As the year is winding down and people have been busy preparing for holidays, I have not been as connected this week as I have been in the past. That being said, I have definitely seen some awesome links. Hopefully they will be helpful to whatever you are doing.
1. 7 Deadly Sins of Creativity – The thoughts of creativity and innovation to me, seem to go hand-in-hand. In this blog post, I love how it shares some of the roadblocks to creativity. There is a great list shared on this post, but I love the first one on “lack of knowledge and attention” as it is applicable to the work we are doing in schools:
Lack of knowledge and attention.
Knowledge and attention are absolute necessities. Creative thinking cannot be productively applied until a certain level of knowledge is gathered about the current situation or problem at hand. Thus, creativity actually relies on both sides of the brain, the creative right side and the logical left side.
The first steps the brain takes when tackling a creative venture are actually governed by logic, not creativity. This is because most creative breakthroughs rest on the shoulders of everything that came before it. The logical left side of your brain analyzes the situation and all the known facts, defines the problem that must be solved and then hands the data over to the creative right side of your brain. In other words, once a creative challenge has been realized, you must first rely on your logic and absorb yourself in what is already known. Without this logical review process, creativity will drown in misdirection.
The battle between content and process is something we often talk about, but we need to have both. I think that is well defined in the above example.
2. This Year’s 10 Best Ted Talks To Share With Students – Edudemic has been doing some great “end of the year” lists which have led to some great resources being shared going into 2012. Although many Ted Talks are great for adults, these suggestions may be ones that will start some great conversations with students in the classroom. Definitely check them out.
3. Smile – Nothing more than I can say then that I love this video and the story it tells. There are so many great little lessons from this video; it is definitely worth the sixteen minutes just for the smile it will bring to your face.
I hope that everyone has a great week and enjoys their well deserved holidays 🙂
