On the first day of school I read to the kids Gerald the Giraffe. An audio recording is below:
At the end of the book we talk about finding that cricket in all of us, listening to it, and letting it drive the creative spirit in each of them–even in school. At the end of class I give the students a “Million Word Assignment” that is due the next day. This year I got a little surprise. I didn’t receive an assignment on paper or through email, but a video instead. The video is below–I recommend watching it on youtube and clicking on “more info” and following along with the script he provided.
I asked the student if I could share the video, and as I left I asked a simple question…”Why did you do it as a video?” He answered, “Because I just wanted to be creative.”
How many other kids “just want to be creative?” Have you given your kids permission to “just be creative?”
10 responses so far ↓
Wow, that was super cool. You got a much more interesting result than I did. I think I’m going to do this once in each quarter and then give it back to them at the end of the year so they can see their own progression.
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josh leblanc Reply:
September 8th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
it was supercool. i thought that my animation was a bit choppy… i definetly could have done better!
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I remember doing that…!
How is the class(s)?
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I’m not going to lie…the “I hate math class” line seriously hurt. Anyone with such creativity and patience (ADHD or not, stop-motion animation is not for the easily distracted!) should be on fire in math class, but I fear that won’t happen for this student. Regardless, I am still happy that he has an outlet for his creativity in your class!
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josh leblanc Reply:
September 8th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
the only reason i hate math class is that our third grade teacher didn’t teach us any math at all. so i had to make it all up in 4th grade. i’m still waaaaaaaaay behind. and in lego stop motion i never stop moving. in math i have to sit still and pay attention.
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Wow! This was awesome! I would love to have a student like this in my class. I think it is great that he took the time to do this and that you thought it was worth sharing with others!
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Paul,
That is fantastic! I think you probably learned more about that student from that video than from the essays the other kids submitted.
I love how he mentioned “storyboarding” and his many roles and interests. It’s good to see that not all schools kill creativity.
Do you think he would have submitted that to another teacher or is your reputation well known, even at this early stage of the school year?
Should be an interesting year with a student like Josh.
(Did you realize he posted the text on the YT site? Amazing that he did all that in one night! And I’m sure there will be many nights where he will be unable to complete his homework because it will have no relevance to his world. Please keep us posted about his creative responses to assignments. We can learn a lot from the Josh’s of this world).
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Paul Bogush Reply:
September 4th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I wanted to ask him your question…but decided not to. I like the line about him being a director, producer, writer, and actor. In school he is just simply a consumer…grrrrr.
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josh leblanc Reply:
September 8th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
i actually did it all in one night and part of the morning…
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What a great response Paul. I’m sure you learned more about Josh than if he had written you a response. Maybe if I could be creative in math….?
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