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Best Practices
Welcome to our class Blog site
About Me
- Dr. T.
- Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN, United States
- My first experience with computers was in 1970. The "big thing" then was "time sharing" & you were lucky to have time on those computers once or twice a week. I had my first desktop computer in 1981 with an early IBM PC. I wrote a program to teach my daughter how to spell her name... later kept her swim team records on that computer. In 1988, I went back to the teaching profession & started keeping student grades on a computer... also used software for science labs. Then in 1991, I first started having my students use the Internet, with a WorldWide Classroom project that allowed students to send messages to about a dozens classrooms in Russian, England, & the US. You couldn't edit or make any corrections then. Whatever you typed had to go through, as you just couldn't backtrack. I came to Lipscomb in 1998 & began teaching online courses a year later. Since then, I’ve added wikis and blogs to course work. In fact, I teach another grad course about Web 2.0 technologies. Technology is extremely important for every classroom teacher. No matter what your subject area, technology should be an integral part of teaching and learning in your classroom!
5 comments:
This is not the first time I have seen this TED talk, and it still blows me away. The points that stick out to me are that we truly do have to educate the entire person, mind, body and soul for success in a future in which we cannot know what struggles and challenges will arise. Education runs deep with people, as Ken Robinson states, because it is meant to take us into that future. The shocking fact that sticks out of this talk for me is that children entering school this year will retire in 2065. We truly have no way of knowing what 2065 will look like.
Ken Robinson takes this idea forward to argue that because of the unpredictability of the future, we need to educate our children in creativity to solve future problems. It is as important as literacy. We need to create a safe community where students feel comfortable taking risks and where they can learn not to be scared of mistakes. If we truly treated mistakes as learning opportunities, then we would be better nurturing the creativity of each person. I think it is true that education has progressed to focus on the waist up of each child, and then slightly to one side of the brain. Ken Robinson states that because of this, “many highly talented, creative, brilliant people think that they are not.” With the unpredictable future ahead of us, this is no longer a shame, it is downright unacceptable.
This was a very interesting video clip. Ken Robinson definitely presented a very challenging concept to educators. It makes me a little sad to think that as educators we are squandering student’s creativity but I know this is often true. I feel that many teachers are consumed with test scores and benchmarks so we lose focus on the fact that we are not just preparing students for tests but also for the future. Because of these test scores I feel that many teachers also lose their creativity. I like Mr. Robinson’s point about how we are preparing students for the future and we don’t even know what our world will be like in 5 years. I believe that one of the things I love about teaching Kindergarten is that Kindergartners are not afraid to be wrong. They are always willing to try new things and be corrected. They often correct me. There have been many times in class when we have been working on an assignment and they have misunderstood my directions. I always enjoy hearing how they came to the conclusion that they reached.
We all know those students who could not sit still in class. I enjoyed the story that Mr. Robinson shared about the little girl that eventually became the choreographer for several Broadway plays. I love that there was someone willing to help her find her creative outlet. As teachers I feel that we often play psychiatrist diagnosing students. I hope that I can be like the person that helped the little girl from the story. I believe it is important for students to find their creative outlet. By helping student’s to find their creative outlet we are preparing them for the future. Unfortunately once again the focus of test scores makes us lose the real focus. Mr. Robinson’s message challenged me to think about how I am preparing my students for the future.
All I can say is WOW! This absolutely blew me away! What a visionary this man is. I agree with this video completely. Creativity is flying out the window. When he was talking about the woman who was the choreographer I could not help think about a girl I have in my class. She drives me crazy! She is ALWAYs out of her seat. She is always talking she is all over the place. Everyone who interacts with her says she is text book ADHD. I putting kids on medicine. When I was a younger child I was text book ADHD, and honestly I think I still am. My mother put me on some pretty strong medicine, I hated the way it made me feel. I wouldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I wouldn't talk. I was literally a walking zomby. My mother would say, "this will help you concentrate." Well that part was right I could concentrate. I could stare a hole through a piece of wood I was concentrating so hard. I was like this all day. I would be like this until after dinner, and by then it was time to go to bed and start all over the nest day. I eventually started hiding the pills she would give me.
Now that I am a teacher I try to find other ways to help educate my students to the best of their ability. You might call me a kinesthic learner. If I had a teacher teach me kinesthicly I was set! I love how the TED story unfolded. Instead of saying "oh put her on some medicine" they found other ways to teach her. She is a creative learner. She learns through dance. In the video the man talks about how you dont learn creativity you grow out of it. I completely agree. Students can look at things in so many different ways, and do things in different ways. I hope that I can be a teacher whom embraces a students creativity and does not kill it. Im so glad that the teacher in TED's story did not kill the chorographer's creativity or the WORLD sure would have missed out!
I must agree with Mr. Robinson. Education steers children away from creativity and towards academic skills that will provide them with careers. According to Mr. Robinson, children are not taught to dance the way that they are taught mathematics. Children love to dance. I loved to dance as a child. In fact, I loved art as a child. When I applied to college, I agonized over my potential major. Everyone around me, particularly my parents, encouraged me to choose a discipline that would drive me towards a job upon graduation. I decided upon advertising, hoping for the best combination of the arts and business. My first internship was a disaster. I hated it and adamantly determined not to follow this degree in the future. If I could return to the freshman year of college, I would tell myself to choose what I really loved – art history. Not only would I be more prepared for the job I hope to attain, a museum curator, but I also would believe in my own ability with more confidence. Talents in the arts are stigmatized.
Mr. Robinson advocates that we “educate people out of creativity.” Intelligence is “dynamic” and “diverse.” As such an energetic force, intelligence should be taught in all of its forms. The human brain is dynamic and learns in many capacities. Students learn kinesthetically and visually, and their learning styles should be celebrated.
As more students enter education, the value of a degree lessens. Higher degrees are required for jobs in major industries. We cannot afford to continue valuing only left-sided subjects. There are only so many job positions available in these areas. Highly creative people do not believe their talent because they are told in school that their skills are not as important as “core subjects” like math and science. I must agree with Mr. Robinson, as his points mirror my own beliefs about the value of creativity and its absence in education.
This video presented many very interesting points in an entertaining way. I think that alone speaks to what Ken Robinson is saying. He was creative in his delivery and used humor and anecdotal stories to convey his points, rather than a 3 point summary or another less creative way.
It is a very bold statement for Ken Robinson to make that "creativity is as important as literacy." With the emphasis placed on Balanced Literacy and reading in the classroom, it is difficult to imagine what could be as important. But he is so right. If there is one thing teachers must remember, it is that children are not the same. No two children are exactly alike and can be taught exactly alike. One thing they do have in common, though is another point he makes: "Kids are not frightened of being wrong. If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." This notion that children are taught throughout school that they should be frightened of being wrong is so very true. Not only in schools, but I think often just in family dynamics, it is drilled into children's head to attain perfection. Obviously this is not possible. The cavalier nature of children is what educators should capitalize on, as Ken Robinson implies. When they are ready to take on the world and even attempt to draw a picture of God, as he related in his story, should be used as an opportunity to see what amazing things the students create.
Another point that is very interesting is Ken Robinson's statement that the "whole purpose of our education systems is to produce university professors." I would consider myself not the most "creative" or "artistic" person, so I think my education and college career probably led me to a path that being a university professor may be an option one day. But for other students, this is obviously not the path that is right for them. It would be good if our systems and processes could be analyzed so that newer ideas and ways of doing education could be implemented to take advantage of the overabundance of creativity in our students.
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