the Creative Sight

Ladies and gentlemen I'd like to talk to you about a very serious issue in our classrooms and offices today -- bullying, and how it affects brainstorming sessions. "You can't do this.", "That's terrible.", "That will never work.", "You're a failure.", "Just quit now.", "You'll never get this done.", "That's the dumbest idea ever!", "That's so stupid! ". Phrases like these are heard every day during ideation and brainstorming sessions. They're mean, hurtful things and are never productive toward accomplishing goals. They tear down confidence and crush any opportunity for true creativity. People become afraid to toss out ideas. Sometimes it gets so bad they shut down and become afraid to speak out at all. This is what happens when creative bullies are allowed into a brainstorming session. One easy solution would be just to "not invite the bully" to the session...

Educators, if you're looking for a quick, fun game for your class that also serves to help everyone see things differently, more creatively , then try this "FUNctionality" activity. This is a game I developed with the help of my students the latter part of the year. It's been through a few iterations already and I present it in its most recent, and balanced, version. Before we begin, let me ask you this, how could you use the object in the image shown below? For most people, a single purpose comes to mind and I'll go out on a limb and assume that I don't have to describe it. However, for students playing our game, this object spawned a wide range of uses that included, cleaning up spills, writing messages, drawing circles, dressing up as a mummy, measuring the length of something and stuffing a pillow or stuffed animal. The Setup This little game doesn't take much, just literally the things you have around your classroom, and a stopwatch (you can...

Unfortunately I missed week six of Genius Hour because I was speaking at the LLI Southwest conference. I'd like to give a big shout out to Lausanne Learning and The Oakridge School in Arlington for being such great hosts. I had a blast giving the talk, meeting with other educators and showing some examples of student work, even if I may or may not have had a 102 degree temperature at the time. I was even lucky enough to recruit the assistance of one of my 11th graders that was also presenting at the conference. That being said, back in my lab at Village Tech, the students carried on without me just fine, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that they really don't need me anymore. In a strange way, I'm actually pretty happy about that. Missing Juniors While I missed last week, it was the juniors that weren't around for Genius Hour this week. They were all busy working at their professional internships. They will spend nearly two weeks working in offices, classrooms a...

For week 5, I wanted to give everyone a glimpse at the state of a few random projects. Who better to give an update on projects that have been created and run by students, than the students themselves. So, without further delay, take a look at the following videos and let the students tell you how things are going. In Their Own Words The Music Group Take a look at this first group of students, who are writing and recording their own original music. They're learning about Garage Band, rhythm, everything it takes to produce a music album, and even a little bit about each other.  A&A Design This dynamic duo of design students are creating an interior design company, complete with their own logo. I think the website and company identity they've created are better than a lot of "professional" companies I've seen. Cheese Keep and eye on this guy. I predict he'll be the chef of his own restaurant before he's 30. From his viewpoint, he st...

It's day 4 of Genius Hour and things are really starting to roll. We're beginning to see early prototypes of projects, and the documentation has taken a pretty dramatic step in the right direction. Some of the songs are even starting to sound like music. Our big, unfortunate surprise this week came from flu season. We had a larger than expected number of students miss school today because they were sick. Using that as inspiration , I came up with the weekly "viral challenge". Editing his video for the group's YouTube channel. Going Viral In an effort to get the students to journal more effectively and share their learning with the world, I'm creating a weekly viral challenge. If students can get more page views on their YouTube channel, blog or website than I do on my weekly posts, then I will reward them with experience points and gold pieces in Classcraft. I use Classcraft in all my classes to help with classroom management, student engagement....and...

O nce upon a time in a magical land , students were given the freedom to learn anything they wanted to learn. These students expanded their knowledge of music, art, psychology, language and dozens of other interests while creating legendary artifacts of learning. They all grew to become brave knights, nobles, philosophers, scholars, kings, queens, and chefs and lived happily ever after. The end. At least, that's the plan. But as we wrap up the third week of Genius Hour, I'd say we still have a little ways to go before we reach our "happily ever after." One thing is for sure, each student has their own unique story. The trick right now, is getting them to share it. Student Engagement is Going Strong I'm happy to report the vast majority of students are still very much engaged in Genius Hour. In fact, if anything, I believe they may be more focused on what they are doing than in the beginning weeks. They stay on task during class and seem to be using a wide...

Day two of "Genius Hour" is in the books, and what a day it has been! I began class with the request that I wanted the students to "Show me something." I wanted to see a first iteration of what they were building, learning or creating. I clarified that it might be rough, it might be ugly, it might be simple but I wanted to see where they were by the end of the class. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect, and from the standpoint of a teacher, that can be extremely unnerving. I have around 150 students , tackling around 130 projects that they have created. They're managing the projects, setting the goals and running them all by themselves. The only deadline I provided was a presentation of what they had accomplished, which is currently seven weeks away. My goal for today was to check on their progress, provide minor course corrections, and most of all, provide encouragement and praise .  That last part was the most important; It was also the easiest...

The beginning of each new year brings with it a lot of the same old traditions. Everyone is setting new goals, and declaring new resolutions to better themselves -- one of the most common, is getting into shape. It seems like almost every other radio commercial is offering special deals on gym memberships and every other ad on social media features "before and after" pictures of some miraculous weight loss success. The trick, is sticking to the resolution. Genius Hour (day 2) As we kicked off our first working day for "Genius Hour" (which some kids have elected to call the "Power Hour" which I kinda like), I told the students that today was a big day. Today is their "Before" picture. I reiterated that they will spend the last 10 minutes of class documenting their progress, and as they write their journal, or record their vlog today they should describe their starting point; where they are now, so that we can compare that to the dramatic progre...

Want to put your students in the mindset that nothing is impossible? Try this quick, simple activity (the earlier in the year, the better). Step 1: Create Your Impossible Banner Print out the image below as a large banner. You'll estimate the required size after reading the rest of this post. Click here to download the full sized banner as a jpg. If you don't have a printer large enough at school, you might want to try office supply stores.  Most have a service that can print paper banners. You could even tile several 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper with tape to get the job done. It needs to be printed on cheap, non-photo, non-glossy paper that is easy to write on and accepts ink (from a marker) well. If you have multiple types of paper you might want to run some quick tests with a wide tipped marker. I know what you're thinking, "The word 'impossible' really isn't something I want to emphasize in my classroom." Just bear with me a ...

If I asked you what part of your body do you see with? Most would answer with, "My eyes." (duh). What if I were to tell you that answer is only partially right.  What if I were to tell you that you could see better? No, I don't mean you can throw away your glasses. I mean you're capable of seeing in a different way (no glasses required). The Purpose of This Blog I created this blog because I believe "creativity" is a very misunderstood term. Usually, "creativity" is reserved as a label of those in the artistic world "who can draw, paint, or sculpt". People like Michelangelo, Van Gogh, or that kid in your high school art class (you know the one), that kid that could draw anything, and it always looked so incredible it made you sick. Some people might even broaden the scope a little larger and include individuals "who invent things". They may throw out names like Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, or my favorite, Angus MacGyve...