3 Exit Lanes to Self-Help Retirement Guides

June 27, 2016June 20, 2017 paulkfox1 Comment

For Transitioning to a Happy, Healthy, and Meaningful Retirement, These Books Should Be REQUIRED Reading!

I submit there are basically three ways to learn something new by reading about it. One is the tutorial format, a.k.a. an instrument of “programmed learning.” Another approach is the comprehensive reference manual or user guide. Finally, many people prefer a narrative story, perhaps a fictitious account that features characters exploring and revealing insights on the topic you are studying.

Do you recall the first time you had to learn a complicated new computer application? After installing it to your computer and some initial nail-biting, you trotted down to the bookstore to purchase “something” to teach you Corel WordPerfect for DOS or Adobe Pagemaker for Mac (two historic examples that are no longer available today). Usually, you were greeted with a choice… a comprehensive user manual or a tutorial workbook!

I am applying this concept to three mini book reviews of preparation for retirement. All you have to do is select your favorite “learning style.”

If you were looking for the reference manual, I recommend Ernie Zelinski’s How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (2016). The chapters are laid out by general concepts you need to understand. However, as in many user guides, you could turn to almost any page in the volume, jump around (in any order) to specific areas on which to focus, e.g. tips on travel (page 165) to health/wellness (page 109), and not lose the overall meaning.

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is one of the most easy-to-read and humorous publications on the market and best resources for a frank discussion of the emotional aspects of coping with retiree life-style changes/altered expectations, and finding creative new ways to self-reinvent and thrive. Quoted from the book’s Preface:

Retirement can be both exciting and demanding, bringing new challenges, new experiences, and new uncertainties. Regardless of how it turns out, retirement normally turns out far different from what people first envision. For some, it is a big disappointment. For others, it is merely a big annoyance. And still for others – much to their delight – retirement becomes an opportunity to live life like never before.

Here is Zelinski’s Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Thank Heaven for Retirement!
Chapter 2: Retirement – A Time to Become Much More Than You Have Ever Been
Chapter 3: So Many Worlds, So Much to Do!
Chapter 4: Take Special Care of Yourself – Because No One Else Will
Chapter 5: Learning Is for Life
Chapter 6: Your Wealth Is Where Your Friends Are
Chapter 7: Travel for Fun, Adventure, and More
Chapter 8: Relocate to Where Retirement Living Is Best
Chapter 9: Happiness Doesn’t Care How You Get There

The tutorial’s approach is a logical progression of chapters/how-to sections that must be read and completed in order. There are often worksheets, exercises, or activities to complete at the end of each chapter. The hierarchy of these “units” build a sequential set of competencies for which you must master one by one, a prerequisite before going on to the next section. Julia Cameron’s book It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again (2016) is a perfect example of this method. Actually, it is based on her earlier work, The Artist’s Way (also a tutorial), plus 25 years of teaching artists to “unblock their creativity” using her tools “Morning Pages” (stream-of-consciousness writing) and “Artist Date” (reserved weekly block of time to nurture your creativity). Perhaps both editions should be consumed/and worked chapter by chapter.

In It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again, Cameron’s introduction sets the tone for her “lessons” on “defining and creating the life you want to have as you redefine and recreate yourself.”

In this book you will find the common problems facing the newly retired: too much time, lack of structure, a sense that our physical surroundings suddenly seem outdated, excitement about the future coupled with a palpable fear of the unknown. As a friend of mine worried recently, “All I do is work. When I stop working, will I do… nothing?”

The answer is no. You will not do “nothing.” You will do many things. You will be surprised and delighted by the well of inspiration that lies within you – a well that you alone can tap. You will discover you are not alone in your desires, and that there are creativity tools that can help you navigate the specific issues of retirement.

The contents of It’s Never Too Late to Begin Again are divided into a weekly course of study:

Week One: Reigniting a Sense of Wonder
Week Two: Reigniting a Sense of Freedom
Week Three: Reigniting a Sense of Connection
Week Four: Reigniting a Sense of Purpose
Week Five: Reigniting a Sense of Honesty
Week Six: Reigniting a Sense of Humility
Week Seven: Reigniting a Sense of Resilience
Week Eight: Reigniting a Sense of Joy
Week Nine: Reigniting a Sense of Motion
Week Ten:: Reigniting a Sense of Vitality
Week Eleven: Reigniting a Sense of Adventure
Week Twelve: Reigniting a Sense of Faith

Finally, in the usual Ken Blanchard inspirational style of creating characters that act out a story, the book Refire! Don’t Retire (2015) sets the stage for an easy-to-understand narrative, specifically how to “make the rest of your life the best of your life.”

The fictitious “Larry and Janice Sparks” share anecdotes of their experiences, modeling potential opportunities of retirees enhancing their relationships, stimulating their minds, revitalizing their bodies, growing spiritually… basically rekindling passion in every area of their lives.

Co-authors Ken Blanchard and Morton Shaevitz relate their chance first meeting on a business trip:

“So what are you into and what’s new in your life,” was the beginning of our plane conversation. For the next fifteen minutes, we spoke with growing enthusiasm and animation. We talked about the things we were doing, and especially what we were excited about. When Morton mention he was working in the area of older adults and looking at aging from a new and different perspective, Ken piped up and said he’d been thinking about similar issues. The term he was using was “refire” – an attitude of embracing the years ahead with enthusiasm rather than apathy. At that moment, this book was born.

Their story, a “parable” on coming to grips with retirement, is organized in five sections:

The First Key: Refiring Emotionally
The Second Key: Refiring Intellectually
The Third Key: Refiring Physically
The Fourth Key: Refiring Spiritually
Putting It All Together

You will notice that all three texts cover many of the same subjects, but are vastly different in methodology, style/design, and overall structure.

If you need additional ideas, I can also recommend these three fairly recent releases on retirement preparation:

Disrupt Aging: A Bold New Path to Living Your Best Life at Every Age by Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of AARP (2016)
Happy Retirement – The Psychology of Reinvention: A Practical Guide to Planning and Enjoying the Retirement You’ve Earned by Kenneth S. Shultz (2015)
How to Survive Retirement: Reinventing Yourself for the Life You’ve Always Wanted by Steven Price (2015)

With a focus on music educator retirees, all of my past articles are archived on this blog-post: https://paulkfoxusc.wordpress.com/category/retirement-resources/.

Finally, feel free to peruse the ultimate retiree resource guide rev 071416, a handout for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Summer Conference session entitled “Surviving and Reveling in Retirement,” which was held at the Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania on July 11-13, 2016.

More critical than any instruction manual for using a computer program that will likely “come and go” over a short period of time, making sense of the “awesome” passage to retirement and finding satisfaction and meaning in your “golden years” are essential. These 5-star rated books provide excellent insight in facing this issue squarely, and taking steps to plan for your retirement. I recommend getting your hands on and browsing all of these resources.

To sum it up, I will echo Ernie Zelinski’s final thoughts:

The way I see it, you will have attained true freedom in this world when you can get up in the morning when you want to get up; go to sleep when you want to go to sleep; and in the interval, work and play at the things you want to work and play at – all at your own pace. The great news is that retirement allows you the opportunity to attain this freedom.

PKF

Lessons in Creativity

May 1, 2016May 1, 2016 paulkfoxLeave a comment

Sharing the thoughts of others on inspiring innovation, ingenuity, divergent thinking, and creative self-expression in the schools is my lifelong mission. I place this perspective at the top of the critical “big four list” for satisfying “the real purpose of education” – personal discovery, self-improvement, and developing the building blocks for success and happiness in life:

Creativity
Literacy
Logic
Global understanding

Even though I am now retired, my “mind energizing” routine every morning is to take several moments to “surf the net,” looking for interesting articles on the subject of cultivating creativity in education. A typical online journey might include “waking up” with the following progression (but, this is NOT a fixed script, since this is all about becoming more self-aware and practicing the skills of inventiveness, personal initiative, and flexibility – openness to new and diverse perspectives).

