Teaching Fine Arts

We need to reverse the trend of schools killing creativity.  The way to do this is to continue to teach Fine Arts.  I have noticed that Art is often the first subject to be dropped when there is too much to cover in  other subject areas.

A wonderful resource to teach children how to become artists is Mona Brooke's book,  Drawing with Children.  http://monart.com/about/books-by-mona/. 

This is an invaluable resource and moves beyond the model of everyone making the same craft.  It encourages creativity while giving the skills to succeed.  Students will experience success early on as they learn the elements of line and how to see basic lines in anything they want to draw.  

Schools and Creativity...Do they mix?

 Ken Robinson, in one of  the "Ted Talks.com" lectures  makes a compelling argument for how schools have historically educated the creativity out of children.  He argues that children are innately creative. They start kindergarten being highly creative and artistic and willing to take risks.  After a few years of education, they have learned to conform and to be afraid of making mistakes, and therefore afraid of experimenting.

Please see his lecture at this link:
Do Schools kill Creativity?

I believe there is a great deal of truth in what he says.  Schools are institutions managing a large number of children.  They have their mandates  set out for them by national  consensus.  In Ontario, teachers are bound to cover the expectations of the Ontario Curriculum.  I think that many educators, today, including those of us who are aspiring educators, feel that schools as institutions certainly have their limitations.  Many classroom teachers have 25-35 students under their tutelage.  They face an enormous task in trying to meet the needs of each of these people. It is easy to feel disillusioned as a teacher candidate when considering the magnitude of the role.   I sense the malaise among my fellow educators.  We are all aware of the problem, but our job is to work within this system, flawed as it is.

I have been asking myself what role I could play to nurture and inspire creativity within this system. I love the arts and I also love mathematics and science when students are encouraged to explore and problem solve, and experiment without simply being given the formula.  I am coming to the conclusion that we educators must be aware of the critiques that have been put forward about education.  We need to see the validity in those arguments in order to make a change.  Now that education has been exposed for  the way in which it curtails creativity, we can seek ways to reverse that trend.  Now, the difficult part is to not get discouraged and defeated, but rather to look for ways to shine a light when creativity is being expressed.

I already see evidence of teachers nurturing creativity within public schools that I am familiar with.  At my children's local school, they are putting on a production of the play, "The Outsiders."  My son has a part in this play.  My daughter, Sara, had the inspiration to start an arts based club, "Kids' Club"at lunch recess for children in Grades 1-3.  She has plans to read great books, do drama activities and  crafts each time.  Sara asked permission of the principal to start this club, and to the principal's  immense credit, she agreed right away.  Sara's classroom teacher volunteered to be the supervisor without hesitation.  This demonstrates to me that educators, today, are willing to support initiative, effort, and creativity by students.  I am encouraged that there is a place for creativity in schools.  We just have to work at it.

Shifting Education "Out of This World."

Last week, two teenagers from Scarborough demonstrated the incredible potential of what can happen when technology and passion meet.  These two boys are getting international attention for their project which sent a Lego Man (holding a Canadian Flag) into near space.  Their Lego man contraption captured photos of its journey which showed the curvature of the earth.

They knew approximately where it would land by using a website which predicted the trajectory of weather balloons based on weather conditions and where it was launched from.  They launched it from Newmarket and retrieved it from a field in Peterborough. These students did not do this for a school project. They did it for fun. These two boys, from Agincourt Collegiate, have shown that learning absolutely takes place beyond the walls of the classroom. It can even take place beyond this atmosphere!

Thestar.com - VideoZone- High schoolers send Lego Man into space

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Generation Z and the Future of Education

Generation z is the generation of children born since the mid 1990s.  They have lived their whole lives within the context of the internet and post 911.  They are innately in tune with technology and will likely be more lateral thinkers than the generations that precede them.

On the down side they are believed to be the most inactive and overweight generation of children in the  history of the world so far due to their time online and limited physical freedom.  These factors will also contribute towards them growing up fast.

What is our challenge as educators and parents of this generation?  I believe we will have to engage them with technology and guide them in order to be safe as they explore.  In addition, we need to direct them to educational and inspiring websites and technologies that will expand their learning in positive ways.

Most importantly,  we need to mentor them to create balance in their lives.  We need to encourage them to nurture hobbies and interests away from technology.

 

It is our role to show them the beauty of music, art, and nature, both admiring and engaging in creative activities.


It is equally vital to give lots of opportunity for physical activity, because without it these children will become very unhealthy and this will diminish their enjoyment of life.

 

Technology in Education?

Technology is changing at a faster pace than most of us can keep up with, but this is the world we find ourselves in.  In spite of the apprehensions we may have, I strongly believe that the vast majority of technical tools that are available to us today enhance, encourage, and inspire learning.  Being able to "google" anything that you have a curiosity about is an amazing phenomenon.  The sharing of ideas on an international level via the internet has truly opened up the world in a way that just wasn't accessible twenty years ago.

I am convinced that in 2012 and beyond, it is imperative for teachers to have enough humility and courage to accept that they are no longer the ones that have all the knowledge.  It is no longer the case where all the knowledge is inside the teacher's head and it is her job to somehow convey that knowledge to her pupils.  Teachers need to transform into facilitators of learning.  They need to nurture, encourage, and guide students towards asking  probing questions and learning how to find the answers to those questions, themselves.

Does this mean that I believe every child should have access to an ipad, ipod or other personal device in the classroom all the time? Well, I do think there is a value in that, especially when doing research on a particular topic.  Another great use of such devices would be to collaborate with other students in other classrooms, perhaps in another province or maybe even a different continent. What a fantastic opportunity!

Even though I see incredible value in the technical tools available to us, I also see immense value in having a good part of each day without any screens or devices.  We need time to immerse ourselves in all the beauty that is present in nature, culture, and the arts.  Children (and adults!) have an innate need to commune with nature, to spend time quietly admiring and being present in creation. In addition, humans have been designed with an incredible ability to create and express themselves musically, artistically, and dramatically.  We need to keep these part of education.

On top of this need to be in nature, and to express ourselves creatively, we need to be in community.  Sociology over thousands of years has shown us that humans are happiest in community.  Without community, humans become depressed. That is the  caveat to our ever increasing technical world.  We need to have the self-control to know when to turn it off and enjoy all that we have been created to be.