If you haven’t read Troy Hicks's text Crafting Digital Writing yet, do it.
He starts out with a Sir Ken Robinson (whom I adore) quote
from Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative. Hicks cites: “Being creative involves doing something. It would
be odd to describe as creative someone who never did anything. To call somebody
creative suggests that they are actively producing something in a deliberate
way.” It, along with much of Hicks’s Introduction resonates with me—not only
with implementing digital strategies with my students, but with implementing
much of what forms my professional life.
Intention. Deliberation. We must, as educators, create what we do professionally with
intention and deliberation. After all, we create an experience for
our students each and every day.
Some might argue that the most creative teachers are those
who just go with the flow throwing paint on their pedagogical canvases, that
the best art comes from a place of un-intention (and that seems appealing as we add digital brushstrokes to our work). But they would be wrong.
Even the abstract expressionists were intentioned,
deliberate. Listen to
my boy Jackson Pollock describe his process:
Pollock talks of how “There is no accident.” I am not
asserting we always paint within the lines of the pages upon pages of
standardized curriculum (and neither is Hicks if you check out his discussion
on the Common Core struggle in Chapter 2) but when we play outside of those
lines we must create deliberately.
When an incredible “teachable” moment happens or the lesson suddenly opens up
to something we had never imagined, we take that—but we must do so with
intention, even if that is intention is just to laugh or cry or share. When we
allow students to tinker with technology instead of construct a traditional
essay, we must do so with intention. Intention doesn’t have to be
standards-based, but it has to be meaningful to the life of our classrooms.
As I continue to reshape my classroom to frame my students’
experiences beyond of squared traditional walls of the building, doing things
with intention will continue to push me to evolve. (Feel free to check out my Macbeth--Flipped Out Blog and the digital result of that work Multimedia Macbeth to see some attempts). Troy Hicks’ idea (adding
to Lucy Calkins) to teach-the-writer-then-teach-the-writing-then-teach-the-technology
will be something I will constantly remind myself of.
I look forward to creating intentionally & deliberately, and leading by example to make sure my students know exactly why
and how I do what I do. Example? I hope to use this blog as a mentor text and explore with them as I decide how to create my own web texts through my posts. In doing so, I (fingers crossed) will continue to foster the awareness of “craft” as they
construct their own digital footprints intentionally creating with a deliberate awareness of mode, audience, purpose, and situation--because as Hicks reminds "Students truly have the opportunity to make their voices heard around the world" (59) and I want to help them share that voice meaningfully.
Anne,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! I really like the idea of using these blogs as a way of leading by example - it makes it clear to the students that you're writing with a specific intent in mind. I also like your piece on Pollock - if artists are being creative, and nothing happens by accident, we too must do the same within our writing. This idea can expand beyond just creative writing, too - into our digital writing, and maybe even in our standardized essays. Writing deliberately and with intent really asks the writer to go into the piece with a plan they want to execute (which ultimately might change, but it prepares them to begin writing nonetheless).
Anne, I want your energy and enthusiasm!!
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