Visit https://curiosity.com/ and “sit a spell.” Read several mind-expanding articles.
Connect with other professionals with Edutopia.com. Today I “found” several interesting sections to satisfy my thirst for discussions on infusing the arts in education:
If you have not explored the National Creativity Network website, go to http://nationalcreativitynetwork.org/blog/.
Randomly check out what’s happening in the arts’ scene on the World Wide Web:
- Arts Education Collaborative (new website coming) http://artsedcollaborative.org/
- Arts Education Partnership and their digital Arts Ed Digest http://www.aep-arts.org/resources-2/artsed-digest/
- Arts Journal http://www.artsjournal.com/
- The Kennedy Center ArtsEdge http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/standards.aspx
- NAfME Music in a Minuet (such as http://www.nafme.org/3-reasons-music-and-arts-education-is-a-shining-light/)
- National Art Education Association https://www.arteducators.org/
- National Endowment for the Arts https://www.arts.gov/artistic-fields/arts-education
Troll for new ideas and sites with a general (and ever-changing Google search). Several results of “lessons in creativity” are shared below.

As a non-casual observer of most traditional instruction in the schools, I note that teachers are generally very well trained at facilitating in their classes the “left-brain” attributes of speech, language, writing, linear and sequential thinking, understanding of symbols, and logical progression. They focus more on the final product – not the process, laws and rules – not ambiguity, convergent (one-answer-only) thinking – not open-ended questioning, and summative – not formative assessments. Of course, mastery of reading comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary, and understanding of mathematical expressions are essential for a “good education,” but to make the learning authentic and personalized, the habits of creative self-expression, adaptability, self-direction, and intrinsic motivation are equal in importance. And, to the main point of my thesis, this “equality” should not be relegated to the high school students’ enrollment in an “optional” arts elective or two!

Throughout my research in nurturing one’s creative inner self and nourishing more of the “right brain” attributes (divergent and holistic thinking, spontaneity, intuition, artistic expression, etc.) into every day life, these five terms/concepts keep coming up:

Curiosity
Daydreams or fantasies
Focus
Play
Risk-taking

To glean a new perspective for prioritizing “originality” in school and in life, let’s peruse a few online expert’s “lessons in creativity.” (The following just lists the lessons; you need take the time to read the authors’ entire articles to gain full understanding.)

9 Illuminating Lessons on Creativity

by Margarita Tarakovsky (World of Psychology) http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/04/14/9-illuminating-lessons-on-creativity/

Creativity is about showing up.
Creativity is about getting curious.
Creativity is limitless.
Focus on the process, not the product.
Being creative does not mean being skilled.
Forget perfection, and find the “magic threshold.”
Creativity is full of surprises.
Creativity is full of ups and downs.
Everyone is creative.

18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently

by Carolyn Gregoire (The Huffington Post) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/creativity-habits_n_4859769.html

They daydream.
They observe everything.
They work the hours that work for them.
They take time for solitude.
They turn life’s obstacles around.
They seek out new experiences.
They “fail up.”
They ask the big questions.
They people-watch.
They take risks.
They view all of life as an opportunity for self-expression.
They follow their true passions.
They get out of their own heads.
They lose track of time.
They surround themselves with beauty.
They connect the dots.
They constantly shake things up.
They make time for mindfulness.

5 Lessons on Creativity from Former Disney Imagineer

by Jonha Revesencio (The Huffington Post) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonha-revesencio/creativity_b_5350605.html

In order to be great, you need to get started.
Focus on what you do best.
Add value. Don’t just criticize.
See things differently.
Stay curious.

As soon as I posted these wonderful resources, several new ones popped up. Also, please look up the following:

16 Lessons on Creativity and Life from Dr. Seuss by Harish http://launchyourgenius.com/2013/07/08/16-lessons-on-creativity-and-life-from-dr-seuss-part-1/ and http://launchyourgenius.com/2013/07/11/16-lessons-on-creativity-and-life-from-dr-seuss-part-2/
4 Lessons in Creativity from John Cleese http://www.fastcocreate.com/1680999/4-lessons-in-creativity-from-john-cleese
4 Lessons in Creativity TEDTALK by Julie Burstein https://www.ted.com/talks/julie_burstein_4_lessons_in_creativity?language=en

These is just a gourmet sampling of what’s out there. You should venture out on your own expedition… there is a lot of material to review, at least on the rationale of creativity in education, if not the “how to” of bringing it into the classroom. That’s the next step… fodder for future articles. Happy hunting!

PKF

Other Blogs on Creativity in Education at This Site

If I Were a School Superintendent…

March 9, 2016March 22, 2016 paulkfox1 Comment

“Creativity” Would Join “Literacy” and “Logic” as the Top Three Educational Priorities

“Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you’re passionate about something, then you’re more willing to take risks.” – Yo-Yo Ma

One of the advantages of teaching and learning in the state of Pennsylvania is that many aspects of specific curriculum and instruction is under local control. We do not have a unified county or state system. “Big Brother” does not dictate all aspects of what is taught.

Of course, the immediate disclaimer is that the local school boards cannot decide everything. You would hear complaints from superintendents about the many federal and state mandates (often unfunded). In addition, I would add my voice against the politics and obsessive focus on standardized testing, coursework with the sole goal of achieving high scores, and the hysterical single-mindedness on providing learning experiences to develop convergent thinking (as opposed to divergent thinking), recently made even worse by the Common (and much more limited) Core movement and curriculum. In some places, this has caused a significant de-emphasis (and in some cases elimination) of the arts, a strategy that fails to meet the needs of “The Whole Child” nor nurtures the development of the 21^st Century skills of creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.

However, in my experience as a teacher and Curriculum Leader, each individual school district has some autonomy and can devise their own mission/vision and educational plan. This can include the customization and individualization of their academic programs with a new, comprehensive, and actively engaging curriculum, taking into account the special needs of a very diversified clientele.

I saw this in action when teachers and administrators designed the K-12 Technology Curriculum at Upper St. Clair School District. Care was taken to include elements of creativity (not originally placed in the first draft). After several revisions, the curriculum committee was proud to publish the competency target “I can apply creative thinking to the creation of original works using technology” under the Grades K-12 strand Creativity and Innovation. Perhaps small steps towards our goal, but for a big purpose!

As Daniel Pink points out, we have already moved away from the total reliance and dominance of the Agricultural Age and Industrial Age, and now even the Information Age that superseded them. One of my favorite quotes from his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World is, “The era of ‘left brain’ dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which ‘right brain’ qualities – inventiveness, empathy, meaning – predominate.” Referring to the Conceptual Age (creators and empathizes) as the current fourth stage, students need to acquire the tools for success in today’s higher education and jobs. Sure, we want our children to excel at reading, writing, understanding and solving math problems, but now more than ever, we need to place higher priority and greater amounts of time and resources to the goal of teaching students to create and express themselves, and to learn originality, inventiveness, personal innovation, initiative, self-direction, flexibility, adaptability, openness to new and diverse perspectives, and ambiguity.

So, with my “thinking cap on” and the unbridled enthusiasm and freedom to fantasize the creation of a “perfect school,” here are eight ideas from a retired music teacher imagining he accepted the position as “superintendent for a year.” (No one has ever dared to give me this kind of “power!” Besides, I would spend too much money!)

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” – Albert Einstein

1. Staff training

My first act as superintendent would be the planning and institution of several new teacher in-service programs.

ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) has recently released a new online course based on the readings and ideas from Patti Drapeau’s book Sparking Student Creativity: Practical Ways to Promote Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving. Six professional development modules will teach integration of creativity into content to meet and extend curriculum standards. ASCD promises that the participants will use a “creativity road map” to plan instruction, and develop strategies to enhance creative tasks and assess creativity lessons:

Module 1: Intentional Creativity
Module 2: Practical Creativity
Module 3: Creativity and Standards
Module 4: Creativity and Imagination
Module 5: Innovation and Creative Problem Solving
Module 6: Creativity and Assessment

For the opening day keynote speaker, barring having the necessary funding (reputed to be unbelievably high) to bring in creativity-in-education expert Sir Ken Robinson, I would invite Daniel Pink to address the staff and share the importance of designing curriculum and instruction around his six “senses” or aptitudes:

Design – Moving beyond function to engage the sense.
Story – Narrative added to concepts, products, and services – not just argument. Best of the six senses.
Symphony – Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus).
Empathy – Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
Play – Bringing humor and light-hardheartedness to education, business, consumer products, and… life, in general.
Meaning – the purpose is the journey, giving more meaning to life from inside yourself.

