Reflecting on the big ideas from John Seeley Brown, in "A New Culture of Learning" I think that my biggest take away was the idea that "learning should be hard". When Brown gave the example of the surfers of Maui, it reminded me that following your passion and learning about what interests you in a fun and exciting way, with people surrounding you with similar passions help one to take in all of the learning possible. The famous saying, "Don't let school get in the way of education" is something that I have always remembered while having my own children, because traditional schools are not the best avenue for a learning environment.
Brown also touched on how important a social life is when it comes to learning. Being able to talk about the material or teach it to someone else is a key component in processing the information learned. Study groups are a fun way to process information heard through an others ears and mouth. The idea that "I never thought of it that way", was perfectly agreed upon by Mobley and his philosophies when it came to creativity. It sparks more thinking and creativity in groups amongst peers. After hearing Sir Ken Robinson and Mobley, it seems that they have many similarities. They both believe that creativity is vital to innovation and not being afraid to make mistakes is a key to finding passions and talents and being able to realize that intelligence needs to be interactive and diverse. We, as a society, are so far from this point that their would have to be a Learning Revolution to overhaul education and common business practices today when it comes to learning in desks in classrooms and working in cubicles in offices where one needs to be a creative thinker. At school, it reminds me of the militant lines that we have in elementary school to walk from building to building. Hands behind the back, mouths closed, eyes in front, one directly behind the other. No where in life do we walk in lines like that. Maybe in lines at an amusement park, but even their we are free to chat and converse and stand in groups while we wait. It just seems so far from creatively being where we all want to be at the cost of order and structure and the teacher being the highest law and final decision maker with little input from the students in terms of their own learning. And when students are asked what they would enjoy learning about most of them don't even know because it is expected that they just do what the teacher says they are doing, all the while the students are waiting to be spoon fed information and not think for themselves what-so-ever. It really is a lose, lose for everyone. I love Mobly's insights. When it comes to asking radical questions to encourage creative thinking, it makes me wonder what a radical question is and how radical can it get with 9 and 10 year olds? Becoming creative made me think about my own creativity, especially as a teacher. How do riddles and simulations create more creativity and how can I make that a part of my daily routine. But then I said it, "routine", that is exactly what Mobly was talking about. He wanted the shock and awe factor, not the routine, to dream up various experiments to keep his staff on their toes, to keep their creative juices and energy flowing. I am racking my brain for those people in my life that are my go-to creative friends that have an unstructured and unsystematic way of thinking and interacting and we don't value those types of people as much as we should. As Robinson stated in one of his videos, music, dance and all creative arts are at the bottom of the food chain around the world when it comes to how people and school systems view the importance of creativity. It is all secondary next to Literature and Mathematics. I surely would have thought that some European countries would value the arts more favorably since their are so many museums of art and music is so highly regarded and so rich in so many countries. I do believe that PBL is a great start to heading in a creative and innovative direction, but then districts and states and politics keep coming at us with curriculums that don't have room for any teacher creativity or time during the day for students to take the learning to a place where they can be creative with the material and their own passions for learning. All in all, I try to find more and more places to fit in areas for students to be creative and express themselves and their passions with more and more self-regulation. I want them to find problems in their own world and communities and try to talk about them with peers to find solutions whether it be from Literature or Social Studies topics or current events.
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Author: Monica D KnechtI am a teacher in NVUSD. It is my 12th year teaching and currently working as a TOSA as a Reading Specialist. Archives
November 2018
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Photo used under Creative Commons from HeinzDS