As I said last week, it has been quite a summer. The biggest adventure of the season was my trip to Antofagasta, Chile to meet with the wonderful teachers of the Tarpuq project. I thoroughly enjoyed my meetings there—including the chance to speak to an audience listening to a translation through headphones, and working with … Continue reading
Students spend a LOT of time in school answering questions. Yet one of the most important ways we can help them develop creative (and critical) thinking is to help them ask questions–not just questions about their textbook content, but real questions about the world around them. And then, of course, they need the tools to … Continue reading
I love a good mystery. (OK, I love a good mystery without too much gore, and with all characters I’ve come to love still alive at the end.) Anyway. I also love the idea of Mystery Skype, both for what it is and what it could become. The basic premise of Mystery Skype is simple. … Continue reading
It is a strange phenomenon when your early days become the stuff of antique stores and history books. I’m occasionally startled in antique stores to see toys from my childhood. And when I talk to young friends about their studies of the Viet Nam War or the Civil Rights movement, it is clear that those … Continue reading
How much time do you spend thinking about bugs? Have you thought about how they’ve changed the world? Sarah Albee has. The first time I spotted the book Bugged: How Insects Changed History, I was fascinated. In it, Albee recounts notable events in world history that were caused by insects. Did you know insects were … Continue reading
The Star Spangled Banner is 200 years old this year. Like many Americans, I suspect, I learned in school that it was written by Francis Scott Key after a battle in the War of 1812—possibly to the tune of an old drinking song. I assumed it became the national anthem soon after that. I was … Continue reading
I’ll admit it—I get a lot of ideas from Facebook. While there is much there I’d just as soon avoid, I love keeping in touch with far off friends, and I love seeing the examples of creativity I’d never find on my own. Today’s post started with a Facebook link to artist Chino Otsuka, who … Continue reading
One of the most exciting things about teaching in ways that support creativity, is that teaching for creativity can also support sound thinking. That is certainly true for the website iCivics. Founded by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics is designed to prepare young people to be knowledgeable and involved citizens—and do it … Continue reading
My husband loves television and is the classic remote “clicker,” as he speeds across the channels in search of the next most-interesting-thing. As a result, I learn about all kinds of strangely-fascinating programs I might never discover. One of these is History Channel’s American Pickers, a reality show that follows “pickers” Mike Wolfe and Frank … Continue reading
If you live far from the Salt Lake Valley, your first response to this post’s title may have been, “Pioneer what?” While students across the United States study westward expansion in school, only in Utah (as far as I know) do pioneers get their own holiday, July 24. Pioneer Day commemorates the day the Mormon … Continue reading
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