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In his popular TED talk, Ken Robinson made the powerful point that most of the students doing work in your classrooms today will be entering a job force that none of you can visualize. That talk is from almost ten years ago, so we already know he was right and can only assume he’ll continue to be so in the years to come.
Learning a specific skill set doesn’t have the value in today’s world that it once did. Learning how to be more creative (and thus adaptable) – now that’s what prepares students for life beyond the classroom.
Schools and businesses throughout the world are latching onto this idea. Academia has started to embrace providing courses in creativity. Many of the biggest and most successful businesses in the world now practice the 20% rule – the commitment to allowing employees to devote 20% of their work time to thinking creatively and exploring new ideas.
Learn more:
- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching?tag=Creativity
- https://gustmees.wordpress.com/?s=PracTICE
I chose this resource because I feel that inspiring students is often contingent on giving them choices and allowing their creativity to be showcased. This article has several good suggestions. Not limiting assignments to one format - reminds me of differentiating products. Give kids choices for a project. Perhaps a poster, a video, an oral presentation, an animation, a song, etc. I've also heard about the concept of "genius hour" but I was a little skeptical when it was presented to me at a conference years ago. Perhaps it is something that I need to revisit. Litigating class discussions that allow you to see the thought process of students is a difficult proposition. My suggestion is talk less and listen more - students can come up with surprisingly creative and sophisticated thoughts when you do so.