Scot Graden's Blog

In July, Newsweek ran a cover story titled, The Creativity Crisis by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. They reported that while Americans’ average I.Q. has been rising 10 points each generation , creativity has been falling since 1990, with the steepest declines among children from kindergarten to the 6th grade. Part of the problem, say the authors, is that we assume creativity is a gift that can’t be taught. “While our creativity scores decline unchecked,” they say, “the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses.”

How do we know creativity is declining? From a large study using the Torrance assessment, which asks people to generate ways of using everyday objects differently and/or improving them. And why is it declining? Researchers aren’t sure yet, but one likely suspect is the amount of time young people are mesmerized by television and video games. Another is that schools have devoted less time to creative activities in recent years – unlike many other countries, which are making a concerted effort to develop creativity in schools.  (See my post about about Dr. Young Zhao’s book)

Isn’t creativity innate – can it be taught?

At the end of the article they give some advice for parents and educators:
• Imagination exercises don’t work. It’s a myth that all you have to do is let your natural creativity run wild. There’s much more to being creative than that.

• Don’t tell someone to be creative. “Such an instruction may just cause people to freeze up,” say Bronson and Merryman. Here’s a better approach from University of Georgia professor Mark Runco: “Do something only you would come up with – that none of your friends or family would think of.” Using this approach, he’s doubled people’s creative output.

• Reduce screen time. For every hour spent watching TV, says University of Texas professor Elizabeth Vandewater, overall time on creative activities like fantasy play and art projects drops as much as 11 percent.

• Exercise. “Almost every dimension of cognition improves from 30 minutes of aerobic exercise,” say Bronson and Merryman. “The type of exercise doesn’t matter, and the boost lasts for at least two hours afterward.” But this works only for people who are physically fit. For those who aren’t, fatigue counteracts the benefits.

• Get immersed in a passion. “Kids do best when they are allowed to develop deep passions and pursue them wholeheartedly – at the expense of well-roundedness,” say Bronson and Merryman.  American Psychological Association researcher Rena Subotnik has found that children who dive into one area and become expert in it have better self-discipline and handle setbacks more effectively.

On this same topic….. if you have not watched Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk about schools and creativity – I encourage you to take a look here.

The beginning of fall sports practices at the high school this week means that the start of school is right around the corner.  I’m not sure how our students feel, but it’s time to get ready!

It’s been one of the busiest summers on record for Saline Area Schools.  I’d like to thank all of the staff who helped (and are still helping) to get the district ready for September 7th.  Here are some of the things that have happened since school ended in June:

• Closed Houghton School and move kindergarten to HV, PR & WM.
• Reconfigured Middle School to contain 6th grade.
• Reconfigured Heritage to contain 4th grade.
• Over 100 faculty members organized and packed their classrooms.
• Buildings and Grounds staff moved over 100 classrooms.
• Entered into a purchase agreement with Quantum Signal for Union School.
• Began to move all Union School offices and the Alternative High School to Liberty School.
• Began construction on an expansion of the teamroom at the high school stadium with donated funds and a CARES grant.
• Reconfigured traffic pattern on Heritage & Woodland Meadows Campus.
• Resurfaced Middle School and High School tracks with CARES and Sinking Fund revenue.

The list could go on and on…. In addition to all these projects, numerous staff have been meeting to enhance, develop and refine  their curriculum materials for the coming year.  Our technology staff have been repurposing and repairing our computers, along with performing much needed maintenance on our network.

School is around the corner….. and we’ll be ready.

This year a record number of Saline Area School staff have chosen to retire.  To date, 39 staff have notified us they plan to retire between the end of school and August 31st.  While from a financial & staffing standpoint, this saves money and allows us to recall more staff from layoff status – it also changes the feel of our district.  The 39 retirees represent almost 1,000 years of combined service to the Saline Area School District!!

They leave us with a firm foundation focused on excellence and a commitment to continuous improvement.  They will be missed!

Acree, Anita

Bates, Ruth

Blacklock, Cindy

Callan, Ann

Cameron, Jim

Carpentier, Bev

Caviani, Jerry

Cobb, Ron

Cornish, Barb

Cummings, Margie

Dominici, Lorrie

Ellwein, Rebecca

Ernest, Russ

Feldkamp, Ken

Gillig, Don

Harsh, Bob

Hopkins, Suzanne

Howard, Bob

Janicevic, Dobrica

Jodway, David

Jonik, Joyce

Kerr, Stephen

Lentz, Curt

Lindstrom, Cathy

London, Cathy

McKie, Jane

Morris, Kristi

Nelson, Judy

Pasola, Chris

Patten, Kathy

Pilz, Lin

Riesterer, Michael

Rogers, Vickie

Rothfuss, Shirley

Stempky, Vicki

Stevenson, Jesse

Stoddard, Charlene

Thomas-Smith, Mary

Twichell, Gloria

First, thank you to all of you who have been diligently voting (and reminding others) everyday for our $25,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant. We are in the top 10 right now, but it will take a significant community effort to maintain our spot in the winner’s circle.

Second, I want to remind the community why we are pursing Project Lead the Way in the first place.  Recently, I had the opportunity to read about some of the research related to using a project-based instructional approach.  An article in Better Evidence-Based Education, by Christopher Harris and University of Arizona professor Ronald Marx describe Project-Based Science, an inquiry-based approach designed to improve motivation and learning. The idea is for students to investigate a “driving question” that frames important science content, connects to their interests and curiosity, and guides them through several weeks of collaborative investigations, weighing of evidence, writing explanations, and discussing and presenting their findings.  This is the basic model used in Project Lead the Way.

The authors noted 5 keys to this type of instruction:

• Make it relevant. Students are more likely to learn science content if it is linked to need-to-know situations – for example, learning about force and motion by exploring the difference that wearing a helmet makes when a bicycle rider or skateboarder wipes out.
• Activate prior knowledge. People use what they already know to make sense of new information – but what if prior knowledge is incomplete or inaccurate? “Research tells us that these fledgling ideas can actually serve as productive starting points for building more sophisticated science understandings,” say Harris and Marx.
• Support reasoning and explanation. “Scientists advance in their understanding not simply by describing the natural world, but by explaining it,” say Harris and Marx. “…Similarly, students can advance in their own understanding by weighing evidence, interpreting results, evaluating claims, and sharing and critiquing explanations of their own and others.”
• Focus on learning goals. It’s easy for students to lose sight of the central point of a curriculum unit when they are immersed in a series of activities over several days or weeks. That’s why it’s important for us to clearly state the main learning goals, essential questions and organize instruction around them.
• Attend to student thinking. The best approach is to get students to make their thinking visible – getting them talking about their observations, hypotheses, and findings, listening carefully to gauge their level of understanding, and prompting when necessary to move students toward a deep understanding of the concepts.

In the end, project-based instructional strategies are what “good teaching” demonstrates.   The issue we have found with this approach is finding the time to incorporate these strategies into the fast pace of the current model.  Covering the State of Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations tend to drive process vs. being student driven.  It might be time to change the model….