Thinking Like a Principal

Multiple Perspectives is one of the first concepts of Depth and Complexity that I teach. I read this story which is about a principal who thinks since school is so awesome, we should have school every day. That doesn't work out so well for the students. :) So they decide to just go back to the regular 5 day week.

So we talked about the job of a principal and whether that is an easy or hard job. Then I ask them to write from the perspective of a principal-what would they see, hear, feel, do if they were the principal of a school.

Here are their responses:

Our First Divergent Art Activity

One of the goals I have for my students in the short time we are together is to help them learn how to be more creative. I truly believe that through activities where we stretch our thinking and invent we can foster innovation in our students and their responses.

I need to assess where we are when we begin the year. I do this by giving them a line and asking them to turn that line into something. I demonstrate for them with a circle-what could we make this into? And we come up with ideas of what to make-a snowman, a face, a tire. Then I give them their squiggle encouraging them to try to come up with something different from the other students.

Here is our first one this year:

a hill

If I Were a Parent

Our first activity using Multiple Perspectives is to think like a parent. We read the book The Kissing Hand about a raccoon who is nervous to attend school and his mom kisses his hand so he can have her with him all day. Then I ask the students to pretend they are a parent and what would they do if their child was nervous the first day.

Here are their responses (this is also our first writing assignment for the year):