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WISHING THEY COULD BE THERE...

1/29/2014

School should be about more than math and literacy; it should be just as much about new experiences in new places --both of which take the student away from the familiar. Tomorrow Creativity College is taking ALL (not just G.T. kids), ALL 5th & 6th grade students to see WICKED at the Orpheum in Memphis.
The only students who have done anything like this before are the G.T. kids who went with me to see "Mary Poppins" at the Orpheum last year. The truth is... it is unacceptable to deprive a child of this experience simply because they aren't G.T... Children are children regardless of the labels we affix to them --each and every one of them need and deserve new experiences in new places that grow them in more ways than we ever know.
Over the years I have taken countless groups of my G.T. kids to see many plays at the Orpheum. We've seen "Miss Saigon," "Les Miserables, "Lion King," " Phantom of the Opera," "Aida," "Blue Man Group" .... the list goes on and on. Those kids (even the boys) loved it and begged to go back! They returned to school wearing the t-shirt and talking about the unbelievable things they saw. They talked about how beautiful the inside of the Orpheum is and how the set seemed impossible. I always knew that the classmates they were talking to wished they could have been there. Wouldn't you have?
This time I'm taking ALL ...not just the G.T. kids. I look back and am saddened that all those years I only took my G.T. kids. Like I said, "Children are children regardless of the labels we affix to them ---each and every one of them need and deserve new experiences in new places that grow them in more ways than we ever know." Now everyone can talk about what they saw...now no one has to "wish" they could have been there.
Finally I got it right...

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Why "Creativity College?"

1/20/2014

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Wise sayings are remembered and repeated because they are... well, wise. One of those is: "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!" This past year I lost my secondary kids when our high school was closed. No bitterness, no anger... simply sadness. We knew it was coming. Unfortunately, farm families are finding their way of life disrupted as small schools are closed --for us, it wasn't low test scores (ours were good), it simply is the current direction education is headed --big is better. I'm not going to argue the small school verses big school argument. The truth is there are opportunities big schools can offer that small schools can't, but there are also opportunities that small schools can offer that big schools can't (a fully, active secondary gifted program for one). Enough of that. It is what it is. I am both a dreamer and a realist.
I was fortunate to keep my elementary G.T. job and talked to my progressive administrator about extending the program in a direction not seen anywhere (to my knowledge). We began "Creativity College" --not an extra pull-out program, but a real part of the curriculum which focuses on teaching creative thinking skills and enabling both students and teachers to see the carry-over of those skills within the regular classroom and across disciplines. The program reaches each and every student in our school in grades K-6. Each class comes twice a week, along with the classroom teacher, and experiences activities that take students in a direction uncommon in the regular classroom. We began the year by giving all students and the teachers a creativity test (pre-test) and plan to do the same at the end of the year to see if there is growth.
Another purpose of the program is to involve all students (not just G.T. students) in experiences in drama and public speaking --a chance to work on a whole group project with a presentation for parents. In recent years, so many kids not in G.T. would stop me in the hall and say, "Miss Hesse, I wish I could be in a play." Our first venture in this area was our Creativity College Christmas Program which was a huge success.
The kids at Weiner Elementary are loving their lemonade, and I admit --I am too.

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WISHING THEY COULD BE THERE...

Why "Creativity College?"

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