Saturday, August 22, 2009

"Creativity now is as important in education as literacy."-- Sir Ken Robinson

The first statement that really sent my imagination reeling in this video was his observation of the academic hierarchy of learning. This hierarchy, Sir Robinson says, is headed by mathematics and closely followed by language, then the humanities, and finally the arts.
How can we, as teachers, incorporate dance, art, and music into more the more socially sensible subjects of mathematics and language? Why have worksheets and spelling drills become more predominant tools for teachers? How can we revolutionize these boring techniques?
Teachers, especially elementary teachers, are responsible for cultivating well-rounded, and successful pupils. We are meant to encourage their discovery of each of their unique talents and interests while simultaneously teaching them how to achieve high scores on state standards tests. If you take that little feat, and combine it with the fact that we are supposed to do this on a budget that induces large class sizes with limited or no reasonable access to up-to-date technologies and resources-- you should be come overwhelmed with questions and ideas for possible solutions to the many obvious hurtles we must face as teachers. (Blogging is a good way to communicate those solutions so that your peers can help troubleshoot and build upon them.)
One question/ thought that occurred to me as I spaced out while reading and listening to Sir Robinson's speech was this; Are we teachers allowed to coordinate fundraisers for in the classroom supplies? How is fund raising for a computer any different from asking children to bring glue or asking their parents to volunteer their time in the class setting? Does the computer (or whatever technology/ tool) belong to the teacher's classroom or can it be redistributed according to the will of the presiding principal?

In summary, this video is about cultivating creativity.

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