The Principal of Change

One of my favourite segments from NBC

Going through so many articles that I receive through my RSS feed, twitter, and diigo links, I have decided to start a new weekly web posting called “You Should Read” (I wish I had a “The More You Know” picture flash across the screen), sharing some of my favourite stories and posts that I have read over the week.  Since Diigo makes it easy to share these links, I thought that I would share them with my PLN.

Here are three articles I really enjoyed this week with some highlights:

• The Creativity Crisis – Newsweek (Excellent article on creativity) – An excellent article that talks about the importance of critical thinking and creativity skills in the future.  Some of the highlights from the article are listed below:
• • A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future.
  • Around the world, though, other countries are making creativity development a national priority.
  • Researchers say creativity should be taken out of the art room and put into homeroom.
  • Creativity isn’t about freedom from concrete facts. Rather, fact-finding and deep research are vital stages in the creative process. Scholars argue that current curriculum standards can still be met, if taught in a different way.
  • Preschool children, on average, ask their parents about 100 questions a day. Why, why, why—sometimes parents just wish it’d stop. Tragically, it does stop. By middle school they’ve pretty much stopped asking. It’s no coincidence that this same time is when student motivation and engagement plummet. They didn’t stop asking questions because they lost interest: it’s the other way around. They lost interest because they stopped asking questions.
  • While our creativity scores decline unchecked, the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses. The problems we face now, and in the future, simply demand that we do more than just hope for inspiration to strike. Fortunately, the science can help: we know the steps to lead that elusive muse right to our doors.

• On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant – NYTimes.com – A touching story about how students and teachers reconnect through facebook to share the importance of sharing with their former teachers the positive influence they have had on their lives.  Here is a quick quote:
• Over the years, teacher tributes have come in broad formats, in movies like “To Sir, With Love” and “Stand and Deliver” and in television series like “Room 222.” Now, on Facebook, the praise is personalized, more widespread and more democratic.
• Looking Ahead at Social Learning – 10 Predictions – The question is often asked “what will our schools look like in ten years.  Here is an article that talks about what the future may look like for our learning.  I highlighted some of the predictions that really stuck out to me as an educator.
  • Prediction 2| Most learning incorporates use of a mobile device
  • Prediction 3| Games and simulations are used for every content area
  • Prediction 5| Peer-to-peer learning blossoms
  • Prediction 8| Governments will become more involved in ensuring that its citizens have access to training and retraining
  • Prediction 10| You will be rated publicly, much like a Yelp or Amazon rating for people

What do you think of these articles?  Anything stick out to you?  I would love to hear your thoughts and learn from the discussion as well as the writing.

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