the first word
RETHINKING THE INNOVATIVE CLASSROOM By Pam Kelly ’04
curiosity, challenge assumptions, persevere and attack problems. I think back to when my preschool-age son was learning to tie his shoes. After 15 twisty attempts on his part, I impatiently grabbed the shoe and tied the double knot myself. But what if he had knotted his shoes on the 16th attempt? Perseverance is learned by giving our children the gift of time to figure things out on their own. A wonderful example of this creative process recently took place in my first-grade classroom. I provided my 6-year-olds with a mathematical equation adding 26 and 28. Not that long ago, I would have written the algorithm on the board and explained how we “carry the 1.” We would have had our answer in less than three minutes. But on this day I turned my class loose to find the answer. What I witnessed was amazing. Two students immediately went over to the Unifix cubes and started counting out two piles of blocks. Another group of students went to the SMART Board and started drawing sets of 10 plus extra ones for the numbers 26
Pam Kelly reacts to winning her Golden Apple award in 2012.
Innovation is defined as the development of new values through solutions that meet new requirements. We cannot be satisfied with simply improving our schools; instead, we need to rethink them. Current students in school will enter a work force where 60 percent of available jobs have not yet been created. We don’t know what the world will look like in the future, so how do we prepare children for that reality? Dan Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind,” states “the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind: creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers.” The innovative classroom must have an educator who teaches with creativity and for creativity. This involves using imaginative approaches to make learning more engaging. Many universities, including our beloved NLU, are equipping educators with skills to deliver dynamic instruction. But that cannot be the end goal. When these same educators teach for creativity, they are empowering their students to adapt to what is happening in the world and to understand it. So what does this innovative classroom look like? First, the classroom that encourages creativity must provide a safe environment where students feel free to take risks. As children progress through the grades, they are more careful with their thinking and less willing to be incorrect. The innovative classroom allows children to take chances and to not be frightened by being wrong. Children learn much from analyzing their mistakes. The safe environment that encourages creativity must also provide students with time to explore, satisfy their
“The innovative classroom must have an educator who teaches with creativity and for creativity.”
— Pam Kelly ’04
and 28. Yet another pair explained their thinking: “We just borrowed 4 from the 28 so we could change the 26 to 30; 30 is an easier number to work with. It was easy to add the other 24 to the 30. 30, 40, 50, 54!” Wow. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Instead of presenting predetermined outcomes, the innovative teacher gives students the tools they need to figure things out…and then gets out of their way. I challenge innovative educators to turn their classrooms upside down by allowing creativity to flourish. Pam Kelly ‘04, NBCT, teaches first grade at Naper Elementary School in Naperville, IL. Ms. Kelly was a Golden Apple winner in 2012.
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