I am motivated by the courage of creativity. Studying creativity wasn't a task I was consciously seeking, but rather it emerged as a common theme found in my recent interests. In reading Tina Fey's and Amy Poehler's biographies, in the work of Ken Robinson and even in watching reruns of 30 Rock, the power of the creative process is causing me to reconsider how I spend my time.
I'm a huge Stephen Colbert fan and I've been listening to his podcasts to bridge the gap between the ending of the Colbert Report and the start of The Late Show. The Report was funny, smart and thought provoking. Colbert explains in a podcast that he knew what he was doing in the past, but he has no idea what his future show will look like because they are still in the process of creating it. They know they are making a show, but they don't let the end goal limit the journey they are taking to figure out what kind of show it can be. They are not daunted by expectations of what the show should be.
As Colbert and his team go through the creative process, they generate idea after idea. As I learned more about comedians and writers, what surprised me is how they don't just brainstorm ideas, but they actually play them out. They see more ideas through than they will ever need and, sometimes, it's not until the actual performance that some of the ideas get cut and some go on. They see ideas through not just because it's fun, but because they know that the process itself is what generates new ideas. It's what causes them to identify and explore areas they didn't even know were there. The process is essential and it takes time. If you really want to discover and explore uncharted territory, you can't shortchange the creative process
I know where public education has been and I know that in the end, what we want are well-educated citizens capable of leading a meaningful life. It excites me to think that the journey between the beginning and the end is undefined. Or, better yet, it's definable by us. As educators, we must be willing to engage deeply in the creative process. We must explore new ideas, ask new questions and try new ways of doing things. We must see our ideas through if we are to be innovative and responsive to our students' needs. We must not worry that our ideas are too different or haven't been tried before. We must be courageous.
This summer my commitment is to make time to think creatively. To not just recharge and go through the steps of starting up the school year, but to really explore what we are doing, why we are doing it and what could we be doing differently to make a greater impact on kids. I will deeply explore what it means to be an educator in a rapidly changing society.
Here are some of my action steps:
-To finish reading Creative Schools by Ken Robinson...there are lot of thought provoking ideas in his book.
-To continue to explore the creative process both in and outside of education to avoid getting stuck in "school think". I love how easy it is to explore with Twitter, blogs and podcasts.
-To inspire creativity in others by planning a staff retreat at a local art studio. I want to push us out of our comfort zone, to get everyone's creative juices flowing and to keep us thinking about the importance of the creative process for ourselves and our students.
With the help of my colleagues, we'll dream up more creative ideas than we will ever need and see which ones make it to the show.
How do you encourage creativity in teachers when they are so worried about "following curriculum" or making gains in scores? I try to "tell" and model that is not what's important to me, but I don't think they can get over the media pressures on teacher responsibility for student growth. I love this insight!
ReplyDeleteThat is so hard to overcome because the pressure has been there for so long. This past year my staff and I focused on Learning Targets that teachers and staff "owned". They tied right into the student goals we set as a Leader in Me school. Having the students know their Learning Targets, measure their progress and reflect on actions steps to help them achieve if they weren't there yet really increased their engagement. That fueled teachers to find new and creative ways to keep them engaged. Also, our 3rd-5th grades started a one to one initiative with Chromebooks. By changing the learning environment, we had to change how we navigated within it. We were forced out of our comfort zone and I have an amazing staff who ran with it in such a positive way! And, of course, we celebrated along the way by highlighting creative and innovative teaching. One way we did this was by starting a google community where anyone could post ideas, links or videos. A year later, we are still using it, which says a lot.
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