Sponsoring future workshops (spring semester) on what I call “the meat and potatoes” of teaching more creatively and teaching creativity, we would be inspired to have Dr. Curtis Bonk (Indiana University of Bloomington) unpack many of his pedagogical strategies with hands-on breakout sessions for the teachers exploring (his terms) brainstorming and reverse brainstorming, metaphoric thinking, checkerboarding, wet inking/free writing, simulations, semantic webbing or mapping, role playing, etc. (See http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/cv_hand.html).

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

2. Staffing

Taking a page from the leadership philosophy of the current superintendent (Dr. Patrick O’Toole) for the Upper St. Clair School District, my former employer, I would install new administrative positions that foster creative self-expression and educational innovation. Our “customization” tagline (logo to the right) is ambitious, unique for most public schools, and articulates the USC organization’s core functions, culture and mission. However, I believe it needed the intentional assignment of extra managerial manpower and flexible foresight in staffing in order to fulfill the school district mission statement: “Developing lifelong learners and responsible citizens for a global society is the mission of the Upper St. Clair School District, served by a responsive and innovative staff who in partnership with the community provides learning experiences that nurture the uniqueness of each child and promotes happiness and success.”

Copying from Dr. O’Toole’s HR playbook, for my imaginary school district in the first year, I would hire a new Supervisor of Customized and Online Learning and an Associate Principal of Program Planning and Innovation, and have both of them report directly to me (the superintendent) every month.

“I believe this passionately: that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather, we get educated out if it.” – Sir Ken Robinson

3. Improving the climate for risk-taking

Sir Ken Robinson says the studies show the longer students stay in school the less creative they become. It is all about the willingness to accept risk, instead of seeking conformity or the “one right answer.” We need to venture out from our “comfort zone,” be different, try new ideas or angles, and even fail miserably once in awhile along the way.

Peter Dewitt wrote an interesting blog on the climate of school risk-taking from the perspective of a principal: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2012/10/does_your_school_culture_encourage_risk-taking_or_rule_following.html.

I also recommend reading the article “The Keys to Inquiry (Section II): Big Messages to Communicate Around Learning from Experience” by Tina Grotzer (Harvard Graduate School of Education): http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/Inquiry/inquiry2text.html.

In our society, at times we do value risk taking. Steven E. Landsburg, author of Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life says that the reason we pay CEOs so much money (in the millions plus stock options and golden parachutes) is to provide enough security for the company executive to take more chances and find new ways to make even more money. Quoted from his book:

“Why are executive salaries so high? Remember that stockholders want executives to take more risks. One way to encourage a person to take risks is to make him wealthy. Other things being equal, multimillionaires are a lot mellower about losing their jobs than people who are worried about how to put their children through college. If you want your corporate president to be receptive to the rocket-powered running shoe project, you need to encourage that kind of mellowness. A high salary helps a lot in that direction.”

Speaking of balancing “risk and rules,” just how creative are YOU? Have you heard about Chindogu, the Japanese concept that combines ingenuity and inventiveness with the absurb? (See http://www.weirdworm.com/10-bizarre-japanese-inventions/.) Created by amateur inventor Kenji Kawakami in the 1980s, “…a chindogu must be both useless and useful at the same time” and have a real purpose (other than making people laugh) but “also be completely unusable.” According to weirdworm.com, “A real prototype of the invention must be made for it to be called chindogu. Unfortunately, the rules also state that chindogu are not to be sold. Once used for commercial gain, the artifact would no longer be chindogu, but a commercially viable product. Chindogu are also not to be patented, but are instead to be considered a gift to the world. Fortunately, many chindogu have been sold, albeit as novelty items, but they are rarely patented.”

“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” – Erich Fromm

4. Generating a daily/weekly lesson target of divergent thinking

To improve the instruction, both in learning creativity and more creative teaching, let’s move towards practicing more divergent thinking. Teachers would be asked to post in front of their class the “innovative idea of the week” or “creative target for the day.”

Monthly faculty meetings would offer the chance to share some of these “aha” moments and new teaching/learning techniques. This also means we will make a concerted effort to share the creative work of our students. Regarding the education profession, whoever said, “It’s not the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side,” was absolutely right!

My best example of approaching a problem “outside the box” is the nine-dot-puzzle and puzzle solutions. How about a math lesson that asks how many different ways a student could solve the problem 1 + 1 + 1 = , or how to justify these answers: 3 (the sum, the obvious response), 11 (binary), 1 (drawing the Roman Numeral I in three strokes)? Additional examples for teachers of all subjects is about “inventions” and comes from TeacherVision: https://www.teachervision.com/inventions/teacher-resources/6636.html.

“But the person who scored well on an SAT will not necessarily be the best doctor or the best lawyer or the best businessman. These tests do not measure character, leadership, creativity, and perseverance.” – William Julius Wilson

5. Adjusting for balance

We have to re-examine our historic emphasis on summative assessments and final grades vs. providing meaningful feedback using formative assessments. Personally, I have never learned a thing or improved my knowledge or skill from a standardized test. Alternative assessments, often called authentic, comprehensive, or performance assessments, are usually designed by the teacher to gauge students’ understanding of material. Examples of these measurements are open-ended questions, written compositions, oral presentations, projects, experiments, and portfolios of student work.

I believe that assessment for learning (formative) is preferable and should occur more often than assessment of learning (summative). Yes, we need both, and must print something on the report card. But, classroom activities should model our lives outside… fostering all of the words with “self” prefixes: self-motivation towards self-discovery for self-improvement and self-sufficiency. Creativity is all about “life long learning.”

“Art in the classroom not only spurs creativity, it also inspires learning.” – Mickey Hart

6. Requiring daily instruction in the arts for every student regardless of grade level

Day one, there would be more rigorous high school graduation requirements of four years of music or art courses for every student enrolled at the high school. Yes, that would mean hiring a few more teachers… but the payoffs would be instantly evident and promote exponential growth in the creative quotient of every student!

You cannot expect a true understanding of the artistic process without creating your own original work in art or music. Some students try to go through four years of high school, four or more years in a college or university, and another 2-4 years in postgraduate courses, never experiencing a single “goosebump” moment in personal self-expression.

In addition, I was also amazed to find so many building principals and curriculum supervisors who themselves have never completed a single hands-on arts course in high school or college.

Really, this is as silly as not expecting every educator to be computer literate, having advance reading and writing skills, or capable of doing math (grading exams), etc.

Every administrator and teacher in my buildings would be expected to “practice what we preach” and develop their own artistry by participating in an instrumental ensemble, chorus, classes in painting or drawing, pottery or jewelry making, sewing, woodworking, acting, dancing, etc. Sure, as “the boss,” I would even allow some of this during school time. Can you imagine the positive effect it would have on the ensemble programs in all buildings if the teachers, principals, and other school staff also explored singing, playing in the band or orchestra, or performing on stage in the musicals?

“Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.” – Theodor Adorno

7. Expanding arts integration in all classes and disciplines

My hypothetical school district would embrace the definition of “arts integration” from the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) Program: “Arts Integration is an APPROACH to TEACHING in which students construct and demonstrate UNDERSTANDING through an ART FORM. Students engage in a CREATIVE PROCESS, which CONNECTS an art form and another subject area and meets EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.”

According to CETA, “This approach to teaching is grounded in the belief that learning is actively built, experiential, evolving, collaborative, problem-solving, and reflective. These beliefs are aligned with current research about the nature of learning and with the Constructivist learning theory.” CETA outlined the following “best practices” of this theory that align with arts integration:

Drawing on students prior knowledge;
Providing active hands-on learning with authentic problems for students to solve in divergent ways;
Arranging opportunities for students to learn from each other to enrich their understandings;
Engaging students in reflection about what they learned, how they learned it, and what it means to them;
Using student assessment of their own and peers’ work as part of the learning experience;
Providing opportunities for students to revise and improve their work and
Building a positive classroom environment where students are encouraged and supported to take risks, explore possibilities, and where a social, cooperative learning community is created and nurtured.

