Creative Practice #15: Time is a variable. Let students re-take tests and re-submit essays. Work for mastery. "The Student is the Class"

 What does it mean to allow TIME to vary?


This talk by Alfredo de la Rosa, principal of Miami Arts Charter School, lays out the philosophy.




A school in Colombia uses the technique called "time is a variable." .... If we can stretch time for some students, then they can gain mastery.

The Fontan System

Time is a variable.   Let students re-take tests and re-submit essays.  Work for mastery.  See Soundcloud.com (Alfred de la Rosa, Miami Arts Charter School and Dr. Fischler)




Dr. Fischler talks about "sthe student is the class"   see also Personal Learning Plans




See commendtary about the Fontan method
Independent Educator
Learning 1 to 1

Creative Practice #14: Put lessons on YouTube and join the 1-percent (see Vsauce) (page 171) ... and try Peer Instruction

Good teaching technique.
Effective for helping students learn.
Excellent way to engage the attention of students.

Are these comments about effective teaching methods or about creative practices?  If we are going to encourage students to look forward to creating in schools, we might want to make the lectures more engaging and interesting... something for them to PARTICIPATE in... which is a form of creating a helpful experience for everyone in the room.

If you put videos up on Youtube, you are creating.

Look at the Vsauce channel that is described in Creative Schools (Ken Robinson) on page 171.

Now see the professor at work.

A longer explanation (yawn)

Another hour of your life:

CREATIVE practice #16: Create a MakerSpace (see the article in EduTopia.org)

search for "makerspace edutopia" and you will find three articles to begin your creative endeavor.

Create a MakerSpace  (see the article in EduTopia.org)
Design a MakerSpace <<< Edutopia.org  

CREATIVE practice #9: Include the hands -- engage visual arts in the curriculum and make sure students know how to change a tire. Put books in the hands of students.

Hint:  What will happen if you try to loosen the
nut while the car's end is suspended in air?

In a school in Hollywood, Florida, the students need to swim fifty feet and show that they know how to change a tire.


Key question:  When do you start removing the nuts from the bolts that hold the hub in place?  Before you start raising the car or after the car is raised up?

The aim of this practice is to engage the mind through the hands.  Enrique Gonzalez, former principal of Highland Park High School, recommends a book called "The Hands." 

The Teen Liberation Handbook

There might be other books that might stimulate creative practices.  Allow books into your room that challenge the status quo ... why not put three books that you disagree with on the table next to the classics of Dan Pink and Malcolm Gladwell?

Putting together a shelf might be the most creative thing that the student does... because the work leads to other things to learn.

CREATIVE practice #8: Begin with the End in Mind. (the work of Steven Covey and the 7 Habits of Effective People)

A school in Naples, Florida has the seven tips developed by Stephen Covey on its walls.  Begin with the End in Mind is central to the work achieved by this creative practice.

Many "creative practices" are simply effective teaching methods.

Paint or hang the habits on a wall.  Put them on walls where students will see them daily.

Creative Practice #12: Take care of the brain (Dr. Daniel Amen's recommendations), especially the right fat, plenty of sleep and reducing Automatic Negative Thoughts with ANTeaters

This  "Creative Practice" involves a set of behaviors that need to be unlearned.  Daniel Amen talks about these "brain healthy practices" and each of them could be a separate Creative Practice.
See his "12 prescriptions brain healthy amen" (do a search).


Sweets

Food for the Brain
Protein shakes at West Hollywood
Private School

We suggest the book Sugar, Salt, Fat by Michael Moss.  Learn about the "bliss point" and how to wean yourself from sugar, fat and salt.  The rule is "eat for your body and brain, not for your tongue."  Children have four times more taste buds in their tongues than adults (no wonder kids demand drinks that are often four times sweeter -- imagine a drink with four spoonsful of sugar compared with one spoonful).

Link to the Sugar Salt Fat book

Link to Daniel Amen

Sleep
The evidence is in... Mother was right.  We need our sleep.  Creativity doesn't happen if we don't have enough shut-eye.

See the Sleep Institute

Arianna Huffington "sleep your way to success"


Automatic Negative Thoughts
Dr. Daniel Amen amenclinics.com suggests techniques for removing "ANTs" with "ANTeaters."  His methods work well for elementary school students...  Try to get a teenager to imagine an ANTeater... hooboy...
"Whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous or out of control, write down what you are thinking..."   "Most schools don't teach students how to manage their thoughts."
1. write down the thoughts
2. identify the automatic negative thoughts
3. Ask, "Are any of these thoughts true?"
4. Then you talk back to those thoughts.
5. Then you can discard that thought.  This is how we create ANTeaters for each thought.


YOUTUBE for more videos by Dr. Amen.


There is a one-page summary from HR.NIU.edu/  www.TINYURL.com/XYDautomatic
www.TINY.cc/XYDautomatic 

Positive mindsets and attitudes are part of "being creative."






Send your comments and suggestions to NextGenerationXYD@gmail.com
This project is funded by XYDFoundation.org
For the complete list of Creative Practices, click here
To support the spread of Creative Practices, donate to XYDFoundation.org

CREATIVE practice #11: Digital Portfolios. Look at what students at High Tech High (San Diego, Calif.) can do

Teachers often cringe when they see what students do to their personal work.  "I'm done.  I got the grade."  


What would you give to have a copy of that chemistry paper that you spent days writing in 10th grade?   


What if you could find that paper in a Digital Portfolio?   Look at what students at  High Tech High can do...  search "high tech high digital portfolios"


www.TINYurl.com/ExampleDP