More Art, More Computers, More Fun!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Recently, (Okay, not that recently, but I only just finished) I was asked to draw up some professional development goals to help guide my work with the kids here at HCS. The exercise forced me to step back from the day to day tasks of providing enrichment activities and take a look at the big picture. What, exactly, should our enrichment program look like? Here's what I wrote:

More Art, More Computers, More Fun!
"Enrichment students need projects that are open-ended and allow for playful discovery, and that really is the goal that I’m shooting for: to introduce projects that provide joy and invite creative thinking. The arts teach kids there’s often more than one solution to a problem. In fact, as an artist it’s better if our solution doesn’t look like everybody else’s. The arts invite us to take risks, to see the world with new eyes, to take a new path. It’s the arts that teach us to find joy in trial and error, to be flexible, to break the rules."

Back in September I wrote in my journal that everything we do should have an element of play to it. When I think about my day-to-day programming I catch myself wondering if I'm honoring that pledge. I'm handing out an awful lot of worksheets. Worksheets are easy; play is hard. Worksheets are neat; play is messy. Worksheets look productive; play looks like... play.

When I look back at that first sentence of my goal statement, I can see I've wandered. It's time to roll up my sleeves and get back to playing.