Educating Students in the 21st Century: Part 3 (Creativity)

By Mike Duncan, Superintendent

 

 

“Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value.”  Sir Ken Robinson

 

So often we think of creativity as the fine arts-music, art, drama-and, certainly, these endeavors are creative as participants use their mediums to interpret, challenge and reimagine the world in which we live,  however, creativity is much more than the creation of art; it is in part the essence of combining”…seemingly unrelated ideas into something new…” (Daniel Pink, 2006).  To this end, students think and problem-solve creatively when they create new and worthwhile ideas; elaborate, refine, analyze, and evaluate their own ideas; demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand real world limits to adopting new ideas. 

Innovation has been the life-blood of the American experience, creating the world’s strongest economy and the highest standard of living.  Major economic powers around the world are biding to enhance innovation and discovery.  “China is now focusing on how to unleash more creative, innovative juices among its youth” (Thomas Freidman, 2007). 

To address the issue of creative problem-solving, we are engaged in professional learning focusing on student work that requires inquiry and value beyond school. The High School STEM program is experimenting with design challenges to develop solutions using science, technology, engineering and mathematics to solve real-world problems.  Creative problem-solving is the most challenging issue we face; it’s just not in the DNA of American education today.

Educating Students in the 21st Century: Part 2

 

 

By:  Mike Duncan, Superintendent

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” Albert Einstein

 What does it mean to think critically in the context of schooling? It is simply the process in which we develop an understanding of the world in which we live.  Education researchers, Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins state, “To understand is to make sense of what one knows, to be able to know why it’s so, and to have the ability to use it in various situations and context.”  The process of developing an understanding requires students to think critically; that is, they…

·         Collect, assess, and analyze relevant information;

·         Reason effectively;

·         Use systems thinking (problem solving tools and methodology);

·         Make sound judgment and decisions;

·         Identify, define, and solve authentic problems;

·         Reflect on learning experiences, processes and solutions.

We are partnering with Spalding and Butts Counties to open a regional college and career academy.  In the process of developing the college and career academy, we surveyed and spoke with hundreds of regional employers and the message was clear:  employers are more concerned with what new employees can do, not what they know. The said give us young people who can think and learn; we’ll train them.  The ubiquitous nature of technology and the rapid pace of innovation creates a condition whereby those who can think and learn independently will thrive.  Our job is to teach students how to do it.  An Apple executive was quoted in an article I read as saying if you have to be managed you can’t work here.

Educating Students in the 21st Century: Part 1

By:  Mike Duncan, Superintendent

“In times of change learners inherit the Earth: while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exist” Eric Hoffer

Pike County parents, community members, local employers, pastors, teachers and students were asked in 2013 what the school system should do to prepare students for a dramatically changing world during a year-long community dialog around the purpose of schooling.  The input we received set us on a new course; one in which I believe will allow our students the opportunity to fulfil their dreams, and as parents, our dreams for them.

So, let us begin by setting the stage for the community dialog:  schooling has not changed much in the past sixty years.  Today’s schools, much like the ones all of us attended, were designed to prepare workers for a manufacturing economy; and, consequently, they look like a factory-students moving from grade to grade with the same pace in the same time window until "Viola", a graduate is made.  Unfortunately, many of those factory jobs that schools were preparing students for are now in China.

The notion that you can graduate from high school, get a job, work for a handful of decades and retire with a comfortable pension is gone.  US Department of Labor states that today’s students will average 10-14 jobs by the age of 38-all the while the demand for workers to complete repetitive routine tasks has decreased exponentially due to automation, digitizing, and off-shoring.  Students will be, by and large, employed to do jobs involving non-routine tasks, complex thinking, and enhanced communication.  To this point, Karl Fisch, in his video documentary Did You Know? , states the top-ten in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.  Furthermore, he states, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist using technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

 This is a seismic shift for traditional schooling.  Nationally, the response has been to push down expectations to younger and younger students, increase the amount of standardized bubble-sheet testing, and to expand the breadth of curriculum students are expected to know.   Not to get too semantically snobbish, but notice I used the word “know” instead of “learn”.  We’ll talk about that later. 

