Sketch a Day in May

20150430_144729

This May, I would like to encourage everyone to take part in a challenge. The challenge is to share a sketch every day in May. We can all track each other by using #edsketch15 on our shares (whether it be on twitter, Google+, instagram or whatever social media you utilise).

Inspired by Austin Kleon‘s Show Your Work, I would like to encourage everyone to sketch something they have been reading, thinking about, trying out, observing, questioning, exploring, reflecting on, working on that day.  Continue reading

Advertisement

What If you had a teaching super power?

This post is definitely inspired by Science super hero Nano Girl (Michelle Dickinson). Growing up she always wanted to be a super hero and recently even completed a TEDx talk on how to Build a super hero out of yourself in 5 steps.

This afternoon I was talking with my partner and our 4 1/2 year old daughter about what super powers we would want to have (flying for my partner, ice powers such as Elsa in Frozen for my daughter and teleporting for me) when I realised my Question for Question Quest today:

What teaching super power would you like to have?

I think mine would be the power to give students the confidence to take that big learning risk.

I know that my learning risks get easier the more that I take so it would be great to give students the confidence to take those first few risks. For some students it might be standing up and sharing an idea, others it might be embracing the fact their idea might fail but trying anyway, others it could be about taking the lead role in their group. If they had the confidence to do this a few times, it could really help them take further calculated learning risks in future.

What would your teaching super power be?

Would it change if it was only for 1 day? 1 week? 1 month? A term? Permanent?

 

p.s. Bonus marks for those who work out how to make that super power happen. I am certainly aiming to give all my students the confidence to take learning risks this term! Will let you know how it goes.

Catalysts for Curiosity and Creativity

This post is based on an Ignite talk I gave at the Learning at Schools Unconference at Sky City at the end of January.

Titled Catalysts for Curiosity and Creativity, in 5 minutes I briefly covered some suggestions for how teachers can enable students to unleash their creativity. Many of the ideas stem from 2 amazing books I read over summer: Can Computers Keep Secrets by Tom Barrett (from NoTosh) and Creative Confidence by Tom & David Kelley (of IDEO fame). I highly recommend reading both of these books!

When someone mentions curiosity to me, I think of:

  • a sense of childlike wonder
  • eyes wide open
  • looking for new ideas to identify and explore

For me, I link this very closely with creativity. Yet so many people (like they do with Maths) say “I’m not creative.” Continue reading