Creativity and Learning

I am so excited about creativity and learning. I can’t read enough or learn enough about how students learn and what creativity has to do with it. (Speaking of reading and learning about creativity and learning: I’m just finishing up The Element by Sir Ken Robinson for #geniushour chat on Wednesday, January 2, at 8:00 p.m.)

Tonight my husband and I had three little girls come over for some fun, food, and fellowship while their parents went out to eat and to a movie. They brought a bunch of new toys and fun things to do, and we did almost all of what they brought. There was one thing we didn’t do, though. Here are some things the four-year-old said, which will show why…

“I brought all these coloring books, but I don’t want to use them.”
“Do you have any plain white paper?”
“Can we hang them up?”
“Doesn’t our art museum look nice?

I was tickled that she was so creative and had so much fun. Her two sisters (ages 1 and 2) and my husband and I were creating up a storm too. I was impressed that Keith just kept going in and getting more paper whenever they ran out.

One of the things I did on my paper was to make dots and connect them, and Miss A asked me what I was doing. I told her about the video I watched yesterday where Vi Hart connected dots and made really beautiful mathematical creations. She was curious. I made a graph for her to connect some dots.


We had so much fun! Creativity and learning. It was happening here tonight. And I’m glad the coloring books stayed in the bag.

Take One Step at A Time

Last year at about this time, a few of my students and I wanted to learn how to make a robot. I had heard Gary Stager suggest robot building was one thing you could do with a laptop.

I had absolutely no experience or knowledge about making a robot, but I did learn enough to know that Lego Mindstorms NXT Software was a good place to start. Then I realized that besides lacking experience and knowledge, I also had no resources.

So, we temporarily gave up our dream of building a robot, and instead we learned to program on Scratch, which we thought was a step toward robotics.

Now, here we are just one year later. Things have changed, thanks to the State of Iowa’s Scale Up STEM grants. We received a grant to be part of the FIRST LEGO League and to receive a LEGO Mindstorms robot. Yesterday we took our robot, Roger, and competed in a regional FLL competition.

During the Robot Design challenge, Roger drove from base and onto the bridge without wavering. It was the most rewarding moment of competition!

On Saturday during breaks in the competition, we dreamed of how to extend our learning. We want to spend a portion of our remaining grant to get another robot, so the team can get better, but also so more people can learn to program robots. We talked about trying to do programming during part of our exploratory class and then have our own competition among teams.

These discussions were happening at the end of our competition. This was on a Saturday. They got up before dawn and drove 1.5 hours to be there all day long. These kids are passionate, lifelong LEARNERS!

I can’t help but think of what wonderful things are in store for us next year!

What steps are you and your students taking on the road to lifelong passionate learning?

It’s 12/12/12!

It’s 12/12/12, and I have at least 12 x 12 x 12 reasons I love my junior highers. Since listing all 1,728 reasons could be time and space prohibitive, I’ll just list 12 reasons I love my students.

  1. They have spirit. They do things with enthusiasm. When we have dress up days for special occasions, I can’t wait to see what they will wear next. When asked to sell coffee and chocolate this fall for a school fundraiser, they hit a home run, smashing through the $11,000 goal that was set.
  2. They are game for new experiences. First Lego League, KidWind, geocaching…it doesn’t matter. When I introduce something new, students rise to the occasion. Someone grabs the reigns and inspires the more reluctant to join in the pandemonium.
  3. They know how to laugh. Of course, all kids laugh! I must say, though, one of the wonderful things about my students is, for the most part, they know how to laugh. They know how to laugh with people, not so much at people.
  4. They are passionate learners. They are becoming lifelong learners and taking ownership of their learning. My students always have their next idea for genius hour on deck.
  5. They take a challenge with grace and persistence. For instance, in August I told my students I wanted them to take the 40-book challenge, reading more than they’ve ever read before. Many are on track to read 40 or many more books. When I ask them how they are doing on that challenge, almost all say yes, they are reading more than they ever have before.
  6. They contribute, making the world a better place. I could go on and on about this, but two things. In the fall, they raised $1780 for American Cancer Society. Along with the high school students, this month they brought in a pile of presents, wrapped and ready to give to two needy area families.
  7. They don’t mind my messes.They joke with me. They ask why Roz isn’t doing her job reminding me to “file the paperwork.” But, all in all, they are patient with my messes.
  8. They know how to be underdogs. Our school is small. They love sports and the students play with passion and enthusiasm, always rejoicing in a win, but not getting downtrodden with the losses.
  9. They love God. I love being in a Catholic school where we can worship and pray together.
  10. They love others. Because God said loving people is a priority, my students take that seriously. They love each other like brothers and sisters. They love their church, community, and the world…
  11. Including me. I am so blessed to be able to call myself their teacher. They make me happy to come to school because I know they love me.
  12. They are geniuses. They create, produce, question, and make a difference.

