Creativity

Last night at 11:31 pm I got into bed and decided to start, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, by Dan Pink. I thought I would read a few pages before going to sleep. 50 minutes later I finished the book.

I highly recommend the book. It is obviously a quick read and imparts some important life lessons.

Background

For those who don’t know, Dan Pink is the man who wrote A Whole New Mind, a book about the type of mind sets that will be required in business in our global marketplace. He specifically focused on how the following influences business operations.

1. Abundance - consumers have too many choices, nothing is scarce
2. Asia - everything that can be outsourced, is
3. Automation - computerization, robots, processes

Pink then goes on to discuss the six senses that will keep you in demand:

1. Design - Moving beyond function to engage the sense.
2. Story - Narrative added to products and services - not just argument.
3. Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking
4. Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
5. Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products.
6. Meaning - Immaterial feelings and values of products.

To Pink, these senses will provide a worker with the skills to succeed in today’s marketplace.

The Book

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko are a follow up to A Whole New Mind. In the book Pink uses the Japanese comic form known as Manga to focus on another 6 skills. The 6 skills Pink mentions are guiding principles to help someone understand what it takes to succeed in a world that is dominated by Abundance, Asia, and Automation. The 6 principles are as follows:

1. There is no plan

Follow your instincts, do not stick to a plan you created when you were in high school. Things have changed.

2. Think Strengths, Not Weaknesses

Your job should work to your strengths, do not do a job that focuses on what you don’t like to do.

3. It’s not about you

No matter what you do, whether you teach or you work in a business, the end product of your work is for someone else, it is not about your personal success.

4. Persistence trumps Talent

Remember the kid who was really good at lets say basketball, he could jump, was quick, and tall but only relied upon his natural gifts for success. You couldn’t jump, weren’t as fast, and not as tall but you practiced everyday. In the long run you probably were as good or better because of the efforts you put in to being a better basketball player. The same applies to work.

5. Make Excellent Mistakes

We will always make mistakes. Those who are so afraid of making mistakes will not try to push the limit or change. When our success now depends upon creativity and innovative thinking, taking risks and trying something, even if you might fail will pay off. You may not succeed every time but you will learn from those mistakes.

6. Leave an imprint

No matter if you are a teacher, a businessman/woman, or a politician, you can improve your world. Use your skills, we all have our strengths, to give back to your world. Whether it is community service, or pro bono work, make sure you do do what you can to leave your mark.

Conclusion

These are simple rules to follow. No matter what profession you are in, this is a great book to read. The book is visually stimulating, outlines some great career advice and is a quick read. Whether you are in a career that is satisfying or not, this book will help you understand what you need to do to better prepare yourself for an ideal career.

Technorati Tags:
Creativity, Ideas, Work

Writer’s Block

We’ve all found ourselves experiencing writers block and have struggled to overcome that mental collapse. Today I found a tool that will help with overcoming your lack of inspiration.

It is called Moodstream, it was created by Getty Images. Moodstream is an application that combines images and music. Based upon several different preset or personalized settings, the images and music are displayed to inspire and brainstorm for ideas. Moodstream perfect web application for creative inspiration when you are hitting a mental wall.

Classroom Application

In the classroom, Moodstream would be extremely useful as a writing prompt. If posted via a LCD projector the site would provide an excellent way to get your students to write about what feelings the images and music conjure. Rather than simply having one picture or one song, the preset wheel in Moodstream would provide a common theme that could inspire so many different ideas from your students.

photo credit: Moodstream

The Dilemma

About a week ago, as exams were ending, I was faced with a problem. What was I going to do this summer? I will be out in San Francisco but I didn’t have any plans to hone my teaching skills and learn about creativity and learning, two of my favorite past times. Sad, isn’t it? Then I watched a TED Talk.

The Answer

I was watching a TED Talk about 826 Valencia, a tutoring organization in San Francisco, and I suddenly realized I found my answer. The TED Talk discussed how 826 Valencia was created to support students who needed the one on one help that their public schools were not offering. There are similar organizations that offer tutoring and support to students outside of the classroom but there was something that caught my attention. 826 Valencia is creating life long learners by making learning how to write something that students WANT to do. By using creativity, fun, and allowing the students to be active participants in the learning process, 826 Valencia takes the simple process of tutoring and gives it a shake. And by the way, they have a pirate store. Need I say more?

I don’t know if it’s student publishing, the artists they have come and preform for the students, the field trips, or the fact that there is a pirate store as apart of the organization, but the idea of being a part of such a creative and dynamic “school” made me begin to get excited about teaching in the summer. Wait, I thought teachers were supposed “shut down” for the summer.

I believe that creativity, student involvement, and fun are at the core of making our students truly passionate about wanting to learn. Isn’t that our goal? We aren’t teaching our student just for the sake of teaching them, we are trying to inspire them, trying to get them to see their potential and run with it.

At this point in the 21st century, for our students to become successful in a global marketplace, we must reconsider how we teach. If we continue to teach like we did 30 years ago or even 10 years ago, I fear that our students will not be armed with the skills necessary to tackle today’s problems.

In his book, A Whole New Mind, author Dan Pink argues that many of the left brain jobs (law and accounting to name a few) will be automated and that for future generations to succeed, they must use their right brain and think creatively. To that end, it is our responsibility to create environments that support and nurture that ability to create and use your right brian.

826 Valencia does exactly that, it is helping to prepare our future leaders for a world that is and will be very different from the one that we knew even 10 years ago. It is imperative that we support institutions like 826 Valencia and that is exactly why, when I watched that TED Talk, my mind began to go wild.

The opportunity to work in such an environment would not only be satisfying because I will be able to do what I love, teach, but I will also be able to learn. I have applied and will have an interview in a few weeks. If accepted, I hope to learn how to create such an environment such as 826 Valencia because it is places like that, which our students will develop a passion for learning. That passion and the creativity that will come from their experiences will create “a whole new mind” that will arm them for their future.

photo credit: Sean Munson and Kiwikewlio

I have recently been hired as the Director of Academic Technology at Worcester Academy and this is my first entry on my new site. In this role I will be integrating technology at both the departmental and classroom levels. I will help faculty, staff, and students understand and utilize the technologies available to assist the learning process.

Previously, I was solely teaching World History and the focus of my thinking was on incorporating technology into the history classroom. This blog and my future entries will go beyond simply the humanities. I will investigate the state of education and how we can improve and support it with creative and innovative teaching methods across all disciplines. This blog will not simply identify potential technologies, rather the goal is to bring awareness to how technology as well as creative and innovative teaching methods are improving our profession. Topics will range from learning environments to lesson plans.