It Never Was an Either/Or

This week I have spent a good portion of my time working with teachers in grades PK-2 talking about creativity and innovation.  Due to the changes that New Jersey is proposing in the new draft standards, which came about through their membership in the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (among other factors as well), the elements that are stressed in the P21 manifesto have populated themselves into the new standards.  Themes such as:

• Global awareness
• Financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy
• Civic literacy
• Health literacy

and skills like:

• Creativity and Innovation
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Communication and Collaboration

are all now written into our standards from PK-12.

If you come from middle or high school teaching into an administration position in which you work with grades PK-5, you will understand how stressful it is to work with elementary teachers.  They are wonderful people; I should know, I am married to one.  But when you look at all they have to do in a day and the limited time they have to do it in, having them sit in an afterschool meeting to work with curriculum is daunting.  To introduce these ideas to our elementary teachers, we used our good friend Sir Ken Robinson.  We took a page from the P21 Framework that centered on creativity and innovation and had the teachers use it as a backbone for writing down ideas that struck them while watching Sir Ken’s TED talk from 2006.  From there, we had them answer two prompts in groups of 4-5:

• Identify the structures in place in your classroom that promote creativity and innovation either in your students or yourself.
• So what?  What Now?

The responses were phenomenal, especially in relation to the areas where Sir Ken spoke about finding creative capacities and working with them instead of educating them out of them.  However, one thing I have learned in administration in regards to any kind of meeting is that you have to be ready for the “don’t waste my time question of the day,” which is the part where you have to make it matter to them.  A teacher asked the question very bluntly:

“where is this going?  How are we to fit these ideas, which by the way we all believe in, into what we already do?”

My answer wasn’t great, I’ll admit, and it had a lot to do with explaining where the ideas behind the new standards revisions came from, but it stuck with me.

Last night, in my reader appeared an article from Patrick Riccards at Eduflack in which he debated the mode of delivery that the P21 people have chosen.  This gem was smack in the middle of it:

The debate over 21CS skills should not be one between one set of curricular goals versus the other.  This isn’t core knowledge versus soft skills.  No, our focus should be on how we teach those core subjects that are necessary.  How do we teach math and science so that we better integrate technology and critical thinking skills?  How do we teach the social sciences in a manner that focuses on project-based learning and team-based activities?  How do we ensure that a 21st century student is not being forced to unplug when they enter the classroom, and instead uses the technologies and interests that drive the rest of their life to boost their interest and achievement in core academic subjects?  And most importantly, how do we ensure all students are graduating with the content knowledge and skills needed to truly achieve in the 21st century economy

One does not go forward by jettisoning the skills with which we gathered. To me it’s not about introducing new content, but rather how we engage students in content using the “soft skills” that we need them to develop. The ability to have a lasting understanding is our goal here, and providing relevant context to what we do in the classroom is a great way to get there.  So my answer to that question is not to change the content of what you do, but to use the same skills you are trying to develop in the students in your own practice.  Be innovative, be creative, be prepared to fail often, collaborate, model the behaviors you want to see in your students.

There is a Growing Demand for Meaning Among Teachers

At least that is what I am seeing from my limited point of view.

Today was marked by our annual New Teacher Induction meetings where we work with our first-year staff on method and practice.  It’s always an eclectic bunch, as we always have a nice mix of veteran teachers who have changed districts mid-career and recent college graduates.   The perspectives range from those blinded by the frustrations of working with students for the first time to those who’ve been through their share of the trenches.

Today’s theme was supposed to be Non-Linguistic Representations and how we can use them to aid students in accessing learning via more than the traditional input of chalk, talk, write and remember.  As usual, when a lesson goes the way I want it to, or better yet, in a direction I did not anticipate, it leaves me with more to learn than those who were originally considered the students in the equation.

In introducing the theme, I asked them to read and discuss (we used body voting to have them split the room apart–which do you prefer Starbuck’s or Dunkin Donuts?) a recent post on Scott McLeod’s page in which he quoted Robert Fried’s The Game of School:“

What sprang out this small quote from both veteran and new teacher alike was an overwhelming sigh of relief that someone had verbalized this in such a manner as this.  From pre-school teachers to senior level math teachers, the value of the three key words in this quote: curious, confident, enthusiastic, drew response.  Whether that passion from the students was for math, writing, reading, or science, did not matter to them.  They wanted the gestalt for their students, and they really wanted it.

I can’t say I was surprised, as getting our teachers out of the classroom is difficult to do–they are passionate and committed to what they do; they common phrase among our high school staff is “you’ve got to be in it to win it.”  What surprised me most was the demand they placed on making sure we help them teach students meaningful things that they will use and that make sense in their lives immediately.   Breaking away from this discussion was difficult, and it ran way over the time we allotted for it in both sessions, but we knew there would be more time for this discussion.

