"Drs Cyndi Burnett and Matthew Worwood interview leading creativity researcher, Dr. James Kaufman. Dr. Kaufman shares insights into current trends in Creativity research, including Creativity's relationship with mental health and having meaning in one's life. "
"The first week of December is nationally recognized in schools as “Computer Science Education Week” or “CSEdWeek.” This is a week dedicated to providing students in all grade levels with opportunities to learn about computer science (CS). Many schools get started with free curriculum from organizations such as:
"These sites offer entertaining and engaging ways to introduce algorithms, loops, conditionals, and other CS concepts to students. While the hands-on coding activities foster a fun introduction and spark interest, many educators are looking for more ways to embed the value of CS into the school’s physical environment and highlight how CS intersects with other content areas.
"Research about how the physical environment affects young women’s entry and persistence in computing indicates that “The décor of physical spaces conveys messages about the kinds of people who belong there and the kinds of activities that should be done there. Understanding this influence allows us to actively craft an environment that makes a broad range of people feel welcome in computing" (www.ncwit.org/physicalspaceuw).
"A free and easy way to get started is by printing and displaying CS posters throughout the school. Here is a list of where to go for free downloadable posters:
"RobbotResources has free downloadable poster collections that cover a wide variety of topics in CS and cover the intersection of CS skills with specific content areas, such as art, music, humanities, PE, and others. These poster collections highlight that computing skills aren’t isolated to the CS class. Many schools print the collections to display the posters in corresponding content-area classrooms. The colorful graphics on the posters weave a common thread of a shared goal of providing pathways to careers and foster responsible digital citizenship skills.
"Visit the website to view the collections. You can see the recommended grade level for each collection and read reviews and suggestions from other educators who have downloaded the posters.
"Here are some sample collections that emphasize the variety offered by RobbotResources:
I want to explore some ways that we, as educators, can take creative risks with students. Many of these are ideas that I attempted with my students. However, I have also interviewed some of the best teachers I know and asked them to contribute some ideas.The following are ten different creative risks you can take with your students this year. Note that many of these ideas connect to a free download that you can check out as well.
Jim Lerman's insight:
Wonderful ideas, well expressed, numerous links. Busy readers may wish to scroll down to the "10 Creative Risks" heading. Spencer challenges us to stretch and shows how to do it.
"This is a pep talk for the teachers out there who are revving up for yet another school year after taking a much-needed and well deserved break.
"You may be filled with dread when the “Back-to-School” commercials seem to be the only things on television. Perhaps you’re trying to prepare for your own kids to go back to school – as well as yourself. You’ve probably had a range of emotions wash over you every time you think of the upcoming year filled with new (and old) faces.
"What will your students be like? What will they think of you? Are you prepared? What kind of teacher are you going to be? Are you ready to wake up early again and stay up late grading papers and projects? What new strategies, approaches, or methods are you going to implement?
"These are all questions that wander through our minds as we suit up for that first day back. The back to school activities and strategies in this post will help you prepare for the upcoming school year with tips and tricks to not only get your classroom and lesson plans ready, but you as a teacher as well!"
"While I consider myself reasonably techy, having started my own podcast, made a serious friendship with Canva, and even gotten the hang of basic video creation, today’s guest, Jennifer Gonzalez, takes it to a whole new level.
"I’m betting you already know about Jennifer’s website, Cult of Pedagogy, and her podcast by the same name. It’s an incredible source of information for teachers at all grade levels and in all disciplines. "
via Betsy Mork
Jim Lerman's insight:
This blog post contains descriptions and links to many creative apps and strategies for ELA teachers at all levels. This is a must-read.
When it comes to the first day of school, what you want is a rock solid activity you can enjoy from the background. Or is that just me? There’s enough stress around that first day already, no need to stand in the spotlight trying to hold everyone’s attention for forty-five minutes.
So today I have a quick and fun activity for you (apologies for the lack of a podcast this week, I’ve been really sick all week, so we’re going short and sweet today!).