“The arts, quite simply, nourish the soul. They sustain, comfort, inspire. There is nothing like that exquisite moment when you first discover the beauty of connecting with others in celebration of larger ideals and shared wisdom.” – Gordon Gee

8. Bringing creativity to the Common Core

A lot more (ahem) innovative research is needed to merge both creativity and the Common Core (and other so-called “new” educational initiatives when they inevitably come down the pike). Below are a few additional resources. In my “administration,” it would be common practice to share these at faculty and staff meetings… and look for more ways to intentional bring creativity skill instruction to the forefront.

TEACHHUB.com “Creativity Within the Common Core State Standards” http://www.teachhub.com/creativity-within-common-core-state-standards

Just ASK “Creativity and the Common Core” www.justaskpublications.com/just-ask-resource-center/e-newsletters/mccca/creativity-and-the-common-core/

The Arts Education Collaborative has the best bibliography exploring the Common Core and the Arts (http://www.aep-arts.org/resources-2/common-core-and-the-arts/):

Special Report on Education 2012: Arts Education at the Core (December 2013) – A report based on the findings of the Theatre Communications Group’s 2012 Education Survey discussing the impact of Common Core on arts education.

Art and the Common Core (February 2013) – A PowerPoint presentation from an Education Week webinar about arts integration within the Common Core, featuring Susan M. Riley and Lynne Munson, and moderated by Erik Robelen.

The Arts and the Common Core (December 2012) – A report prepared by the College Board for NCASS on connections between the CCSS and the Next Generation Arts Standards.

Use Arts Integration to Enhance Common Core (November 2012) – This post by Susan Riley from Edutopia’s Education Trends blog discusses arts integration as a means to enhance the Common Core.

Guiding Principles for the Arts: Grades K-12 – Developed by David Coleman, this is a discussion on the ways in which arts education intersects with the Common Core areas.

The Arts and the Common Core Curriculum Mapping Project – A guide utilizing the arts in a Common Core curriculum.

Creativity, Critical Thinking, and the New Common Core State Standards (March 2012) – A symposium co-hosted by the Los Angeles Unified School District Arts Education Branch and the Museum of Contemporary Art, bringing together school leaders, teachers, and educators from arts organizations to discuss the impact of the Common Core on their work.

“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” – John Steinbeck

My aforementioned school superintendent, a definite arts advocate who “puts his money where his mouth is” in the funding and staffing of an excellent Fine and Performing Arts program at Upper St. Clair, would probably laugh me out of his office for these zany ideas. With the possible exception of a new start-up charter or cyber school or private institution, it is unlikely any elected School Board would ever have the courage to support a total creativity-based curriculum. At least, my wild imagination and arts perspective may have started you thinking on a few improvements that can be considered instead of the cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all schooling. Please stay tuned for more “lessons on creativity,” revisit my past blogs on creativity in education, and feel free to comment on anything!

PKF

More Creativity Resources

January 17, 2016 paulkfoxLeave a comment

Additional Perspectives and Research for Creativity in Education

One of the best statements of rationale for more inclusion of creativity in Grades K-12 schooling comes from the introductory page of the P21 Arts Map, designed in cooperation with nation’s arts educators and The Partnership for 21st Century Skills:

“Business leaders and visionary thinkers concerned about preparation of students for the future know that the ability to be creative – a key 21st Century Skill – is native to the arts and is one of the primary processes learned through arts education. The examples in this Skills Map illustrate how the arts promote work habits that cultivate curiosity, imagination, creativity, and evaluation skills. Students who possess these skills are better able to tolerate ambiguity, explore new realms of possibility, express their own thoughts and feelings and understand the perspectives of others.” – P21 Arts Map at http://www.P21.org (published in 2000)

Any discussion about creativity in education should begin with a thorough look at defining what it means to be innovative and original. As stated by the Partnership for 21st Century, essential factors in creativity are demonstrating originality and inventiveness in work, being open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives, developing, implementing, and communicating new ideas to others, and acting on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contributions to the domain in which innovation occurs.

Download the entire P21 Arts Map by clicking on this link.

Another fantastically in-depth resource is the website of Linda Naiman, founder of “Creativity At Work” and a pioneer of arts-based learning as a catalyst for developing creativity, innovation, and collaborative leadership in organizations.

She has posted one of the best definitions of “creativity” I have ever read:

“Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.” – Linda Naiman

A few of my favorite articles from her website:

What Is Creativity? http://www.creativityatwork.com/2014/02/17/what-is-creativity/
Can Creativity be Taught? http://www.creativityatwork.com/2012/03/23/can-creativity-be-taught/
Seven Habits of Highly Creative People: http://www.creativityatwork.com/2012/03/06/seven-habits-of-highly-creative-people/

In her blog on “Can Creativity Be Taught,” Naiman reflects on the research of George Land (1968-1993, revised in 2004) and a popular TedTalks video of his presentation “The Failure of Success” – https://youtu.be/ZfKMq-rYtnc.

Land’s statistics concluding with “non-creative behavior is learned” show that the longer a student is in school, the lower he/she scores on a creativity tests. We teach our children “not to risk being wrong” and don’t go “all out” in finding an unique solution to a problem… only respond with “the one correct answer!” This reminded me of a insightful Sir Ken Robinson TedTalks video, filmed in 2006, with more than 36 million viewers: (http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en). If you have not viewed any of Sir Ken’s TedTalks, you owe yourself a look!

One of Naiman’s blog posts is a book review for Let the Elephants Run: Unlocking Your Creativity and Changing Everything by David Usher. On my “required reading” list, this brings us to our next stop for a more penetrative discussion of creativity in education! Usher asks, “How do we jump start our creative process as adults? What does it mean to be a creative person? How do we follow through with our ideas and turn them into tangible outcomes?” These are the fundamental questions with which we must grapple in order to enhance the creative potential and self-expression of our students.

Other excellent books on creativity that should be investigated include the following:

The Little Spark: 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity by Carrie Bloomston
The Creativity Challenge: Design, Experiment, Test, Innovate, Build, Create, Inspire, and Unleash Your Genius by Tanner Christensen
Insight Out: Get Ideas Out of Your Head and Into the World by Tina Seelig
inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity by Tina Seeli
The Ignorant Maestro: How Great Leaders Inspire Unpredictable Brilliance by Itay Talgam
Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Finally, I will leave you with a link to the late great curriculum innovator and co-author of “Understanding By Design,” Grant Wiggins, who proposed a revolutionary framework for improving student achievement. Emphasizing the teacher’s critical role as a designer of student learning, UbD™ works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities. Since his death in May 2015, I have noticed numerous postings (and variations) of his creative rubric:

Some more “creative” food for thought…

Care to comment? Please send me your favorite creativity links/publications.

If you have not read the rest of my articles (quoting other “masters”), here’s the list:

More to come…

PKF

Creativity in Schools Revisited

December 10, 2015December 14, 2015 paulkfoxLeave a comment

“The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety.” – Deepak Chopra

My Perspective and a Little Rehash on Creativity

Since June 2013 when I retired, I have looked back fondly to an exciting 35-year career in public school teaching, examining the purpose and impact of teaching music education to literally thousands of students. Being assigned to band/choral/orchestra ensembles, music theory and general music classes, as well as directing extracurricular chamber groups, plays, and musicals, I willingly embraced that hectic 24/7 schedule to have access to (and hopefully “inspire” creative self-expression in) my kids before, during and after school hours. Yes, we had musicians, singers, actors, and dancers who chose for themselves a career in the arts, and even more who entered into the noble quest of “giving back” by seeking employment as music educators. However, the largest majority of those students who studied with me went on to non-musical careers.

So, in reflection, was all of this worth it?

Sure it was, but not just to master the course content or complete so many concerts, theater productions, or music lessons. At this point, I have come to peace knowing that the main purpose of my job was to somehow motivate, engage, encourage, guide, and facilitate my students to realize their own success in creativity and self-expression… hopefully to last a lifetime.

