Creative Boost

In 1999 a detailed report into culture and creativity in education was written by the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education headed by Sir Ken Robinson.

Well over a decade later, the world has changed but most of the points raised in the report have not:
https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2010/10/rsa-animate---changing-paradigms/

The impact of creativity on learning and engagement cannot be underestimated.

Pick any 30 adults born in roughly the same year as you. Go and sit in a room. Someone arrives and tells you what you're going to do today. It's a task to build a tower of newspaper as high as you can. You've been given a blueprint showing a base with tubes of paper stuck together and so you get to work. Every adult will build a tall tower, but what was the point?

Rewind a step and imagine you're not given any instructions. How many inventive and interesting adaptations would 30 adults come up with? How much more challenging and engaging would the session be? How much more would you learn from the people around you?

Was the purpose to build a tall tower, or to work out a way to build a tall tower?
Which approach would produce skills that were useful in other contexts?

In essence, creativity is about unlocking potential : your own potential and the potential of those around you. Being surrounded by different ideas and viewpoints inspires and expands your own.

We are so worried about ensuring children meet targets that we demonstrate a lack of faith in them. Rather than risk missing a target we stay safe and guide them to a solution, give the instructions and lay out the blueprint. At the outcome - they built the tower, they got the grade - we reassure ourselves, pat ourselves on the back and feel we did the right thing.

A short term win; a long term loss.

If you still need convincing, put the kettle on and have a look at this article which gives a broad and well researched view on the vital skill of creativity in children and adults :
http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/summaries/rsfosteringcreativity.asp

In the words of Albert Einstein : 'Imagination is more important than knowledge.'


Further reading : 

The full All Our Futures report is here : http://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/all-our-futures-creativity-culture-and-education

The BBC reviewed it in 2009 and pulled together further research into the benefits of creativity in teaching, specifically its impact on results : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8064306.stm

Sir Ken Robinson reviewed his report in 2011, providing a brief assessment of whether the content was still relevant : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqjQ6iMGYKk

Right First Time

K's target is to appreciate the importance of right-first-time in Maths.

The downside of using computers in learning is that you get a second go. On social media, you type > check > edit > send. Or occasionally not and it usually back fires when you read it back later and realise it did not sound how you intended.

Auto spelling corrects your every word (thank you predictive text for asking a friend to 'Poop in' this morning instead of 'Pop in' ...). Even the good old fashioned spell-checker is a great example of how you can rely on someone else spotting your mistakes and having a chance to fix things.

In most of the online maths programs, quite rightly, pupils have a second chance if they are wrong first time round. It helps learning and gives pupils additional support to understand the question. The flip side is that it encourages fast answer jabbing and there's no motivation to check before you hit Go.

A lot of our maths focus with K has been going back to basics and re-equipping him with the tools he needs because the techniques he'd picked up at school since Y2/3 were not embedded enough to support the speed of Y4 learning. I'm so proud of him for the huge strides he's made in his mental maths as he's built up a solid toolkit of mental strategies to help him with times tables, number bonds, addition and subtraction. However for the recognition of measurable progress he has to get things right first time in RMEasimaths and Explore to prove he has mastered each skill.

One to one support is helping, having a scratch pad didn't (it lay unused).
Making a fuss of the wins is helping, grumbling that he is careless didn't.
Keeping going will help. Quitting won't.

Don't Be a Hero

Armed with the National Curriculum, subscriptions to some of the primary resources sites, a strong coffee, packet of jaffa cakes and some good ol' fashioned positive attitude I figured I had this Home Ed lark in the bag.

Not really, as it turns out. The bag is big and has holes in and your stuff falls out the bottom when you're not expecting it. How annoying.

It's only once I was on the way I realised it's a bit bigger than I thought. I was totally focussed on the teaching aspect - what do they need to know, how can I teach it - which only gets you so far. If you're trying to stay aligned to the National Curriculum you're going to need some assessment.

Also some subjects might not be your thing. I'm not great at history. It didn't interest me when I was at school and I have some serious knowledge gaps (the gap is pretty much 1980 back to ... the big bang. Ask me about the last 30 years though and I'm fine. Because I was there.)

I'm revising British monarchs and the Roman Empire and feeling a teensy bit like I missed out. It's good stuff.

What's the point of this ramble? Just 2 tips.

1. If you want to stay on track for English and Maths get external assessment (RMEasimaths, Mathletics, Explore Learning etc etc)
2. Outsource some subjects to willing friends/family or private tutors

It gives me an objective feel for if the boys are making measurable progress against national standards, boosts those social skills and gives me a much needed bake-a-cake / put-the-washing-on / hoover / pay-the-bills / prepare-for-next-week break. I think of it as PPA. Worth every penny.