Sir Ken Robinson’s work has been making the rounds lately, and I am a sucker for his 2006 TED talk regarding creativity and education.  This group, I was sure, had not heard this yet, so I paired it with a short excerpt from Pink’s A Whole New Mind, and asked them to do some synthesizing: take Robinson’s contentions about the role of public education in regards to creativity, take Pink’s assertion that we need an integrated mind for the future, and come to a new understanding about your own practice and your own understanding of what your students need.

What we got never materialized into a whole group discussion, but in moving between the groups, I caught people talking like their hair was on fire in some instances.  This day struck a chord, at least with me, and I’d love to solicit some feedback about the day in the form of an exit card (probably should have thought of that beforehand).  How did it relate to non-linguistic representations?  Not as cleanly as I would have hoped, but in discussing the need for students to access information visually, use mental imagery, and portray their understanding of concepts in visual as well as verbal/linguistic forms, our groups were able to see the need for strong non-verbal learning.

Creativity Myths, The Other Half

Myth 4: Fear Forces Breakthroughs

According to the research that Breen quotes throughout his article, “creativity is positively associated with joy and love and negatively associated with anger, fear, and anxiety,” meaning that when you are happy you produce more creative work.  Furthermore, according to the research, you are more likely to come up with a creative idea after a day in which you were happy than not.  Sounds less like rocket science than it does common sense, but again if we play this out across the field of education, workplace happiness and environment can play a huge role in how creative we are in finding solutions to classroom and curricular situations.  How do you feel when you are at work?  Does it bring you joy to be there?  I find that I work best when my environment is calm, but engaging, and there are people that challenge me.

Myth 5: Competition Beats Collaboration

With all of the tools we have available to us that push collaboration, nothing replaces what we can do in the direct company of others.  The myth here is that by pitting teams or individuals against each other, we gain in creativity.  We are in the midst of annual meetings in which we share how we use the district-issued technology in our classrooms.  The intent of the meetings is many-faceted: one one hand we as administrators need to assess the use of the limited technological resources we have in the district; on the other hand, the teachers involved truly get to see a glimpse of what their colleagues are doing.  The meetings usually play out with teachers fretting about what they will share (with a few angry emails sent our way), but then when the meeting begins each teacher goes well beyond the alloted 3-5 minutes, and the audience feeds off of it.  It becomes the type of meeting that we wish we had every month.  My point here in the comparison is that when we share, when we push against each other with confidence, the result is much better.

Myth 6: A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization

Leaders of organizations that are undergoing major change, specifically in the number of staff or the size of budgets, need to pay close attention to the mental health of that staff.  The study showed that when employees understand that major changes are coming that may affect them, even measures taken to bolster creativity and productivity fail.  This one goes towards making sure we can check in with our colleagues and keep stakeholders abreast of what the goal is.

Creativity Myths

Digging through Diigo in search of something I can’t even recall now, I found this nugget from Bill Breen at Fast Company: “The 6 Myths of Creativity.” Finding this may have been the reason I was digging through all of my back tags and pages in the first place, because when I found the article and re-read it, the six myths called to mind several instances of awkward thinking I see very often.  Let’s walk through them:

Myth 1: Creativity Comes From Creative Types

Breen brings up the idea that looking for creativity in corporate departments like accounting might seem oxymoronic at first glance.  However, we recognize innovation in any form and in any pursuit if it truly transcends the status quo and creates original thoughts or processes.  In the contexts in which I work, the idea of creative thought applied to either discipline or process has unbelievable merit.  We look for “withitness” within our teachers; we look for them to be able to resonate with students regardless of teacher age or experience, student age or ability level, and regardless of content.  Do they get it?  What if we apply that principle to guidance departments?  Curriculum writing?  Schedule creation? Why push for anything less than creative environments and people in those areas?

Myth 2: Money Is a Creativity Motivator

Breen states that

People want the opportunity to deeply engage in their work and make real progress. So it’s critical for leaders to match people to projects not only on the basis of their experience but also in terms of where their interests lie. People are most creative when they care about their work and they’re stretching their skills

and our work in schools is no different.  When we ask teachers to come and work with us, whether it’s for curriculum or for some form of professional development, we offer the option of coming during school and receiving substitute coverage, or coming after school  and receiving compensation at a decent rate.  Our participation is very closely split down the middle.  Other reasons (child care, coaching, etc.) aside, we also find that those that come during the day and receive no compensation produce work that is equally as credible as those that come after school.  The difference, and this is a purely personal observation, comes when you do as Breen suggests, and match people that truly care about what they create and feel that they are pushing themselves and their colleagues around them.  Last week I worked with two teachers who were so full of ideas and so willing to take risks in regards to their ideas, the amount of work we got down and the quality of that work was astounding.  All three of us were truly blown away by the possibility of bringing to life the ideas we came up with.  That’s power.