Remember, in education, it is the “process” that truly matters, not solely the “product.”

“Creativity is as important as literacy”- Ken Robinson

Two years ago, I wrote a three-part series on the critical need, rationale of, and techniques for developing skills in teaching creativity as well as teaching more creatively. I based my compilations on the February 2013 issue “Creativity Now!” of the ASCD Educational Leadership magazine, and passed on the research and insight of creativity experts, self-expression advocates, and/or self-proclaimed ”right-brain” educational gurus Ronald Beghetto, Dr. Curtis Bonk, Eric Booth, Susan Brookhart, Roger von Oech, Daniel Pink, Sir Ken Robinson, and Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein.

With 2016 about to make its grand entrance, where are we now with creativity in the public schools? In Pennsylvania, the writing of meaningful and extensive “scope and sequence” creativity curriculum, and its implementation of essential questions, lesson targets, and pedagogy, still take a backseat to the highly politicized Common (and much more limited) Core subjects and standardized achievement tests, which the latter, in my opinion, measures very little of an individual’s potential for success. To this day, a focus on “Whole Child” and “customized learning” priorities remains to be lacking throughout the country. We need to “take action,” mandate further research, and propose teaching creativity as an art and a science, all along bringing the necessary courage and vision to make significant changes in our educational systems.

Thinking “Outside the Box”

The continued fixation on “error-free” convergent thinking, a priority of the one-answer-only mentality, baffles me. 1+1+1 does not always equal three. I can give you at least two alternative answers: 11 or 1 (the sum in a binary system for the former and the result of drawing the Roman numeral “I” with one vertical line and two horizontal lines for the latter). This is an example of divergent thinking (“process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions”), and sits at the top of the charts for higher order of thinking skills (HOTS) and depth of knowledge (DOK). Use of divergent thinking is much more valued in higher education circles, future employment, and especially research and development in a host of careers from medicine to engineering to technology innovation to consumer markets… probably the foundation of future success in our whole economy.

Review the Literature on Creativity in Education

Are you interested in joining the bandwagon of creativity education advocates? First, review my other three articles and absorb the thoughts of some of our greatest educational innovators. Go to the following links:

Inspiration from… Who Else? Adobe!

Next, take look at the recent research of Adobe, Inc., posted on the company website: http://www.adobe.com/education/creativity-in-education.html. Gathering data by polling educated professionals (2012), educators and parents (2013), and hiring managers (2014), the crucial role of creativity in education was illustrated.

Based on a survey taken in early 2013, Adobe published the following findings:

Parents and educators are strongly aligned in their concerns and desires for the educational system.
The education system is stifling creativity; a transformative change is needed.
The demand for creativity and creative thinking is increasing and will fuel economies in the future, yet students are less prepared to become innovative thinkers of tomorrow.

According to Adobe, the top two reasons educators struggle to incorporate creativity into the classroom in the United States are lack of resources (56% of the survey responses) and the current education system doesn’t value creativity (54%).

In addition, Adobe reported that the top 3 most important steps to promote and foster creativity in education (in the U.S.) are the following:

Provide tools and training that enable educators to teach creativity.
Make creativity something that is integral to the curriculum.
Reduce mandates that hinder creativity.

In another study sponsored by Adobe (2012), several key headlines were released:

57% of college-educated professionals believe creativity is a learned skill that can be learned in their career, while 65% believe it is a personality trait that is innate.
88% agree creativity should be built into education curriculums and 72% agree they were more focused on subject matter than creative thinking in school.
85% agree creative thinking is critical for problem solving in their career, but nearly one-third (32%) do not feel comfortable thinking creatively at work.

Finally, from July through August 2014, Adobe sampled HR administrators’ attitudes and beliefs about the skills required for success in the workplace of tomorrow. In its report “Seeking Creative Candidates: Hiring for the Future,” Adobe summarized with the following:

75% of hiring managers believe creativity is required for economic growth and valuable to society (85%), but only 51% think businesses grasp the importance of creativity.
Problem solving (51%) and creativity (47%) have gained the most value in driving salary increases in the last five years.
75% of hiring managers agree the job market will change significantly in the next five years. Tech-savvy (88%), the ability to communicate through digital and visual media (82%), and creativity (76%) are cited as becoming essential skills.
Hiring managers indicate that problem solving skills and critical thinking (58%) and creativity innovation (41%) will be among the most “in-demand” skills over the next 12 months, along with technical/specialist skills (42%).
94% agree creativity is key when evaluating candidates and prefer those with creative skills over conventional skills by more than five to one.

My next blog on the subject of creativity in education will explore additional resources, including new websites and books on the subjects of innovation, ingenuity, originality, and self-expression released over the last several years.

Please feel free to comment. More to follow…

“The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.” – Anthony Jay

PKF

Arts Advocacy – Everyone’s Job!

July 20, 2015May 5, 2020 paulkfoxLeave a comment

“If it is to be, it is up to me.” – William H. Johnsen

Can you imagine if there was only enough money in the education budget for one subject to be taught in school? What would it be?

The education of the “whole child” to acquire 21^st Century learning skills, with an emphasis on the “Four C’s” – Creativity, Critical thinking, Communications, and Collaboration – is essential to the success of every child, and paramount for the future continuation of arts and creative self-expression throughout the world. This mandates equal-access to quality learning of rigorous curricula, offered to all students enrolled in courses of Fine and Performing Arts, English, Math, Science, World Language, Social Studies, and Physical Education.

(For an interesting set of articles detailing the above Venn diagram on the four C’s of 21st Century learning skills, see Margo Tripsa’s “Techie Teachers’ Tricks,” beginning with http://techieteacherstricks.com/2013/06/30/the-4-cs-critical-thinking/.)

Why the Arts?

An education in the arts benefits society because students of music, art, dance, and drama gain powerful tools for:

Understanding human experiences, both past and present;
Teamwork and collaboration;
Making decisions creatively when no prescribed answers exist;
Learning to adapt to and respect others’ (diverse) ways of thinking, working, and expressing themselves;
Learning problem recognition and problem solving, involving expressive, analytical, and developmental tools to every human situation (that is why we speak, for example, of the “art” of teaching or the “art” of politics);
Understanding the influence of the arts and their power to create and reflect cultures, the impact of design on our daily life, and in the interdependence of work in the arts with the broader worlds of ideas and action;
Developing the essential senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and kinesthetics as intellectual, emotional, physical, creative, and expressive acts;
Analyzing nonverbal communication and making informed judgments about cultural products and issues;
Communicating effectively.

The “Whole Child” Approach to Education

All of us should already be on board promoting the concepts of “whole child” education in the public schools:

“The demands of the 21st century require a new approach to education to fully prepare students for college, career, and citizenship. Research, practice, and common sense confirm that a whole child approach to education will develop and prepare students for the challenges and opportunities of today and tomorrow by addressing students’ comprehensive needs through the shared responsibility of students, families, schools, and communities.” – ASCD Whole Child Education Initiative http://www.wholechildeducation.org/about/

Launched in 2007, ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative was an effort to “change the conversation about education from a focus on narrowly defined academic achievement to one that promotes the long term development and success of children.”

My favorite tenets of “whole child” education are the following principles:

Each student has access to personalized learning…
Each student is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the school and broader community.
Each student is challenged academically…

Sounds a lot like the need for an education in the arts, right?

Need More Rationale?

The Partnership for 21st Century (P21) movement (see www.apple.com/education/docs/Apple-P21Framework.pdf) affirmed what prospective employees are seeking from graduates and others entering the work force – 21st Century learning skills, as well as an authentic work experience and achievement in and appreciation of the values of focus/attention, goal setting, perseverance, self-discipline, and cooperation. Would it surprise you that at every job interview in my life, I was never asked for the results of my SAT scores? For blue-collar and professional jobs alike, credentials/certification and past work/school history are important, but more than anything else, managers and “the big boss” want to know a job applicant’s record of absenteeism and tardiness, and if the candidate can take instruction, solve problems, innovate, communicate, and work well with others.

