sage advice from former teacher

If you think back to what you learned from me, you will almost certainly remember that you shouldn't eat nails [especially rusty ones], glass, and skyscrapers...
Well! As it turns out, somebody agrees with me.
I enjoy POkestuff's art as seen on Flickr :-) There is lots of cool art on Flickr if you go searching.
[Safe Search only Please]

http://www.flickr.com/people/pokedstudio/

Motivating Creative People

Yes, you little critters from Room5 are in fact people too. You are also creative [many of you]. Here is an online e-book to skim over regarding how to motivate creative people. If you're not interested, maybe your parents will be.
Check it out... if you can be bothered ;-)

http://lateralaction.com/articles/motivate-creative-people/

Lets kill creativity

Does that sound like a good goal for educators?
I didn't think so either. So what are we trying to create?

Angela Maiers asks, as have others, if we are killing off potential "Leonardo DaVincis" in our school system. Read some quotes and other info i discovered on her extensive and interesting blog....

Kris Bradburn says:

"We kill the spirits of our up-and-coming da Vinci's. These ten things are the most commonly cited characteristics of highly creative people… and they’re heavily discouraged in the early years by the education system and social climate of adolescence. This is why we won’t see another da Vinci for a long, long time - or why, if we do, he/she would not have come from the system we currently have in place. At every turn schools and society are set on pushing back the most creative individuals. Their common traits are not welcomed nor encouraged, and certainly not nurtured. This must not persist, because I think the world is long overdue for another da Vinci-type right now..."

Albert Einstein himself said [and I agree]:

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."

http://www.angelamaiers.com/2007/12/would-da-vinci.html

Ideas for Voicethread

A class in Napier wants to skype us and use Voicethread [remember the thing we saw in class with the small boy who shared his monster pictures and where people left comments about them? That was Voicethread]. Their teacher, Chrissy Hellyer, [who is a Sagittarian and they are the best kind of person] and I thought maybe a photography competition might be fun. But perhaps you might come up with other ideas that tickle your fancy.
Let us know here...

:-)

Lamontikon

Hi kidlets - i am sanding and painting my new bathroom and laundry so my head is addled from fumes, but i thought i better post before you came rabid with boredom and terror at the prospect of writing speeches, etc. by the way - don't stress. remember? just do your best.

as for creative interests, my comic thing is getting better and i have had flickr inspiration from a dude who has a cool comic called Lamontikon.
the creator seems to be a very nice chap who wrote to me and i found his work and his comments inspirational. i recommend you flex your creative muscles this week before you head back to school to have your creativity and imagination crushed by the mind numbing horror that is school.
huzzah!!!

This is what the famous author guy wrote to me:

"When I started drawing in my pages-of-boxes style, back in1996, the name Lamont spontaneously popped into my headanytime I drew the little mushroom-headed alien I now thinkof as Lamont. Lamont means "the mountain", and is a symbol for the path to enlightenment, and a place from which the view is spectacular. As I drew, I began to unfold a narrative in which the drawings and the character could work, resulting in Lamont's position as Transdimensional Systems Analyst working for an entity and project which remains uncertain. He sits in his office cube, much like myself, and recieves seemingly random graphic datastreams, representing a multitude of perspectives and points-of-view. "Ikon" is simply a reworking of the word "icon", which defines the little images he analyses, and Lamont himself as a symbolic meme-being. I like the way the word "Lamontikon" resonates with known words like"Satyricon" or "lexicon", or "Paragon" and "polygon". Iguess I just like words and symbols, and I like simpledrawings that move the consciousness past the word andstraight to the concept or the thing it represents.and stuff :~) "


So, I suggest you follow your own creative instincts as he has and see what you can achieve.
respect - Mr Woody

Creativity MUST be allowed to live in education

“We say to children, ‘Don’t do art. You’re not going to be an artist.’ Interestingly, we don’t say, ‘Don’t do math. You’re not going to be a mathematician."

[from "Why professors don’t dance: Sir Ken Robinson on creativity", by Shelagh McNally.]

ken robinson speaks to us about creativity in education and what a legend he is - witty, insightful - the master presenter. he will have you hanging on his every word... unless of course you feel his message is somehow threatening [?]

;>) [Photo by Luigi d’Astolofo]

it's ideas like Sir Ken's that keep my passion for teaching alive.
and in relation to the business world, where Sir Ken is also a respected consultant, he has to say...

"Businesses everywhere have to compete in a world that's changing faster than ever. To keep pace they need people who can consistently generate new ideas and adapt to constant change. Many companies say it's getting harder to find these people. One of the major reasons is education. All over the world, formal education systematically suppresses creative thinking and flexibility."
http://www.principalvoices.com/voices/ken-robinson-white-paper.html