Me, too, Don Wettrick! Me, too!
"I challenge myself to pick up new skills that will make an impact on my students and feed my own curiosity."
Me, too, Don Wettrick! Me, too!
Since introducing 20Time several years ago, I've struggled with students to help them find what they are passionate about; we've dug deep to help unearth creativity; I've shaped and reshaped my project expectations trying to find the BEST practice; and I've also gotten frustrated about the stuck and stagnant mindsets of both students and the education world. Wettrick talks about in his book that "constraints lead to creativity." Well, that is definitely true. The reality of our current system is "Teachers must be innovative in their approach to teaching, learning, and designing new experiences" because the standardized tests, mandated learning standards, and politically oscillating world are not going to end anytime soon. There are so many constraints put on teachers (and students) in the educational journey, that we are going to have to get creative if we are going to develop innovative problem solvers instead of good test takers.
In the early chapters of this book, Wettrick encourages us to create a culture of creativity and innovation, "find the key concept for your class." I realized that the three underlying emphases in my lesson plans, relationships with students, and ideas for the future, revolve around KINDNESS, CURIOSITY, and CREATIVITY (which are essentially what the signs on my door to my classroom say--what a fabulous coincidence!). I want students to be good people, really listening to others; I want them to ask questions and pursue ideas; and I want them to make the world a better place by innovatively solving problems. This also explains why I get so frustrated with standardized tests: they can't measure these fundamental ideas.
I'm only halfway through the book, but here's what I want to do in my classroom:
- Start the year in a creative and challenging way: maybe build Rube Goldberg machines the first week; watch TED Talks; something that encourages my 3 key concepts.
- Also, starting the year with smaller 20Time projects so they understand what the process looks like before we devote an entire semester to one project. Maybe in the fall students do one 20Time Project per month, allowing them to try out different passions they have, not feeling like that have to get locked into one idea, and teaching them how to ask engaging questions, manage time, and present well.
- Students choose the standards they are going to work on. Or they develop the expectations for what a "Mastery level" or "Exceeds Expectations" project looks like for each standards. I love the idea that they tell me how they are going to be assessed and what those standards look like.
"Is education about earning a grade, or is it really about fostering learning and creative engagement? We need to put the focus on the process of creativity and development, not on earning a grade for compliance."
YES. YES. YES.
More places to pursue these ideas:
Daniel Pink's TED Talk "The Puzzle of Motivation"
Tina Seelig's book, inGenius
Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelly of IDEO
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