Where else but in the arts can students receive this exposure to and opportunities to explore and practice the work-related skills of communications and collaboration, and the thinking skills of critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity? You owe it to yourself to check out this more detailed layout: P21 Arts Map.

If you have not viewed Sir Ken Robinson’s presentation of creativity in education, stop everything right now and go to one of these links:

Read my main page (above) for additional resources on Creativity in Education – Are We Ready for a New Paradigm Shift?

Also, it is worth perusing these sites:

How can you argue with all of this research?

Get Involved!

I find it amusing (albeit appropriate) that on my iPhone, Siri first translated “arts advocacy” as “arts have a good seat.”

There is a great need for arts advocates, and that means absolutely everybody… retired educators, current teachers, future/prospective employees of schools, students, parents, relatives of children attending school, and taxpayers who don’t have anyone enrolled in the public, private, or charter schools.

Politics is a numbers game. Your state legislators need to know that you care about education and the arts as priorities – justifying and finding more revenue and resources for music and art education. In addition, with all of the focus on high-stakes standardized tests and the Common Core (and very limiting) subjects, now more than ever, we all need to reach out to our elected officials and make our voices heard (above all of the din!). Yes, the arts do make a difference, but no one will know that unless you tell the decision-makers!

Now, here’s something you can do right now! If you reside in Pennsylvania, go to the advocacy section of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association website: http://www.pmea.net/specialty-areas/advocacy/. If you need to find your particular legislator to send the letter/e-mail, first visit this website: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/. If you feel strongly about the importance of arts education, your letter (the sample posted or something like it) should urge our elected officials to:

Increase the basic education subsidy.
Enact a fair funding formula.
Restore the Pennsylvania Department of Education Arts Education Liaison for the curricular areas of music, visual art, theater, dance, and media arts.

(This process can be duplicated in a similar manner for every state in the union. Music and art programs are being cut daily!)

Don’t put this off! When was the last time you devoted a little time to express your opinion directly to your state representative? Didn’t we elect and charge them with the responsibility to do what is right for our educational programs and children? Music and art education needs your help NOW!

PKF

Creative Teaching & Teaching Creativity – PART III – Creative Techniques

July 13, 2015April 21, 2019 paulkfoxLeave a comment

Reprinted from the Winter 2015 issue of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association music teachers’ state journal of PMEA News.

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda

Warm-up

“Creative thinking” riddle of the month:

An ordinary American citizen, with no passport, visits over thirty foreign countries in one day. He is welcomed in each country, and leaves of his own accord. How is this possible? (Answer printed at the bottom on this article.)

The final segment of this three-part series for all educators addresses many of the “how-to” aspects of using imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting and effective (teaching creatively) and strategies of teaching that are intended to develop students’ creative thinking or behavior (teaching for creativity).

25 Ways to Develop Creativity

Probably one of the best resources I found in my research on creativity is the book How to Develop Student Creativity by Robert J. Sternberg and Wendy M. Williams (ASCD 1996). Sternberg and Williams provide a detailed guide with personal experiences on instructional techniques in creativity, including how to choose creative environments, expose students to creative role models, identify and surmount obstacles to creativity, direct students to question assumptions, generate new ideas, and promote self-responsibility.

Steinberg and Williams refer to “the investment theory of creativity,” which asserts that “creative thinkers are like good investors – they buy low and sell high. Whereas investors do so in the world of finance, creative people do so in the world of ideas by taking a unique, typically undervalued idea, and convincing other people of its worth.”

Their 25 tips “in a nutshell” are:

Modeling Creativity
Building Self-Efficacy
Questioning Assumptions
Defining and Redefining Problems
Encouraging Idea Generation
Cross-Fertilizing Ideas
Allowing Time for Creative Thinking
Instructing and Assessing Creativity
Rewarding Creative Ideas and Products
Encouraging Sensible Risks
Tolerating Ambiguity
Allowing Mistakes
Identifying and Surmounting Obstacles
Teaching Self-Responsibility
Promoting Self-Regulation
Delaying Gratification
Using Profiles of Creative People
Encouraging Creative Collaboration
Imagining Other Viewpoints
Recognizing Environmental Fit
Finding Excitement
Seeking Stimulating Environments
Playing to Strengths
Growing Creatively
Proselytizing for Creativity

Hands-on Ideas for Building Creative Learning

In Teaching Creatively and Teaching for Creativity, presented by the British Council (Eltec/Jordan), United Kingdom’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, the task for teaching “for creativity” is defined as:

Encouraging – Highly creative people are driven by strong belief in their abilities and a positive self-image.
Identifying – Creative achievement is driven by “a person’s love of a particular instrument, for the feel of the material, and for the excitement of a style of work that catch the imagination.” We must help students find their creative strengths
Fostering – “Creativity draws from many ordinary abilities and skills rather than one special gift or talent.” Therefore, “the development of many common capacities and sensitivities can help to foster creativity.”

“Creativity itself is a mode of learning,” a combination of three features:

It involves a thoughtful playfulness – learning through experimental ‘play.’ It is serious play conjuring up, exploring and developing possibilities and then critically evaluating and testing them.
It involves a special flexibility in which there may be a conscious attempt to challenge the assumptions and preconceptions of the self – an unusual activity in which there is an active effort to unlearn in order to learn afresh.
This process is driven by the find, introduce, construct or reconstruct something new. It seeks actively to expand the possibilities of any situation. In this sense the learning of creative thoughts is not neutral; it has a bias towards the innovative.

The British Council proposes many tips for building creative learning:

Start simply, and build progressively.
Find easy ways in to creative learning. Start with the classroom environment. Move on to how pupils and staff use speech and questions. Keep it manageable, keep the focus tight. Show and share tangible changes. This will develop confidence to go further.
Be a ‘creative advocate.’ Create a presentation or materials that you can use both within your school to convince colleagues and out of school. This will help to build a whole-school ethos around creativity.
Focus on one area at a time, for example, in developing more creative learning in math, and use this to raise awareness and encourage staff to think about applications in other subject areas and spaces in the school.
Organize an enquiring minds-type project where pupils have an opportunity to negotiate the aim of the project and are instrumental in designing how it is carried out (resource: enquiringminds.org.uk).
Set-up an inventor’s club after school.
Transform one small area in the school as a space designed for creativity and imagination.
Make sure that the pupils have some ownership of the project.

Return to the “Best of Bonk”

More hands-on tools and ideas can be found at the aforementioned website of Indiana University of Bloomington Professor Dr. Curtis Bonk’s (but, let me warn you, you can truly get lost perusing all of his class materials for the course Instructional Strategies for Thinking, Collaboration, and Motivation): http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/r546/modules/creativity/bob_handouts.html. He is very generous in sharing his materials. It is worth exploring his class notes and lecture presentations (PowerPoint) posted at the “Best of Bonk” website.

Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from his handouts:

Ten+ Creative Thinking Ideas

Brainstorming: More ideas/wilder the better, no evaluation, combo to improve (examples – How to study better? How to raise test scores? What are better teaching techniques)
Reverse Brainstorming (examples – How to study worse? How to lower test scores? What are worst teaching techniques)
Creative Writing and Story Telling (examples – object obituaries, tell a tall tale, cartoons, jokes/quips, story starters, wrap-a-round’s, forced responses, newsletters, object talking, etc.)
Idea-Spurring Questions, Checklists, or Cards (e.g., Osborn’s SCAMPER method): How do we substitute, combine, adapt, modify/max-min put to other uses, eliminate, reverse/rearrange?
Six hats (wear different color hats for different types of thinking)
Free Writing/Wet Inking (write without lifting pen for 3-5 minutes on, e.g., best teacher ever had)
Checkerboarding, Attribute Listing, Morphological Synthesis (analyze or combine 2 key variables/components in grid/matrix; e.g., CT & CR)
Analogies, Metaphorical Thinking, Synectics, or Forced Associations (This school is like a ____; An good presenter is like a ____?)
Semantic Webbing/Chaining/Linking/Mapping of Ideas, Free Association Activities (What is a greenhouse effect? What is a good curriculum? What is effective teaching?)
Simulations and Role Plays (Computer simulations, act out plays or literature, simulated games or performance)
Other techniques

The Second Best Answer, What else, > 1 Right Answer (What else applies)
Elaboration/Explanation (Another reason is)
Diaries, Personal Journals (When in the field, I want to jot down…)
Just Suppose/What If Exercises (What if we had cooperative exams?)
Creative Dramatics/Improvisation (imagine hearing, seeing, feeling)

Bonk provides an exhaustive set of creative thinking techniques, including activities in visual thinking, idea listing, writing, group interactions, and process-product oriented.

