Saturday, February 20, 2016

Does our education system squash creativity?

As educators (and future educators) our job is to help shape the minds of our students. And as a future art educator,I firmly believe creativity is a valuable component in education. I'd like my group members to watch this wonderful TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson, entitled "Do schools kill creativity?" It's a bit lengthy, but highly informative and entertaining. 

After watching this video, how do you feel about creativity within the school setting? Do you agree or disagree with his idea that schools are becoming more limiting in the arts and creativity? If you believe that creativity is important in education, how will you as an educator encourage and foster creativity within your own classroom?




8 comments:

  1. After watching the video I do believe that creativity in school is being limited. Just as the speaker stated art and dance can be just as important than math and science. We as teachers need to be more aware of this and try and implement some type of activity that builds a students creativity. One way I could promote creativity is by having students build a 3D cell model any way they would like as long as all the parts are present in the model.

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    1. Having your students create 3D models of the cell is a great idea. I think you'll find many of your students will enjoy that project, because it encourages creativity. Personally, as a student who struggled with math and sciences, I was always thrilled any of my science teachers incorporated projects in which I could showcase my artist abilities. Those types of projects encouraged me to enjoy learning the material, so I think it's important for content area educators to incorporate creative projects or activities.

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  2. After watching the video I do believe that creativity in school is being limited. Just as the speaker stated art and dance can be just as important than math and science. We as teachers need to be more aware of this and try and implement some type of activity that builds a students creativity. One way I could promote creativity is by having students build a 3D cell model any way they would like as long as all the parts are present in the model.

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  3. I have seen this Video before, Im a big fan of ted Talks. I do believe just what the presenter stated, Dance and art can be just as important as any other subject such as math or English.I really do feel that school systems should make it a point to have any and all options available for their students. Get them out their interested in what they are doing so they can see how capable their minds are. You need to teach students how to stick out, how to strive to view subject matter and martial different. When everything is said and done, school is all about preparing your students for the real world, this world needs creative problem solvers, but how do we expect to expanded our students mind if we don't force them outside of their general box way of thinking? In order to promote creativity I will give leadership assignments with nothing but obtainable goals, in order to get the grade for the assignment all they have to do is reach those goals, but they can reach those goals in multiple ways, for example one of my goals could be Organize a group of 10 or more students to stand for what they believe in and present it to the class. You can do your average power point, you can make a video, you can go be apart of a presidential rally, you can go sit down with the president of your school and propose with him or her new additions to the cafeteria that you believe will maximize students lunch hour enjoyment, etc.

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  4. I completely agree that schools limit creativity. The video is from 2007 and although some stuff has improved, the goals and policies of public education remains virtually unchanged.
    As to how I could encourage creativity in my future history classes? Off the top of my head, I could have students construct models of iconic buildings. I could coordinate with the art teacher(s) in order to give students a broader historical context to the art styles they'd be studying.
    In addition to models, students could have the options of recreating other aspects of ancient cultures such as clothing, music, and dance.

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    1. I am a champion of integrated curriculum, and getting educators to coordinate projects further enhances students learning and interest. I also love your idea of having students recreating the clothing/music/dance of ancient cultures, perhaps in the form of class presentation. That is the sort of activity that I would have looked forward to as a high school student.

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  5. The Ken Robinson TED Talk was great! I agree that we should treat extracurricular activities, such as dance, art, public speaking, and choir as equally important studies as math and science. Training the brain is a must, but requiring a student to solely concentrate on their academics can cause them to become deficient in physical and creative activities. I have not done research, but I am sure that there is an alarming amount of students who have become obese or introverts due to a lack of opportunities to release energy, be active, be creative, find a talent, etc. Mr. Robinson gave a lot of good points. We should encourage and offer more opportunities for our students to be themselves and to create.

    As a math teacher, I can only see myself incorporating art during the Geometry unit. I could allow the students to explore the arts via tessellations. I could also allow them to create different pictures and figures using shapes and 3-dimensional figures. I currently allow my students to draw a picture or write a poem on the back of their classwork if they finish early.

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    1. I love that you encourage students to draw/doodle/write on the back of classwork if they've finished early. It keeps them from getting chatty or disruptive, and encourages them to use the other side of their brain after having applied the logical side towards the math problems. I was a doodler in my classes, and half my tests would be littered with drawings in addition to my answers.

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