my teaching practices fit into Pink's message. As humans one of our best assets is our higher level thinking, Pink mentions that lower-level finance, accounting and programming can and will be easily be outsourced or computerized. I am focusing a lot of energy on GATE and the teaching of these students, I have recently been integrating higher-level activities into my everyday classroom with all of the my students. One example I have been using in class is giving students that hardest math question of that day's lesson prior to instruction. Students are then given time to think and discuss with their table mate prior to being given the answer. I have found great success with this method in a short time, students come up with their own methods instead of taking my methods as "the right way" thus thinking outside of the box. Students also end with a vested interest in the lesson because they have already used their own brain reasoning to figure out a problem. 3. I found Mobley's 6 Insights, well..., very insightful. Based on the article, unfortunately most of the day to day experiences we provide students during class time may be helping them learn but it is also keeping them from increasing their creativity. I like the innovations and opportunities mentioned, yet these types of articles can also be discouraging. As teachers, we naturally believe deeply in our students and care about them and their futures but it seems we may be steering them wrong due to our formal training. On a positive note, I think with an open mind we can use Mobley's strategies to infuse new enthusiasm and ideas into projects that we may already be doing. Maybe this is a good first step? I like the message of "to be more creative, spend time with creative people" and I never realized the correlation between creativity and self-knowledge, very interesting. Favorite quote "refusing to quit requires faith in ourselves, transformation is a painful process."
9 Comments
Krista Loper
10/26/2019 03:17:19 pm
I also found that like you said "unfortunately most of the day to day experiences we provide students during class time may be helping them learn but it is also keeping them from increasing their creativity."
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Joel
10/28/2019 04:33:55 pm
Thanks Krista, I agree. The bigger question may be how do we balance creativity and content?
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Evrim Cakir
10/27/2019 09:48:25 am
how do we make sure they don't lose their creativity, we need more arts intergration.
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Ryan Strole
10/30/2019 09:15:53 am
Truly.... and your comment highlights the systemic way in which we are blockading against creativity in our master scheduling.
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Joel
10/30/2019 08:05:47 pm
One option it to have classroom teachers integrate the arts into their CCSS lesson plans. There are many opportunities for those looking to use art in their lessons.
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Jeremy Smith
10/30/2019 07:20:20 pm
I'm stealing your idea of presenting the "Hot Problem" first. Thanks!
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Joel
10/30/2019 08:06:50 pm
Cool. You are welcome!
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Shawna Hoxsie
11/13/2019 08:37:27 pm
I do similar things in my class when you are talking about giving kids the problem to try and figure out first before working with them to find the solution. I have found such success with them when I do that. They tend to be more engaged if they were unable to figure it out and they finally are rewarded with one of the many paths to a solution. Allowing that time to explore the problem first is priceless.
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Joel
11/30/2019 04:03:07 pm
Thanks Shawna for all the thoughts.
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AuthorJoel Kriner of the Touro Innovative Learning Masters Program. Archives
June 2020
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