More Resources

Too comprehensive to list here, but an excellent summary, the TeachThought “101 Ways for Teachers To Be More Creative” at http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/101-ways-for-teachers-to-be-more-creative, posts ideas for finding creative inspiration, capitalizing on the creative spark, inspiring students, the creative classroom, creative activities, sharing and collaborating, and educate yourself.

Check out the Iowa State University Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching website section entitled “Techniques for Creative Teaching” at http://www.celt.iastate.edu/creativity/techniques.html!

On the Friendship Circle blog, “How to Teach Creative Thinking to Concrete Thinkers” shares ten ideas from a parent’s perspective at http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2013/05/02/how-to-teach-creative-thinking-to-concrete-thinkers.

Numerous music education specific sources are available. One of my favorites, Teaching Music Creatively by Pam Burnard and Regina Murphy (Routledge 2013), offers a comprehensive approach in the delivery of a creative music curriculum. Key topics included:

Creative teaching, and what it means to teach creatively;
Composition, listening and notation;
Spontaneous music-making;
Group music and performance;
The use of multimedia;
Integration of music into the wider curriculum;
Musical play;
Cultural diversity;
Assessment and planning.

Finally, from my favorite issue of the ASCD Educational Leadership, February 2013 “Creativity Now,” the starting point for much of the research for this three-part series, I recommend reading Danah Henriksen and Punya Mishra’s article “Learning from Creative Teachers,” who provide insight and practical applications from “outstanding teachers who share how they teach creatively in an age of scripted lessons and accountability.” You can find the text online at (http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb13/vol70/num05/Learning-from-Creative-Teachers.aspx). They discuss these areas:

Connect Your Interests with Your Teaching
Link Lessons to Real-World Learning
Cultivate a Creative Mind-Set
Value Collaboration
Take Intellectual Risks

Arrival of the New National Music Standards!

No discussion on creativity would be complete without embracing our national music standards. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards launched the Core Arts Standards on June 4, 2014 after extensive public review. You are urged to go to their new “official” website http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/. The National Core Arts Standards are organized into four processes – Creating, Performing/Presenting/Producing, Responding, and Connecting – in order to develop a philosophical foundation and lifelong goals towards artistic literacy. The three common anchor standards include the following.

Students will:

Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Refine and complete artistic work.

Are we intentionally doing these in our music classrooms?

Creativity vs. the Common Core? and Final Thoughts for the Future

Creativity is one of the 21^st Century learning skills, and many educational visionaries declare it to be a one of the most essential for the students’ future success in career and personal life. Bloom’s Taxonomy and Depth of Knowledge charts put creating at the top level of higher-order thinking. In an article “Creativity on the Brink” (2013), Alane Starko connects creativity to deep understanding: “If we want students to master the content, they must do something with it beyond simple repetition. They must use it in meaningful ways and make it their own.” Catapult Learning sums this up best (see http://www.catapultlearning.com/creativity-and-the-common-core/). “As teachers transition towards the Common Core Standards, they are certainly being asked to attend to each of the aspects expressed through creativity: increased rigor and higher-order thinking, the application and transfer of knowledge, and the ability to communicate effectively through 21st century technology tools.”

Our music technology colleague Jim Frankel reminds us to define our “personal mission” in music education, to realize how important it is to remain “student-centered,” and that our kids “want to create content in the same medium in which they consume it.”

He adds, we should be focused on students “wanting to make ‘cool’ music/projects/websites/whatever.”

What better way to teach creatively and “teach for creativity” than to use the magic of music?

What are your thoughts?

Answer to the creative thinking riddle: The man is a mail courier who delivers packages to 30 foreign embassies in the United States. The land of an embassy belongs to that country of that embassy. [Attributed to Visual Thinking Puzzles by Michael A. DiSpezio (Sterling 1988)]

For a list of additional resources for further research, please go to the bottom of my main page on creativity at this WordPress site: Creativity in Education – Are We Ready for a New Paradigm Shift?

PKF

Creative Teaching & Teaching Creativity – Part II – Definitions and Rationale

July 12, 2015July 13, 2015 paulkfoxLeave a comment

“I think the single most potent school reform goal would be to place the highest priority on individual creative engagement, and to shape schooling to develop the habits of mind that constitute creative engagement.” – Eric Booth

Warm-up/Review/Refresh

How many rectangles do you see below?

What is your initial response? If you said sixteen or seventeen, sorry! You are not even close! The real number is more than 50! (See the exact answer at the end of the article.)

According to Robina Shaheen in her article “Creativity and Education” (Creative Education, Volume 1, No. 3, 2010), interest in creativity historically goes back to Plato’s age and is found in the Greek, Judaic, Christian, and Muslim traditions. She said that a sudden “frenzied” emphasis for the renewal of inventiveness and creativeness in schools (especially in the sciences) came about with the launch of “Sputnik 1” satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957. The supposed failure of engineers from Europe, USA, and other Western countries was attributed to their lack of creativity, which led to the adoption of the National Defense Education Act to accept the concept as important for “prosperity…survival of society.” Since then, there have been several additional “waves of creativity” in education.

From numerous educational visionaries, we have more recently heard the essential need for 21st Century learning skills, including creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communications, and yet our political focus continues to be on high-stakes standardized testing and the ‘common core’ (and very limiting) subjects.

Definitions of Creativity

Numerous scholars, scientists, and educational leaders have provided their perspective on the meaning of creativity:

Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others (from Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken)
Creative refers to novel products of value, as in “The airplane was a creative invention.” Creative also refers to the person who produces the work, as in, “Picasso was creative.” Creativity, then, refers both to the capacity to produce such works, as in “How can we foster our employees’ creativity?” and to the activity of generating such products, as in “Creativity requires hard work”(from Creativity – Beyond the Myth of Genius by Robert W. Weisberg).
Creativity is generating new ideas and concepts, or making connections between ideas where none previously existed (from SmartStorming by Mitchell Rigie and Keith Harmeyer).
Creativity is the ability to find new solutions to a problem or new modes of expression; thus it brings into existence something new to the individual and to the culture (from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Dr. Betty Edwards).

Creativity According to Sir Ken

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

“Think of creativity as applied imagination.”

The above quotes are from Sir Ken Robinson, internationally recognized leader in the development of education and creativity, famous for his 2006 and 2010 talks at the prestigious TED Conference, estimated to have been seen by more than 200 million people.

Sir Ken Robinson champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity, and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. He has been known to say, “We are educating people out of their creativity,” and “Creativity is now as important in education as literacy, and we should teach it with the same status.”

Sir Ken embraces the written works of Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences), Robert Steinberg’s three intelligences (analytical, creative, and practical), and Robert Cooper’s “heart brain” and “gut brain.” His own “three features of intelligence” are that they are “diverse, dynamic, and distinctive.”

Through his numerous lectures and online videos, Sir Ken has tried to dispel a few myths on creativity:

Only a few people are really creative. “Everybody has tremendous creative capacities.”
Creativity is for the arts only. “Creativity is a function of everything we do. Education for creativity is about the whole curriculum, not just part of it.”
Creativity is just about letting yourself go. “No, creativity is a disciplined process that requires skill, knowledge, and control, as well as imagination and inspiration.”

In a recent TEDTALKS video on YouTube, he defines three principles crucial for the human mind to flourish, but seem to be currently contradicted by the culture of education:

Diversity vs. conformity
Curiosity vs. compliance
Creativity vs. standardization

See http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley.html for one of his lectures. If you like his presentations, you will love Sir Ken’s two books: Out of Our Mind – Learning to Be Creative, and The Element – How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.

