Is There a Creativity Crisis?

In 2010, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman challenged us with the article, “The Creativity Crisis” (Newsweek). They reminded us of Torrance’s creativity assessments and how he and his team followed students tested in 1958 for the next 50 years.  In 2010, Kyung Hee Kim, a researcher at the College of William and Mary, used the Torrance scores of over 300,000 children and adults to focus on how our children today compare in creativity to those of the past. He found that the scores of children tested from 1990 on were declining.  While a number of other countries are focusing on development of creativity in their children, researchers fear that America’s insistence on standardization is hurting our students and our nation’s future. According to the authors, “While our creativity scores decline unchecked, the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses.”  Bringing creativity and problem solving into all subject areas will help, as will considering such ideas as choice-based art and bringing STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art & design, and mathematics) into the projects and activities of our youngest students.

Sophia Learning—32,000 Tutorials

NetTrekker has added Sophia Learning to its list of resource content providers. With access to Sophia, students can access tutorials in subject areas such as mathematics, science, English, fine arts, social studies, and foreign languages. For those interested in college credit while in high school, there are nine self-paced Sophia courses. The Sophia offerings not only helps students get a head-start in their studies, but also gives teachers the flexibility to add courses and enrichment to their classrooms. All of the Sophia high school, college readiness (ACT Prep, Refresher, College Success) and college courses are free.

Guide to Free Online College Classes for High School Students

Online College Courses.net offers a list of free online courses for students in Grades 9-12. The courses are categorized by topics such as Arts Open Courseware, (art, music, and theater); Business Open Courseware (economics, finance); English and Communication Open Courseware (poetry, grammar, literature, cultures); Humanities and Social Sciences Open Courseware (U.S. History, Politics, Public Policy); Math Open Courseware (calculus, statistics, complex numbers, patterns & formulas); and Science Open courses (physics, biology, astronomy, oceanography). The courses listed are provided by universities such as Cal Berkeley), MIT, Michigan, The Open University, and Utah State.

If you are interested in free (non-degree) courses for your students, you should also browse the MOOC (Massively Open Online Courses) Directory, which lists available courses for higher education and Kindergarten through Grade 12.

Should We Ban the Words “Technology Integration”?

Gary Shattuck, Tech & Learning CIO Advisor, knows that technology is being used in classrooms, but he is concerned about how it is being used. He says that technology is usually an add-on to lessons, not essential to them. According to Shattuck, while we are using technology to engage students, many of us are not using technology for the type of engagement in which technology is embedded into lessons. To solve this problem, Shattuck suggests we forget the words “technology integration”, which leads us to view technology on a “superficial level”.  Shattuck, the director of technology and media services at Newton County Schools in Georgia, says that lessons need to be “meaningful and purposeful” and that technology should be embedded, not simply integrated, into lessons.

Creative Spaces for Your Students

What we have in our classrooms and how we arrange our classrooms makes a definite difference. A March 2013 article in Edutopia shows offices at Google—definitely not your ordinary office space. It’s fun to observe, and it must be fun to work there. The piece, “How to Make Your Classroom a Thinking Space” is actually an excerpt from the Krauss and Boss book, “Thinking Through Project-Based Learning: Guiding Deeper Inquiry”. It asks us to envision an environment that stimulates creativity and provides an exciting and innovative workspace. The authors say that the creative spaces imagined by most people are not spaces in schools, but they should be. Although, it would be wonderful to be able to remodel our classrooms as we envision, funding for this is probably not available. Therefore, we need to be creative and think of ways we can make smaller changes that will provide for individual and group work, conversation, presentations, tinker stations, video booths, and wonderful splashes of color.

Is a MOOC in Your Students’ or Your Futures?

Forty-two percent of those taking MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses), according to as survey performed by Qualtrics, are educators. At this time most courses do not offer college credit or certificates of completion, but two-thirds of the survey respondents said that credits and certificates would be an incentive for them to complete a course.  The results of the survey suggest that people take an online course because they are interested in the course topic or expect the course to help them with personal and/or professional development. They also want courses that differ from traditional lectures, provide interaction, and are open in format.

With the growth of these free online courses, we’ll see more precollege students enrolling.  Will K-12 schools bring these courses into their classrooms, and if so, how? High school students are already enrolling to get ahead in the skills and content they’ll need for college.

ALEKS—Artificial Intelligence for Learning & Assessment

Courses in elementary, middle school, high school, college prep, and college mathematics are offered by the Web-based ALEKS (Assessment and Learning Knowledge Spaces) program. The system features individually-targeted instruction correlated to Common Core and state standards. Using ALEKS, students work at their own level, a level determined by ALEKS artificially intelligent assessment techniques. The system selects questions based on students’ previous answers and then presents topics students are ready to learn. ALEKS assesses progress periodically to make sure students are mastering and retaining content. To find out more about ALEKS courses and assessment, take an ALEKS tour or sign up for a free trial.

Spotting Future Dropouts by Grade 1

In Montgomery County, Maryland, administrators have identified early-warning signs for students at risk of dropping out of school. They can identify flags for 75 percent of dropouts—by the second semester of first grade.  Some of the warning signs are reading below grade level, absences of nine days or more, report card grades, incomplete assignments, and behavior.  Montgomery County Evaluation Specialist Thomas (Chris) C. West, who created the formula for his district, commented in an Education Week article (07/29/2013), “You will not reduce dropout rates by identifying] the students; it’s what you do with them. Early-warning systems are not an intervention strategy; they are part of an intervention strategy. They are not a magic bullet.”

The Teenage Brain

WKCD (What Kids Can Do) includes information on how our students learn. Research shows us why teens act the way they do with behaviors such as “mood swings, surliness, impulsivity, poor decisions, insensitivity (or too much sensitivity), and more.” The brain’s frontal lobe, the area that affects judgment, is not fully developed until ages 25-30. As the brain grows, young people have difficulty making decisions quickly, don’t notice errors in judgment, have trouble identifying other’s emotions, and are “vulnerable to stress.” So—it’s good for all of us in education to remember that there is a biological reason for why teens are the way they are and that we need to be patient as we wait for their minds to mature.

Target Field Trip Grants

Target Field Trip Grants for Grades K-12 offer up to $700 to support opportunities for children outside the classroom. The application window is August 1 to September 30^th. Applications for Field Trip grants will only be available during this time period.  

You’ll want to check the Target site for other grants (Early Childhood; Foundation; Arts, Culture & Design grants,) as well. Different grants are available for application at different times throughout the school year.