In response to all this change, we initiated a conversation with our community and the charge was clear: students must be able to think critically, problem-solve creatively, communicate clearly, and collaborate effectively.  In this five part series, we will discuss each of the 4 C’s and what it looks like for students and its importance in the job market.

My Grandfather Clock

By Sheryl Watts, Pike Primary Principal

As a little girl, it was always a dream of mine to have a grandfather clock. Grandfather clocks are a symbol of strength, precision, wisdom and longevity.  As an adult, I received a grandfather clock as a 10^th Anniversary gift.  I often find myself mesmerized by the quiet tone of the pendulum swinging back and forth, the chimes ringing on the hour and half hour, and the beautiful skeleton key used to open it.   As I looked at my grandfather clock last evening, I found it interesting the similarities between this ornate heirloom that will eventually be passed from generation to generation and the little minds we shape each day that will eventually share the importance of education with their own children.

The tick-tock rhythm of the clock signals a daily effort to ensure Learning For All- the pendulum swinging back and forth, producing a melodic movement as the hands move around the clock each hour-graduation nearing with each chime.  The cogs represent the dedicated professionals, ensuring students are being exposed to quality instruction, but sometimes despite the intricate synchronicity the cogs provide, the clock slows; and, perhaps, even stops. 

As the old grandfather clock needs occasional maintenance, so do our students.   The clock, from time to time, needs to be opened, wound, and the pendulum put back into motion.  Once complete, the hands might need a gentle nudge back in place showing the correct time.  Students simply need to be reset.

Consider the clock that has stopped to be the struggling student.  The student may need something extra or different to keep correct time, and that may just be recalibrating to a positive academic mindset.  Katrina Schwartz wrote in “Beyond Knowing Facts, How Do We Get to a Deeper Level of Learning” that in order to develop a positive academic mindset, there are four key beliefs a student must hold:

·         I can change my intelligence and abilities through effort;

·         I can succeed;

·         I belong in this learning community;

·         This work has value and purpose for me.

 

This positive academic mindset occurs when that clock is opened, wound, and reset.  It takes a little extra time and effort, but the end result is a beautifully crafted instrument, a collaborative effort between teacher and student. Students need an environment to learn that allows them to take risks, make mistakes, and communicate their learning.  The feedback given to them is a celebration of success.  For some, the success is measured by promotion to the next grade.  On that clock, each hour is marked by chimes to denote the hour.  And, at 12 o’clock, graduation time…let the chimes begin!

Tackling Common Core

By:  Michael Duncan, Superintendent

 I have been asked many times about my opinion of the Common Core. My answer is usually guarded because the question is typically asked by those with hyper-partisan views who get their talking points from talk radio, but, honestly, I don’t have a big problem with it.  Common Core is much more rigorous, requiring greater levels of critical thinking, so from this perspective, it is a better curriculum. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot.  It’s too broad. Critics have argued it would take more than 20 years to teach the Common Core to deep levels of understanding; that is, the ability to apply knowledge and skills independently to real-life situations and solve real-world problems.

Recognizing the need to increase the level of rigor and develop 21^st Century Skills (critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration), we must find time to focus on depth of learning, not just coverage.  To this end, we are working to identify the most impactful curriculum standards and eliminate redundancy.  Our goal is to align the Common Core from kindergarten to twelfth grade, reducing the curriculum, hopefully, by 40%.  This will afford teachers and students the time to engage truly authentic intellectual work which require 21^st Century Skills.  The impact will be significant-more reading, more writing, and more thinking.  It’s really that simple.

The challenges ahead are clear:  creating processes whereby teachers can do the intellectually heavy lifting of evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum and instructional practices in light of student achievement data; investing in high quality textbooks (Yes, I said textbooks); and maintaining a laser-like focus on professional development in 21^st Century Skills.

What does this look like for students?  I know this is profound, but hang in there with me:  More reading, more writing, more thinking.