As teachers, how can we change the world most powerfully?
By unlocking the strengths of our students.
Think of Peter H. Reynolds's seventh grade math teacher, who saw him doodling and called him aside after class. Mr. Matson didn't admonish him, but asked if Peter would use his drawing skills to create a comic to illustrate to the class the difficult math concept they were learning. Talk about impact!
Read MoreStudents in a high school history class have just completed their final projects and everyone sits down for presentations. About halfway through, just as everyone’s eyes are starting to droop, someone’s presentation blows everyone else’s out of the water - it’s creative; it’s funny; it’s enthralling. At the end, several students remark, “Well, I didn’t know we could do THAT!”
How to approach our teaching so that students WILL think above and beyond in terms of what is asked, and use their creativity!
Read MoreCreativity is one of the most powerful actions our brains can carry out. Some people think that being creative is something extra, like the seasoning on a meal, but in truth it is the meal. Without creativity, it’s as though you’ve just got raw ingredients (like knowledge, ideas, and know-how); however, when you use creativity to combine those ingredients in a meaningful way, you’ll find that you’ve turned individual components into something substantial, useful, and unique.
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