To encourage dialogue and reflection creativity and how we can help it be part of our systems in school, our question(s) for the week is (are): How can we help foster creativity in schools? What helps you to be creative? Fostering Creativity (Week of 9/25/22) (This is an anonymous Google Form)
Blake's Guiding Lights
Our Students
Blake's Core Values: Respect, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflection
Our Essential Question: How can we cultivate and curate the progression of student learning and growth?
Our Mission: Blake Middle School believes in a living mission statement, based on the concept that our community seeks and respects knowledge, integrity, character, wisdom, and the willingness to adapt to a continually evolving world.
The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. - John Dewey
You cannot teach today the same way you did yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. - John Dewey
The weather as of late has certainly aligned with the official start of the fall season, and I hope that it was a nice weekend for all. Our weekend was very nice and not too busy - Celebrate Holliston on Saturday (similar to Medfield Day) and Grayden’s football game on Sunday, along with some time to just be outside and relax. Katie and I also enjoyed seeing one of our favorite bands, Caamp, in concert Sunday evening - a really fun time. For all who observed (or are observing) Rosh Hashanah, best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!
With all of these questions, I start to look inward at my own approach to ‘our work’ and then to the broader lens of our school. They serve as a reminder that we should keep remembering to ask our students for their thoughts and input - ‘Have we asked the kids?’ It’s a simple approach, but I believe we need to do just that. Through their responses and the process of asking questions, again ‘speaking from the I’, I am appropriately ‘forced’ to reflect about our systems - Are our systems working? How do we know? Are the systems we have in place aligning with our beliefs, current science/research, and mission?
This process helps me to think about change in a productive and measured fashion, along with the inherent trait we must embrace to be creative and look at things in a different way. We have watched Ken Robinson’s famous TED talk, Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? | TED Talk, as a staff and it is one that is worth viewing over and over again. Each time I watch it, I am struck that it was written in 2006 (16 years ago!) as it ‘lands’ as pertinent and relevant today as it did the first time I viewed it. One of our Learning Skills at Blake (S.5 - Uses Creativity to Demonstrate Learning) speaks to the import of creativity, yet I would be dishonest (and out of touch) if I was not aware of the challenges we face in assessing, quantifying, and providing feedback on this skill. That said, when ‘holding up the mirror’, the need for fostering the skill of creativity is one that should not be underestimated or undervalued.
The post below by Brad Latzke speaks to some of these challenges and questions, and some of the graphs within the posts are ones we have looked at as a staff and have been shared with families at our information nights. Although there may be disagreement with how ‘to get there’, the science, data, and research speaks to the ever-present need for creative thinking and creative systems in schools, at both micro and macro levels. I hope we can continue to dive into these questions collectively to help take the steps forward - keeping our theme of discovery with a foundation of hope and creativity as guiding principles towards that end.
Do Schools Really Stifle Creativity?
by Brad Latzke
A 2019 Gallup Research report on creativity in learning substantiates Land’s study. A significant finding is that creativity in learning produces positive critical outcomes for students, “which are further enhanced when teachers leverage the full potential of technology.” However, students don’t spend much time in classes doing creative activities. 52% of teachers say students often work on projects with real-world applications. Only 26% of students agree. They report spending much more time memorizing facts and definitions.
As the saying goes, “We teach the way we were taught.” A lack of emphasis on creativity in teacher training, the overwhelming amount of curriculum standards, and pressure to produce results on standardized tests leave little time or expertise to engage students in creative learning.
Kids crave more creativity, curiosity opportunities to drive their own learning. By the time, they hit middle school, many are bored or “systemized” into compliance. Parents want more critical thinking, real-world experiences, and less emphasis on testing. Teachers overwhelmingly want more opportunities for creativity. Researchers tell us that creativity, problem-solving, critical thinking are much needed but seldom seen.
A 2020 Linkedin survey reports the number one skill companies need most is creativity. Same for 2019. In their report on business skills, IBM’s latest research reveals that a shift is occurring in needed critical skills. Business leaders are favoring behavioral skills over technical and digital skills. In 2018, the top skills desired were soft skills.
There is a huge disconnect between what society sees as vital outcomes of schooling and what education actually delivers in K-16 institutions…Providing time and space for creativity, curiosity, and innovation in the classroom is not unreachable.
Sampling of Responses from Last Week’s ‘Question of the Week’: What hopes do you have for this school year?
- To have fun
- My hope is that the school year that has started out "normal" for the first time in a few years continues to be so.
- I would like to make connections and develop some collaborations with other teachers.
- Within the incredibly strong support structure of this school, I'm looking forward to grow in my own practice, especially working with those students who have specific and special needs in my classes.
- for it to be the best year of middle school
- I hope that we have more freedom!
- A hope that I have for this year is that I grow and improve as a learner.
- This year I hope that I will be able to learn about real world events that will benefit me to know and are interesting to learn about.
- I make new friends
- I hope to do a lot of activities and group projects.
- To have academic success.
- I do well and improve more.
- To make new friends and get better at almost every subject. Also that I will not give up.
- I want to learn more about the solar system
- to get a better grade on attention to detail
- To grow as a person and think about what I learn that could contribute to my life.
- Getting at least one 4 in each subject
- i hope i get good grades
- To have a fun time.
- I'm not sure about my hopes for the year.
- I am not sure I have any hopes this year? yet
- i hope to become an even better person
- I hope I will solve my friend problems.
- I hope that I'm less stressed this school year
- To improve my ability to learn.
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Take care.
Nat