Eric Booth’s Creative Habits of Mind

Eric Booth, a teacher at the Kennedy Center, Stanford University, New York University and the Lincoln Center Institute, and founding editor of the Teaching Artist Journal, maintains that the arts are more than subject matter and disciplines. They serve as modes of cognition that are necessary for every content area and for success in life.

Centering on the essential skills of brainstorming, divergent thinking, metaphoric thinking, flexible thinking, multisensory engagement, and empathy, the following “habits of mind” according to Eric Booth, are key processes, actions, and attitudes activated when we invest ourselves in the flow of creating:

Generating multiple ideas/solutions
Sustaining an inner atmosphere of exploration
Using one’s own voice
Trusting one’s own judgments
Formulating good questions and problems
Improvising
Finding humor
Crafting
Making choices based on a variety of criteria
Inquiring skillfully
Persisting
Self-assessing
Reflecting metacognitively
Thinking analogically
Willingly suspending disbelief
Observing intentionally
Going back and forth between parts & wholes
Trying on multiple points of view
Working with others
Tapping & following intrinsic motivation

He concludes with advocating for the arts and more inquiry-based learning in the schools (quoting Booth):

The “artistic process” encompasses:

Asking great questions and identifying good problems
Experimenting, while carefully attending to results
Cultivating a productive relationship with failure
Anticipating challenges and generating imaginative solutions
Tolerating uncertainty (even taking pleasure in ambiguity)
Engaging in appropriate risk-taking
Being resilient
Focusing on quality and excellence
Self-assessing eagerly & naturally
Infusing ongoing reflection into the work at hand
Enjoying the process and getting personal satisfaction out of it
Connecting to others through an expression of who you really are

Pink’s Points

To round out this provocative philosophy of teaching creativity and creative processes for their own sake, we have the highly entertaining Daniel Pink, author of three best-sellers: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, and To Sell Is Human: the Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Daniel Pink talks about his first book on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhKLSTBSgwI

Pink’s core argument in A Whole New Mind… is that “the era of ‘left brain’ dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which ‘right brain’ qualities – inventiveness, empathy, meaning – predominate.”

Tagged as “Pink’s six senses,” he proposes the following new “aptitudes” or abilities that individuals and organizations must master in an outsourced, automated age – and should become fundamental to updating our curriculum, enduring understandings (“big ideas”), essential questions, unit planning, and lesson learning targets:

Design
Story
Symphony
Empathy
Play
Meaning

Roger von Oech

Finally, a very appropriate example of defining creative thinking as “changing contexts” is described by Roger von Oech in his book Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative:

In 1792, the musicians of Franz Joseph Haydn’s orchestra were mad because the Duke had promised them a vacation, but continually had postponed it. They asked Haydn to talk to the Duke about getting some time off. Haydn thought about it, decided to let the music do the talking, and wrote the “Farewell Symphony.” The performance began with a full orchestra, but as the piece goes along, it is scored to need fewer instruments. As each musician finished his part, he blew out his candle, and left the stage. They did this, one by one, until the stage was empty. The Duke got the message and gave them a vacation.

Von Oech concludes with stating that this example illustrates “the creative mind power to transform one thing into another. By changing perspective and playing with our knowledge, we can make the ordinary extraordinary.”

More to come… Care to join the debate?

[Answer to the 4 by 4 rectangles’ puzzle at the top of the page: Remember, a rectangle can be two columns by one row or three rows by one column, etc. The total number is 100!]

Segments of this and other articles on my blog are reprinted from PMEA News, the state journal of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. To see more writings or the complete three-part series on creativity, please go to the following:

PKF

Creative Teaching and Teaching Creativity – Part I – How Creative Are You?

July 11, 2015July 12, 2015 paulkfoxLeave a comment

“Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it’s produced the most extraordinary results in human culture.” – Sir Ken Robinson

The following series of excerpts were originally published in a three-part series for PMEA News, the state journal of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. To read the articles in their entirety, please visit my blog page “Creativity in Education – Are We Ready for a New Paradigm Shift?” at https://paulkfoxusc.wordpress.com/creativity-in-education-are-we-ready-for-a-new-paradigm-shift/. I have taken the liberty to extract, condense, and even add to this material.

Introduction

Before the Common Core movement came “crashing down on us” commanding an exhaustive redesign of our curriculum and new high-stakes standardized testing, perhaps the more promising and innovative “buzz” was a recommendation to adopt 21^st Century learning skill initiatives. Companies, businesses, and governments – the employers of the vast majority of the future work force – did not want their employees to settle for an education based on a “regurgitation of facts and figures,” but to demonstrate mastery of the work-related skills of communications and collaboration, and the thinking skills of critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. According to the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills (P21) group, in order for the United States to be able to “compete in a global society,” a refocus is essential on learning the skills of personal innovation. Advocating for 21st century readiness of every student, P21 emphasizes education in the best practices of creativity, originality, divergent thinking, flexibility and adaptability, communication, personal initiative and self-direction, and leadership and responsibility, among other themes including collaboration, global awareness, financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy, health and wellness awareness, and technology.

How Creative Are You?

Take this quick test, and try to think “outside the box.” This puzzle, first introduced to many of us by Michael Kumer at an early PMEA Summer Leadership Conference, instructs you to link all nine dots using four or fewer straight lines without lifting the pen, and without tracing the same line more than once. Can you solve this using four lines? For advanced visionaries, how about completing it with only three lines? Believe it or not, a super-creative person may be able to find a way to solve this problem with ONE line! (Answers at the end of this article.)

Numerous measurements have been proposed to evaluate a person’s creativity potential. Check out several of these:

AULIVE online assessment of creativity measured across 8 different metrics at http://www.testmycreativity.com/
Amanda Chan’s “How Creative Are You Quiz” on Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/05/creativity-quiz_n_4192687.html
Todd Anderson’s 99U Twitter feed “Five Classic Creative Challenges” at http://99u.com/articles/7160/test-your-creativity-5-classic-creative-challenges
Dr. Curtis Bonk (Indiana University) at http://www.indiana.edu/~bobweb/r546/modules/creativity/creativity_tests.html

Mind Tools’ questionnaire at http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/creativity-quiz.htm illustrates a model for the “highly creative” personality.

How many of these terms describe YOU?

Willingness to take risks
Perseverance, drive, commitment to task
Curiosity
Openness, open-mindedness
Tolerance for ambiguity
Broad interests
Valuing originality
Intuition, being perceptive
Embracing the need to find solutions to problems
Being internally occupied, withdrawn, needing privacy
Awareness of own creativeness
Sense of humor
Being attracted by complexity and novelty

Feel free to share your perspective!

Respond to this blog. Be as creative as you want!

(More to come….)

PKF

Welcome to Fox’s Fireside

July 1, 2015July 18, 2015 paulkfoxLeave a comment

Greetings from a happily retired public school music educator who has time to burn learning how to “WordPress.”

Here’s to sharing our thoughts about creativity, music and music education, and retirement. Ironically, my pulpit of “random observations” spans both ends of the career spectrum… ranging from marketing strategies and interview techniques for new/recently transferred professionals trying to find a school music teaching job to our “seniors” transitioning that formidable “life changing” passage of stepping down from full-time directing/teaching.

This blog will also serve as a vault of my personal essays and articles (many published in the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association state journal PMEA News or workshop handouts at in-service conferences).

In my final days as a teacher/administrator, I was inspired to research and write a series of articles on “Creativity for Teachers” in PMEA News. For access, please see “Creativity in Education – Are We Ready for A New Paradigm Shift?” title link at the top of this site.

For a complete listing of all of my blogs, click on the “Inside…” tab above or go to https://paulkfoxusc.wordpress.com/why/.

Warning! The views expressed here are the sole responsibility of that “crazy as a fox” former music teacher and Performing Arts Curriculum Leader of the Upper St. Clair School District. These are offered as food-for-thought, a “pause in reflection” (for foxes, isn’t it “paws?”). Hopefully, all of us can collaborate, explore some insight, and generate meaningful discussion as we possibly solve a few problems along the way.

I welcome your input… so check back here often for future blog posts as I learn the (for me) “new technology!”

PKF

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