1. What were the key ideas you noted from the C-Content speakers. Any synthesis thoughts on them as a whole?
John Seeley Brown The main idea that I noted was we need to play with content. We can’t be afraid to fail multiple times before finally getting it right. As teachers we have to teach children how to deal with these feelings of not always having an answer or that there is only one right answer. Brown talks about a blended epistemology. Being all three, knowing of content, making or the context and playing. Riddles are a good way to frame be ideas to get students to think out side of the box and collaborate. Howard Gardner The key ideas are Gardner’s 5 minds; discipline, synthesizing, creating, respect and ethics. I find it interesting that the years to mastery within a discipline has been cut in half due to technology. When looking at respect and ethics, children have a tendency to be respectful with peers and those within their community. They struggle with respect and ethics when it doesn’t personally relate to them on a global level. Our society does not reinforce these traits and the job of teaching these life skills now becomes the teacher responsibility. Sir Ken Robinson Robinson talked a lot about how as educators our focus is on reading, writing, and math. The arts are being lost and this is where student are able to be creative. Creativity is not something that is learned, it is something that you grow out of, as you get older. Preparing students to be wrong is important for the 21st century. We also need to allow students to move. This movement allows them to think better. Daniel Pink The key idea is intrinsic motivation. Daniel states that motivators create a limited focus while ‘if than’ rewards destroy creativity. He suggests that students need to have an intrinsic drive to do better. The key ideas that I noticed is that we as educators need to help students learn how to collaborate, build intrinsic motivation, honesty and kindness that will carry them through life, not just while in school. All of these speakers were talking about communication skills and character traits, not academic content. 2. Then consider the list you created from the context of your classroom and your teaching practice. I have learned that students need to be taught how to work collaboratively, how to deal with failure, learn self-discipline and intrinsic motivation. These are just a few things that students need to be doing on a daily basis. By allowing students to work together they are ale to teach others and further explain their own understanding of the content. Creating projects or posters to display their knowledge allows the creativity that is sometimes suppressed in traditional teaching. 3. As an instructional leader, how might you apply Mobley's 6 insights to help your students (or your colleagues) to think creatively? I try to create a safe environment that allows students to take a risk. They have to feel safe in order to try something new or challenging themselves even if they might be wrong. Allowing students to be creative without explicate directions is hard. Some students do well, where other struggle where to start if they can’t see the final outcome. I am still working on how to get students to explain or elaborate their answers. Everything is not a yes, no or short answer. This type of explanation and thinking takes a lot of practice. I know that it is important and with time students will become successful.
1 Comment
Emily
11/7/2017 09:48:21 pm
I love that your pulled out the idea that many important things students learn that have nothing to do with the official curriculum. Respect, honesty, kindness, etc. will last much longer than knowing how to find the area of a polygon. Your observation that all of these speakers focused on "communication skills and character traits, not academic content," really ties together all of these ideas. I want my students to be successful academically, but more than that, I want them to be successful human beings.
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