This speech suggests our students are no more satisfied than we are with the regime of standardized testing. In the classroom, I once discussed this kind of success with my 8th graders. The reports had come in and we had done “outstanding” on the History test. Best in the district and as high as anyone [...]
Posts under ‘Front of the Class’
That’s a Re-Write
With two weeks of the National Academy behind the 2010 crew, there’s been a lot of talk about the Writing Assignment. Locke claimed the largest portion of this year’s re-writes with Cicero and Deuteronomy each coming in as a close second. News stories and six word re-presentations took on the challenge of communicating world-making ideas. [...]
The Creativity Deficit
For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. What went wrong—and how we can fix it.
Experts assess 10 drawings by adults and children for signs of out-of-the-box thinking. View gallery.
How Creative Are You?
Back in 1958, Ted Schwarzrock was an 8-year-old third grader when he became one of the “Torrance kids,” a group of nearly 400 Minneapolis children who completed a series of creativity tasks newly designed by professor E. Paul Torrance. Schwarzrock still vividly remembers the moment when a psychologist handed him a fire truck and asked, “How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?” He recalls the psychologist being excited by his answers. In fact, the psychologist’s session notes indicate Schwarzrock rattled off 25 improvements, such as adding a removable ladder and springs to the wheels. That wasn’t the only time he impressed the scholars, who judged Schwarzrock to have “unusual visual perspective” and “an ability to synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products.”
Teaching from Montpelier
Adjusting to the real world after a week at Montpelier can be challenging. There are real pressures to be ready for the next school year but an equally real mission to teach the substance of the ideas present in our curriculum. Several participants have shared their gratitude via e-mail or the Facebook group. I wanted [...]
Knowing Political Knowledge
In The Politics, Aristotle suggests political knowledge is sovereign knowledge: In all the branches of knowledge and in every kind of craft the end in view is some good. In the most sovereign of these, the capacity for [leadership in] political matters, the end in view is the greatest good and the good which is [...]
Virtual Academy: Re-Presenting a Text
I’m sitting in a quiet computer lab at Oxy as the 2009 crew completes their re-writing project. Questions and concerns about choosing the perfect text clouded last night’s discussions but that seems so long ago as the project winds down today. The energy created through this sort of engagement with a theoretical idea is kinetic. The [...]
2009 National Institute
As someone who has attended two of the Center of the Constitution’s weekend programs, I was overly excited when I was accepted to the 2009′s National Institute. Of course I couldn’t wait to pick Will’s brain for more and more insight, but quickly I have learned this Institute is much more than that. This institute [...]
My Wish for You: A Letter to My Students Past, Present and Future
Katie Reen graciously shared a copy of her oral exam paper incorporating her insighhts from the National Academy at Occidental College last summer. Katie’s students are 11 and 12 years old and she explains, “The concept of my paper is a letter to my students, past, present and future about what I wish for them [...]
Project Citizen
Having been briefly introduced to Project Citizen at the National Academy, I decided to try it out this year. It’s an ideal, outcome-based activity as much about the journey as the finish. And the great thing about the finish is that it’s really just the beginning, for students receive the tools to research and formulate [...]
My path to description!
I am an 8th Social Studies teacher, who was allowed to attend two different Constitutional Weekends at Montpelier. Immediately I started to see the intelligence of Will Harris’ argument, and agreed with him on his belief in description. I am a full believer that many people have an opinion on a problem, with no real [...]
stepwinder
