As a teacher, I love being inspired by grand ideas to improve education, but at heart I am still a realist. When reading about how we should be using Web 2.0 technologies like wikis, blogs, and podcasts I still wonder: How do we really make these changes? What if our school administration is not supportive of this evolution of technology in the classroom? This is why I made the 3 Steps video; I wanted to show how in just a few simple moves we can begin the change and really improve how we prepare our students for the flat world.
So here I go... let's take a closer look at Step 1 - Transform your classroom into a CREATIVE learning space.
Step 1 was inspired by Mitchell Resnick's NECC session: Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society. (Listen to his entire presentation here.) His ideas include changing our model of education to that of a "lifelong kindergarten" where we encourage children to develop as creative thinkers. In kindergarten, children have things like blocks and finger paint to use as learning tools through the creative learning cycle of Imagine-Create-Play-Share-Reflect. What tools, manipulative materials, and technologies do we need to bring into our classrooms for students to make connections between our content area and art, music, and technology?
Setting Up Your Creative Learning Space
Think about your classroom... Is it structured in a way that encourages creative learning? Are students' desks arranged in a way for them to cooperate and collaborate or are the desks all facing you? What resources and materials are available to aid learning? Do you have art supplies, comfortable learning centers, manipulatives, technology resources, and other stuff for kids to "tinker" with to help them learn? Does your room feel playful? Is your classroom personal? Do kids WANT to be there?
If not ... Give your classroom a creativity tune-up!
- Get rid of classroom clutter. (This includes all of those old dittos in your file cabinets! Remember Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites! Maybe try some Feng Shui for the Classroom
.)
- Rearrange desks into clusters of four to allow for cooperative learning.
- Create areas for students to engage in playful independent learning with manipulatives, art supplies, and other fun stuff.
- Make your classroom personal. Hang up student work and pictures of your students.
- Include comfortable seating options, large pillows, bean bag chairs, seat cushions for their chairs, large exercise balls for kids to sit on (Of course, first get the okay from administration and custodial staff.)
Why do we need Creative Learning Spaces?
To summarize Andrew Zolli (Listen to his NECC presentation here. It will blow your mind!) at some point in the near future, everything that can be done by a machine (and many more things than you ever thought possible) will be. So, what will left for us to do? Our priority must be to amplify our creativity. Creativity is in all of us and it is our job as teachers to show
students how to unleash their creativity.
Setting up the physical space of your classroom is just the beginning! In my next post, I will discuss some strategies and resources to help transform your teaching style into that of facilitating creative learning.
I'll leave you with a quotes from Judy Willis in "The Neuroscience of Joyful Education" published in Educational Leadership Engaging the Whole Child:
"When students are engaged and motivated and feel minimal stress, information flows freely through the affective filter in the amygdala and they achieve higher levels of cognition, make connections, and experience “aha” moments. Such learning comes not from quiet classrooms and directed lectures, but from classrooms with an atmosphere of exuberant discovery."
Go ahead! Make your classroom have an "atmosphere of exuberant discovery!"
