Do Schools Kill Creativity?

When I attended primary/elementary school, there was little room for creativity.

Instead, my teachers concentrated on processes such as memorization. On many of my tests teachers have written that the answer that I had given was "technically correct" but was not the answer they had given us to give back to them. What they would have preferred was to have me regurgitate the exact information they had given me in previous classes.

 Why was creativity not seen as more important? In Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk titled "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" Sir Ken Robinson explores this question and gives his take on the subject. He believes that children as a whole have an extraordinary ability to be creative, and that through going through our education system this ability is stripped from them. Ken gives many reasons for why he believes this to be the case.

Sir Ken Robinson believes that the ultimate goal of the school system is to create students prepared to enter university. The subjects valued in university are subjects such as math, science, and literature. Subjects in the arts, that revolve around creativity, are seen as much less valuable by our society. Students who excel in the arts are often to feel as if they are stupid because they do not do well in the subjects that are seen as important, and they're not given the opportunity to work with what they are good at. These students are taught that what they're passionate about, or good with, is insignificant and the child abandons their talent and struggles with what the education system has deemed as important.

In the TED talk video, Sir Ken Robinson talks about a particular case of a young girl who is a dancer. The child is hyper and fidgety in class, and doesn't excel at the core subjects, so the parents and her teacher assume that the child has something "wrong" with her. Luckily, the doctor she was taken to realized that her talent laid in her ability with movement, and she was able to attend dance school. This is an important lesson to me as a future teacher. If a child is struggling in the "core" subjects than instead of assuming the student is effected by a learning disability, I will attempt to find where this child's intelligence lies. If a child is hyper, I will find out if the child works well with movement, rather than giving them a diagnoses of a hyperactive disorder.

Sir Ken Robinson talks about the diverse and dynamic nature of intelligence. Although we're aware as educators that these different intelligence exist, we're often guilty of not putting this theory into practice. As a future teacher I will do my best to support all of my students talents to the best of my ability in the rigid school setting I will be working in. I will try to teach in a way that is valuable to all types of learners, and I will support my students in the pursuit of doing what they love to do, and exploring where their talents lie.

YouCubed - Revolutionizing Mathematics

YouCubed is a non-profit, web-based website that offers mathematics resources for both educators and parents. YouCubed revolutionized approach to mathematics attempts to offer research based resources to help teachers and parents excite students and promote a deep understanding of mathematics - and ultimately to transform the way that students think about math. YouCubed promotes the idea that all students can learn and achieve high levels in mathematics equally if given equal opportunities and exposure. The YouCubed organization also promotes learning mathematics in innovative ways that introduce students to the ways that math is used to solve problems in their lives and possible future careers. 

YouCubed is an excellent resource for my future career in teaching mathematics in the primary/elementary classroom setting. This website, once it is fully operating, will offer an abundance of beneficial resources such as lesson plans, and research articles, that will assist me in creating a classroom that fosters excitement and deep understanding of mathematics in my students. The website has already offered me some insight into the organizations revolutionary approach to teaching mathematics in the articles featured in the big ideas portion of the website Big Ideas titled "Unlocking Children's Math Potential". This article dispelled the myth that only some students can do well in math through explanations of the areas of knowledge that address the myth. This article began my initial excitement about this website as a beneficial resource to use in my future teaching. 

The website YouCubed also offers teachers some excellent and thorough lesson plan ideas that utilize these revolutionary ways of  thinking about teaching mathematics, such as "Crazy 8's Club: Glow in the Dark Geometry" - a innovative lesson plan for elementary-aged school children. These lesson plans are great for teachers because they show teachers what a lesson plan that uses this revolutionary approach to mathematics may manifest itself in the classroom. These lesson plans also cover all of the necessary aspects of a well thought out lesson plan such as the necessary background knowledge, materials needed, and the objectives that the lesson plan is teaching toward. 

The current YouCubed website also offers an example of the resources the website will offer to help teachers to relate mathematics to real life problems for students through the organizations math and innovation approach. This example provides students with a problem that the Google company had faced recently and how the company used mathematics to solve the problem. I believe this approach is beneficial for students because relating what they're learning about mathematics in their classroom to a real life standing will reinforce their understanding of the math concept and will promote deep levels of understanding for the students. The YouCubed websites provides teachers with real life examples of how to accomplish these connections to real life issues. 

Finally, one of the most exciting aspects of this site for me as a future teacher, is a section where the website provides ideas and resources for parents to use to assist their children with mathematics outside of the classroom setting. I have learned that it is often difficult for teachers to find effective materials for parents to use at home, and I have also heard similar complaints from parents of students who are struggling with math concepts. YouCubed offers parents resources such as YouCubed games, and articles such as "Twelve Step to Increase Your Child's Math Achievement and Make Math Fun" to assist parents in helping their children learn in this revolutionary and innovative way. 

YouCubed is a fantastic, revolutionary, web-based organization that offers free K-12 mathematics resources for teachers and parents, and affordable professional development for educators. I will use this exceptional website resource to assist in my teaching in my future primary/elementary classroom to promote an interest in math and a deeper understanding of the math concepts in my students. I will also recommend this website to the parents of my students who are looking for extra beneficial resources for students to use at home.