Myth 3: Time Pressure Fuels Creativity

In college and graduate school I lived by the mantra “if you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute.”  While snarky and fun, when I began teaching, it didn’t cut it as a model to share with students of how to prepare and perform at you best.  So it was easily scrapped in favor of advance preparation.  In schools, we work amid lots of deadlines placed either by ourselves or external pressures.  However, having kids of my own, I realized something about being stressed: it’s contagious.  When I am under the gun with a project or presentation, I become a bear and my work suffers for it.  I feel guilty for not spending time with my family, and that weighs on me; I feel badly that my work is suffering due to lack of focus. It’s a vicious cycle.  Solution: advance planning and preparation that allows you to focus on the whole when you need to.

Tomorrow: Myth’s 4, 5, and 6.

The Major Disconnect

I had such selfish reasons for choosing to do this workshop at Franklin Lakes School District today; not only was it a great opportunity to talk about some really fun topics and make some extra money, but Alan November was the keynote. Alan’s message conveys a sense of urgency like no one else I have ever seen, and I always leave feeling recharged.

Today’s presentation by Alan centered on student content creation, much like the last one I saw, but this was the first time I was able to see him interact directly with a small group. His ideas, juxtaposed against the usual smattering of teacher doubts, really resonate with “no excuses.” Counterpoints to every dissension. Creation in the face of doubt.

When I think of my own practice, I wonder if I am doing enough creating of community. Darren Draper posted about bloggers who create community, but focused on the online environment. How do I do it in my buildings? Alan talks about allowing students to create material that is public, debatable and viewable by people from a global environment. I was twittering about the amount of teachers in a room here that do not have Google Accounts, or how few of them have heard of RSS feeds, and wondering to myself whether or not I could say the same for my district where I had worked on this for almost two years. What have I done to create the sense of urgency that Alan does?

This is perfect fodder for thought as I enter the week before EduCon, and I hope I’ll be able to gather some resources for this there.

Looking back over the course of the time I have spent at Tech Coordinator and now as Director of Curriculum, I don’t think formal professional development worked to the extent that I expected it would. I taught classes which were not well attended, or attended by the same group of people. I held in-service days where teachers were exposed to applications and strategies to help them implement social technologies in the classroom. But where did it get us? Sitting here, listening to Alan push these teachers, a very receptive bunch no less, I can’t help but place myself in a daydream where this is my district. How many of my teachers would know what RSS means? How many would have a Google Account? Did I make a difference, or did I just keep the same model that has not worked and made it look nicer?

I am feeling the need to break the mold, to present a shift so sudden yet so necessary that teachers would look at it with both fear and longing–saying “I want to do this for my own development!” or “This has to happen!” But what it looks like is escaping me. How do you make someone feel like they need something?

Alan November Notes, 1/21/08

Some highlights from Alan November’s keynote:

China

• Rigor is expected not only by teachers and parents, but also by students.
• Lifestyle we give our students here can be dangerous as compared to Chinese students
  • they are earning their lifestyle
  • we are giving our students a sense of entitlement

India

• produces 500,000 engineers per year
• we produce 50,000
• Cisco is moving their headquarters to India
  • 80% of the world’s population is within a five-hour plane ride from India
  • that part of the world is growing faster than this part.

We have to overhaul what we are doing

• rethink creativity, innovation and imagination
• We are the last industrialized nation that values test scores the way we do.
• It’s a numbers game-gifted children v. total children in America

What is your role?

• how do you teach children who will have to compete globally?
• Tear this apart; debate it
• Who owns the learning? Who should own the learning?
• Who knows more about technology?
• If technology was gone tomorrow, would you still be able to teach?
• Let go.

Commander of West Point ordered his staff to introduce Islam into the curriculum whenever possible.

• Literature student from West Point anecdote about the Pope quoting from a 14th century scholar
  • Professor asks students to do a web search on the impact of Pope’s speech in Turkey
• host, link, URL

Job of a teacher: Idea #1-You must teach critical thinking as early as possible

Job #2 You can have fantastic social skills over the web.

Job #3 You should become a fantastic researcher using the internet.

Job #4 You should have the ability to empower children to be a learner. Give them a stake.

would adding an authentic audience add value to your teaching?