Text of Cultivating Creativity in our Schools ACAMIS Guangzhou 2015
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Cultivating Creativity in our Schools ACAMIS Guangzhou 2015
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For more conversation: Rick Wormeli 703-620-2447 rwormeli@cox.net @rickwormeli2 (Twitter)
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q c d p Which letter does not belong, and why?
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Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature. -- Tom Robbins
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Processing Activity: I used to think, but now I think
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In order for someone to accept feedback or take a risk with your new idea, he must admit first what he was doing was less effective than he thought it was.
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We are hired for how we are similar to a company, but we advance based on how we are different.
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Consider: Rhodes Scholarship Candidate struggles
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Transcend formulaic responses. Please paint the transit buses in an interesting way that breathes a little more life into our city.
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Video: When There is a Correct Answer
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Our future depends on this one here.
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Tenets: A.It takes creative and critical thinking to achieve standards. B.Thoughtful classrooms create thoughtful students. We do not get creative students from non-creative classrooms. C.Students who think creatively and critically perform better on tests, standardized or not.
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If we find ways for colleagues and ourselves to experience curiosity, awe, induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis, resilience, empathy, extrapolation, juxtaposition, and other mental dexterities in their own development, they are better thinkers of our discipline. They can solve their own problems, connect with others and among ideas, innovate their way to meaningful contributions, and persevere in the midst of challenge.
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All thinking begins with wonder. -- Socrates Our job is not to make up anybodys mind, but to open minds and to make the agony of decision-making so intense you can escape only by thinking. - Fred Friendly, broadcaster
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Create a sense of wonder! Verbs Pronouns Newtons Laws Put on Scuba Gear and climb out of an eyeball Velcro props Compare Not-so- Pretend Constitutions
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Embrace the fact that, [l]earning is fundamentally an act of creation, not consumption of information. -- Sharon L. Bowman, Professional Trainer
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What Could We Do If We Were Creative Together?
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(Sampling from Innocentive.com, page 1, downloaded June 24, 2012) Seeking Orthogonally Functionalized Cyclobutanes Navigating the Inside of an Egg Without Damaging It Cleveland Clinic: Method to Reconnect Two Tissues Without Using Sutures Seeking 1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-3-amides Synthetic Route to a Benzazepinone My Air, My Health: An HHS/EPA Challenge Mechanistic Proposals for a Vanadium-Catalyzed Addition of NMO to Imidazopyridazines Seeking Highest and Best Commercial Application for Breakthrough Innovation in Building Technology/Structural Optimization Desafio da Educao: Como atrair pessoas talentosas para se tornar professor na rede pblica brasileira
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The problem solvers...were most effective when working at the margins of their fields.While these people were close enough to understand the challenges, they werent so close that their knowledge held them back and cause them to run into the same stumbling blocks as the corporate scientists. (p. 121, Lehrer) Check out InnoCentive at www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/browse What would this look like in education?
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Could you teach the differences between architecture in the Middle Ages and architecture in the Renaissance period in such a classroom?
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How about the principles of algebra here?
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Information Age is old school. Were in the High Concept Age, and we have the tech to pursue it: Twitter and other social media Daily newspapers downloaded for analysis Museum school partnerships and Virtual Tours QR codes attached to classroom activities Student-designed apps Khan Academy and similar on-line tutorials Graduation in four states now requires one course taken completely on-line Google Docs Google Glass/Eyes wearables, implantables, augments
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MOOCS Massive Open On-line Course Crowd-Sourcing MIT Open Courseware TED talks and ed.Ted.com Screencasts (ex. Camtasia Studio) Voicethread Moodle PBLs Prezi iMovie Edmodo
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Make it fun. Fun Theory -- Ice Skater http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1 Bt1xm4w_CM
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We went to school. We were not taught how to think; we were taught to reproduce what past thinkers thought.Instead of being taught to look for possibilities, we were taught to exclude them. Its as if we entered school as a question mark and graduated as a period. -- Michael Michalko, Creative Thinkering, 2011, p. 3
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Its not an answer chase. Consider:
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Its a question journey.
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Do they know how to ask good questions? -- Tony Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap, 2008
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Techniques and Elements that Cultivate Creativity
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Creativity is making connections between dissimilar things in such a way as to create something new. Its often about recombining old ideas and things for new purposes or perspectives.
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From Professor Alane Starko in her book, Creativity in the Classroom: Gutenberg developed the idea of movable type by looking at the way coins were stamped. Eli Whitney said he developed the idea for the cotton gin while watching a cat trying to catch a chicken through a fence.
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Pasteur began to understand the mechanisms of infection by seeing similarities between infected wounds and fermenting grapes. Einstein used moving trains to gain insight into relationships in time and space.
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Consider Einsteins Theory of Relativity. He did not invent the concepts of energy, mass, or speed of light. Rather he combined these ideas in a new and useful way. -- Michael, Michalko, Creative Thinkering, Machalko, 2011, p. xvii,
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Combination and Re-Combinination Hall duty and Teacher Advisory Service Learning and Students in danger of dropping out Miniature Golf and lesson sequence Students cafeteria behavior and architecture Unmotivated faculty and farming, astronomy, or marble tabletops. Parental involvement and medicine
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Grades are compensation. communication.
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Tomlinson: If I laid out on my kitchen counter raw hamburger meat still in its Styrofoam container, cans of tomatoes and beans, jars of spices, an onion, and a bulb of garlic [and told guests to eat heartily].My error would be that I confused ingredients for dinner with dinner itself.
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Tomlinson: One can make many different dishes with the same ingredients, by changing proportions, adding new ingredients, using the same ingredients in different ways, and so on.
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Creativity is making mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. - Scott Adams, The Book of Positive Quotations
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Doubt Our greatest Compass Rose:
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Its not what you dont know that gets you into trouble, its what you know for sure that aint so. - Mark Twain
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Writer and educator, Margaret Wheatley, is correct: We cant be creative unless were willing to be confused.
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Do I dare disturb the universe?
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Teams and individuals need clear vision for how to fail, even in multiple attempts, before succeeding. Be realistic: Wow, this is taking longer than I thought it would, and constructive, Thats one thing Ill never forget the next time I do this!
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Taking Positive Risks The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does. -- Herbert Prochnow If I had been a kid in my class today, would I want to come back tomorrow? -- Elsbeth Murphy Nothing ventured, something lost. -- Roland Barth
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Negating Students Incorrect Responses While Keeping Them in the Conversation Act interested, Tell me more about that Empathy and Sympathy: I used to think that, too, or I understand how you could conclude that Alter the reality: -- Change the question so that the answer is correct -- Thats the answer for the question Im about to ask -- When student claims he doesnt know, ask, If you DID know, what would you say?
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Negating Students Incorrect Responses and While Them in the Conversation Affirm risk-taking Allow the student more time or to ask for assistance Focus on the portions that are correct Remember: Whoever is responding to students i
