Every school needs an innovation day

Although the pressure of having to cover loads of content so that students do well on standardized tests is real, given the success of the Innovation Day, Mathew Bebbington believes every school should allocate one day per week for students to learn freely through projects. Doing so would certainly help students see how what they're learning can be applied to problems in the real world. After all, that's the kind of thing that makes students fall in love with learning, not moment-in-time test scores.


More here: http://www.good.is/post/why-every-school-needs-an-innovation-day/

What is a school for?

The economy has changed, probably forever.

School hasn't.

School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer.

In this 30,000 word manifesto, I imagine a different set of goals and start (I hope) a discussion about how we can reach them. One thing is certain: if we keep doing what we've been doing, we're going to keep getting what we've been getting.

Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/stop_stealing_dreams/2012/02/stop-stealing-dreams-the-entire-manifesto-on-the-web.html

You can download it in various formats

12 things you were not taught about creative thinking at school

Shared by Robert Alan Black


http://www.creativitypost.com/create/twelve_things_you_were_not_taught_in_school_about_creative_thinking

The only way to thrive is to innovate. It's that simple.

Alex Tabarrok, professor at economics at George Mason University, says that only one thing will provide an edge: innovation. In response, Tabarrok has come up with a plan to launch a new “Innovation Renaissance,” powered by such diverse elements as patent reform and an educational overhaul.
http://blog.ted.com/2011/12/01/ted-book-maps-a-new-age-of-creativity-and-invention-launching-the-innovation-renaissance/

Does education stifle creativity?

The idea that formal education reduces creativity appears to be supported largely by anecdotes rather than scientific evidence, although it is sometimes cited as if it were a well established fact. More here:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/youre-hired/201111/does-education-stifle-creativity

Why education without creativity isn't enough!

Science and math won't improve U.S. job prospects. But creativity will.
Last April, when sharing a stage at Facebook with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, President Obama summed up the conventional wisdom on what's needed to shape American minds for the global marketplace. "We've got to do such a better job when it comes to STEM education," he said. "That's how we're going to stay competitive for the future." If we could just tighten standards and lean harder on the STEM disciplines--science, technology, engineering, mathematics--we'd better our rigorous rivals in India and China, and get our economy firing on all cylinders. As with much conventional wisdom, this is conventional in the worst sense of that word.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/159/indian-engineers-education

Standardised education is killing creativity.

This from the States but could equally apply to what is happening in New Zealand.
"Buckminster Fuller said, "Look into the eyes of a newborn baby and you will see the spark and the soul of a genius."
So, why do we take that baby and spend 12-plus years schooling its genius out?"
http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/opinion/columnists/x1498053445/Nardone-Standardized-education-is-killing-U-S-creativity#axzz1Rho9t1no

Creativity and Agility

Imagination - creating the future of education and work.
Great blog - take a look at all the chapters.
http://creatingthefuturetoday.com/pages/144

Learning to Change

The future for schools?
http://www.schooltube.com/video/003fa63af9c844f1b824/Learning-to-Change

Education for the Real World

“I have come to a frightening conclusion,” writes Haim Ginott, in his book Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication (Three Rivers Press, 2003). “I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child de-humanized or humanized.”

More here: http://brainworldmagazine.com/?p=934

Seven reasons not to send your kid to college.

Is investing in a college education money wasted? James Altucher, managing director of Formula Capital, says it is. In this video interview, Altucher argues that there are far better ways to put your money to work to benefit your kids. Controversial? You bet, but his ideas are certainly food for thought.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/seven-reasons-not-to-send-your-kids-to-college/19572537/

A Revolution in Education Needed

Sir Ken Robinson at TED 2010
http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html

More from Sir Ken on Education

From The Guardian Review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/10/teaching-sats

Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University

At Father Guido Sarduccis Five Minute University, he teaches what an average college graduate knows after five years from graduation in five minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4

Fits well with my experience. Maybe Universities, schools and other educational establishments have had their day in their current form!

Who kills creativity?

Does school kill creativity?

Do people lose creative ability over time, and is our education system the culprit?

Find out for yourself in this fascinating video series ... as children get older, they often see themselves as less creative.

Gaia and Andrew Grant went back to school to find out if children have any ideas on how adults can become more creative.

They were not surprised to discover that their findings correlated with the latest research from Harvard.

These links will take you to the videos.

Hands Up Part 1: How Creative are You?
Hands Up Part 2: Creativity secrets from the Kids
Hands Up Part 3: Creativity secrets from the Experts

What is Creativity?

