Friday July 4th - Conference Day

Perhaps it was the heat. Perhaps it was my mood, in combination with the sweat trickling down my neck - a silent crying plea from my psyche begging for air conditioning. Please pardon the reference to my spoiled, "First World Problem". Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the Key Notes Speaker on Friday morning. While I can respect much of Cheryl McLean's opinions, I found her, as a speaker, hard to follow and, dare I say it, "wordy". As is often the case with various academics (myself included by times).

So as to avoid negativity in the 'blogasphere', I will make a concerted effort to focus on the positives of Cheryl's presentation. From what I could decode, Cheryl made many references to taking what is ordinary and making it extraordinary. Cliché though it may be, I agree that our job as teachers is to turn the mundane and seemingly dull content of a curriculum guide into an engaging lesson plan, whereby kids will feel empowered to change the world. Cheryl pointed out that there is an “exhausting pressure on grad students to change the world”. I would argue this pressure also exists at the high school level (both for teachers and students). Teachers feel burdened by the task of having to instill “greatness” in their students and students feel burdened when they do not meet this ideal.

Cheryl also made reference to the “changing tides in Creativity”, by stating that “progressive thinkers are essential to education” and that “creativity suffers when working for marks". Although I (think) I understand what she is trying to say, I somewhat disagree. I believe that creativity is pertinent to education in conjunction with competition (ie marks)". It seems that the dreaded red X has become taboo in education.  Apparently it can damage a child’s psyche and therefore stifle their creativity. I grew up with loads of X’s on loads of various assignments and I saw the X’s as challenges to overcome. I was not personally offended by being wrong. Instead, I was motivated to work harder. I am now thankful that I had teachers who were not afraid to tell me I was wrong.

In addition to her point about creativity being important in education, Cheryl also pointed out that creativity can be used to help promote a socially just learning environment. She talked about using creativity to acknowledge and discuss social justice issues. Cheryl’s example was that a Drama teacher could possibly intervene in instances of bullying. I would suggest that we apply this notion to a larger scale and bring in current issues from today’s world. Using the Arts for closure is a fantastic way to incorporate Arts into the ‘real’ world.