When I was a little girl, visits to the doctor that included injections were followed by our favorite prescription—an official form entitling us to a one-scoop cone at the local pharmacy’s soda fountain. What a treat! In these days, when childhood obesity is such a threat, I can’t imagine a doctor offering such prescriptions, but … Continue reading
As the educational pendulum has swung back and forth, we occasionally hear calls for “back to the basics.” Usually this has translated into pages of math computation, grammar drills, and history as a series of battles and dates. As schools around me gear up for the upcoming school year, it made me think about the … Continue reading
“I don’t have time to think about creativity. Look at the amount of curriculum I have to cover this year. No time for anything else!” Ever felt like that? I suspect most teachers have. Fortunately, it is not an either-or choice. Really, it’s not. Creativity is not something extra to be pulled out late Friday … Continue reading
Why, in the midst of end-of-term grading, holiday preparations, and even (I can’t believe it) preparing for new courses that start January 4, why take the time to write about creativity? And since your lives are probably just as crazy, why take time to read about it? I thought about that today, as I dashed … Continue reading
I will admit I’ve frequently railed against using business models to design and evaluate schools. There are so many ways schools and businesses are different that attempting to translate one to the other risks assuming children are some kind of consistent raw material that can be transformed into a uniform product. I can see teachers … Continue reading
For the last week I’ve been thinking about daydreaming. Or, to be more accurate, I’ve been thinking about the brain’s “default network,” the work it does, and how it might fit into schools. In my last post I described the default network, the parts of the brain that are active when we are not consciously … Continue reading
I’ve been thinking a lot about brains lately. As I’ve been working on the next edition of Creativity in the Classroom, I’ve been reading neurological research about creativity and learning—an interesting challenge, to be sure. As technology has changed, it is increasingly possible to “watch” the brain at work, examining which parts of the brain … Continue reading
It is sad, but perhaps not unexpected, that since I recently wrote about discouraged educators, I’ve spent a lot of time coaching a young teacher friend. She’s trying to find her way through an interaction with an administrator that has her questioning whether she belongs in public education at all. The specifics don’t matter because … Continue reading
Good curriculum and good assessment go hand-in-hand. So it is not surprising that the fourth key principle in developing curriculum supportive of creativity relates to assessment. In curriculum for creativity: Assessment includes multiple formative and summative assessments, including some that offer choices and use content in new ways. In all good curriculum, we start with … Continue reading
Strategies that support students in their creativity also support their learning. I have been repeating this mantra for more than 20 years, and the more I learn, the truer it becomes. It makes me think about bridge beams, and the interconnectedness of their strength. Pieces of steel that directly support one thing also help support … Continue reading