I can’t imagine doing anything else with my days! 

Here are the students’ 12/12/12 posts.

Nominated for Best Educational Wiki

Nominated for Best Educational Wiki

How exciting! The Genius Hour wiki, started about a year ago, by Gallit Zvi in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, has been nominated for the best educational wiki in the 2012 Edublog Awards.

Congrats to all the genius teachers who, by giving choice to their learners, inspire genius!

You can vote for the Genius Hour wiki by choosing the category of Educational Wiki on the Edublog Award list voting page. You can vote once a day until Sunday.

In Honor of Our Genius Hour Tribe!

I’m Getting It!

I’m starting to get what Sir Ken Robinson in The Element is talking about regarding intelligence and creativity. But it’s not easy!

People are intelligent in many different ways — not just verbal and mathematical reasoning, which are the prime targets in “intelligence” measurements (and peoples’ opinions about what constitutes intelligence).

I liked Robinson’s explanation of the three features of human intelligence on pages 46-51 and then again when describing creative teams on pages 125-126.

Diverse – Sir Ken Robinson points out that there is extraordinary diversity in the kinds of intelligence that people have, besides words and numbers, intelligence can be musical, kinesthetic, rhythmic, visual, interpersonal, mechanical, etc., etc.

Dynamic – Intelligence is also dynamic. We are not only good at one thing, but our dynamic brain is always interacting and forming connections and analogies. For instance, Albert Einstein often sat up late playing his violin while he thought deeply, the music helping him work out his complex problems.

Distinctive – We are uniquely intelligent, according to Robinson, “Every person’s intelligence is as unique as a fingerprint.” Each of us has an intelligence profile, a combination of some dormant and some dominant intelligences.

As I’ve been reading the first five chapters of this transformative book, I am starting to get it. I think I really can ask my students to propose their own idea for genius hour — not some version of my own.

Up until now, I have been hesitating. I think genius hour should be about research, reading, and writing. I thrive on reading and writing. For pity sake, this is the fifth blog post in four days. I need to write! It helps me learn, but I realize I have expected my students to have the same intelligences as me.

Last week, when a student asked about doing genius hour on something related to physical education, I said no, that he couldn’t just have more P.E. class for genius hour. (I’m sorry, J.)

I think Sir Ken Robinson would have slapped me upside the head if he had heard me. Why did I say that? Because I didn’t value physical intelligence. But now I do, so yes, you can do a P.E.-style genius hour. (I think! Do I dare?) What will it look like?

Genius hour friends, help me! Can I really let them learn anything? Do I really mean it when I say genius hour is for being creative and productive and learning what you choose? Friends, how do you handle choice?

Thank goodness #geniushour chat is coming up! Wednesday, December 5, at 9:00 p.m. EST. I need it!  The first half hour we’ll help each other figure out how to bring genius hour into the classroom. For the second half hour, we’ll discuss chapters 1-5 of Sir Ken Robinson’s book The Element.

Confession: I figured my eighth graders needed another role model besides their “No-you-can’t-develop-your-physical-intelligence teacher, so I started reading The Element to them today. So, you see, I need my PLN to continue to inspire me with genius hour.

Join us Wednesday for the best chat around! I can’t wait!

It Takes an Adult

I love hearing passionate people talk about passionate learning.

M.T. Anderson gave an amazing speech to accept a 2009 Printz Honor for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves(I just finished volume 1, The Pox Party. An awesome read!)

