What a beginning to a school year! All around me, my teacher friends and parent friends are struggling over what young people need most. How can we protect them from illness while maximizing their learning? How do we balance the social and educational needs of vaccinated adolescents while protecting their unvaccinated siblings? What should we … Continue reading
What makes sound? What makes music? If you’d like to explore these questions, and perhaps set your students on a summer quest, consider Frank Pahl. Frank Pahl is a Michigan musician and composer who works with automatic music, or music created using automatic instruments. Automatic instruments don’t require a human to directly operate them, like … Continue reading
I was a young adolescent when the Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan. Their music sounded from every treasured 45 rpm record (yes, actual records) and boys in school were suddenly send home from school for combing their inch-long hair forward in the dreaded “Beatles hairdo.” After that phenomenon, nothing much has compared, so there … Continue reading
I was going to post a normal blog today—something about creative activities suited to the end-of-school-year days—but when the time came, it didn’t feel right. Today, in the U.S., it is Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember the men and women who died in service to their country. It brought back the aching … Continue reading
I know that people research almost anything. Years ago, when I was on a university committee to evaluate applications for sabbaticals and internal research grants, I was surprised and delighted at the variety of things our faculty were studying. Your sabbatical has to coincide with the migration patterns of Central American spiders? Sure, no problem. … Continue reading
Has the pandemic time allowed you the chance to be creative? For some folks, I know, the pressures of children at home, school at home, work at home, every minute at home have left no time for anything but survival. For others of us, at different stages of life, the time at home has left … Continue reading
I’m back! I know there is a small-but-loyal following for this blog, and perhaps some of you noticed my being AWOL the last few months. Truth is, I’ve been so busy writing that managing a blog, too, was more than I could do. I just finished the manuscript for the 7th edition of Creativity in … Continue reading
I’m not a regular watcher of America’s Got Talent, but the pandemic changes many things. So, recently, I ended up watching the last few episodes of the talent competition. There were singers, lightening-speed dancers, magicians, death-defying aerialists, and one extraordinary spoken word artist, Brandon Leake. The first time I heard his poetry, it took my … Continue reading
As we consider the social emotional strengths that will serve students well in building creativity—and in learning—one good place to start is with The Henry Ford Museum’s Model i, a model of design thinking for innovation. The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation is exactly what the name suggests, an extraordinary collection of artifacts showcasing … Continue reading
In recent weeks, social media has exploded with a debate about schools reopening. And—like pretty much everything else related to schools—everyone seems to have an opinion, regardless of whether they’ve been near a public school in recent years. Can you tell I’m frustrated? I think I’ve read one too many posts suggesting teachers need to … Continue reading
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