“The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know.”
-Blaise Pascal
Although chapter one referred to adults in both its examples and as its audience, taking in the material as a teacher meant that I was considering it in terms of how it applies to children. The examples given were stories of famous artists, scientists, and mathematicians, but at some point they were students. Perhaps children are creative thinkers and try to learn and explore concepts in a way they cannot express and we spend our days trying to make their thinking fit into our goals and making sure that they do things our way, according to the curriculum. Our challenge is to teach them what is in the curriculum, while being careful not to ignore, or even stifle, the creativity that may offer them other ways of reaching the same goals and even connecting the different subject areas in ways that we cannot see.
The Phantom Tollbooth is a favorite book of mine. I have not read it in my classroom, but I have read it with my own children and it is really fun to witness the moments when they make sense of one of the metaphors in the story and connect it to what they already knew (or thought they knew) on a subject. Another favorite of mine for older readers is A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle. The children in the story have scientists for parents. They, too, challenge the boundaries of what they have learned in books. Chapter two discusses the problems that can arise when we treat each school subject as an independent entity. In my own classroom I spend the morning working on reading and writing workshops (the creative subjects). In the afternoon we tackle science, social studies, and math (the factual subjects). While I do my best to make connections between all of these subjects and tie them together when I can, I now realize that I have not given enough thought to how I can encourage my students to use mathematical principals in reading and writing and to use creative thinking in math and science. I suppose the first step is that I have begun to practice this for myself.
I have always said that I am not an artistic person. My sisters and brother are really talented in art, but somehow the art gene missed me. I have always enjoyed art, though. The product of my efforts rarely lives up to what I had hoped it would be, but the process never fails to feed my spirit. Sometimes it relaxes me, sometimes it energizes me, but it always feeds me. Furthermore, I believe that when I create something I get the opportunity to call upon my knowledge in language, math, and science to express myself. There are many scientific principals at work when I am doing ballet, and I think about body alignment and balance with every step, but I can only feel when I am doing it correctly.
The Phantom Tollbooth is a favorite book of mine. I have not read it in my classroom, but I have read it with my own children and it is really fun to witness the moments when they make sense of one of the metaphors in the story and connect it to what they already knew (or thought they knew) on a subject. Another favorite of mine for older readers is A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle. The children in the story have scientists for parents. They, too, challenge the boundaries of what they have learned in books. Chapter two discusses the problems that can arise when we treat each school subject as an independent entity. In my own classroom I spend the morning working on reading and writing workshops (the creative subjects). In the afternoon we tackle science, social studies, and math (the factual subjects). While I do my best to make connections between all of these subjects and tie them together when I can, I now realize that I have not given enough thought to how I can encourage my students to use mathematical principals in reading and writing and to use creative thinking in math and science. I suppose the first step is that I have begun to practice this for myself.
I have always said that I am not an artistic person. My sisters and brother are really talented in art, but somehow the art gene missed me. I have always enjoyed art, though. The product of my efforts rarely lives up to what I had hoped it would be, but the process never fails to feed my spirit. Sometimes it relaxes me, sometimes it energizes me, but it always feeds me. Furthermore, I believe that when I create something I get the opportunity to call upon my knowledge in language, math, and science to express myself. There are many scientific principals at work when I am doing ballet, and I think about body alignment and balance with every step, but I can only feel when I am doing it correctly.
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