Landstown Mind Vine

This is the first of a series of posts on Creativity.

In Understanding Creativity by Jane Piirto, she explains that creativity as a noun doesn’t consistently appear in standard dictionaries until 1988 when Webster’s defines it as, “creative ability; artistic or intellectual inventiveness.”  In fact, depending on the school of thought, there are a variety of ways to consider creativity.  Psychoanalysts have long viewed creativity through the lens of mental illness.  Charles Darwin thought of creativity as a life-long process rather than a lightning bolt of brilliance.  Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (Chic-sent-me-hi) believes there is “little c” creativity that occurs with everyday people going about their daily lives, and “Big C” creativity that results when an eminent individual changes the field in which he or she works.  Still others believe that one’s life is a creative production.

Piirto explains that we continue to ask the questions, “What makes people creative?  Is creativity an ability?  What are the conditions for creative production?” No wonder many of us still view creativity as an intangible, mysterious process.  It is true that the muse can be elusive and some days we may feel creativity flows through us and on others we are completely blocked.  There are a lot of things we do know about creativity, though, and I’ll write about some in the coming weeks.

For now, let’s try to make it simple and use the definition of Donald Treffinger who has helped to shape and refine the Creative Problem Solving process.  Creativity is novelty that is useful.

Piirto, J. (2004).Understanding Creativity. Scottsdale: Great Potential Press.

5th grade students from Ms. Sykes and Swagers’ classes studied bridge for four and one-half months with life master Earle Lee Miller.  After learning how to count high card points, make bids, and play hands, the students held an in-school tournament.  The winning students for the school tournament were: 

                             Haylee C.       Jeffrey P.      Aniya W.     Tyler M.

Top performing students were then invited to participate in an intercollegiate tournament with Norfolk schools to be held at the Woman’s Club in Norfolk.  Nine Norfolk schools and one beach school for a total of 80 students were in attendance.  Students paired up with partners and played several other teams for about 2 and one-half hours.  Parents attended but sat quietly in the background.  Team scores were added up and the winners were announced.  And…Landstown, the lone beach team, took second place!  Ms. Swager was, perhaps, even more excited than her students!

Congratulation to all of the students who learned to play this challenging game and a special thanks to the second place winners!

When the tragic earthquake and tsunami struck Japan last month, the news was full of images and information–some scary and awe inspiring, some confusing.  This became a teachable moment when 3rd grade cluster student Avery said she wanted her dad to come in and talk with the class about earthquakes.  Sometimes understanding a thing can put it into perspective.

So, Jeff Goodstine, Independence Middle School Earth Science teacher, visited to explain plate tectonics in relation to Japan’s disasters.  He shared a power point, scientific explanations and his students’ projects to help the curious third graders better understand this occurrence.

The study of Native American tribes is of high interest for second graders, so what could make it better?  How about a visit from Michael Crookshank of Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Outreach Education and Special Services.  Using artifacts, tools and animal pelts, he gave a hands-on demonstration of how the Powhatan Indians lived.

Bringing in the experts always brings learning to life!

Students in Ms. Sykes’ class continue to work with the William & Mary unit Persuasion.  They are currently involved in their third novel study of the year, this one focusing on Hispanic American literature.  As they have read these novels from different cultures, they have traced the thread of change that ties them together.  In addition, students have taken a close look at the Declaration of Independence using a critical thinking model called Paul’s Wheel of Reasoning.  This tool guides students through an identification and consideration of the various points of view, assumptions, inferences, purposes, etc.  of the various stakeholders affected by a given issue.  This analysis occurred during the uprising in Egypt, and it was interesting to point out the similarities to pre-revolution America.

Ms. Sykes’ class has also written and presented persuasive how-to speeches (they’re becoming impressive public speakers!) in which students tried to make their audience see that their method of doing something was the best approach.  To further their skills, they participated in a debate about President Obama’s proposal to lengthen the time U.S. students spend in school.   

The children are now preparing for their final Word Masters meet of the year and have just finished a shared inquiry discussion of the Junior Great Books story “Lucky Boy” by Philippa Pearce.  Following spring break, Ms. Sykes’ students will work on a poetry task and they’ll wrap up the Persuasion unit by taking a look at some more Asian American literature.

Students in Ms. Swager’s class have been working on a unit created by Ms. Cabotaje that addresses the social-emotional aspect of being gifted and the factors leading to success in eminent people.  They began the unit by completing a TABA in which they sorted, categorized and described 50 bits of information either illustrating the characteristics, challenges and positive aspects of being identified gifted or the elements that lead to success for students and adults.  Each group of students then used the generalizations they wrote for their TABA categories (many successful people experience multiple failures before they accomplish a goal; many gifted people face various unique challenges) as a reading guide for at least three biographies that they read. 

During this time, students were keeping a metacognition log in which they monitored how their thinking worked at various times of the day and during various tasks.  These logs provided information for the metacognition metaphors that they just created.  Socratic seminars on stress—a topic most students expressed concern about–and other relevant issues have also been held. 

This week, students are reading the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.  and will then watch a video version of the story.  This piece addresses the question “Does the pursuit of equality mean everyone should be the same?” and invites the audience to consider when risk-taking is necessary.  Following spring break, students will synthesize all of this information to complete a task that will involve the creation of a product that helps others understand the information they’ve been studying.