I wish I had heard him give the speech, but I enjoyed reading “On the Intelligence of Teens.” Here is an excerpt:

No child naturally hates knowledge. No toddler comes into the world saying, “Don’t tell me how stuff works. I don’t give a s%*t. Learning about the world sucks a#&.” Few Kindergarten classes are plagued by incuriousness. Few seven year olds can’t stand hearing about weird stuff that happens on the other side of the planet.

No, it takes an adult to make a child hate knowing things. The fact is, kids don’t believe that thinking isn’t fun until we tell them so.

We need to stop talking about how teens aren’t equal to challenges. Evidence suggests that kids respond strongly to our expectations, positive or negative. If enough of us have high expectations of their achievements, I believe that kids will rise to meet those expectations.

Anderson’s line “It takes an adult to make a child hate knowing things” makes me shiver. (It reminded me of some other important words Jesus spoke to teachers.)

It does take an adult to be a learning-joy-sucker, doesn’t it? I have had my share of lessons that I only taught them, thinking that was the goal. How off I was. The goal is for them to learn. I am ashamed of mistakes I’ve made in the past, but I am trying to make up for them with present and future students.

Read a Washington Post author profile about M.T. Anderson here.

At the time of this post, M.T.’s webpage is unavailable, but when it’s back, you can find it here and the speech here too.

What Does Technology Have to Do With It?

Technology, circa 1980s & 90s

Technology is just a tool, not an end.

I used to think it was more. Technology was novel and cool and I wanted as much in my classroom as I could get.

I asked the essential question, “How can I use technology as a tool to improve student learning?”  I learned that mantra from the Intel Teach to the Future program I was a part of at the turn of the century. (I love the sound of that…turn of the century. I used to think of automobiles and electricity coming at the turn of the century. Now it has a whole new meaning.)

Most people in the year 2000 didn’t know about using technology to connect and collaborate with people in other parts of the world. The technology I used was really just an enhancement of typical curriculum. With all my cool technology — and it was cutting edge — my classroom was still teacher-directed. We had a projector, the Internet, a laptop cart with Microsoft programs, yet, it seems I was still up front a good portion of my day.

My Student Sample, Circa, 2000

In the Intel program I took my second grade rocks and minerals unit and enhanced it with technology. I created student samples of a PowerPoint and Publisher web page and newsletter, all with content and links from the Internet. It was high-tech, and, in theory, I was to bring it back and have my students create PowerPoints, web pages, and newsletters using the Microsoft programs. It was powerful and intimidating, difficult and unwieldy. We tried in second grade, and we did some amazing things, but in many ways it just ended up being a “cool” way to share the same content that I had always taught. I think it was some of the most innovative and cutting-edge use of technology in the classroom in 2000, but I didn’t quite get the vision. Most of us didn’t get it.

Twelve years later and now I know that technology is just a small part of it. Today, my mantra is “How can my geniuses be empowered to connect, create, contribute and collaborate in an ever-changing world?”

It’s not about technology. Here are two reasons why.

  • The tech has lost its novelty. Kids have been raised in a digital age. (Not the same as “they all know how to use technology” because they don’t. Some of them love technology and take to it naturally. A few don’t like technology, and they think they would be happy to avoid mastering all the programs and possibilities.)
  • We like to get our hands dirty with the real things — good old “analogue” rocks, for instance, in my rocks and minerals unit. (Can I use that word “analogue” as the opposite of “digital”?) We’ve all figured out that we can’t and don’t want to do everything on computers.

However, it’s a little bit about technology. Since I became a connected educator, the technology has done something radical to my students and me. Though it’s not everything, technology is vital. I found that the Internet has been a catalyst, a fuse, a fire starter connecting me with other like-minded, fiery educators, amazing innovators and educational reformers who I otherwise would not have met. These people (aided by technology) have launched, spurred, carried me to a whole new way of learning, thinking, and teaching (and a great bag of mixed metaphors).

My students have experienced the benefit of my transformation. They are truly geniuses, empowered to connect, create, contribute and collaborate in an ever-changing world.

It’s not about the technology. It’s about the learning. I’ll say it again and again, you are going to become irrelevant if you don’t become the chief learner in your classroom. (However, I do still think technology is cool.)