UK teachers share their thoughts on what creativity is and how it can be supported in the classroom.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/video/2009/jun/16/a-z-creativity
And while you are on the site check out the Creative Summer video clips.

Fostering Creative Minds

With literacy and numeracy given top priority in schools, and the Government's push for new national academic standards, are our kids having their creativity educated out of them? MICHELLE DUFF of the Manawatu Standard reports.

Little kids will draw anywhere they can.
A scrawl on the wallpaper, a dash on the table. A swirl of something in their mashed potato and gravy at dinner.
Forget pencils and crayons they will make something out of anything. Egg cartons, uncooked macaroni, leaves, shells, wool, iceblock sticks, playdough.
Give a kid materials and some spare time, and he or she will make you their version of a masterpiece.
"Children are born with a huge amount of creativity," says Geoff Lovegrove, principal of Feilding's Lytton Street primary school.
"A little kid can create anything out of anything.
"They are hugely creative when they are young, and somehow they lose that when they are about 16 as a process of their schooling, it's drilled out of them."
These concerns are being discussed by teachers throughout the country, as the Ministry of Education narrows its focus on literacy and numeracy in schools.
In May, the Government announced a new set of national standards, due to be finalised at the end of 2010.
These standards will measure academic achievement in reading, writing and mathematics, in every pupil aged 5 to 12.
Though the Government says these standards will be used to provide clearer indications of children's progress, teachers are less convinced. They fear data collected on pupils could be used to create "league tables", ranking schools on their performances.
And some, like Mr Lovegrove, say a New Zealand curriculum that already focuses almost "single-mindedly" on literacy and numeracy, is cheating kids out of a holistic education.
"That is the difficulty, that's what worries us," Mr Lovegrove says.
"For some years, primary schools have been told we must focus on literacy and numeracy which is quite right, the reading, writing and maths side of the curriculum is critical.
"But we know how important art is, especially for children.
"There are so many children whose achievement comes out through the arts if they are excelling at visual arts, drama or music, we can hit on that as something to celebrate and draw them out with, and then they will excel at other things as well."
At the International Conference of Principals in Singapore last week, Mr Lovegrove was concerned by speeches given by top primary school educators.
Principals from the United States and Britain spoke of their frustration at the pressure placed on their schools to achieve high results in standardised maths, reading and writing tests, he says.
"We don't want to go down a path that overseas schools have gone down, and realise there are so many kids who could be excelling in the arts, but they don't get the chance because of the fear of the national testing.
"Their whole school arts programmes are being shot to pieces or not funded because they're focusing single-mindedly on their test results, and that's sad."
And kids love art.
The New Zealand National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP), run by Otago University since 1995, shows visual art is ranked by Year 4 children as their second most popular subject.
At the same time, the survey recorded declining levels of art ability in both Year 4 and Year 8 students.
In the 2007 survey, art-making efforts of students at Year 4 received global ratings of fair, poor and very poor 75 per cent to 90 per cent of the time, rarely receiving marks of very good or excellent. Year 8 results were only slightly better.
It doesn't stack up, College Street Normal School principal Ross Kennedy says, and it's time that something was done.
"We need to be fostering the creativity of the kids far, far more than we have been in the past 20 or 30 years.
"We need kids who can think creatively and outside the square, especially to deal with issues coming up in the future, like sustainability and conservation.
"Unless we give kids the opportunity to really get involved in the areas they are passionate about, this isn't going to happen."
Most primary school teachers are "generalists" who do a good job at teaching everything, but might not actively encourage artistic talents, he says.
A recent Sunday Star Times report says trainee primary school teachers are receiving a decreasing amount of art training.
As a result, children might be missing out on creative and critical thinking skills, it says.
Massey University College of Education senior art lecturer Paul Hansen says the total hours spent teaching the arts including visual art, drama, music and dance has reduced over the years.
This is partly to do with the curriculum focus on literacy and numeracy, he says.
But it is also because, with the introduction of a new four-year degree, the course is moving from the traditional single-subject focus to a more interdisciplinary approach.
Today, teachers should be thinking of ways they can incorporate art into everything they do whether it be a science, maths, or writing topic, he says.
And art lessons should be worked into other units, to make connections with other subjects.
With so much media around kids in their everyday lives, schools have to be more innovative, Mr Hansen says.
"We've got to find ways of engaging them. It's not surprising kids can get turned off if they're not in an environment that doesn't stimulate them.
" `No sames,' that's my motto - colouring in photocopies is not art education.
"You need to do something the children can respond to and connect with in an individual way," Mr Hansen says.

Reprinted with permission from Michael Cummings Editor Manawatu Standard

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/features/arts-on-friday/