So this morning I woke up early AGAIN (how proud are we?!) because I had to take the Mister’s car in for some tire maintenance (that’s what the light said so I’ll go with that…). On my way home, I was listening to NPR (I love NPR!) and they had a story about Sir Ken Robinson and a TED Talk he did a few years ago. It is the most viewed TED Talk EVER! (TED Talks are awesome! If you’ve never listened to any of the talks, you must! They’re very inspiring!). This particular talk was about creativity and our education system. BAM! I love art and creativity and I despise how these two areas are shunned in our current system. After listening to the story (he’s a funny man) and listening to the TED Talk, I was inspired to write this post!
Here is the link to the NPR Story!
Here is the TED Talk! It’s about 20 minutes long but worth listening to.
http://embed.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
After listening to Ken’s talk, I reflected on my own classroom. I was pleased to realize that we do art projects almost every single day. Our classroom and our hallway are covered with the artwork of my students. In fact, we have to have our art displayed in the library and other hallways because there is so much of it. Now, Mr. Greg, how in the world do you squeeze in art when you have to meet the Common Core in math and reading?! Get ready…I’m going to share a Kindergarten Smorgasboard secret with you….get your fun pens, your fancy planners, your notebooks and iPads ready…here it comes….
I use the art to meet the Common Core. If I can’t make the art meet the Common Core I add a writing component to the art and BAM! It’s academic.
Art and creativity should not be another thing to work in. Use it to your advantage. Include with the story on rainbows. Make it a comprehension activity. Turn the story into a writing prompt and students can create a picture to accompany their writing. Instead of an addition worksheet, have students make a picture to go with word problems.
I am always so proud of the data for my class at the end of the year. My students consistently score proficient/benchmark/above average or however you classify it. People always ask how they do it and I think I’ve found the answer. I allow them to be creative in the classroom. That creativity allows them to think differently. It allows them to process better. And it makes them better students.
Here is one of my favorite quotes from this talk:
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3 comments
My school recently went IB PYP so we have 6 units during the year. One of them is How We Express Ourselves. Now, we had to write the curriculum for each of these this year as we taught using our county's materials, what ever we could find and meet the standards. This was the last unit we did and we loved it. We studied several of the Masters and styles like Seurat, Van Gogh, Modrian & Pollack, illustrators we love like Ehlert, Carle & Mo Willems, textile design, books like Not A Stick and The Dot. We had done several research projects with paragraph writing in our animals unit so I tried to have a weekly craft in that as well including the final project which was clay where the kinders justified body parts based on functions and habitat. What I enjoyed most about our “Art” unit was the literature. We read Regina's Big Mistake, The Dot, and Ish which were all about looking at our “mistakes” in a new way and creating from them, about appreciating different styles. And yes we taught standards – research, writing, expository and literacy skills.
Jenn
Apologies in advance for such a long comment!
I love Ken's presentations on TED Talks – especially the one you've linked to. I watched it in my first year of teaching when I started feeling a little depressed in regards to the curriculum and the lack-of-emphasis on creativity (starting to get to that point with our new National Curriculum, too). He's such an inspiring speaker, and has lots of really valid points. Creativity IS as important as Literacy and Numeracy and CAN be combined in both those areas (and others), with a higher success rate for students. We often talk about students learning in different ways, but often our curriculum places limitations on that. Such a sad occurrence.
As for creative projects in the classroom – I love to have a project/art activity for all the sounds that we're learning, usually involving collage, cutting (for fine motor development) and 3D elements. I also love including the students in the artwork – using their photos and adding collage elements to emphasis the topic we're focusing on. I love having students create their own collage papers (ala Eric Carle), exploring directed drawing to emphasis that everyone approaches a task differently, but the end results are all wonderful. And in a pinch, creating class books (on anything and EVERYthing – from books, to mathematical concepts, to social issues) and having students illustrate them. And then crafts for book responses…
And, of course, there's using music and song to learn.
I think I'm going to go and re-watch Ken's TED Talk now!
Stef
Miss Galvin Learns
I LOVE that you posted that video!! I watched it several months ago on Netflix and I was in awe!!! The public school system can definitely put a damper on creativity… I have a love for private school. I taught Kinder at a private school and even though the pay was WAY lower…. I had far more freedom with the curriculum. My admin had complete trust in me as a professional, which was more valuable than I wanted to admit at that time!!
I went to private school from K-7th grade, but creativity was actually quite frowned upon in the younger grades. I was one of those right-minded, left-handed… thinkers and I often felt boxed. The discipline proved to benefit and balance my need to go creatively nuts; however, sometimes I often wonder how my skills may differ as an adult if my creative gifts were encouraged in those younger years…. I definitely think I would have far more to offer the world!!
Great post!!!
Michelle
The 3AM Teacher
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