Why not try hexagonal identity one-pagers? While I still love the name tent one-pagers I’ve always pushed for on day one, you can do a fun version of them by having kids share about themselves on a hexagon shaped one-pager instead. The extension here is that they can then connect their work to the work of the rest of the class in an epic web up on the wall.
I’ve been seeing lots of teachers experimenting with using hexagonal thinking to help kids get to know each other in different ways, with and without the graphic elements of the one-pager, and this is my twist!
In this video I’m going to talk to you about the five classic steps, or stages, of creativity. In subsequent videos I’m going to go in depth into each of these and show you how you can improve your creativity in each of these different steps or stages.
"I’m not sure where it says in the original teaching manual that you aren’t not supposed to have fun in school, especially high school. I suppose the original mission was to transform teenage students into adults who were serious and ready for the world. The fact is today’s high school students are more aware of the world than ever before, and they have more pressure placed on them than previous generations. Anxiety, lack of sleep, hours of homework, and club or sports obligations consume our most achieving students. Depression, apathy, and any host of outside factors from hunger, abuse, neglect, and addiction can plague our underachieving students. Creating opportunities for fun and play benefits both groups of students.
"I work in a very diverse public high school in New Jersey. More than half of our students receive free or reduced lunch. Due to the economic challenges of our population and the overflow of our previous high school, (we had over 30 dilapidated trailers) the state of New Jersey built us a brand new school with a state of the art broadcast studio, which is part of my classroom.
"I currently teach communications classes which include Journalism, Video Production, and Studio Broadcasting. The students create work that will be used and seen by the high school community, the parents, administration, and beyond. In that way, it is like a job. They don’t just get a grade, they get exposure, and there is some pressure to that. I like to balance out the pressure by building community amongst the students, creating a relaxed atmosphere in my classroom, planning what I call “mandatory fun,” and being flexible enough to let fun happen."
"In this article and video, I want to share with you my approach in combining typefaces. It’s a beginner’s guide that will teach you some principles, show you two quick wins you can apply right away, and – if you want more – goes into the nerdy details. Ready to mix some fonts? Then let’s go!"
Sometimes, you may need to create a semantic map or diagram, but don’t don’t really like some of the tools available in Google. But don’t worry; there are some fantastic tools you can take advantage of. What’s more, most of these tools will save diagrams straight to Google Drive.
When I was studying visual communications design in college, I was fascinated by how much power designers have in making people think, feel, and act a certain way. After a decade helping scale…
Can great art be explained? Isn’t it a little like explaining a joke? Yet this can be worthwhile when the joke is in a foreign language or an unfamiliar idiom, a long-forgotten dialect or an alien idiolect. Open Culture, openculture.com
A startup called Energy Vault is working on a unique storage method, and they must be on the right track, because they just received over $100 million in Series C funding last week.
The method was inspired by pumped hydro, which has been around since the 1920s and uses surplus generating capacity to pump water up into a reservoir. When the water is released, it flows down through turbines and generates energy just like conventional hydropower.
Now imagine the same concept, but with heavy solid blocks and a tall tower rather than water and a reservoir. When there’s excess power—on a sunny or windy day with low electricity demand, for example—a mechanical crane uses it to lift the blocks 35 stories into the air. Then the blocks are held there until demand is outpacing supply. When they’re lowered to the ground (or lowered a few hundred feet through the air), their weight pulls cables that spin turbines, generating electricity.
Offered by Duke University on Coursera - Course may be audited for free
Description by The Scout Report
"Readers who want to understand canine behavior or just learn how to train their dog will benefit from Dog Emotion and Cognition. Taught by evolutionary anthropologist and self-professed "dog guy" Brian Hare, this online course offered by Duke University digs into how dogs think and feel and how humans can use psychology to strengthen our connection with canines. Videos and readings cover the evolution and domestication of dogs and dog communication, problem solving, behavior, and training, all through the lens of cognitive psychology. No prior knowledge is required.
"The course takes about 22 hours to complete in total and is self-paced with flexible deadlines that can be reset at any time. Learners who audit the course for free have access to view and read all course content except graded assignments. Readers can click the "Syllabus" tab to preview the structure and content of the course. Video contents have subtitles available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, Croatian, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese, and Russian. Dog Emotion and Cognition is offered through Coursera, one of the world's leading online learning platforms."
"So you love what you’re seeing about hexagonal thinking around the web, but you just can’t quite wrap your head around getting started with this creative discussion strategy. I hear you! I’ve been getting lots of great questions about how to make a set of hexagons for a first go-round, and I’m going to answer them all in this episode.
Get ready to find out all the details about what to put on, who should put it on, and who should be doing the cutting out!
As indicated above, empathy relates to perspective-taking. It is not about feeling for, but rather with another person or group. Empathy has obvious implications in the context of social interaction and connectedness throughout the lifespan. Additionally, research has indicated that emotional intelligence and conscientiousness are significant determinants of academic and professional achievement. Empathy is complex, can be weaponized, and can be detrimental to those most inclined to experience it (e.g., helpers). Yet, social and emotional instruction, promoting empathy, can foster community and progress.
Demetriou and Nicholl highlight many schools that have integrated empathy-promoting programming have done so in the context of literature and humanities curricula. In early education, distinctions between subjects may be less explicit, whereas opportunities to explore perspective-taking as school advances may be more obvious in reading, writing, and social studies than in science and math.
Hexagonal thinking is a rich new way to inspire discussion. Now, if you’re like me, high school geometry was about as appealing as high school cafeteria beef stroganoff, and you’re not too sure about this whole math-English crossover thing.
Don’t give up! Hexagonal thinking is a really unique way to get kids thinking about connections they might never otherwise make.
When you give kids a series of ideas on hexagons, and ask them to connect the cards into a web with clear reasons for each connection, you get them thinking critically, debating, giving evidence, and basically, lighting up a whole bunch of parts of their brains. Each card could connect to six others, or just to one or two. Every person in every group will have a different concept of how things could connect. There will be no right answer.
Are you interested in teaching with our daily writing prompts? In this guide, you’ll learn practical strategies from a dozen teachers, and we’ll walk you through the steps on how you can get started.
Every school day we post a new question that invites students to read an article from The New York Times and respond with their own ideas and opinions. Teachers tell us our Student Opinion questions are a good opportunity to bring current events into the classroom and allow students to practice writing for an authentic audience.
Students’ learning curve is directly linked to the type of feedback they receive. The online feedback can be in written, audio, or video format. As teachers, we should leverage feedback that turns our students from passive receivers of information into active learners, even if it means turning to edtech tools we are unfamiliar with.
Here are six digital tools for giving feedback to students that empowers them and helps them evolve:
By integrating apps with Google Sheets, you'll make your workflows more efficient and save time. There are a lot of apps that claim to do the job, but we took the time to sort through all of them to find the ones that produce the best results.
Here's a list of the best Google Sheet apps that will make your life easier.
Jim Lerman's insight:
Some very useful free apps. Definitely work a look.
Design elements that appear similar in some way — sharing the same color, shape, or size — are perceived as related, while elements that appear dissimilar are perceived as belonging to separate groups.
Online courses are becoming truly reliable content that highlights your brand, shares know-how, and earns you additional revenue. Many freelance professionals, online businesses, digital marketing agencies, and knowledge-based niche brands are launching online courses these days.
Apart from earning, they aim to create a community and network of digital content consumers. Besides the content, you need to take care of course-related technical matters. Online learning platforms help you develop and manage every aspect of your course. Let’s learn the best options for creating and selling online courses in 2021.
"Best talk on storytelling I've seen. If you're into storytelling, don't know Matthew Dicks and his "homework for life" you'll probably like it as well."
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